II 

IIP 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

ro  rn  -Vn     cSx  \\d  vo\ 


BX  5133   .T3  S476  1852 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  1613-1667. 
The  sermons  of  the  Right 
Rev.  Jeremy  Taylor 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/sermonsofrightre00tayl_1 


*    JAN  19 

SERMONS 


OF 


THE  EIGHT  REV.  JEREMY  TAYLOR,  D.D. 

«D  DROMORE.  j 


LORD  BISHOP  OF  DOWN,  CONNOR,  AND  DROMORE. 


COMPLETE  IN  ONE  VOLUME. 


COMPRISING 


A  COURSE  FOR  THE  WHOLE  YEAR, 


AND 


A  SUPPLEMENT 


OF 


SERMONS  ON  VARIOUS  SUBJECTS  AND  OCCASIONS. 


NEW  YORK: 

ROBERT    CARTER    &  BROTHERS, 
No.    285  BROADWAY. 
1852. 


u*4 


CONTENTS. 


SERMONS  FOR  THE  WHOLE  YEAR. 


SERMON  I.  II.  III.  ADVENT  SUNDAY. 
Dooms-Day  Book ;  or,  Christ's  Advent  to 

Judgment       .       .       .       page  13,21 
2  Cor.  v.  10. 
For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat 

of  Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things 

done  in  his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done, 

whether  it  be  good  or  bad. 

SERMON  IV.  V.  VI. 
The  Return  of  Prayers ;  or,  the  Conditions  of 
a  prevailing  Prayer    .       .       29,  36,  44 

John  ix.  31. 

Now  we  know  that  God  heareth  not  sinners ; 
but  if  any  man  be  a  worshipper  of  God,  and 
doth  his  will,  him  he  heareth. 

SERMON  VII.  VIII.  IX. 

Of  Godly  Fear,  &c.       .       .       52,  59,  65 

Heb.  xii.  part  of  the  28th  and  29th  verses. 
Let  us  have  grace,  whereby  we  may  serve  God 

with  reverence  and  godly  fear.    For  our  God 

is  a  consuming  fire. 

SERMON  X.  XI. 
The  Flesh  and  the  Spirit      .       .     72,  80 

Matt.  xxvi.  41  ;  latter  part. 
The  spirit  indeed  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak. 

SERMON  Xn.  XIII.  XIV. 

Of  Lukewarmness  and  Zeal ;  or,  Spiritual 
Fervour     .       .       .       .     87,  94,  103 

Jerem.  xlviii.  10 ;  first  part. 
Cursed  be  he  that  doth  the  work  of  the  Lord 
deceitfully. 

SERMON  XV.  XVI. 
The  House  of  Feasting  ;  or,  the  Epicure?s 
Measures    .       .       .       .        110,  117 

1  Cor.  xv.  32  ;  last  part. 
Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die. 
SERMON  XVII.  XVIII. 
The  Marriage-Ring ;  or,  the  Mysteriousnes3 
and  Duties  of  Marriage      .         125,  132 
Ephes.  v.  32,  33. 
This  is  a  great  mystery,  but  I  speak  concerning 
Christ  and  the  church.  Nevertheless,  let  every 
one  of  you  in  particular  so  love  his  wife  even 
as  himself,  and  the  wife  see  that  she  reverence 
her  husband. 

SERMON  XIX.  XX.  XXI. 
Apples  of  Sodom ;  or,  the  Fruits  of  Sin 

140,  148,  156 

Rom.  vi.  21. 

What  fruit  had  ye  then  in  those  things  whereof 
ye  are  now  ashamed?  For  the  end  of  those 
things  is  death. 


SERMON  XXII.  XXIII.  XXIV.  XXV. 

The  Good  and  Evil  Tongue. — Of  Slander  and 
Flatly. — The  Duties  of  the  Tongue 

163,  170,  177,  184 

Ephes.  iv.  29. 
Let  no  corrupt  communication  proceed  out  of  your 
mouth,  but  that  which  is  good  to  the  use  of 
edifying,  that  it  may  minister  grace  unto  the 
hearers. 

SERMON  XXVI.  XXVII. 
WHITSUNDAY. 
Of  the  Spirit  of  Grace    .       .        190,  197 

Bom.  viii.  9,  10. 
But  ye  are  not  in  the  flesh,  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so 
be  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you.  Now 
if  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is 
none  of  his.  And  if  Christ  be  in  you,  the  body 
is  dead,  because  of  sin ;  but  the  Spirit  is  life, 
because  of  righteousness. 

SERMON  XXVIII.  XXIX. 
The  descending  and  entailed  Curse  cut  off 

205,  212 

Exod.  xx.  5,  6. 
I  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  visiting 
the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children 
unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  them 
that  hate  me ;  and  showing  mercy  unto  thou- 
sands of  them  that  love  me,  and  keep  my  com 
mandments. 

SERMON  XXX.  XXXI. 

The  Invalidity  of  a  Late  or  Death-bed  Repent- 
ance ....  220,  228 
Jerem.  xiii.  16. 

Give  glory  to  the  Lord  your  God,  before  he  cause 
darkness,  and  before  your  feet  stumble  upon 
the  dark  mountains,  and  while  you  look  for 
light,  (or,  lest  while  you  look  for  light.)  he  shall 
turn  it  into  the  shadow  of  death,  and  make  it 
gross  darkness. 

sermon  xxxn.  xxxm. 

The  Deceitfulness  of  the  Heart       236,  243 
Jerem.  xvii.  9. 

The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  des- 
perately wicked  ;  who  can  know  it  ? 

SERMON  XXXIV.  XXXV.  XXXVI. 
The  Faith  and  Patience  of  the  Saints;  or,  the 
Righteous  Cause  oppressed  250,  258,  266 

1  Pet.  iv.  17,  18. 

For  the  time  is  come  that  judgment  must  begin 
at  the  house  of  God  :  and  if  it  first  begin  at  us, 
what  shall  the  end  be  of  them  that  obey  not  the 
gospel  of  God  ?  And  if  the  righteous  scarcely 
be  saved,  where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sin- 
ner appear  ? 

3 


iv 


CONTENTS. 


SERMON  XXXVII.  XXXVIII. 

The  Mercy  of  the  Divine  Judgments ;  or, 
God's  Method  in  Curing  Sinners  273,  281 
Rom.  ii.  4. 

Despisest  thou  the  riches  of  his  goodness,  and 
forbearance,  and  long-suffering,  not  knowing 
that  the  goodness  of  God  leadeth  thee  to  re- 
pentance ? 

SERMON  XXXIX.  XL. 
Of  Growth  in  Grace,  with  its  proper  Instru- 
ments and  Signs        .       .        283,  294 
2  Pet.  iii.  18.  • 
But  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  be  glory,  both  now 
and  for  ever.  Amen. 

SERMON  XLI.  XLII. 
Of  Growth  in  Sin;  or,  the  several  States  and 
Degrees  of  Sinners,  with  the  Manner  how 
they  are  to  be  treated         .        302,  309 
Jude  Epist.  ver.  22,  23. 
And  of  some  have  compassion,  making  a  differ- 
ence :  and  others  save  with  fear,  pulling  them 
out  of  the  fire. 


SUPPL 

SERMON  I. 
The  Righteousness  Evangelical      page  397 
Matt.  v.  20. 

For  I  say  unto  you,  that  except  your  righteous- 
ness exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

SERMON  II. 
The  Christian's  Conquest  over  the  Body  of 

Sin  408 

Rom.  vii.  19. 
For  the  good  that  I  would  I  do  not :  but  the  evil 
which  I  would  not,  that  I  do. 

SERMON  III. 
Faith  working  by  Love  .       .       .  419 
James  ii.  24. 

Ye  see  then  how  that  by  works  a  man  is  justified, 
and  not  by  faith  only. 

SERMON  IV. 
Preached  at  an  Episcopal  Consecration  430 

Luke  xii.  42,  43. 
And  the  Lord  said,  Who  then  is  that  faithful  and 
wise  steward,  whom  his  Lord  shall  make  ruler 
over  his  household,  to  give  them  their  portion 
of  meat  in  due  season  ?  Blessed  is  that  servant 
whom  his  Lord,  when  he  cometh,  shall  find  so 
doing. 

SERMON  V. 
Preached  at  the  opening  of  the  Parliament  of 

Ireland  444 

1  Sam.  xv.  22,  23. 
Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams :— For  rebellion  is 
as  the  sin  of  witchcraft,  and  stubbornness  is  as 
iniquity  and  idolatry. 

SERMON  VI. 
Via  Intelligentiae    ....  455 
John  vii.  17. 

If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the 
doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God,  or  whether  I 
epeak  of  myself. 


SERMON  XLIII.  XLIV. 

The  Foolish  Exchange  .  .  317,  325 
Matt.  xvi.  26. 

For  what  is  a  man  profited,  if  he  shall  gain  the 
whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  or,  what 
shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ? 

SERMON  XLV.  XLVI.  XLVII. 

The  Serpent  and  the  Dove ;  or,  a  Discourse 
of  Christian  Prudence         333,  339,  346 
Matt.  x.  16;  latter  part. 
Be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents,  and  harmless  a3 
doves. 

SERMON  LXVIII.  XLIX. 
Of  Christian  Simplicity        .         355,  361 
Matt.  x.  16;  latter  part. 
And  harmless  as  doves. 

SERMON  L.  LI.  LIT. 
The  Miracles  of  the  Divine  Mercy 

368,  377,  384 

Psal.  lxxxvi.  5. 
For  thou,  Lord,  art  good  and  ready  to  forgive, 
and  plenteous  in  mercy  to  all  them  that  call 
upon  thee. 

E  M  E  N  T. 

SERMON  VII. 
Preached  at  the  Funeral  of  the  Lord  Primate 
of  Ireland  472 

1  Cor.  xv.  23. 
But  every  man  in  his  own  order ;  Christ  the  first- 
fruits,  afterwards  they  that  are  Christ's  at  his 
coming. 

SERMON  Vm. 
Countess  of  Carbery's  Funeral  Sermon  489 

2  Sam.  xiv.  14. 
For  we  must  needs  die,  and  are  as  wafer  spilt  on 

the  ground,  which  cannot  be  gathered  up  again : 
neither  doth  God  respect  any  person  ;  yet  doth 
he  devise  means  that  his  banished  be  not  ex- 
pelled from  him. 

SERMON  IX. 
Preached  upon  the  Anniversary  of  the  Gun- 
powder Treason  .  502 

Luke  ix.  54. 

But  when  James  and  John  saw  this,  they  said, 
Lord,  wilt  thou  that  we  command  fire  to  come 
down  from  heaven,  and  consume  them,  even  as 
Elias  did  ? 

SERMON  X.  XI. 
The  Minister's  Duty  in  Life  and  Doctrine 

525,  537 

Tit.  ii.  7,  8. 

In  all  things  showing  thyself  a  pattern  of  good 
works  :  in  doctrine  showing  uncorruptness, 
gravity,  sincerity;  sound  speech  that  cannot  be 
condemned,  that  he  that  is  of  the  contrary  part 
may  be  ashamed,  having  no  evil  thing  to  say 
of  you. 

SERMON  XII. 
Sir  George  Dalston's  Funeral  Sermon  549 

1  Cor.  xv.  19. 
If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are 
of  all  men  most  miserable. 


A 

COUESE  OF  SERMONS 


FOR  THE  WHOLE  YEAR. 


PRAYERS. 


A  PRAYER  BEFORE  SERMON. 

O  Lord  God,  fountain  of  life,  giver  of  all  good 
things,  who  givest  to  men  the  blessed  hope  of 
eternal  life  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  hast 
promised  thy  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him  ; 
be  present  with  us  in  the  dispensation  of  thy  holy 
word  [and  sacraments*]  ;  grant  that  we,  being 
preserved  from  all  evil  by  thy  power,  and,  among 
the  diversities  of  opinions  and  judgments  in  this 
world,  from  all  errors  and  false  doctrines,  and  led 
into  all  truth  by  the  conduct  of  thy  Holy  Spirit, 
may  for  ever  obey  thy  heavenly  calling :  that  we 
may  not  be  only  hearers  of  the  word  of  life,  but 
doers  also  of  good  works,  keeping  faith  and  a  good 
conscience,  living  an  unblamable  life,  usefully 
and  charitably,  religiously  and  prudently,  in  all 
godliness  and  honesty,  before  thee  our  God,  and 
before  all  the  world,  that,  at  the  end  of  our  mortal 
life,  we  may  enter  into  the  light  and  life  of  God, 
to  sing  praises  and  eternal  hymns  to  the  glory  of 
thy  name  in  eternal  ages,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.  Amen. 


I  In  whose  Name  let  us  pray,  in  the  words  which 
Himself  commanded,  saying, 
Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be 
thy  name  ;  thy  kingdom  come  ;  thy  will  be  done 
in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven  ;  give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread  ;  and  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we 
forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us;  and  lead 
us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil ; 
for  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the 
glory,  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen. 


A  PRAYER  AFTER  SERMON. 

Lord,  pity  and  pardon,  direct  and  bless,  sanc- 
tify and  save  us  all.  Give  repentance  to  all  that 
live  in  sin.  and  perseverance  to  all  thy  sons  and 
servants  for  his  sake,  who  is  thy  beloved,  and  the 
foundation  of  all  our  hopes,  our  blessed  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  ;  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  be  all  honour  and  glory,  praise 
and  adoration,  love  and  obedience,  now  and  for 
evermore.  Amen. 


SERMON  I.    ADVENT  SUNDAY. 

DOOMSDAY  BOOK;  OR,  CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ ;  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things 
done  in  his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done, 
whether  it  be  good  or  bad. — 2  Cor.  v.  10. 

Virtue  and  vice  are  so  essentially  distin- 
guished, and  the  distinction  is  so  necessary 
to  be  observed  in  order  to  the  well-being  of 
men  in  private,  and  in  societies,  that  to 
divide  them  in  themselves,  and  to  separate 
them  by  sufficient  notices,  and  to  distinguish 
them  by  rewards,  hath  been  designed  by  all 
laws,  by  the  sayings  of  wise  men,  by  the 
order  of  things,  by  their  proportions  to  good 
or  evil;  and  the  expectations  of  men  have 


*  This  clause  is  to  be  omitted,  if  there  be  no 
eacrament  that  day. 


been  framed  accordingly:  that  virtue  may 
have  a  proper  seat  in  the  will  and  in  the  af- 
fections, and  may  become  amiable  by  its  own 
excellencies  and  its  appendant  blessing;  and 
that  vice  may  be  as  natural  an  enemy  to 
a  man  as  a  wolf  to  a  lamb,  and  as  darkness 
to  light:  destructive  of  its  being,  and  a 
contradiction  of  its  nature.  But  it  is  not 
enough  that  all  the  world  hath  armed  itself 
against  vice,  and,  by  all  that  is  wise  and 
sober  amongst  men,  hath  taken  the  part  of 
virtue,  adorning  it  with  glorious  appella- 
tives, encouraging  it  by  rewards,  entertain- 
ing it  with  sweetness,  and  commanding  it  by 
edicts,  fortifying  it  with  defensatives,  and 
twining  it  in  all  artificial  compliances  :  ah1 
]  this  is  short  of  man's  necessity  :  for  this  will, 
a2  5 


6 


CHRIST'S  ADVEN 


T  TO  JUDGMENT. 


Serm.  L 


in  all  modest  men,  secure  their  actions  in 
theatres  and  highways,  in  markets  and 
churches,  before  the  eye  of  judges,  and  in 
the  society  of  witnesses ;  but  the  actions  of 
closets  and  chambers,  the  designs  and 
thoughts  of  men,  their  discourses  in  dark 
places,  and  the  actions  of  retirements  and  of 
the  night,  are  left  indifferent  to  virtue  or  to 
vice ;  and  of  these,  as  man  can  take  no  cog- 
nizance, so  he  can  make  no  coercitive ;  and 
therefore  above  one  half  of  human  actions  is, 
by  the  laws  of  man,  left  unregarded  and 
unprovided  for.  And,  besides  this,  there 
are  some  men  who  are  bigger  than  laws, 
and  some  are  bigger  than  judges,  and  some 
judges  have  lessened  themselves  by  fear  and 
cowardice,  by  bribery  and  flattery,  by  iniqui- 
ty and  compliance ;  and  where  they  have 
not,  yet  they  have  notices  but  of  few  causes; 
and  there  are  some  sins  so  popular  and  uni- 
versal, that  to  punish  them  is  either  impos- 
sible or  intolerable ;  and  to  question  such, 
would  betray  the  weakness  of  the  public 
rods  and  axes,  and  represent  the  sinner  to  be 
stronger  than  the  power  that  is  appointed  to 
be  his  bridle.  And,  after  all  this,  we  find 
sinners  so  prosperous  that  they  escape,  so 
potent  that  they  fear  not ;  and  sin  is  made 
safe  when  it  grows  great ; 

 Facere  omnia  saeve 

Non  impune  licet,  nisi  dum  facis  

and  innocence  is  oppressed,  and  the  poor 
cries,  and  he  hath  no  helper ;  and  he  is  op- 
pressed, and  he  wants  a  patron.  And  for 
these  and  many  other  concurrent  causes,  if 
you  reckon  all  the  causes  that  come  before 
all  the  judicatories  of  the  world,  though  the 
litigious  are  too  many,  and  the  matters  of 
instance  are  intricate  and  numerous,  yet  the 
personal  and  criminal  are  so  few,  that  of 
two  thousand  sins  that  cry  aloud  to  God  for 
vengeance,  scarce  two  are  noted  by  the  pub- 
lic eye,  and  chastised  by  the  hand  of  justice. 
It  must  follow  from  hence,  that  it  is  but  rea- 
sonable, for  the  interest  of  virtue  and  the 
necessities  of  the  world,  that  the  private 
should  be  judged,  and  virtue  should  be  tied 
upon  the  spirit,  and  the  poor  should  be  re- 
lieved, and  the  oppressed  should  appeal,  and 
the  noise  of  widows  should  be  heard,  and 
the  saints  should  stand  upright,  and  the 
cause  that  was  ill-judged  should  be  judged 
over  again,  and  tyrants  should  be  called  to 
account,  and  our  thoughts  should  be  exa- 
mined, and  our  secret  actions  viewed  on  all 
sides,  and  the  infinite  number  of  sins  which 
escape  here,  should  not  escape  finally.  And 
therefore  God  hath  so  ordained  it,  that  there 
shall  be  a  day  of  doom,  wherein  all  that  are 


j  let  alone  by  men,  shall  be  questioned  by 
■  God,  and  every  word  and  every  action  shall 
receive  its  just  recompense  of  reward.  "For 
we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ ;  that  every  one  may  receive  the 
things  done  in  his  body,  according  to  that 
he  hath  done,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad." 

Td  I8ta  tov  au/xatos,  so  it  is  in  the  best 
copies,  not  to,  Sid,  '"'the  things  done  in 
the  body,"  so  we  commonly  read  it  "the 
things  proper  or  due  to  the  body,"  so 
the  expression  is  more  apt  and  proper;  for 
not  only  what  is  done  Sid  ffw^oj,  "by  the 
body,"  but  even  the  acts  of  abstracted  un- 
derstanding and  volition,  the  acts  of  reflec- 
tion and  choice,  acts  of  self-love  and  admira- 
tion, and  whatever  else  can  be  supposed  the 
proper  and  peculiar  act  of  the  soul  or  of  the 
spirit,  is  to  be  accounted  for  at  the  day  of 
judgement :  and  even  these  may  be  called  toto. 
tov  ou>[unf-~$,  because  these  are  the  acts  of  the 
man  in  the  state  of  conjunction  with  the  body. 
The  words  have  in  them  no  other  difficulty  or 
variety,  but  contain  a  great  truth  of  the  big- 
gest interest,  and  one  of  the  most  material 
constitutive  articles  of  the  whole  religion, 
and  the  greatest  endearment  of  our  duty  in 
the  whole  world.  Things  are  so  ordered  by 
the  great  Lord  of  all  the  creatures,  that  what- 
soever we  do  or  suffer  shall  be  called  to  ac- 
count, and  this  account  shall  be  exact,  and 
the  sentence  shall  be  just,  and  the  reward 
shall  be  great;  all  the  evils  of  the  world 
shall  be  amended,  and  the  injustices  shall  be 
repaid,  and  the  Divine  Providence  shall  be 
vindicated,  and  virtue  and  vice  shall  forever 
be  remarked  by  their  separate  dwellings  and 
rewards. 

This  is  that  which  the  apostle,  in  the  next 
verse,  calls  "  the  terror  of  the  Lord."  It  is 
his  terror,  because  himself  shall-  appear  in 
his  dress  of  majesty  and  robes  of  justice; 
and  it  is  his  terror,  because  it  is,  of  all  things 
in  the  world,  the  most  formidable  in  itself, 
and  it  is  most  fearful  to  us,  where  shall  be 
acted  the  interest  and  final  sentence  of  eter- 
nity :  and  because  it  is  so  intended,  I  shall 
all  the  way  represent  it  as  "  the  Lord's  ter- 
ror," that  we  may  be  afraid  of  sin,  for  the 
destruction  of  which  this  terror  is  intended. 
1 .  Therefore,  we  will  consider  the  persons 
that  are  to  be  judged,  with  the  circumstances 
of  our  advantages  or  our  sorrows;  "We 
must  all  appear."  2.  The  judge  and  his 
judgement-seat ;  "before  the  judgement-seat 
of  Christ."  3.  The  sentence  that  they  are 
to  receive;  "the  things  due  to  the  body, 
good  or  bad  ;"  according  as  we  now  please, 
but  then  cannot  alter.    Every  of  these  is 


Serm.  L 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


7 


dressed  witli  circumstances  of  affliction  and 
afTrightment  to  those,  to  whom  such  terrors 
shall  appertain  as  a  portion  of  their  in- 
heritance. 

1.  The  persons  who  are  to  be  judged; 
even  you,  and  I,  and  all  the  world ;  kings 
and  priests,  nobles  and  learned,  the  crafty 
and  the  easy,  the  wise  and  the  foolish,  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  the  prevailing  tyrant  and 
the  oppressed  parly,  shall  all  appear  to  re- 
ceive their  symbol;  and  this  is  so  far  from 
abating  any  thing  of  its  terror  and  our  dear 
concernment,  that  it  much  increases  it :  for, 
although  concerning  precepts  and  discourses, 
we  are  apt  to  neglect  in  particular,  what  is 
recommended  in  general,  and  in  incidences 
of  mortality  and  sad  events,  the  singu- 
larity of  the  chance  heightens  the  appre- 
hension of  the  evil ;  yet  it  is  so  by  ac- 
cident, and  only  in  regard  of  our  imper- 
fection ;  it  being  an  effect  of  self-love,  or 
some  little  creeping  envy,  which  adheres  too 
often  to  the  unfortunate  and  miserable ;  or 
else,  because  the  sorrow  is  apt  to  increase 
by  being  apprehended  to  be  a  rare  case,  and 
a  singular  unworthiness  in  him  who  is  af- 
flicted, otherwise  than  is  common  to  the 
sons  of  men,  companions  of  his  sin,  and 
brethren  of  his  nature,  and  partners  of  his 
usual  accidents ;  yet  in  final  and  extreme 
events,  the  multitude  of  sufferers  does  not 
lessen  but  increase  the  sufferings  ;  and  when 
the  first  day  of  judgment  happened,  that 
(I  mean)  of  the  universal  deluge  of  waters 
upon  the  old  world,  the  calamity  swelled 
like  the  *lood,  and  every  man  saw  his  friend 
perish,  and  the  neighbours  of  his  dwelling, 
and  the  relatives  of  his  house,  and  the 
sharers  of  his  joys,  and  yesterday's  bride, 
and  the  new-born  heir,  the  priest  of  the 
family,  and  the  honour  of  the  kindred,  all 
dying  or  dead,  drenched  in  water,  and  the 
Divine  vengeance ;  and  then  they  had  no 
place  to  flee  unto,  no  man  cared  for  their 
souls ;  they  had  none  to  go  unto  for  counsel, 
no  sanctuary  high  enough  to  keep  them  from 
the  vengeance  that  rained  down  from  heaven: 
and  so  it  shall  be  at  the  day  of  judgment, 
when  that  world  and  this,  and  all  that  shall 
be  born  hereafter,  shall  pass  through  the 
same  Red  sea,  and  be  all  baptized  with  the 
same  fire,  and  be  involved  in  the  same  cloud, 
in  which  shall  be  thunderings  and  terrors  in- 
finite ;  every  man's  fear  shall  be  increased 
by  his  neighbour's  shrieks,  and  the  amaze- 
ment that  all  the  world  shall  be  in,  shall 
unite  as  the  sparks  of  a  raging  furnace,  into 
a  globe  of  fire,  and  roll  upon  its  own  princi- 
ple, and  increase  by  direct  appearances  and 


intolerable  reflections.  He  that  stands  in  a 
church-yard  in  the  time  of  a  great  plague, 
and  hears  the  passing-bell  perpetually  telling 
the  sad  stories  of  death,  and  sees  crowds  of 
infected  bodies  pressing  to  their  graves,  and 
others  sick  and  tremulous,  and  death,  dress- 
ed up  in  all  the  images  of  sorrow,  round 
about  him,  is  not  supported  in  his  spirit 
by  the  variety  of  his  sorrow  :  and  at  dooms- 
day, when  the  terrors  are  universal,  besides 
that  it  is  itself  so  much  greater,  because 
it  can  affright  the  whole  world,  it  is  also 
made  greater  by  communication  and  a  sor- 
rowful influence  ;  grief  being  then  strongly 
infectious,  when  there  is  no  variety  of  state, 
but  an  entire  kingdom  of  fear :  and  amaze- 
ment is  the  king  of  all  our  passions,  and  all 
the  world  its  subjects :  and  that  shriek 
must  needs  be  terrible,  when  millions  of  men 
and  women,  at  the  same  instant,  shall  fear- 
fully cry  out,  and  the  noise  shall  mingle 
with  the  trumpet  of  the  archangel,  with  the 
thunders  of  the  dying  and  groaning  heavens, 
and  the  crack  of  the  dissolving  world,  when 
the  whole  fabric  of  nature  shall  shake  into 
dissolution  and  eternal  ashes.  But  this 
general  consideration  may  be  heightened 
with  four  or  five  circumstances. 

1 .  Consider  what  an  infinite  multitude  of 
angels,  and  men  and  women  shall  then  ap- 
:  pear ;  it  is  a  huge  assembly,  when  the  men 
of  one  kingdom,  the  men  of  one  age  in  a 
single  province,  are  gathered  together  into 
heaps  and  confusion  of  disorder ;  but  then, 
all  kingdoms  of  all  ages,  all  the  armies  that 
ever  mustered,  all  the  world  that  Augustus 
Csesar  taxed,  all  those  hundreds  of  millions 
that  were  slain  in  all  the  Roman  wars,  from 
Numa's  time  till  Italy  was  broken  into  prin- 
cipalities and  small  exarchates ;  all  these, 
and  all  that  can  come  into  numbers,  and  that 
did  descend  from  the  loins  of  Adam,  shall  at 
once  be  represented;  to  which  account  if  we 
add  the  armies  of  heaven,  the  nine  orders 
of  blessed  spirits,  and  the  infinite  numbers 
in  every  order,  we  may  suppose  the  num- 
bers fit  to  express  the  majesty  of  that  God, 
and  the  terror  of  that  Judge,  who  is  the 
Lord  and  Father  of  all  that  unimaginable 
multitude.  "  Erit  terror  ingens  tot  simul 
tantorumque  populorum."* 

2.  In  this  great  multitude  we  shall  meet 
all  those,  who,  by  their  example  and  their 
holy  precepts,  have,  like  tapers,  enkindled 
with  a  beam  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness,  en- 
lightened us,  and  taught  us  to  walk  in  the 
paths  of  justice.     There  we  shall  see  all 


Florus. 


8 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


Serm. L 


those  good  men,  whom  God  sent  to  preach 
to  us,  and  recall  us  from  human  follies  and 
inhuman  practices  :  and  when  we  espy  the 
good  man,  that  chid  us  for  our  last  drunken- 
ness or  adulteries,  it  shall  then  also  be  remem- 
bered how  we  mocked  at  counsel,  and  were 
civilly  modest  at  the  reproof,  but  laughed 
when  the  man  was  gone,  and  accepted  it  for 
a  religious  compliment,  and  took  our  leaves, 
and  went  and  did  the  same  again.  But  then 
things  shall  put  on  another  face ;  and  that 
we  smiled  at  here  and  slighted  fondly,  shall 
then  be  the  greatest  terror  in  the  world ; 
men  shall  feel  that  they  once  laughed  at 
their  own  destruction,  and  rejected  health 
when  it  was  offered  by  a  man  of  God  upon 
no  other  condition,  but  that  they  would  be 
wise,  and  not  be  in  love  with  death.  Then 
they  shall  perceive,  that  if  they  had  obeyed 
an  easy  and  a  sober  counsel,  they  had  been 
partners  of  the  same  felicity,  which  they 
see  so  illustrious  upon  the  heads  of  those 
preachers,  "  whose  work  is  with  the  Lord," 
and  who,  by  their  life  and  doctrine,  endea- 
voured to  snatch  the  soul  of  their  friend  or 
relatives  from  an  intolerable  misery.  But  he 
that  sees  a  crown  put  upon  their  heads,  that 
give  good  counsel,  and  preach  holy  and  se- 
vere sermons  with  designs  of  charity  and 
piety,  will  also  then  perceive  that  God  did 
not  send  preachers  for  nothing,  on  trifling 
errands  and  without  regard  :  but  that  work, 
which  he  crowns  in  them,  he  purposed 
should  be  effective  to  us,  persuasive  to  the  un- 
derstanding, and  active  upon  our  consciences. 
Good  preachers,  by  their  doctrine,  and  all 
good  men,  by  their  lives,  are  the  accusers 
of  the  disobedient;  and  they  shall  rise  up 
from  their  seats,  and  judge  and  condemn 
the  follies  of  those  who  thought  their  piety 
to  be  want  of  courage,  and  their  discourses 
pedantical,  and  their  reproofs  the  priest's 
trade,  but  of  no  signification,  because  they 
preferred  moments  before  eternity. 

3.  There  in  that  great  assembly  shall  be 
seen  all  those  converts,  who,  upon  easier 
terms,  and  fewer  miracles,  and  a  less  expe- 
rience, and  a  younger  grace,  and  a  seldomer 
preaching,  and  more  unlikely  circumstances, 
have  suffered  the  work  of  God  to  prosper 
upon  their  spirits,  and  have  been  obedient 
to  the  heavenly  calling.  There  shall  stand 
the  men  of  Nineveh,  and  they  "shall  stand 
upright  in  judgment,"  for  they,  at  the 
preaching  of  one  man,  in  a  less  space  than 
forty  days,  returned  unto  the  Lord  their  God ; 
but  we  hav  e  heard  him  call  all  our  lives,  and, 
like  the  deaf  adder,  stopped  our  ears  against 


the  voice  of  God's  servants,  "charm  they 
never  so  wisely."  There  shall  appear  the 
men  of  Capernaum,  and  the  queen  of  the 
South,  and  the  men  of  Berea,  and  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  Christian  church,  and  the  holy 
martyrs,  and  shall  proclaim  to  all  the  world, 
that  it  is  not  impossible  to  do  the  work  of 
grace  in  the  midst  of  all  our  weaknesses,  and 
accidental  disadvantages :  and  that  "the  obe- 
dience of  faith,  and  the  "  labour  of  love," 
and^the  contentions  of  chastity,  and  the  seve- 
rities of  temperance  and  self-denial,  are  not 
such  insuperable  mountains,  but  that  an 
honest  and  sober  person  may  perform  them 
in  acceptable  degrees,  if  he  have  but  a  ready 
ear,  and  a  willing  mind,  and  an  honest  heart: 
and  this  scene  of  honest  persons  shall  make 
the  Divine,  judgment  upon  sinners  more 
reasonable,  and  apparently  just,  in  passing 
upon  them  the  horrible  sentence ;  for  why 
cannot  we  as  well  serve  God  in  peace,  as 
others  served  him  in  war?  why  cannot  we 
love  him  as  well  when  he  treats  us  sweetly, 
and  gives  us  health  and  plenty,  honours  or  fair 
fortunes,  reputation  or  contentedness,  quiet- 
ness and  peace,  as  others  did  upon  gibbets 
and  under  axes,  in  the  hands  of  tormentors 
and  in  hard  wildernesses,  in  nakedness  and 
poverty,  in  the  midst  of  all  evil  things,  and 
all  sad  discomforts'?  Concerning  this  no 
answer  can  be  made. 

4.  But  there  is  a  worse  sight  than  this  yet, 
which,  in  that  great  assembly,  shall  distract 
our  sight,  and  amaze  our  spirits.  There 
men  shall  meet  the  partners  of  their  sins,  and 
them  that  drank  the  round,  when  they 
crowned  their  heads  with  folly  and  forgetful- 
ness,  and  their  cups  with  wine  and  noises. 
There  shall  ye  see  that  poor,  perishing  soul, 
whom  thou  didst  tempt  to  adultery  and  wan- 
tonness, to  drunkenness  or  perjury,  to  rebel- 
lion or  an  evil  interest,  by  power  or  craft,  by 
witty  discourses  or  deep  dissembling,  by 
scandal  or  a  snare,  by  evil  example  or  per  - 
nicious counsel,  by  malice  or  unwariness ; 
and  when  all  this  is  summed  up,  and  from 
the  variety  of  its  particulars  is  drawn  into 
an  uneasy  load  and  a  formidable  sum,  pos- 
sibly we  may  find  sights  enough  to  scare  all 
our  confidences,  and  arguments  enough  to 
press  our  evil  souls  into  the  sorrows  of  a 
most  intolerable- death.  For,  however  we 
make  now  but  light  accounts  and  evil  pro- 
portions concerning  it,  yet  it  will  be  a  fear- 
ful circumstance  of  appearing,  to  see  one,  or 
two, or  ten,or  twenty  accursed  souls,  despair- 
ing, miserable,  infinitely  miserable,  roaring 
and  blaspheming,  and  fearfully  cursing  thee 


Serm.  I.      CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


9 


as  the  cause  of  its  eternal  sorrows.  Thy  lust  I  and  actions,  may  yet  have  a  different  sen- 
betrayed  and  rifled  her  weak  and  unguarded  |  tence :  for  an  early  and  an  active  repentance 
innocence;  thy  example  made  thy  servant  con-  j  will  wash  off  this  account,  and  put  it  upon 
fident  to  lie,  or  to  be  perjured;  thy  society  :  the  tables  of  the  cross  ;  and  though  it  ought 
brought  a  third  into  intemperance  and  the  dis- |  to  make  us  diligent  and  careful,  charitable 
guises  of  a  beast :  and  when  thou  seest  that  and  penitent,  hugely  penitent,  even  so  long 


soul,  with  whom  thou  didst  sin,  dragged  into 
hell,  wellmayest  thou  fear  to  drink  the  dregs 
of  thy  intolerable  potion.  And  most  certainly, 
it  is  the  greatest  of  evils  to  destroy  a  soul,  for 
whom  the  Lord  Jesus  died,  and  to  undo  that 
grace  which  our  Lord  purchased  with  so 
much  sweat  and  blood,  pains  and  a  mighty 
charity.  And  because  very  many  sins  of 
society  and  confederation  ;  such  are  fornica- 
tion, drunkenness,  bribery,  simony,  rebellion, 
schism,  and  many  others  ;  it  is  a  hard  and  a 
weighty  consideration,  what  shall  become 
of  any  one  of  us,  who  have  tempted  our 
brother  or  sister  to  sin  and  death  :  for  though 
God  hath  spared  our  life,  and  they  are  dead, 


as  we  live,  yet  when  we  shall  appear  to- 
gether, there  is  a  mercy  that  shall  there  sep- 
arate us,  who  sometimes  had  blended  each 
other  in  a  common  crime.  Blessed  be  the 
mercies  of  God,  who  hath  so  carefully  pro- 
vided a  fruitful  shower  of  grace,  to  refresh 
the  miseries  and  dangers  of  the  greatest  part 
of  mankind.  Thomas  Aquinas  was  used  to 
beg  of  God,  that  he  might  never  be  tempted, 
from  his  low  fortune,  to  prelacies  and  digni- 
ties ecclesiastical ;  and  that  his  mind  might 
never  be  discomposed  or  polluted  with  the  love 
of  any  creature  ;  and  that  he  might,  by  some 
instrument  or  other,  understand  the  state  of 
his  deceased  brother;  and  the  story  says,  that 


and  their  debt-books  are  sealed  up  till  the  j  he  was  heard  in  all.    In  him  it  was  a  great 


■day  of  account;  yet  the  mischief  of  our  sin 
is  gone  before  us,  and  it  is  like  a  murder,  but 
more  execrable:  the  soul  is  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins,  and  sealed  up  to  an  eternal 
sorrow ;  and  thou  shalt  see,  at  doomsday, 
what  damnable  uncharitableness  thou  hast 
done.  That  soul  that  cries  to  those  rocks 
to  cover  her,  if  it  had  not  been  for  thy  per- 
petual temptations,  might  have  followed  the 
Lamb  in  a  white  robe ;  and  that  poor  man, 
that  is  clothed  with  shame  and  flames  of 
fire,  would  have  shined  in  glory,  but  that 
thou  didst  force  him  to  be  a  partner  in  thy 
baseness.  And  who  shall  pay  for  this  loss? 
a  soul  is  lost  by  thy  means ;  thou  hast  de- 
feated the  holy  purposes  of  the  Lord's  bitter 
passion  by  thy  impurities  ;  and  what  shall 
happen  to  thee,  by  whom  thy  brother  dies 
eternally?  Of  all  the  considerations  that 
concern  this  part  of  the  horrors  of  doomsday, 
nothing  can  be  more  formidable  than  this, 


curiosity,  or  the  passion  and  impertinences 
of  a  useless  charity,  to  search  after  him,  un- 
less he  had  some  other  personal  concernment 
than  his  relation  of  kindred.  But  truly,  it 
would  concern  very  many  to  be  solicitous 
concerning  the  event  of  those  souls,  with 
whom  we  have  mingled  death  and  sin ;  for 
many  of  those  sentences,  which  have  passed 
and  decreed  concerning  our  departed  re- 
latives, will  concern  us  dearly,  and  we  are 
bound  in  the  same  bundles,  and  shall  be 
thrown  into  the  same  fires,  unless  we  re- 
pent for  our  own  sins,  and  double  our  sor- 
rows for  their  damnation. 

5.  We  may  consider  that  this  infinite 
multitude  of  men,  women,  angels,  and  devils, 
is  not  inaffective  as  a  number  in  Pythago- 
ras's  tables,  but  must  needs  have  influence 
upon  every  spirit  that  shall  there  appear. — 
For  the  transactions  of  that  court  are  not 
like  orations  spoken  by  a  Grecian  orator 


to  such  whom  it  does  concern  :  and  truly  it  in  the  circles  of  his  people,  heard  by  them 
concerns  so  many,  and  amongst  so  many,  (that  crowd  nearest  him,  or  that  sound  limit- 
perhaps  some  persons  are  so  tender,  that  it  jed  by  the  circles  of  air,  or  the  enclosure  of 


might  affright  their  hopes,  and  discompose 
their  industries  and  spiteful  labours  of  repent- 
ance;  but  that  our  most  merciful  Lord  hath,  in 
the  midst  of  all  the  fearful  circumstances  of 
his  second  coming,  interwoven  this  one  com- 
fort relating  to  this,  which,  to  my  sense,  seems 
the  most  fearful  and  killing  circumstance : 
"  Two  shall  be  grinding  at  one  mill ;  the 
one  shall  be  taken  and  the  other  left.  Two 
shall  be  in  a  bed ;  the  one  shall  be  taken  and 
the  other  left ;"  that  is,  those  who  are  con- 


a  wall ;  but  every  thing  is  represented  to 
every  person,  and  then,  let  it  be  considered, 
when  thy  shame  and  secret  turpitude,  thy 
midnight  revels  and  secret  hypocrisies,  thy 
lustful  thoughts  and  treacherous  designs,  thy 
falsehood  to  God  and  starlings  from  thy  holy 
promises,  thy  follies  and  impieties,  shall  oe 
laid  open  before  all  the  world,  and  that  then 
shall  be  spoken  by  the  trumpet  of  an  arch- 
angel upon  the  housetop,  the  highest  battle- 
ments of  heaven,  all  those  filthy  words  and 


federate  in  the  same  fortunes,  and  interests,  jlewd  circumstances,  which  thou  didst  act 
2 


\ 


10 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT.        Serm.  I. 


secretly  •  thou  wilt  find,  that  thou  wilt  have 
reason  strangely  to  be  ashamed.  All  the 
wise  men  in  the  world  shall  know  how  vile 
thou  hast  been :  and  then  consider,,  with 


who  are  tender  of  their  precious  name  and 
sensible  of  honour;  if  they  rather  would 
choose  death  than  a  disgrace,  poverty  rather 
than  shame,  let  them  remember  that  a  sinful 


what  confusion  of  face  wouldst  thou  stand,  life  wiii  bring  them  to  an  intolerable  shame 


in  the  presence  of  a  good  man  and  a  severe, 
if  peradventure  he  should  suddenly  draw  thy 
curtain,  and  find  thee  in  the  sins  of  shame 
and  lust ;  it  must  be  infinitely  more,  when 
God  and  all  the  angels  of  heaven  and  earth, 
all  his  holy  myriads,  and  all  his  redeem- 
ed saints,  shall  stare  and  wonder  at  thy  im- 
purities and  follies.    I  have  read  a  story, 


at  that  day,  when  all  that  is  excellent  in 
heaven  and  earth  shall  be  summoned  as 
witnesses  and  parties  in  a  fearful  scrutiny. — 
The  sum  is  this,  all  that  are  born  of  Adam 
shall  appear  before  God  and  his  Christ,  and 
all  the  innumerable  companies  of  angels  and 
devils  shall  be  there  :  and  the  wicked  shall 
be  affrighted  with  every  thing  they  see ;  and 


that  a  young  gentleman,  being  passionately  j  there  they  shall  see  those  good  men  that 
by  his  mother  dissuaded  from  entering  into  |  taught  them  the  ways  of  life ;  and  all  those 
the  severe  courses  of  a  religious  and  single  j  evil  persons,  whom  themselves  have  tempted 
life,  broke  from  her  importunity  by  saying, ;  into  the  ways  of  death ;  and  those  who  were 
"Volo  servare  animam  meam ;"    "I  am  converted  upon  easier  terms;  and  some  of 


resolved  by  all  means  to  save  my  soul." — 
But  when  he  had  undertaken  a  rule  with 
passion,  he  performed  it  carelessly  and  re- 
missly, and  was  but  lukewarm  in  his  religion, 
and  quickly  proceeded  to  a  melancholy  and 
wearied  spirit,  and  from  thence  to  a  sickness 
and  the  neighbourhood  of  death  :  but  falling 
into  an  agony  and  a  fantastic  vision,  dreamed 
that  he  saw  himself  summoned  before  God's 
angry  throne,  and  from  thence  hurried  into 
a  place  of  torments,  where  espying  his 
mother,  full  of  scorn  she  upbraided  him  with 
his  former  answer,  and  asked  him  why  he 
did  not  save  his  soul  by  all  means,  according 
as  he  undertook.  But  when  the  sick  man 
awaked  and  recovered,  he  made  his  words 
good  indeed,  and  prayed  frequently,  and 
fasted  severely,  and  laboured  humbly,  and 
conversed  charitably,  and  mortified  himself 
severely,  and  refused  such  secular  solaces 
which  other  good  men  received  to  refresh 


these  shall  shame  the  wicked,  and  some  shall 
curse  them,  and  some  shall  upbraid  them, 
and  all  shall  amaze  them ;  and  yet  this  is 
but  the  apxn  wStVwv,  the  beginning  of  those 
evils  which  shall  never  end,  till  eternity  hath 
a  period  ;  but  concerning  this  they  must  first 
be  judged;  and  that  is  the  second  general 
consideration,  "we  must  appear  before  the 
judgment-seat  of  Christ,"  and  that  is  a  new 
state  of  terrors  and  affrightments.  Christ, 
who  is  our  Saviour  and  is  our  advocate, 
shall  then  be  ourjudge;  and  that  will  strange- 
ly change  our  confidences  and  all  the  face 
of  things. 

2.  That  is  then  the  state  and  place  of  our 
appearance,  "before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ :"  for  Christ  shall  rise  from  the  right 
hand  of  his  Father :  he  shall  descend  towards 
us,  and  ride  upon  a  cloud,  and  shall  make 
himself  illustrious  by  a  glorious  majesty,  and 
an  innumerable  retinue,  and  circumstances 


and  sustain  their  infirmities,  and  gave  no  j  of  terror  and  amighty  power :  and  that  is  that 
other  account  to  them  that  asked  him  but!  which  Origen  affirms  to  be  the  sign  of  the 
this  :  If  I  could  not  in  my  ecstasy  or  dream .  Son  of  man.  Remalcus  de  Vaux,  in  Har- 
endure  my  mother's  upbraiding  my  follies  pocrate  Divino,  affirms,  that  all  the  Greek 
and  weak  religion,  how  shall  I  be  able  to  |  and  Latan  fathers  "  consentientibus  animis 
suffer,  that  God  should  redargue  me  at  |  asseverant,  hoc  signo  crucem  Christi  signi- 
doomsday,  and  the  angels  reproach  my  luke-  ficari,"  do  unanimously  affirm,  that  the  re- 
warmness,  and  the  devils  aggravate  my  presentment  of  the  cross  is  the  sign  of  the 


sins,  and  all  the  saints  of  God  deride  my 
follies  and  hypocrisies  ?  The  effect  of  that 
man's  consideration  may  serve  to  actuate  a 
meditation  in  every  one  of  us  ;  for  we  shall 
all  be  at  that  pass,  that  unless  our  shame 
and  sorrows  be  cleansed  by  a  timely  repent- 
ance, and  covered  by  the  robe  of  Christ,  we 
shall  suffer  the  anger  of  God,  the  scorn  of 
saints  and  angels,  and  our  own  shame  in 
the  general  assembly  of  all  mankind.  This  I  The  sign  of  that  cross  is  the  sign  of  the  Son 
argument  is  most  considerable  to  them, '  of  man,  when  the  Lord  shall  come  to  judg- 


Son  of  man  spoken  of,  Matt.  xxiv.  50.  And 
indeed  they  affirm  it  very  generally,  but 
Origen  after  this  manner  is  singular,  "  hoc 
signum  crucis  erit,  cum  Dominus  adjudi- 
candum  venerit,"  so  the  church  used  to  sing, 
and  so  it  is  in  the  Sibyl's  verses  : 


O  lignum  fclix,  in  quo  Deus  ipse  pependit 
Nec  te  terra  capit,  sed  cceli  tecta  videbis, 
Cum  renovate  Dei  t'acies  ignita  micabit. 


Serm.  I.  CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


li 


ment:  and  from  those  words  of  scrip ture  ,  j  address  to  judgment  shall  sufficiently  declare 
"  they  shall  look  on  him  whom  they  have,  his  person  and  his  office,  and  his  proper 
pierced,"  it  hath  been  freely  entertained,  that,  glories.  This  is  the  greatest  scene  of  majesty 


at  the  day  of  judgment  Christ  shall  signify 
his  person  by  something  that  related  to  his 
passion,  his  cross,  or  his  wounds,  or  both. 
I  list  not  to  spin  this  curious  cobweb ;  but 
Origen's  opinion  seems  to  me  more  reason- 
able ;  and  it  is  more  agreeable  to  the  majesty 
and  power  of  Christ  to  signify  himself  with 
proportions  of  his  glory,  rather  than  of  his 
humility;  with  effects  of  his  being  exalted  into 
heaven,  rather  than  of  his  poverty  and  sor- 
rows upon  earth :  and  this  is  countenanced 
better  by  some  Greek  copies  ;  tots  ^avr^ttac 
otj/ASiov  tov  txou  tov  avd^7iov  iv  79  ovpcwcp, 
so  it  is  commonly  read,  "the  sign  of  the 
Son  of  man  in  heaven  ;"  that  is,  (say  they,) 
the  sign  of  the  Son  of  man  imprinted 
upon  a  cloud  ;  but  it  is  in  others  tov  vlov  tov 
a,vdpCi7tov  rov  h>  ovpouwV,  "  the  sign  of  the 
Son  of  man  who  is  in  the  heavens ;"  not 
that  the  sign  shall  be  imprinted  on  a  cloud, 
or  in  any  part  of  the  heavens,  but  that  he 
wao  is  now  in  the  heavens,  shall,  when  he 


that  shall  be  in  that  day,  till  the  sentence  be 
pronounced ;  but  there  goes  much  before 
this,  which  prepares  all  the  world  to  the  ex- 
pectation and  consequent  reception  of  this 
mighty  judge  of  men  and  angels. 

The  majesty  of  the  Judge,  and  the  terrors 
of  the  judgment,  shall  be  spoken  aloud  by 
the  immediate  forerunning  accidents,  which 
shall  be  so  great  violences  to  the  old  consti- 
tutions of  nature,  that  it  shall  break  hervery 
bones,  and  disorder  her  till  she  be  destroyed. 
Saint  Jerome  relates  out  of  the  Jews'  books, 
that  their  doctors  used  to  account  fifteen  days 
of  prodigy  immediately  before  Christ's  com- 
ing, and  to  every  day  assign  a  wonder,  any 
one  of  which  if  we  should 'chance  to  see  in 
the  days  of  our  flesh,  it  would  affright  us 
into  the  like  thoughts  which  the  old  world 
had,  when  they  saw  the  countries  round 
about  them  covered  with  water  and  the  Di- 
vine vengeance ;  or  as  those  poor  people 
near  Adria,  and  the  Mediterranean  sea,  when 


comes  down,  have  a  sign  and  signification  \  their  houses  and  cities  are  entering  into 
of  his  own,  that  is  proper  to  him  who  is '  graves,  and  the  bowels  of  the  earth  rent  with 


there  glorified,  and  shall  return  in  glory. — 
And  he  disparages  the  beauty  of  the  sun, 
who  inquires  for  a  rule  to  know  when  the 
sun  shines,  or  the  light  breaks  forth  from 
its  chambers  of  the  east ;  and  the  Son  of 
man  shall  need  no  other  signification,  but 
his  infinite  retinue,  and  all  the  angels  of  God 
worshipping  him,  and  sitting  upon  a  cloud, 
and  leading  the  heavenly  host,  and  bringing 
his  elect  with  him,  and  being  clothed  with 


convulsions  and  horrid  tremblings.  The 
sea  (they  say)  shall  rise  fifteen  feet  above 
the  highest  mountains,  and  thence  descend 
into  hollowness  and  a  prodigious  drought; 
and  when  they  are  reduced  again  to  their 
usual  proportions,  then  all  the  beasts  and 
creeping  things,  the  monsters  and  the  usual 
inhabitants  of  the  sea,  shall  be  gathered  to- 
gether, and  make  fearful  noises  to  distract 
mankind  ;  the  birds  shall  mourn,  and  change 


the  robes  of  majesty,  and  trampling  upon;  their  songs  into  threnes  and  sad  accents  ; 
devils,  and  confounding  the  wicked,  and  de-  rivers  of  fire  shall  rise  from  the  east  to  west, 
stroying  death :  but  all  these  great  things  j  and  the  stars  shall  be  rent  into  threads  of 

light,  and  scatter  like  the  beards  of  comets  ; 
then  shall  be  fearful  earthquakes,  and  the 


shall  be  invested  with  such  strange  circum- 
stances, and  annexes  of  mightiness  anci  di- 


vinity, that  all  the  world  shall  confess  the  jacks  shall  rend  in  pieces,  the  trees  shall 
glories  of  the  Lord;  and  this  is  sufficiently  distil  blood,  and  the  mountains  and  fairest 
signified  by  St.  Paul,  "We  shall  all  be  set  structures  shall  return  unto  their  primitive 
before  the  throne  or  place  of  Christ's  judica-  dust;  the  wild  beasts  shall  leave  their  dens, 
ture  ;  for  it  is  written,  As  I  live,  saith  the  and  come  into  the  companies  of  men,  so  that 
Lord,  every  knee  shall  bow  to  me,  and  every  you  shall  hardly  tell  how  to  call  them,  herds 
tongue  shall  confess  to  God  :"*  that  is,  at! of  men,  or  congregations  of  beasts;  then 
the  day  of  judgment,  when  we  are  placed  shall  the  graves  open  and  give  up  their  dead, 
ready  to  receive  our  sentence,  all  knees  shall  j  and  those  which  are  alive  in  nature  and  dead 
bow  to  the  holy  Jesus,  and  confess  him  to  in  fear,  shall  be  forced  from  the  rocks  whith- 
be  God  the  Lord ;  meaning  that  our  Lord's  er  they  went  to  hide  them,  and  from  caverns 
presence  shall  be  such,  as  to  force  obeisance  j  of  the  earth,  where  they  would  fain  have 
from  angels  and  men  and  devils ;  and  his  been  concealed ;  because  their  retirements 

 j  are  dismantled,  and  their  rocks  are  broken 

into  wider  ruptures,  and  admit  a  strange 


*  Romans  xiv.  10,  11, 


12 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


Serm.  L 


light  into  their  secret  bowels  ;  and  the  men 
being  forced  abroad  into  the  theatre  of 
mighty  horrors,  shall  run  up  and  down  dis- 
tracted and  at  their  wits' end;  and  then  some 
men  shall  die,  and  some  shall  be  changed,  and 
by  this  time  the  elect  shall  be  gathered  to- 
gether from  the  four  quarters  of  the  world, 
and  Christ  shall  come  along  with  them  to 
judgment. 

These  signs,  although  the  Jewish  doctors 
reckon  them  by  order  and  a  method,  con- 
cerning which  they  had  no  other  revelation 
(that  appears)  nor  sufficiently  credible  tra- 
dition, yet  for  the  main  parts  of  the  things 
themselves,  the  Holy  Scripture  records 
Christ's  own  words,  and  concerning  the 
most  terrible  of  them ;  the  sum  of  which,  as 
Christ  related  them,  and  his  apostles  record- 
ed and  explicated,  is  this,  "the  earth  shall 
tremble,  and  the  powers  of  the  heavens  shall 
be  shaken  j  the  sun  shall  be  turned  into 
darkness,  and  the  moon  into  blood  that  is, 
there  shall  be  strange  eclipses  of  the  sun, 
and  fearful  aspects  in  the  moon,  who  when 
she  is  troubled,  looks  red  like  blood  ;  "  the 
rocks  shall  rend,  and  the  elements  shall  melt 
with  fervent  heat.  The  heavens  shall  be 
rolled  up  like  a  parchment,  the  earth  shall 
be  burned  with  fire,  the  hills  shall  be  like 
wax,  for  there  shall  go  a  fire  before  him,  and 
a  mighty  tempest  shall  be  stirred  round 
about  him :" 


Dies  irae,  Dies  ilia 
Solvet  sec'lum  in  favilla ; 
Teste  David,  cum  Sibylla. 

The  trumpet  of  God  shall  sound,  and  the 
voice  of  the  archangel,  that  is,  of  him  who 
is  the  prince  of  all  that  great  army  of  spirits, 
which  shall  then  attend  their  Lord,  and  wait 
upon  and  illustrate  his  glory ;  and  this  also 
is  part  of  that  which  is  called  the  sign  of  the 
Son  of  man;  for  the  fulfilling  of  all  these 
predictions,  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
to  all  nations,  and  the  conversion  of  the 
Jews,  and  these  prodigies,  and  the  address 
of  majesty,  make  up  that  sign.  The  notice 
of  which  things  some  way  or  other  came  to 
the  very  heathen  themselves,  who  were 
alarmed  into  caution  and  sobriety  by  these 
dead  remembrancers : 

 Siccfim,  compage  soluta, 

Saecula  tot  mundi  suprema  coegerit  hora, 
Antiquum  repetens  iterum  chaos,  omnia  mistis 
Sidera  sideribus  concurrent :  ignea  pontum 
Astra  petent,  tellus  extendere  littora  nolit, 
Excutietque  fretum  ;  fratri  contraria  Phoebe 

Ibit,—  Totaquc  discors 

Machina  divulsi  turbabit  fcedera  mundi. 


Which  things  when  they  come  to  pass,  it 
will  be  no  wonder  if  men's  hearts  shall  fail 
them  for  fear,  and  their  wits  be  lost  with 
guilt,  and  their  fond  hopes  destroyed  by 
prodigy  and  amazement ;  but  it  will  be  an 
extreme  wonder,  if  the  consideration  and 
certain  expectation  of  these  things  shall  not 
awake  our  sleeping  spirits,  and  raise  us  from 
the  death  of  sin,  and  the  baseness  of  vice 
and  dishonourable  actions,  to  live  soberly 
and  temperately,  chastely  and  justly,  humbly 
and  obediently,  that  is,  like  persons  that  be- 
lieve all  this ;  and  such  who  are  not  mad- 
men or  fools  will  order  their  actions  accord- 
ing to  these  notices.    For  if  they  do  not  be- 
lieve these  things,  where  is  their  faith  ?  If 
they  do  believe  them,  and  sin  on,  and  do 
as  if  there  were  no  such  thing  to  come  to 
pass,  where  is  their  prudence,  and  what  is 
their  hopes,  and  where  their  charity  ?  how 
do  they  differ  from  beasts,  save  that  they 
are  more  foolish  ?  for  beasts  go  on  and  con- 
sider not,  because  they  cannot;  but  we  can 
consider,  and  will  not :  we  know  that  strange 
terrors  shall  affright  us  all,  and  strange 
deaths  and  torments  shall  sieze  upon  the 
wicked,  and  that  we  cannot  escape,  and  the 
rocks  themselves  will  not  be  able  to  hide  us 
from  the  fears  of  those  prodigies,  which  shall 
come  before  the  day  of  judgment;  and  that 
the   mountains,  though,  when  they  are 
broken  in  pieces,  we  call  upon  them  to  fall 
upon  us,  shall  not  be  able  to  secure  us  one 
minute  from  the  present  vengeance ;  and 
yet  we  proceed  with  confidence  or  careless- 
ness, and  consider  not,  that  there  is  no  greater 
folly  in  the  world  than  for  a  man  to  neglect 
his  greatest  interest,  and  to  die  for  trifles  and 
little  regards,  and  to  become  miserable  for 
such  interests,  which  are  not  excusable 
in  a  child.    He  that  is  youngest,  hath  not 
long  to  live ;  he  that  is  thirty,  forty,  or  fifty 
years  old,  hath  spent  most  of  his  life,  and 
his  dream  is  almost  done,  and  in  a  very  few 
months  he  must  be  cast  into  his  eternal  por- 
tion ;  that  is,  he  must  be  in  an  unalterable 
condition  ;  his  final  sentence  shall  pass,  ac  ■ 
cording  as  he  shall  then  be  found ;  and  that 
will  be  an  intolerable  condition,  when  he 
shall  have  reason  to  cry  out  in  the  bitterness 
of  his  soul,  "Eternal  woe  is  to  me,  who  re- 
fused to  consider,  when  I  might  have  been 
saved  and  secured  from  this  intolerable  ca- 
lamity."   But  I  must  descend  to  consider 
the  particulars  and  circumstances  of  the 
great  consideration,  "Christ  shall  be  our 
judge  at  doomsday." 


Serm.  II. 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


13 


SERMON  II. 

PART  II. 

1 .  If  we  consider  the  person  of  the  Judge, 
we  first  perceive,  that  he  is  interested  in  the 
injury  of  the  crimes  he  is  to  sentence. — 
"  Videbunt  quem  crucifixerunt,"  "they 
shall  look  on  him  whom  they  have  pierced." 
It  was  for  thy  sins  that  the  Judge  did  suffer 
unspeakable  pains,  as  were  enough  to  re- 
concile all  the  world  to  God  :  the  sum  and 
spirit  of  which  pains  could  not  be  better  un- 
derstood than  by  the  consequence  of  his  own 
words,  "My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou 
forsaken  me?"  meaning  that  he  felt  such 
horrible  pure  unmingled  sorrows,  that  al- 
though his  human  nature  was  personally 
united  to  the  Godhead,  yet  at  that  instant  he 
felt  no  comfortable  emanations  by  sensible 
perception  from  the  Divinity,  but  he  was  so 
drenched  in  sorrow,  that  the  Godhead  seemed 
to  have  forsaken  him.  Beyond  this  nothing 
can  be  added :  but  then,  that  thou  hast  for 
thy  own  particular  made  all  this  in  vain  and 
ineffective,  that  Christ  thy  Lord  and  Judge 
should  be  tormented  for  nothing,  that  thou 
wouldst  not  accept  felicity  and  pardon,  when 
he  purchased  them  at  so  dear  a  price,  must 
needs  be  an  infinite  condemnation  to  such 
persons.  How  shalt  thou  look  upon  him  that 
fainted  and  died  for  love  of  thee,  and  thou 
didst  scorn  his  miraculous  mercies  ?  How 
shall  we  dare  to  behold  that  holy  face  that 
brought  salvation  to  us,  and  we  turned  away 
and  fell  in  love  with  death,  and  kissed  de- 
formity and  sins  ?  and  yet  in  the  beholding 
that  face  consists  much  of  the  glories  of 
eternity.  All  the  pains  and  passions,  the 
sorrows  and  the  groans,  the  humility  and 
poverty,  the  labours  and  the  watchings,  the 
prayers  and  the  sermons,  the  miracles  and 
the  prophecies,  the  whip  and  the  nails,  the 
death  and  the  burial,  the  shame  and  the 
smart,  the  cross  and  the  grave,  of  Jesus, 
shall  be  laid  upon  thy  score,  if  thou  hast  re- 
fused the  mercies  and  design  of  all  their 
holy  ends  and  purposes.  And  if  we  re- 
member what  a  calamity  that  was,  which 
broke  the  Jewish  nation  in  pieces,  when 
Christ  came  to  judge  them  for  their  murder- 
ing him,  who  was  their  King  and  the  Prince 
of  life j  and  consider,  that  this  was  but  a 
dark  image  of  the  terrors  of  the  day  of  judg- 
ment ;  we  may  then  apprehend,  that  there 
is  some  strange  unspeakable  evil  that  attends 
them  that  are  guilty  of  this  death  and  of  so 
much  evil  to  their  Lord.    Now  it  is  certain, 


if  thou  wilt  not  be  saved  by  his  death,  thou 
art  guilty  of  his  death  j  if  thou  wilt  not  suffer 
him  to  save  thee,  thou  art  guilly  of  destroy- 
ing him  :  and  then  let  it  be  considered,  what  is 
to  be  expected  from  that  Judge,  before  whom 
you  stand  as  his  murderer  and  betrayer. 
But  this  is  but  half  of  that  consideration. 

2.  Christ  may  be  "  crucified  again,"  and 
upon  a  new  account "  put  to  an  open  shame." 
For  after  that  Christ  had  done  all  this  by  the 
direct  actions  of  his  priestly  office  of  sacrific- 
ing himself  for  us,  he  hath  also  done  very 
many  things  for  us,  which  are  also  the  fruits 
of  his  first  love  and  prosecution  of  our  re- 
demption.   I  will  not  instance  in  the  strange 
arts  of  mercy  that  our  Lord  uses  to  bring  us 
to  live  holy  lives  ;  but  I  consider  that  things 
are  so  ordered,  and  so  great  a  value  set  upon 
our  souls,  since  they  are  the  images  of  God, 
and  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  the  holy  Lamb, 
that  the  salvation  of  our  souls  is  reckoned  as 
apart  of  Christ's  reward,  a  part  of  the  glori- 
fication of  his  humanity.    Every  sinner  that 
repents  causes  joy  to  Christ,  and  the  joy  is  so 
great  that  it  runs  over  and  wets  the  fair  brows 
and  beauteous  locks  of  cherubim  and  sera- 
phim, and  all  the  angels  have  a  part  of  that 
banquet;  then  it  is  that  our  blessed  Lord 
feels  the  fruits  of  his  holy  death,  the  accep- 
tation of  his  holy  sacrifice,  the  graciousness 
of  his  person,  the  return  of  his  prayers.  For 
all  that  Christ  did  or  suffered,  and  all  that 
he  now  does  as  a  priest  in  heaven,  is  to 
glorify  his  Father  by  bringing  souls  to  God  : 
for  this  it  was  that  he  was  born  and  died, 
and  that  he  descended  from  heaven  to  earth, 
from  life  to  death,  from  the  cross  to  the 
grave ;  this  was  the  purpose  of  his  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension,  of  the  end  and  design 
of  all  the  miracles  and  graces  of  God  mani- 
fested to  all  the  world  by  him.    And  now 
what  man  is  so  vile,  such  a  malicious  fool, 
that  will  refuse  to  bring  joy  to  his  Lord  by 
doing  himself  the  greatest  good  in  the  world  ? 
They  who   refuse  to  do  this,  are  said  to 
"crucify  the  Lord  of  life  again,  and  put  him 
to  an  open  shame ;"  that  is,  they  ,  as  much 
as  in  them  lies,  bring  Christ  from  his  glorious 
joys  to  the  labours  of  his  life,  and  the  shame 
of  his  death  ;  they  advance  his  enemies,  and 
refuse  to  advance  the  kingdom  of  their  Lord  ; 
they  put  themselves  in  that  state,  in  which 
they  were  when  Christ  came  to  die  for  them  ; 
and  now  that  he  is  in  a  state  that  he  may 
rejoice  over  them,  (for  he  hath  done  all  his 
share  towards  it,)  every  wicked  man  takes 
his  head  from  the  blessing,  and  rather  chooses 
that  the  devil  should  rejoice  in  his  destruc- 
B 


14 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


Serm.  II. 


tion,  than  that  his  Lord  should  triumph  in 
his  felicity.  And  now  upon  the  supposition 
of  these  premises  we  may  imagine,  that  it 
will  be  an  infinite  amazement  to  meet  the 
Lord  to  be  our  judge,  whose  person  we  have 
murdered,  whose  honour  we  have  dispa- 
raged, whose  purposes  we  have  destroyed, 
whose  joys  we  have  lessened,  whose  pas- 
sion we  have  made  ineffectual,  and  whose 
love  we  have  trampled  under  our  profane 
and  impious  feet. 

3.  But  there  is  yet  a  third  part  of  this 
consideration.    As  it  will  be  inquired  at  the 
day  of  judgment  concerning  the  dishonours 
to  the  person  of  Christ,  so  also  concerning 
the  profession  and  institution  of  Christ,  and 
concerning  his  poor  members ;  for  by  these 
also  we  make  sad  reflections  upon  our  Lord. 
Every  man  that  lives  wickedly,  disgraces 
the  religion  and  institution  of  Jesus,  he  dis- 
courages strangers  from  entering  into  it,  he 
weakens  the  hands  of  them  that  are  in  al- 
ready, and  makes  that  the  adversaries  speak 
reproachfully  of  the  name  of  Christ;  but  al- 
though it  is  certain  our  Lord  and  Judge  will 
deeply  resent  all  these  things,  yet  there  is 
one  thing  which  he  takes  more  tenderly,  and 
that  is,  the  uncharitableness  of  men  towards 
his  poor ;  it  shall  then  be  upbraided  to  them 
by  the  Judge,  that  himself  was  hungry,  and 
they  refused  to  give  meat  to  him  that  gave 
them  his  body  and  heart-blood   to  feed 
them  and  quench  their  thirst ;   that  they 
denied  a  robe  to  cover  his  nakedness,  and 
yet  he  would  have  clothed  their  souls  with 
the  robe  of  his  righteousness,  lest  their  souls 
should  be  found  naked  in  the  day  of  the 
Lord's  visitation ;  and  all  this  unkindness 
is  nothing  but  that  evil  men  were  unchari- 
table to  their  brethren,  they  would  not  feed 
the  hungry,  nor  give  drink  to  the  thirsty, 
nor  clothe  the  naked,  nor  relieve  their  bro- 
ther's needs,  nor  forgive  his  follies,  nor  . 
cover  their  shame,  nor  turn  their  eyes  from 
delighting  in  their  affronts  and  evil  acci- 
dents; this  is  it  which  our  Lord  will  take  so 
tenderly,  that  his  brethren,  for  whom  he  i 
died,  who  sucked  the  paps  of  his  mother, 
that  fed  on  his  body  and  are  nourished  with  i 
his  blood,  whom  he  hath  lodged  in  his  heart 
and  entertains  in  his  bosom,  the  partners  of  ] 
his  spirit  and  co-heirs  of  his  inheritance,  i 
that  these  should  bo  denied  relief  and  suffer-  I 
ed  to  go  away  ashamed  and  unpitied  ;  this  i 
our  blessed  Lord  will  take  so  ill,  that  all  < 
those  who  are  guilty  of  this  unkindness  ( 
have  no  reason  to  expect  the  favour  of  the  | 
court.  ; 


t  4.  To  this  if  we  add  the  almightiness  of 
i  the  Judge,  his  infinite  wisdom  and  know- 
t  ledge  of  all  causes  and  all  persons  and  all 
;  circumstances,  that  he  is  infinitely  just,  in- 
:  flexibly  angry,  and  impartial  in  his  sentence, 
there  can  be  nothing  added  either  to  the 
greatness  or  the  requisites  of  a  terrible  and 
an  almighty  Judge.  For  who  can  resist 
him  who  is  almighty  ?  Who  can  evade 
his  scrutiny  that  knows  all  things  ?  Who 
can  hope  for  pity  of  him  that  is  inflex- 
ible ?  Who  can  think  to  be  exempted  when 
the  Judge  is  righteous  and  impartial  ?  But 
in  all  these  annexes  of  the  great  Judge,  that 
which  I  shall  now  remark,  is  that  indeed 
which  hath  terror  in  it,  and  that  is  the  seve- 
rity of  our  Lord.  For  then  is  the  day  of  ven- 
geance and  recompenses,  and  no  mercy  at 
all  shall  be  showed  but  to  them  that  are  the 
sons  of  mercy  ;  for  the  other,  their  por- 
tion is  such  as  can  be  expected  from  these 
premises. 

1.  If  we  remember  the  instances  of  God's 
severity  in  this  life,  in  the  days  of  mercy  and 
repentance,  in  those  days  when  judgment 
waits  upon  mercy  and  receives  laws  by  the 
rules  and  measures  of  pardon,  and  that  for 
all  the  rare  streams  of  loving-kindness  is- 
suing out  of  paradise,  and  refreshing  all  our 
fields  with  a  moisture  more  fruitful  tnan  the 
floods  of  Nilus,  still  there  are  mingled  some 
storms  and  violences,  some  fearful  instances 
of  the  Divine  justice;  we  may  more  readily 
expect  it  will  be  worse,  infinitely  worse,  at 
that  day  when  judgment  shall  ride  in 
triumph,  and  mercy  shall  be  the  accuser  of 
the  wicked.  But  so  we  read  and  are  com- 
manded to  remember,  because  they  are 
written  for  our  example,  that  God  destroyed 
at  once  five  cities  of  the  plain  and  all  the 
country ;  and  Sodom  and  her  sisters  are  set 
forth  for  an  example  suffering  the  ven- 
geance of  eternal  fire.  Fearful  it  was  when 
God  destroyed  at  once  twenty-three  thou- 
sand for  fornication,  and  an  exterminating 
angel  in  one  night  killed  one-hundred  and 
eighty-five  thousand  of  the  Assyrians,  and 
the  first-born  of„all  the  families  of  Egypt, 
and  for  the  sin  of  David  in  numbering  the 
people,  threescore  and  ten  thousand  of  the 
people  died,  and  God  sent  ten  tribes  into 
captivity  and  eternal  oblivion  and  indis- 
tinction  from  a  common  people  for  their 
idolatry.  Did  not  God  strike  Corah  and  his 
company  with  fire  from  heaven  ?  and  the 
earth  opened  and  swallowed  up  the  congre- 
gation of  Abiram?  And  is  not  evil  come  upon 
all  the  world  for  one  sin  of  Adam  ?  Did  not 


Serm.  II.        CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


15 


the  anger  of  God  break  the  nation  of  the 
Jews  all  in  pieces  with  judgments  so  great, 
that  no  nation  ever  suffered  the  like,  be- 
cause none  ever  sinned  so  1  And  at  once 
it  was  done  that  God  in  anger  destroyed 
all  the  world,  and  eight  persons  only  es- 
caped the  angry  baptism  of  water,  and  yet 
this  world  is  the  time  of  mercy  :  God  hath 
opened  here  his  magazines,  and  sent  his  only 
Son  as  the  great  fountain  of  it  too  :  here  he 
delights  in  mercy,  and  in  judgment  loves 
to  remember  it,  and  it  triumphs  over  all  his 
works,  and  God  contrives  incidents  and  ac- 
cidents, chances  and  designs,  occasions  and 
opportunities,  for  mercy  :  if  therefore  now 
the  anger  of  God  make  such  terrible  erup- 
tions upon  the  wicked  people  that  delight 
in  sin,  how  great  may  we  suppose  that  an- 
ger to  be,  how  severe  that  judgment,  how 
terrible  that  vengeance,  how  intolerable 
those  inflictions,  which  God  reserves  for  the 
full  effusion  of  indignation  on  the  great  day 
of  vengeance  ! 

2.  We  may  also  guess  at  it  by  this ;  if 
God,  upon  all  single  instances,  and  in  the 
midst  of  our  sins,  before  they  are  come  to 
the  full,  and  sometimes  in  the  beginning  of 
an  evil  habit,  be  so  fierce  in  his  anger  ;  what 
can  we  imagine  it  to  be  in  that  day,  when 
the  wicked  are  to  drink  the  dregs  of  that  hor- 
rid potion,  and  count  over  all  the  particulars 
of  their  whole  treasure  of  wrath  ?  This  is  the 
day  of  wrath,  and  God  shall  reveal  or  bring 
forth  his  righteous  judgments."*  The  ex- 
pression is  taken  from  Deut.  xxxii.  34. 
(C  Is  not  this  laid  up  in  store  with  me,  and 
sealed  up  among  ray  treasures?  iv  qutpa 
ix8ixrtVcu>i  avraTtoSJdvu,  I  will  restore  it  in  the 
day  of  vengeance,  for  the  Lord  shall  judge 
his  people,  and  repent  himself  for  his  ser- 
vants." For  so  did  the  Libyan  lion  that 
was  brought  up  under  discipline,  and  taught 
to  endure  blows,  and  eat  the  meat  of  order 
and  regular  provision,  and  to  suffer  gentle 
usages  and  the  familiarities  of  societies  j  but 
once  he  brake  out  into  his  own  wildness, 
"  Dedidicit  pacem  subito  feritate  reversa," 
and  killed  two  Roman  boys  :  but  those  that 
forage  on  the  Libyan  mountains,  tread  down 
and  devour  all  that  they  meet  or  master ;  and 
when  they  have  fasted  two  days,  lay  up  an 
anger  great  as  is  their  appetite,  and  bring 
certain  death  to  all  that  can  be  overcome. 
God  is  pleased  to  compare  himself  to  a  lion; 
and  though  in  this  life  he  hath  confined 
himself  with  promises  and  gracious  emana- 
tions  of  an  infinite  goodness,  and  limits  him- 
*  Rom.  ii.  5. 


self  by  conditions  and  covenants,  and  suffers 
himself  to  be  overcome  by  prayers,  and  him- 
self hath  invented  ways  of  atonement  and 
expiation ;  yet  when  he  is  provoked  by  our 
unhandsome  and  unworthy  actions  he 
makes  sudden  breaches,  and  tears  some  of 
us  in  pieces ;  and  of  others  he  breaks  their 
bones  or  affrights  their  hopes  and  secular 
gaieties,  and  fills  their  house  with  mourning 
and  cypress  and  groans  and  death :  but 
when  this  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  shall 
appear  upon  his  own  mountain,  the  moun- 
tain of  the  Lord,  in  his  natural  dress  of 
majesty,  and  that  justice  shall  have  her 
chain  and  golden  fetters  taken  off,  then  jus- 
tice shall  strike,  and  mercy  shall  not  hold 
her  haads  ;  she  shall  strike  sore  strokes,  and 
pity  shall  not  break  the  blow  ;  and  God  shall 
account  with  us  by  minutes,  and  for  words, 
and  for  thoughts  :  and  then  he  shall  be  se- 
vere to  mark  what  is  done  amiss  ;  and  that 
justice  may  reign  entirely,  God  shall  open 
the  wicked  man's  treasure,  and  tell  the  sums 
and  weigh  grains  and  scruples :  rial  yap 
uityrtfp  ayadfajT;  ovrco  xaxuv  rtapa  Tfa  ^9 
Jtysavpoi.  iv  r(utpq  yap  (^^Ttv)  ixhixrteus 
iafpayirsOcu  tov$  fuiv  xaxuv  Orjiavoovs,  said 
Philo  upon  the  place  of  Deuteronomy  be- 
fore quoted :  as  there  are  treasures  of  gooc* 
things,  and  God  hath  crowns  and  scep- 
tres in  store  for  his  saints  and  servants, 
and  coronets  for  martyrs,  and  rosaries  for 
virgins,  and  phials  full  of  prayers,  and  bot- 
tles full  of  tears,  and  a  register  of  sighs 
j  and  penitential  groans  :  so  God  hath  a 
j  treasure  of  wrath  and  fury,  and  scourges 
and  scorpions,  and  then  shall  be  produced 
the  shame  of  lust,  and  the  malice  of  envy, 
j  and  the  groans  of  the  oppressed,  and  the  per- 
secutions of  the  saints,  and  the  cares  of  co- 
vetousness,  and  the  troubles  of  ambition, 
and  the  insolences  of  traitors,  and  the  vio- 
lences of  rebels,  and  the  rage  of  anger,  and 
the  uneasiness  of  impatience,  and  the  rest- 
lessness of  unlawful  desires;  and  by  this 
time  the  monsters  and  diseases  will  be  nu- 
merous and  intolerable,  when  God's  heavy 
hand  shall  press  the  sanies  and  the  intole- 
rableness,  and  the  obliquity,  and  the  unrea- 
sonableness, the  amazement  and  the  dis- 
order, the  smart  and  the  sorrow,  the  guilt 
and  the  punishment,  out  from  all  our  sins, 
and  pour  them  into  one  chalice,  and  mingle 
them  with  an  infinite  wrath,  and  make  the 
wicked  drink  off  all  the  vengeance,  and 
force  it  down  their  unwilling  throats  with 
the  violence  of  devils  and  accursed  spirits. 
3.  We  may  guess  at  the  severity  of  tb 


16  CHRIST'S  ADVEN 

Judge,  by  the  lesser  strokes  of  that  judg- 
ment, which  he  is  pleased  to  send  upon  sin- 
ners in  this  world  to  make  them  afraid  of 
the  horrible  pains  of  doomsday  :  I  mean  the 
torments  of  an  unquiet  conscience,  the 
amazement  and  confusions  of  some  sins 
and  some  persons.  For  I  have  sometimes 
seen  persons  surprised  in  a  base  action,  and 
taken  in  the  circumstances  of  crafty  theft 
and  secret  injustices,  before  their  excuse 
was  ready  ;  they  have  changed  their  colour, 
their  speech  hath  faltered,  their  tongue 
stammered,  their  eyes  did  wander  and  fix 
no  where,  till  shame  made  them  sink  into 
their  hollow  eye-pits,  to  retreat  from  the 
images  and  circumstances  of  discovery; 
their  wits  are  lost,  their  reason  useless,  the 
whole  order  of  the  soul  is  discomposed,  and 
they  neither  see,  nor  feel,  nor  think,  as  they 
used  to  do,  but  they  are  broken  into  disorder 
by  a  stroke  of  damnation,  and  a  lesser  stripe 
of  hell ;  but  then  if  you  come  to  observe  a 
guilty  and  a  base  murderer,  a  condemned 
traitor,  and  see  him  harassed,  first  by  an 
evil  conscience,  and  then  pulled  in  pieces 
Dy  the  hangman's  hooks,  or  broken  upon 
sorrows  and  the  wheel,  we  may  then  guess 
Us  weli  as  we  can  in  this  life)  what  the  pains 
of  tnat  day  shall  be  to  accursed  souls  :  but 
those  we  shall  consider  afterwards  in  their 
proper  scene;  now  only  we  are  to  estimate 
the  severity  of  our  Judge  by  the  intolerable- 
rteGs  of  an  evil  conscience :  if  guilt  will  make 
a  man  despair,  and  despair  will  make  a  man 
mad,  confounded  and  dissolved  in  all  the  re- 
gions of  his  senses  and  more  noble  faculties, 
that  he  shall  neither  feel,  nor,  hear,  nor  see, 
anything  but  spectres  and  illusions,  devils 
and  frightful  dreams,  and  hear  noises,  and 
shriek  fearfully,  and  look  pale  and  distracted, 
like  a  hopeless  man,  from  the  horrors  and 
confusions  of  a  lost  battle  upon  which  all 
his  hopes  did  stand ;  then  the  wicked  must 
at  the  day  of  judgment  expect  strange  things 
and  fearful,  and  such  which  now  no  lan- 
guage can  express,  and  then  no  patience 
can  endure. 

IIoMovs  6'  oSup/ttovj  xai  yoovj  avatyftel j 
3>dty%r].    Atoj  yap  fivffTtapatV^T'ot  $p£i>s$. 

Then  only  it  can  truly  be  said,  that  he  is  in- 
flexible and  inexorable.  No  prayers  then 
can  move  him,  no  groans  can  cause  him  to 
pity  thee;  therefore  pity  thyself  in  time, 
that  when  the  Judge  comes  thou  may  est  be 
one  of  the  sons  of  everlasting  mercy,  to 
whom  pity  belongs  as  part  of  thine  inheri- 
tance ;  for  all  these  shall  without  any  re- 


T  TO  JUDGMENT.        Serm.  II. 

morse  (except  his  own)  be  condemned  by 
the  horrible  sentence. 

4.  That  all  may  think  themselves  con- 
cerned in  this  consideration,  let  us  remem- 
ber that  even  the  righteous  and  most  inno- 
cent shall  pass  through  a  severe  trial.  Many 
of  the  ancients  explicated  this  severity  by 
the  fire  of  conflagration,  which  (say  they) 
shall  purify  those  souls  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, which  in  this  life  have  built  upon  the 
foundation  of  hay  and  stubble,  works  of  fol- 
ly and  false  opinions,  and  states  of  imperfec- 
tion. So  Saint  Austin's  doctrine  was,* 
"  Hoc  agit  caminus,  alios  in  sinistra  separa- 
bit,  alios  in  dextra  quodam  modo  eliquabit : 
The  great  fire  at  doomsday  shall  throw  some 
into  the  portion  of  the  left  hand,  and  others 
shall  be  purified  and  represented  on  the 
right;"  and  the  same  is  affirmed  by  Origen 
and  Lactantius;f  and  St.  Hilary  thus  expos- 
tulates, "Since  we  are  to  give  an  account 
for  every  idle  word,  shall  we  long  for  the 
day  of  judgment,''  "in  quo  est  nobis  inde- 
fessus  ille  ignis  obeundus  in  quo  subeunda 
sunt  gravia  ilia  expiandae  a  peccatis  anima 
supplicia:  wherein  we  must  every  one  ol 
us  pass  that  unwearied  fire,  in  which  those 
grievous  punishments  for  expiating  the  soul 
from  sins  must  be  endured ;  for  to  such  as 
have  been  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  it 
remaineth  that  they  be  consummated  with 
the  fire  of  judgment."  And  St.  Ambrose 
adds,  tnat  if  any  be  as  Peter  or  as  John,  they 
are  baptized  with  this  fire,  and  he  that  is 
purged  here,  hath  need  to  be  purged  there 
again  :  "Illic  quoque  nos  purificet,  quando 
dicat  dominus,  intrate  in  requiem  meam ; 
Let  him  also  purify  us,  that  every  one  of 
us  being  burned  with  that  flaming  sword, 
not  burned  up  or  consumed,  we  may  enter 
into  paradise,  and  give  thanks  unto  the 
Lord,  who  hath  brought  us  into  a  place  of 
refreshment.":}:  This  opinion  of  theirs  is  in 
the  main  of  it  very  uncertain,  relying  upon 
the  sense  of  some  obscure  places  of  scrip- 
ture, is  only  apt  to  represent  the  great  seve- 
rity of  the  Judge  at  that  day ;  and  it  hath  in 
it  this  only  certainty,  that  even  the  most  in- 
ijocent  person  hath  great  need  of  mercy,  and 
he  that  hath  the  greatest  cause  of  confidence, 
although  he  runs  to  no  rocks  to  hide  him, 
yet  he  runs  to  the  protection  of  the  cross, 
and  hides  himself  under  the  shadow  of  Di- 

*  In  Psalm  ciii. 

tin  Jerem.  horn.  13.  et  in  Luc.  horn.  14,  et 
Lactantius,  lib.  vii.  Instit.  c.  xxi.  Hilarius  in  PsaL 
cxviii,  octen.  2.  et  in  Matt.  can.  2. 
t  In  Psalm  cxviii.  serm.  3, 


SKUf.IL        CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


17 


vine  mercies;  and  he  that  shall  receive  the'  St.  Paul  ;*  therefore  nothing  shall  escape  for 
absolution  of  the  blessed  sentence,  shall  also  being  secret: 

suffer  the  terrors  of  the  day,  and  the  fear-         r'A7tav9'  o  /uaxpoj  xai  aiup,eurtto$  Xpwoj 
fill  circumstances  of  Christ's  coming.    The ;       $u$«  r  afyta,  

effect  of  this  consideration  is  this,  that  "  if.  And  all  prejudices  being  laid  aside,  it  shall 
the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall  I  be  considered  concerning  our  evil  rules,  and 
the  wicked  and  the  sinner  appear  ?"  "Quid  j  false  principles;  "cum  cepero  tempus,  ego 
faciet  virgula  deserti,  ubi  concutietur  cedrus  |  justitias  judicabo;  when  I  shall  receive  the 
paradisi  ?    Quid  faciet  agnus,  cum  tremit  i  people,  I  shall  judge  according  unto  right  ;"f 

so  we  read:  "when  we  shall  receive  time, 
I  will  judge  justices  and  judgments;"  so 


aries?  Si  co?lum  fugiat,  ubi  manebit  terra  ?" 
said  St.  Gregory.    And  if  St.  Paul,  whose 
conscience  accused  him  not,  yet  durst  not!  the  vulgar  Latin  reads  it:  that  is,  in  the  day 
be  too  confident  because  he  was  not  hereby  of  the  Lord,  when  time  is  put  into  his  hand 


justified,  but  might  be  found  faulty  by  the 
severer  judgment  of  his  Lord  ;  how  shall  we 
appear  with  all  our  crimes  and  evil  habits 


and  time  shall  be  no  more,  he  shall  judge 
concerning  those  judgments  which  men  here 
make  of  things  below ;  and  the  lighting 


round  about  us  ?  If  there  be  need  of  much  men  shall  perceive  the  noise  of  drunkards 
mercy  to  the  friends  of  the  Judge,  then  his  and  fools  that  cried  him  up  for  daring  to  kill 
enemies  shall  not  be  able  to  stand  upright  in  his  brother,  to  have  been  evil  principles: 
judgment.  i  and  then  it  will  be  declared  by  strange  ef- 
5.  But  the  matter  is  still  of  more  concern- 1  fects,  that  wealth  is  not  the  greatest  fortune ; 
ment.  The  Pharisees  believed  that  they  |  and  ambition  was  but  an  ill  counsellor;  and 
were  innocent,  if  they  abstained  from  crimi-i  to  lie  for  a  good  cause  was  no  piety  ;  and  to 
nal  actions,  such  as  were  punishable  by  the  do  evil  for  the  glory  of  God  was  but  an  ill 
judge ;  and  many  Christians  think  all  is  well  worshipping  him ;  and  that  good-nature  was 
with  them,  if  they  abstain  from  such  sins  as 1  not  well  employed,  when  it  spent  itself  in 
have  a  name  in  the  tables  of  their  laws;  but  vicious  company  and  evil  compliances;  and 
because  some  sins  are  secret  and  not  discern i-l  that  piety  was  not  softness  and  want  of 
ble  to  man,  others  are  public  but  not  punish- ,  courage  ;  and  that  poverty  ought  not  to  have 
ed,  because  they  are  frequent  and  perpetual,  been  contemptible;  and  the  cause  that  is 
and  without  external  mischiefs  in  some  in- !  unsuccessful,  is  not  therefore  evil :  and  what 
stances,  and  only  provocations  against  God ; ;  is  folly  here  shall  be  wisdom  there;  then  shall 
men  think  that  in  their  concernments  they  men  curse  their  evil  guides,  and  their  ac- 
have  no  place  :  and  such,  are  jeering,  and  cursed  superinduced  necessities  and  the  evil 
many  instances  of  wantonness  and  revel- '  guises  of  the  world  ;  and  then  when  silence 
ling,  doing  petty  spites,  and  rudeness,  and  shall  be  found  innocence,  and  eloquence  in 
churlishness,  lying  and  pride:  and  beyond .  many  instances  condemned  as  criminal; 
this,  some  are  very  like  virtues ;  as  too  much ;  when  the  poor  shall  reign,  and  generals  and 
gentleness  and  slackness  in  government,  or' tyrants  shall  lie  low  in  horrible  regions; 
too  great  severity  and  rigour  of  animadver- 1  when  he  that  lost  all  shall  find  a  trea- 
sion,  bitterness  in  reproof  of  sinners,  uncivil  sure,  and  he  that  spoiled  him  shall  be 
circumstances,  imprudent  handlings  of  some,  found  naked  and  spoiled  by  the  destroyer; 
criminals,  and  zeal;  nay,  there  are  some  then  we  shall  find  it  true,  that  we  ought 
vile  things,  which,  through  the  evil  dis- j  here  to  have  done  what  our  Judge,  our 
coursings  and  worse  manners  of  men,  are  blessed  Lord,  shall  do  there,  that  is,  take  our 
passed  into  an  artificial  and  false  reputation, .  measures  of  good  and  evil  by  the  severities 
and  men  are  accounted  wits  for  talking  athe-' of  the  word  of  God,  by  the  sermons  of 
istically,  and  valiant  for  being  murderers,  Christ  and  the  four  gospels,  and  by  the 
and  wise  for  deceiving  and  circumventing  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  by  justice  and  charity, 
our  brothers;  and  many  irregularities  more, ,  by  the  laws  of  God  and  the  laws  of  wise 
for  all  which  we  are  safe  enough  here.  But,  princes  and  republics,  by  the  rules  of  nature 
when  the  day  of  judgment  comes,  these,  and  the  just  proportions  of  reason,  by  the 
thall  be  called  to  a  severe  account,  for  the  examples  of  good  men  and  the  proverbs  of 
Judge  is  omniscient  and  knows  all  things,]  wise  men,  by  severity  and  the  rules  of  dis- 
and  his  tribunal  takes  cognizance  of  all  cipline :  for  then  it  shall  be  that  truth  shall 
causes,  and  hath  a  coercive  for  all.  "  all !   ,  , 


things  are  naked  and  open  to  his  eyes,"  saith 


Heb.  lv.  13. 


t  Psalm  Ixxiv 
B  2 


18 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


Serm.  II. 


ride  in  triumph,  and  the  holiness  of  Christ's  I 
sermons  shall  be  manifest  to  all  the  world  :  ! 
that  the  word  of  God  shall  be  advanced  over 
all  the  discourses  of  men,  and  "  wisdom 
shall  be  justified  by  all  her  children."  Then 
shall  be  heard  those  words  of  an  evil  and 
tardy  repentance,  and  the  just  rewards  of 
folly,  "We  fools  thought  their  life  mad- 
ness but  behold,  they  are  justified  before 
the  throne  of  God,  and  we  are  miserable 
forever.  Here  men  think  it  strange  if  others 
will  not  run  into  the  same  excess  of  riot ; 
but  there  they  will  wonder  how  themselves 
should  be  so  mad  and  infinitely  unsafe,  by 
being  strangely  and  inexcusably  unreason- 
able. The  sum  is  this,  the  Judge  shall  ap- 
pear clothed  with  wisdom,  and  power,  and 
justice,  and  knowledge,  and  an  impartial 
spirit,  making  no  separations  by  the  propor- 
tions of  this  world,  but  by  the  measures  of 
God ;  not  giving  sentence  by  the  principles 
of  our  folly  and  evil  customs,  but  by  the 
severity  of  his  own  laws  and  measures  of 
the  Spirit.  "Non  est  judicium  Dei ;  homi- 
num;  God  does  not  judge  as  man  judges." 

6.  Now  that  the  Judge  is  come  thus  ar- 
rayed, thus  prepared,  so  instructed,  let  us 
next  consider  the  circumstances  of  our  ap- 
pearing and  his  sentence;  and  first  consider, 
that  men  at  the  day  of  judgment,  that  belong 
not  to  the  portion  of  life,  shall  have  three 
sorts  of  accusers.  1.  Christ  himself,  who 
is  their  judge.  2.  Their  own  consciences, 
whom  they  have  injured  and  blotted  with 
characters  of  death  and  foul  dishonour.  3- 
The  devil,  their  enemy,  whom  they  served. 

1.  Christ  shall  be  their  accuser,  not  only 
upon  the  stock  of  those  direct  injuries  j 
(which  I  before  reckoned)  of  crucifying  the  ' 
Lord  of  life,  once  and  again,  &,c,  but  upon  j 
the  titles  of  contempt  and  unworthiness,  of 
unkindness  and  ingratitude;  and  the  accu- 
sation will  be  nothing  else  but  a  plain  repre- 
sentation of  those  artifices  and  assistances, 
those  bonds  and  invitations,  those  constrain- 
ings  and  importunities,  which  our  dear 
Lord  used  to  us,  to  make  it  almost  impossi- 
ble to  lie  in  sin,  and  necessary  to  be  saved. 
For  it  will,  it  must  needs  be  a  fearful  expro- 
bration  of  our  unworthiness,  when  the  Judge 
himself  shall  bear  witness  against  us,  that 
the  wisdom  of  God  himself  was  strangely 
employed  in  bringing  us  safely  to  felicity. 
I  shall  draw  a  short  scheme,  which,  al- 
though it  must  needs  be  infinitely  short  of 
what  God  hath  done  for  us,  yet  it  will  be 
enough  io  shame  us.    1.  Gcd  did  not  only 


give  his  Son  for  an  example,  and  the  Son 
gave  himself  for  a  price  for  us,  but  both 
gave  the  Holy  Spirit  to  assist  us  in  mighty 
graces,  for  the  verifications  of  faith,  and  the 
entertainments  of  hope,  and  the  increase 
and  perseverance  of  charity.  2.  God  gave 
to  us  a  new  nature,  he  put  another  principle 
into  us,  a  third  part,  a  perfective  constitution: 
we  have  the  Spirit  put  into  us  to  be  a  part 
of  us,  as  properly  to  produce  actions  of  holy 
life,  as  the  soul  of  man  in  the  body  does 
produce  the  -natural.  3.  God  hath  exalted 
human  nature,  and  made  it  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  sit  above  the  highest  seat  of 
angels,  and  the  angels  are  made  ministering 
spirits,  ever  since  their  Lord  became  our 
brother.  4.  Christ  hath  by  a  miraculous 
sacrament  given  us  his  body  to  eat,  and  his 
blood  to  drink ;  he  made  ways  that  we  may 
become  all  one  with  him.  5.  He  hath  given 
us  an  easy  religion,  and  hath  established 
our  future  felicity  upon  natural  and  pleasant 
conditions,  and  we  are  to  be  happy  hereafter 
if  we  suffer  God  to  make  us  happy  here; 
and  things  are  so  ordered,  that  a  man  must 
take  more  pains  to  perish  than  to  be  happy. 

6.  God  hath  found  out  rare  ways  to  make 
our  prayers  acceptable,  our  weak  petitions, 
the  desires  of  our  imperfect  souls,  to  prevail 
mightily  with  God;  and  to  lay  a  holy  vio- 
lence, and  an  undeniable  necessity  upon 
himself:  and  God  will  deny  us  nothing  but 
when  we  ask  of  him  to  do  us  ill  offices,  to 
give  us  poisons  and  dangers,  and  evil 
nourishment,  and  temptations ;  and  he  that 
hath  given  such  mighty  power  to  the  pray- 
ers of  his  servants,  yet  will  not  be  moved 
by  those  potent  and  mighty  prayers  to  do 
any  good  man  an  evil  turn,  or  to  grant  him 
one  mischief;  in  that  only  God  can  deny  us. 

7.  But  in  all  things  else,  God  hath  made  all 
the  excellent  things  in  heaven  and  earth  to 
join  towards  holy  and  fortunate  effects ;  for 
he  hath  appointed  an  angel  to  present  the 
prayers  of  saints,  *  and  Christ  makes  inter- 
cession for  us,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  makes 
intercession  for  us  with  groans  unutterable  ;f 
and  all  the  holy  men  in  the  world  pray  for 
all  and  for  every  one;  and  God  hath  in- 
structed us  with  scriptures  and  precedents, 
and  collateral  and  direct  assistances  to  pray; 
and  he  encourages  us  with  divers  excellent 
promises,  and  parables,  and  examples,  and 
teaches  us  what  to  pray  and  how,  and  gives 
one  promise  to  public  prayer,  and  another 

*  Rev.  viii.  3.   t  Rom  vii.  26. 


Serm.  II. 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


19 


to  private  prayer,  and  to  both  the  blessing  of  expressed  the  sense  of  this  inducement; 
being  heard.  'and  that  this  argument  would  have  grown 

8.  Add  to  this  account,  that  God  did  heap  1  so  great  by  that  time  we  come  to  die 
blessings  upon  us  without  order,  infinitely, '  that  the  certain  pleasures,  and  rare  con- 
perpetually,  and  in  all  instances,  when  we  fidences,  and  holy  hopes,  of  a  death-bed, 
needed  and  when  we  needed  not.  9.  He  heard  would  be  a  strange  felicity  to  the  man,  when 
us  when  we  prayed,  giving  us  all  and  giving  he  remembers  he  did  obey,  if  they  were  com- 
us  more  than  we  desired.  10.  He  desired  pared  to  the  fearful  expectations  of  a  dying 
that  we  should  ask,  and  yet  he  hath  also  pre-  sinner,  who  feels,  by  a  formidable  and 
vented  our  desire.  11.  He  watched  for  us,  affrighting  remembrance,  that  of  all  his 
and,  at  his  own  charge,  sent  a  whole  order  sins,  nothing  remains  but  the  gains  of  a  mis- 
of  men,  whose  employment  is  to  minister  to  erable  eternity.  The  offering  ourselves  to 
our  souls:  and,  if  all  this  had  not  been  enough,  God  every  morning,  and  the  thanksgiving  to 
he  had  given  us  more  also.  12.  He  promised  God  every  night,  hope  and  fear,  shame  and 
heaven  to  our  obedience,  a  province  for  a  dish  desire,  the  honour  of  leaving  a  fair  name 


of  water,  a  kingdom  for  a  prayer,  satisfac- 
tion for  desiring  it,  grace  for  receiving,  and 
more  grace  for  accepting  and  using  the  first. 
13.  He  invited  us  with  gracious  words  and 
perfect  entertainments.  14.  He  threatened 
horrible  things  to  us,  if  we  would  not  be 
happy.    15.  He  hath  made  strange  necessi- 


behind  us,  and  the  shame  of  dying  like  a 
fool,  every  thing  indeed  in  the  world,  is  made 
to  be  an  argument  and  inducement  to  us  to 
invite  us  to  come  to  God  and  be  saved ;  and 
therefore  when  this  and  infinitely  more  shall, 
by  the  Judge,  be  exhibited  in  sad  remem- 
brances, there  needs  no  other  sentence  ;  we 


ties  for  us,  making  our  very  repentance  to  be  shall  condemn  ourselves  with  a  hasty  shame, 

and  a  fearful  confusion,  to  see  how  good 
God  hath  been  to  us,  and  how  base  we  have 
taken  away  all  excuses  from  us,  he  hath  been  to  ourselves.  Thus  Moses  is  said  to 
called  us  off  from  temptation,  he  bears  our  accuse  the  Jews  ;  and  thus  also  he  that  does 


a  conjugation  of  holy  actions,  and  holy 
times,  and  a  lonsr  succession.    16.  He  hath 


charges,  he  is  always  beforehand  with  us  in 
every  act  of  favour,  and  perpetually  slow  in 
striking ;  and  his  arrows  are  unfeathered,  and 
he  is  so  long,  first  in  drawing  his  sword,  and 
another  long  while  in  whetting  it,  and  yet 
longer  in  lifting  his  hand  to  strike,  that,  be- 
fore the  blow  comes,  the  man  hath  repented 
long,  unless  he  is  a  fool  and  impudent :  and 
then  God  is  so  glad  of  an  excuse  to  lay  his 
anger  aside,  that  certainly  if,  after  all  this, 
we  refuse  life  and  glorv.  there  is  no  more 


accuse,  is  said  to  condemn ;  as  Yerres  was 
by  Cicero,  and  Claudia  by  Domitius,  her 
accuser  ;  and  the  world  of  impenitent  per- 
sons by  the  men  of  Nineveh,  and  all  by 
Christ,  their  judge.  I  represent  the  horror 
of  this  circumstance  to  consist  in  this  :  be- 
sides the  reasonableness  of  the  judgment  and 
the  certainty  of  the  condemnation,  it  cannot 
but  be  an  argument  of  an  intolerable  despair 
to  perishing  souls,  when  he  that  was  our  ad- 
vocate all  our  life,  shall,  in  the  dav  of  that 


to  be  said  ;  the  plain  story  will  condemn  us  :  appearing,  be  our  accuser  and  our  judge,  a 
but  the  story  is  very  much  longer.  And  as  party  against  us,  an  injured  person,  in  the 
our  conscience  will  represent  all  our  sins  to  'day  of  his  power  and  of  his  wrath,  doing 
us,  so  the  Judge  will  represent  all  his  Father's  execution  upon  all  his  own  foolish  and  ma- 
kindnesses,  as  Nathan  did  to  David,  when  ;licious  enemies. 

2.  Our  conscience  shall  be  our  accuser : 
but  this  signifies  but  these  two  things ; 
1.  That  we  shall  be  condemned  for  the  evils 
that  we  have  done,  and  shall  then  remem- 
ber; God,  by  his  power,  wiping  away  the 
dust  from  the  tables  of  our  memory,  and 
taking  off  the  consideration  and  the  volun- 


he  was  to  make  the  justice  of  the  Divine 
sentence  appear  against  him.  17.  Then  it 
shall  be  remembered,  that  the  joys  of  every 
day's  piety  would  have  been  a  greater  plea- 
sure every  night,  than  the  remembrance  of 
every  night's  sin  could  have  been  in  the 
morning:  18.  That  every  night,  the  trouble 
and  labour  of  the  day's  virtue  would  havejtary  neglect  and  rude  shufflings  of  our  cases 
as  much  passed,  and  turned  to  as  very  a  of  conscience.  For  then  we  shall  see  things 
nothing,  as  the  pleasure  of  the  day's  sin  ;  but !  as  they  are,  the  evil  circumstances  and  the 
that  they  would  be  infinitely  distinguished  crooked  intentions,  the  adherent  unhand- 
by  the  remanent  effects.  vAv  ft  rtpaZys  xax6i>  someness,  and  the  direct  crimes;  for  all 
into.  Ttovov,  6  fifv  foro?  olxttou,  to  5f  xaXov  ^£vn' '  things  are  laid  up  safely:  and  though  we 
am  rt  Ttaujoys  aiaxpov  fist  a  fiovrjs,  to  ptv  r;8v  draw  a  curtain  of  a  cobweb  over  them,  and 
age*  at,  to  Se  aiixpbv  fuvet ;  so  Musonius  sew  fig-leaves  before  our  shame,  vet  God 


20 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT.         Serm.  II. 


shall  draw  away  the  curtain,  and  forgetf ill- 
ness shall  be  no  more;  because  with  a  taper 
in  the  hand  of  God,  all  the  corners  of  our 
nastiness  shall  be  discovered.  And,  2.  It 
signifies  this  also  ;  that  not  only  the  justice 
of  God  shall  be  confessed  by  us  in  our  own 
shame  and  condemnation,  but  the  evil  of 
the  sentence  shall  be  received  into  us,  to 
melt  our  bowels  and  to  break  our  hearts  in 
pieces  within  us,  because  we  are  the  authors 
of  our  own  death,  and  our  inhuman  hands 
have  torn  our  souls  in  pieces.  Thus  far  the 
horrors  are  great,  and  when  evil  men  con- 
sider it,  it  is  certain  they  must  be  afraid  to 
die.  Even  they  that  have  lived  well,  have 
some  sad  considerations,  and  the  trembling 
of  humility,  and  suspicion  of  themselves.  I 
remember  St.  Cyprian  tells  of  a  good  man 
who,  in  his  agony  of  death,  saw  a  phantasm 
of  a  noble  angelical  shape,  who,  frowning 
and  angry,  said  to  him,  '.*  Pati  timetis,  exire 
non  vultis  :  quid  faciam  vobis  ?  Ye  cannot 
endure  sickness,  ye  are  troubled  at  the  evils 
of  the  world,  and  yet  you  are  loth  to  die  and 
be  quit  of  them :  what  shall  I  do  to  you  V9 
although  this  is  apt  to  represent  every  man's 
condition  more  or  less,  yet  concerning  per- 
sons of  wicked  lives,  it  hath  in  it  too  many 
sad  degrees  of  truth  ;  they  are  impatient  of 
sorrow,  and  justly  fearful  of  death,  because 
they  know  not  how  to  comfort  themselves  in 
the  evil  accidents  of  their  lives  j  and  their 
conscience  is  too  polluted  to  take  death  for 
sanctuary,  to  hope  to  have  amends  made  to 
their  condition  by  the  sentence  of  the  day  of 
judgment.  Evil  and  sad  is  their  condition, 
who  cannot  be  contented  here,  nor  blessed 
hereafter;  whose  life  is  their  misery,  and 
their  conscience  is  their  enemy,  whose  grave 
is  their  prison,  and  death  their  undoing,  and 
the  sentence  of  doomsday  the  beginning  of 
an  intolerable  condition. 

3.  The  third  sort  of  accusers  are  the  devils  ; 
and  they  will  do  it  with  malicious  and  evil 
purposes ;  the  prince  of  the  devils  hath 
Ata3oXoj  for  one  of  his  chiefest  appellatives; 
k<  the  accuser  of  the  brethren"  he  is,  by  his 
professed  malice  and  employment:  and 
therefore  God,  who  delights  that  his  mercy 
should  triumph,  and  his  goodness  prevail 
over  all  the  malice  of  men  and  devils,  hath 
appointed  one  whose  office  is  hiy%tw  tw 
avtiTJyovta  to  reprove  the  accuser,  and  to 
resist  the  enemy,  to  be  a  defender  of  their 
cause  who  belong  to  God.  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  IIttf;ax^ro5,  a  defender ;  the  evil  spirit  is 
4jaj3tif%9f,  the  accuser ;  and  they  that  in  this 
life  belong  to  one  or  the  other,  shall,  in  the 


same  proportion,  be  treated  at  the  day  oi 
judgment.  The  devil  shall  accuse  the  breth- 
ren, that  is,  the  saints  and  servants  of  God, 
and  shall  tell  concerning  their  follies  and  in- 
firmities, the  sins  of  their  youth,  and  the 
weakness  of  their  age,  the  imperfect  grace 
and  the  long  schedule  of  omissions  of  duty, 
their  scruples  and  their  fears,  their  diffi- 
dences and  pusillanimity,  and  all  those 
things  which  themselves,  by  strict  examina- 
tion, find  themselves  guilty  of  and  have  con- 
fessed, all  their  shame  and  the  matter  of 
their  sorrows,  their  evil  intentions  and  their 
little  plots,  their  carnal  confidences  and  too 
fond  adherencies  to  the  things  of  this  world, 
their  indulgence  and  easiness  of  government, 
their  wild  joys  and  freer  meals,  their  loss  of 
time,  and  their  too  forward  and  apt  compli- 
ances, their  trifling  arrests  and  little  peevish- 
nesses, the  mixtures  of  the  world  with  the 
things  of  the  Spirit,  and  all  the  incidences  of 
humanity,  he  will  bring  forth  and  aggravate 
them  by  the  circumstance  of  ingratitude,  and 
the  breach  of  promise,  and  the  evacuating  of 
their  holy  purposes,  and  breaking  their  reso- 
lution s,  and  rifling  their  vows  ;  and  all  these 
tnings  being  drawn  into  an  entire  represent- 
ment,  and  the  bills  clogged  by  numbers,  will 
make  the  best  men  in  the  world  seem  foul 
and  unhandsome,  and  stained  with  the 
characters  of  death  and  evil  dishonour.  But 
for  these  there  is  appointed  a  defender ;  the 
Holy  Spirit  that  maketh  intercession  for  us, 
shall  then  also  interpose,  and  against  all 
these  things  shall  oppose  the  passion  of  our 
blessed  Lord,  and  upon  all  their  defects  shall 
cast  the  robe  of  his  righteousness  ;  and  the 
sins  of  their  youth  shall  not  prevail  so  much 
as  the  repentance  of  their  age ;  and  their 
omissions  be  excused  by  probable  intervening 
causes,  and  their  little  escapes  shall  appear 
single  and  in  disunion,  because  they  were 
always  kept  asunder  by  penitential  prayers 
and  sighings,  and  their  seldom  returns  of 
sin  by  their  daily  watchfulness,  and  their 
often  infirmities  by  the  sincerity  of  their 
souls,  and  their  scruples  by  their  zeal,  and 
their  passions  by  their  love,  and  all  by  the 
mercies  of  God  and  the  sacrifice  which  their 
Judge  offered,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  made 
effective  by  daily  graces  and  assistances. — 
These,  therefore,  infallibly  go  to  the  portion 
of  the  right  hand,  because  the  Lord  our 
God  shall  answer  for  them.  "  But  as  for 
the  wicked,  it  is  not  so  with  them for  al- 
though the  plain  story  of  their  life  be  to 
them  a  sad  condemnation,  yet  what  will  be 
answered  when  it  shall  be  told  concerning 


Serm.  III.        CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


21 


ihem,  that  they  despised  God's  mercies,  and 
feared  not  his  angry  judgments ;  that  they 
regarded  not  his  word,  and  loved  not  his  ex- 
cellencies ;  that  they  were  not  persuaded  by 
his  promises,  nor  affrighted  by  his  threaten- 
ings;  that  they  neither  would  accept  his 
government  nor  his  blessings ;  that  all  the 
sad  stories  that  ever  happened  in  both  the 
worlds  (in  all  which  himself  did  escape  till 
the  day  of  his  death,  and  was  not  concerned 
in  them,  save  only  that  he  was  called  upon 
by  every  one  of  them,  which  he  ever  heard, 
or  saw,  or  was  told  of,  to  repentance,  that 
all  these)  were  sent  to  him  in  vain  ?  But 
cannot  the  accuser  truly  say  to  the  Judge 
concerning  such  persons,  "  They  were  thine 
by  creation,  but  mine  by  their  own  choice ; 
thou  didst  redeem  them  indeed,  but  they  sold 
themselves  to  me  for  a  trifle,  or  for  an  un- 
satisfying interest :  thou  diedst  for  them,  but 
they  obeyed  my  commandments  :  I  gave 
them  nothing,  I  promised  them  nothing  but 
the  filthy  pleasure  of  a  night,  or  the  joys  of 
madness,  or  the  delights  of  a  disease:  I 
never  hanged  upon  the  cross  three  long  hours 
for  them,  nor  endured  the  labours  of  a  poor 
life  thirty-three  years  together  for  their  in- 
terest :  only  when  they  were  thine  by  the 
merit  of  thy  death,  they  quickly  became  mine 
by  the  demerit  of  their  ingratitude:  and 
when  thou  hadst  clothed  their  soul  with  thy 
robe,  and  adorned  them  by  thy  graces,  we 
stripped  them  naked  as  their  shame,  and 
only  put  on  a  robe  of  darkness,  and  they 
thought  themselves  secure,  and  went  dancing 
to  their  grave,  like  a  drunkard  to  a  fight,  or  a 
fly  unto  a  candle ;  and,  therefore,  they  that 
did  partake  with  us  in  our  faults,  must  di- 
vide with  us  in  our  portion  and  fearful  inter- 
est?"   This  is  a  sad  story,  because  it  ends 
in  death,  and  there  is  nothing  to  abate  or 
lessen  the  calamity.    It  concerns  us,  there- 
fore,  to   consider   in   time,  that  he  that 
tempts  us  will  accuse  us,  and  what  he  calls 
pleasant  now,  he  shall  then  say  was  nothing, 
and  all  the  gains  that  now  invite  earthly 
souls  and  mean  persons  to  vanity,  were 
nothing  but  the  seeds  of  folly,  and  the  harvest 
is  pain,  and  sorrow,  and  shame  eternal.  But 
then,  since  this  horror  proceeds  upon  the 
account  of  so  many  accusers,  God  hath  put 
it  into  our  power,  by  a  timely  accusation  of 
ourselves  in  the  tribunal  of  the  court  Chris- 
tian, to  prevent  all  the  arts  of  aggravation, 
which,  at  doomsday,  shall  load  foolish  and 
undiscerning  souls.    He  that  accuses  him- 
self of  his  crimes  here,  means  to  forsake 
them,  and  looks  upon  them  on  all  sides,  and 


spies  out  his  deformity,  and  is  taught  to  hate 
them;  he  is  instructed  and  prayed  for,  he 
prevents  the  anger  of  God,  and  defeats  the 
devil's  malice ;  and  by  making  shame  the 
instrument  of  repentance,  he  takes  away  the 
sting,  and  makes  that  to  be  his  medicine, 
which  otherwise  would  be  his  death.  And 
concerning  this  exercise,  I  shall  only  add 
what  the  patriarch  of  Alexandria  told  an  old 
religious  person  in  his  hermitage.  Having 
asked  him  what  he  found  in  that  desert,  he 
was  answered  only  this,  "Indesinenter  cul- 
pare  et  judicare  meipsum  ; — To  judge  and 
condemn  myself  perpetually,  that  is  the  em- 
ployment of  my  solitude." — The  patriarch 
answered,  "  Non  est  alia  via;  There  is  no 
other  way." — by  accusing  ourselves  we 
shall  make  the  devil's  malice  useless,  and 
our  own  consciences  clear,  and  be  reconciled 
to  the  Judge  by  the  severities  of  an  early  re- 
pentance, and  then  we  need  to  fear  no  ac- 
cusers. 


sermon  nr. 

PART    III  . 

3.  It  remains  that  we  consider  the  sen- 
tence itself,  "We  must  receive  according  to 
what  we  have  done  in  the  body,  whether  it 
be  good  or  bad."  "Judicature  Domino 
lugubre  mundus  immugiet,  et  tribus  ad  tri- 
bumpectoraferient.  Potentissimi  quondam 
reges  nudo  latere  palpitabunt :"  so  St.  Je- 
rome meditates  concerning  the  terror  of  this 
consideration;  "The  whole  world  shall 
groan  when  the  judge  comes  to  give  his  sen- 
tence, tribe  and  tribe  shall  knock  their  sides 
together ;  and  through  the  naked  breasts  of 
the  most  mighty  kings,  you  shall  see  their 
hearts  beat  with  fearful  tremblings."  "  Tunc 
Arestotelis  argumenta  parumproderunt,  cum 
venerit  Alius  paupercuke  quaestuarice  judi- 
care orbem  terra;."  Nothing  shall  then  be 
worth  owning,  or  the  means  of  obtaining 
mercy,  but  a  holy  conscience ;  "  all  the  hu- 
man craft  and  trifling  subtilties  shall  be  use- 
less when  the  son  of  a  poor  maid  shall  sit 
Judge  over  all  the  world."  When  the  pro- 
phet Joel  was  describing  the  formidable  ac- 
cidents in  the  day  of  the  Lord's  judgment, 
and  the  fearful  sentence  of  an  angry  Judge, 
he  was  not  able  to  express  it,  but  stammered 
like  a  child,  or  an  amazed,  imperfect  person, 


22 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT.      Serm.  III. 


"A.  A.  A.  diei,  quia  prope  est  dies  Domini."* 
It  is  not  sense  at  first ;  he  was  so  amazed  he 
knew  not  what  to  say  j  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
'.vas  pleased  to  let  that  sign  remain,  like 
Agamemnon's  sorrow  for  the  death  of  Iphi- 
genia,  nothing  could  describe  it  but  a  veil ; 
it  must  be  hidden  and  supposed;  and  the 
stammering  tongue,  that  is  full  of  fear,  can 
best  speak  that  terror,  which  will  make  all 
the  world  to  cry,  and  shriek,  and  speak  fear- 
ful accents,  and  significations  of  an  infinite 
sorrow  and  amazement. 

But  so  it  is,  there  are  two  great  days,  in 
which  the  fate  of  all  the  world  is  transacted. 
This  life  is  man's  day,  in  which  man  does 
what  he  pleases,  and  God  holds  his  peace. 
Man  destroys  his  brother,  and  destroys  him- 
self, and  confounds  governments,  and  raises 
armies,  and  attempts  to  sin,  and  delights  in 
it,  and  drinks  drunk,  and  forgets  his  sorrow, 
and  heaps  up  great  estates,  and  raises  a 
family,  and  a  name  in  the  annals,  and  makes 
others  fear  him,  and  introduces  new  religions, 
and  confounds  the  old,  and  changeth  articles 
as  his  interest  requires,  and  all  this  while 
God  is  silent,  save  that  he  is  loud  and  clam- 
orous with  his  holy  precepts,  and  over-rules 
the  event ;  but  leaves  the  desires  of  men  to 
their  own  choice,  and  their  course  of  life  such 
as  they  generally  choose.  But  then  God 
shall  have  his  day  too ;  the  day  of  the  Lord 
shall  come,  in  which  he  shall  speak,  and  no 
man  shall  answer;  he  shall  speak  in  the 
voice  of  thunder  and  fearful  noises,  and  man 
shall  do  no  more  as  he  please,  but  must  suffer 
as  he  hath  deserved.  When  Zedekiah  reigned 
in  Jerusalem,  and  persecuted  the  prophets, 
and  destroyed  the  interests  of  religion,  and 
put  Jeremy  into  the  dungeon,  God  held  his 
peace,  save  only  that  he  warned  him  of  the 
danger,  and  told  him  of  the  disorder;  but  it 
was  Zedekiah's  day,  and  he  was  permitted 
to  his  pleasure;  but  when  he  was  led  in 
chains  to  Babylon,  and  his  eyes  were  put 
out  with  burning  basins  and  horrible  circles 
of  reflected  fires,  then  was  God's  day,  and 
his  voice  was  the  accent  of  a  fearful  anger, 
that  broke  him  all  in  pieces.  It  will  be  all 
our  cases,  unless  we  hear  God  speak  now, 
and  do  his  work,  and  serve  his  interest,  and 
bear  ourselves  in  our  just  proportions,  that 
is,  as  such,  the  very  end  of  whose  being  and 
all  our  faculties  is,  to  serve  God,  and  do 
justice  and  charities  to  our  brother.  For  if 
we  do  the  work  of  God  in  our  own  day,  we 
shall  receive  an  infinite  mercy  in  the  day  of 

*Joel  i. 


the  Lord.  But  what  that  is,  is  now  to  be 
inquired. 

"What  we  have  done  in  the  body."  But 
certainly  this  is  the  greatest  terror  of  all.  The 
thunders  and  the  fires,  the  earthquakes  and 
the  trumpets,  the  brightness  of  holy  angels, 
and  the  horror  of  accursed  spirits,  the  voice 
of  the  archangel  (who  is  the  prince  of  the 
heavenly  host)  and  the  majesty  of  the  Judge, 
in  whose  service  all  that  army  stands  girt 
with  holiness  and  obedience,  all  those  strange 
circumstances  which  have  been  already 
reckoned,  and  all  those  others  which  we 
cannot  understand,  are  but  little  preparatories 
and  umbrages  of  this  fearful  circumstance. 
All  this  amazing  majesty  and  formidable  pre- 
paratories, are  for  the  passing  of  an  eternal 
sentence  upon  us,  according  to  what  we 
have  done  in  the  body.  Woe  and  alas  ?  and 
God  help  us.  All  mankind  is  an  enemy  to 
God,  his  nature  is  accursed,  and  his  manners 
are  depraved.  It  is  with  the  nature  of  man, 
and  with  all  his  manners,  as  Philemon  said 
of  the  nature  of  foxes  : 


H  6'  av9£xa6-to$.  a"K%  eav  rpictytvpiaj 
Akcortfjcaj  tu;  Ovvaydyoc,  fucw  yvatv 

"  Every  fox  is  crafty  and  mischievous,  and 
if  you  gather  a  whole  herd  of  them,  there  is 
not  a  good  natured  beast  amongst  them  all." 
— So  it  is  with  man ;  by  nature  he  is  the 
child  of  wrath,  and  by  his  manners  he  is  the 
child  of  the  devil ;  we  call  Christian,  and  we 
dishonour  our  Lord ;  and  we  are  brethren, 
but  we  oppress  and  murder  one  another ;  it 
is  a  great  degree  of  sanctity  now-a-days,  not 
to  be  so  wicked  as  the  worst  of  men ;  and  we 
live  at  the  rate,  as  if  the  best  of  men  did  de- 
sign to  themselves  an  easier  condemnation ; 
and  as  if  the  generality  of  men  considered 
not  concerning  the  degrees  of  death,  but  did 
believe  that  in  hell  no  man  shall  perceive 
any  ease  or  refreshment  in  being  tormented 
with  a  slower  fire.  For  consider  what  we 
do  in  the  body ;  twelve  or  fourteen  years 
pass,  before  we  choose  good  or  bad  ;  and  of 
that  which  remains,  above  half  is  spent  in 
sleep  and  the  needs  of  nature ;  for  the  other 
half,  it  is  divided  as  the  stag  was  when  the 
beasts  went  a  hunting,  the  lion  hath  five 
parts  of  six.  The  business  of  the  world 
takes  so  much  of  our  remaining  portion,  that 
religion  and  the  service  of  God  have  not 
much  time  left  that  can  be  spared ;  and  of 
that  which  can,  if  we  consider  how  much  is 
allowed  to  crafty  arts  of  cozenage,  to  oppres- 
sion and  ambition,  to  greedy  desires  and 


Serm.  III. 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


23 


avaricious  prosecutions,  to  the  vanities  of  often  we  have  tempted  our  brother  or  a  silly 
our  youth  and  the  proper  sins  of  every  age,  woman  to  sin  and  death!  How  often  have 
to  the  mere  idleness  of  man  and  doing  no-|we  pleaded  for  unjust  interests,  or  by  our 
tiling,  to  his  fantastic  imaginations  of  great-  wit  have  cozened  an  easy  and  a  believing 
ness  and  pleasures,  of  great  and  little  devices,  person,  or  given  ill  sentences,  or  disputed 
of  impertinent  lawsuits,  and  uncharitable  others  into  false  persuasions  !  Did  we  never 
treatings  of  our  brother ;  it  will  be  intolera- '  call  good  evil,  or  evil  good  ?  Did  we  never 
ble  when  we  consider  that  we  are  to  stand  isay  to"  others,  Thy  cause  is  right,  when  no- 
or  fall  eternally  according  to  what  we  have  j  thing  made  it  right  but  favour  and  money,  a 
done  in  the  body.  Gather  it  all  together,  j  false  advocate  or  a  covetous  judge  ?  nay 
and  set  it  before  thy  eyes ;  alms  and  prayers  '^/mj,  apybv,  so  said   Christ,   "  every  idle 


are  the  sum  of  all  thy  good.  Were  thy 
prayers  made  in  fear  and  holiness,  with  pas- 
sion and  desire  ?  Were  they  not  made  un- 
willingly, weakly,  and  wanderingly,  ani 


word,"  that  is,  rtdv  ^/mx  xtvov,  so  St.  Paul 
uses  it,  "every  false  word,"*  every  lie  shall 
be  called  to  judgment ;  or,  as  some  copies 
read  it,  ndv  ^ij/jLa  rto^pov,  "  every  wicked 


abated  with  sins  in  the  greatest  part  of  thy  .  word,"  shall  be  called  to  judgment.  For  by 
life?  Didst  thou  pray  with  the  same  affec- , apyov,  "idle  words,"  are  not  meant  words 
tion  and  labour  as  thou  didst  purchase  thy  that  are  unprofitable  or  unwise,  for  fools  and 
estate  ?  Have  thine  alms  been  more  than  |  silly  persons  speak  most  of  those,  and  have 
thy  oppressions,  and  according  to  thy  pow-  i  the  least  accounts  to  make  ;  but  by  vain  the 
er?  and  by  what  means  didst  thou  judge  j  Jews  usually  understood  false ;  and  to  give 


concerning  it  ?  How  much  of  our  time  was 
spent  in  that  ?  and  how  much  of  our  estate 
was  spent  in  this  ?  But  let  us  go  one  step 
farther: — How  many  of  us  love  our  enemies? 
or  pray  for  and  do  good  to  them  that  perse- 
cute and  affront  us  ?  or  overcome  evil  with 
good,  or  turn  the  face  again  to  them  that 
strike  us,  rather  than  be  revenged  ?  or  suffer 
ourselves  to  be  spoiled  or  robbed  without 


their  mind  to  vanity,  or  to  speak  vanity,  is 
all  one  as  to  mind  or  speak  falsehoods  with 
malicious  and  evil  purposes.  But  if  every 
idle  word,  that  is,  every  vain  and  lying 
word,  shall  be  called  to  judgment,  what  shall 
become  of  men  that  blaspheme  God,  or  their 
rulers,  or  princes  of  the  people,  or  their 
parents  ?  that  dishonour  the  religion,  and 
disgrace  the  ministers  ?  that  corrupt  justice 


contention  or  uncharitable  courses?  or  lose  'and  pervert  judgment  ?  that  preach  evil  doc- 
our  interest  rather  than  lose  our  charity  ?  j  trines,  or  declare  perverse  sentences  ?  that 


And  yet  by  these  precepts  we  shall  be  judged. 
I  instance  but  once  more.  Our  blessed  Sa- 
viour spake  a  hard  saying:  "Every  idle 
word  that  men  shall  speaks  they  shall  give 
account  thereof  at  the  day  of  judgment.  For 


take  God's  holy  name  in  vain,  or  dishonour 
the  name  of  God  by  trifling  and  frequent 
swearings ;  that  holy  name,  by  which  we 
hope  to  be  saved,  and  which  all  the  angels 
of  God  fall  down  to  and  worship  ?  These 


by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified,  and  by  j  things  are  to  be  considered,  for  by  our  own 
thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned."*  And  I  words  we  stand  or  fall,  that  is,  as  in  human 
upon  this  account  may  every  one,  weeping  judgments  the  confession  of  the  party,  and 
and  trembling,  say  with  Job,  "Q,uid  faciam,  the  contradiction  of  himself,  or  the  failing  in 
cum  resurrexerit   ad  judicandum  Deus  ?  the  circumstances  of  his  story,  are  the  con- 


What  shall  I  do,  when  the  Lord  shall  come 
to  judgment ?"f — Of  every  idle  word — O 
blessed  God  !  what  shall  become  of  them  who 
love  to  prate  continually,  to  tell  tales,  to  de- 
tract, to  slander,  to  backbite,  to  praise  them- 
selves, to  undervalue  others,  to  compare,  to 


fidences  or  presumptions  of  law,  by  which 
judges  give  sentence;  so  shall  our  words  be, 
not  only  the  means  of  declaring  a  secret  sen- 
tence, but  a  certain  instrument  of  being  ab- 
solved or  condemned.  But  upon  these 
premises  we  see  what  reason  we  have  to 


raise  divisions,  to  boast?  Tc'j  8s  fypovpr^st,  fear  the  sentence  of  that  day,  who  have  sin- 
7ti£av6f9ootd8iri  av7ivov,ovxau7ittjvy6vv',  "Who  ned  with  our  tongues  so  often,  so  continual- 


shall  be  able  to  stand  upright,  not  bowing  the 
knee  with  the  intolerable  load  of  the  sins  of 
his  tongue  ?"    If  of  everv  idle  word  we  must 


ly,  that  if  there  were  no  other  actions  to  be 
accounted  for,  we  have  enough  in  this  ac- 
count to  make  us  die ;  and  yet  have  corn- 


give  account,  what  shall  we  do  for  those ,  mitted  so  many  evil  actions,  that,  if  our 
malicious  words,  that  dishonour  God  or  do  i  words  were  wholly  forgotten,  we  have  infi- 
despite  to  our  brother?    Remember  how  ni'.e  reason  to  fear  concerning  the  event  of 


*Matt.  xii.  36.      t  Job  xxxi.  14. 


*Eph.  v.  6. 


24  CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT.        Serm  III. 


that  horrible  sentence.  The  effect  of  which  i 
consideration  is  this,  that  we  set  a  guard 
before  our  lips,  and  watch  over  our  actions 
with  a  care,  equal  to  that  fear  which  shall 
be  at  doomsday,  when  we  are  to  pass  our 
sad  accounts.  But  I  have  some  considera- 
tions to  interpose. 

1.  But  (that  the  sadness  of  this  may  a  lit- 
tle be  relieved,  and  our  endeavours  be  en- 
couraged to  a  timely  care  and  repentance) 
•  consider  that  this  great  sentence,  although 
it  shall  pass  concerning  little  things,  yet  it 
shall  not  pass  by  little  portions,  but  by  gene- 
ral measures  ;  not  by  the  little  errors  of  one 
day,  but  by  the  great  proportions  of  our  life; 
for  God  takes  not  notice  of  the  infirmities  of 
honest  persons  that  always  endeavour  to 
avoid  every  sin,  but  in  little  intervening  in- 
stances are  surprised;  but  he  judges  us  by 
single  actions,  if  they  are  great,  and  of  evil 
effects  ;  and  by  little  small  instances,  if  they 
be  habitual.  No  man  can  take  care  con- 
cerning every  minute  ;  and  therefore  con- 
cerning it  Christ  will  not  pass  sentence  but 
by  the  discernible  portions  of  our  time,  by 
human  actions,  by  things  of  choice  and  de- 
liberation, and  by  general  precepts  of  care 
and  watchfulness,  this  sentence  shall  be  ex- 
acted. 2.  The  sentence  of  that  day  shall 
be  passed,  not  by  the  proportions  of  an  an- 
gel, but  by  the  measures  of  a  man  ;  the  first 
follies  are  not  unpardonable,  but  may  be 
recovered ;  and  the  second  are  dangerous, 
and  the  third  are  more  fatal;  but  nothing  is 
unpardonable  but  perseverance  in  evil 
courses.  3.  The  last  judgment  shall  be 
transacted  by  the  same  principles  by  which 
we  are  guided  here ;  not  by  strange  and  se- 
cret propositions,  or  by  the  fancies  of  men, 
or  by  the  subtilties  of  useless  distinctions,  or 
evil  persuasions  ;  not  by  the  scruples  of  the 
credulous,  or  the  interest  of  sects,  nor  the 
proverbs  of  prejudice,  nor  the  uncertain  de- 
finitions of  them  that  give  laws  to  subjects  by 
expounding  the  decrees  of  princes ;  but  by 
the  plain  rules  of  justice,  by  the  ten  com- 
mandments, by  the  first  apprehensions  of 
conscience,  by  the  plain  rules  of  Scripture, 
and  the  rules  of  an  honest  mind,  and  a  cer- 
tain justice.  So  that  by  this  restraint  and 
limit  of  the  final  sentence,  we  are  secured 
we  shall  not  fall  by  scruple  or  by  ignorance, 
by  interest  or  by  faction,  by  false  persuasions 
of  others,  or  invincible  prejudice  of  our  own, 
but  we  shall  stand  or  fall  by  plain  and  easy 
propositions,  by  chastity  or  uncleanness,  by 
justice  or  injustice,  by  robbery  or  restitution  : 
and  of  this  we  have  a  great  testimony  by 


our  Judge  and  Lord  himself ;  "Whatsoever 
ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in 
heaven,  and  whatsoever  ye  loose  shall  be 
loosed  there  ;"  that  is,  you  shall  stand  or  fall 
according  to  the  sermons  of  the  gospel ;  as 
the  ministers  of  the  word  are  commanded  to 
preach,  so  ye  must  live  here,  and  so  ye  must 
be  judged  hereafter ;  ye  must  not  look  for 
that  sentence  by  secret  decrees  or  obscure 
doctrines,  but  by  plain  precepts  and  certain 
rules.  But  there  are  yet  some  more  de- 
grees of  mercy.  4.  That  sentence  shall  pass 
upon  us  not  after  the  measures  of  nature, 
and  possibilities,  and  utmost  extents,  but  by 
the  mercies  of  the  covenant;  we  shall  be 
judged  as  Christians  rather  than  as  men,  that 
is,  as  persons  to  whom  much  is  pardoned, 
and  much  is  pitied,  and  many  things  are  (not 
accidentally,  but  consequently)  indulged,  and 
great  helps  are  ministered,  and  many  remedies 
supplied,  and  some  mercies  extra-regular  ly 
conveyed,  and  their  hopes  enlarged  upon 
the  stock  of  an  infinite  mercy,  that  hath  no 
bounds  but  our  needs,  our  capacities,  and 
our  proportions  to  glory.  5.  The  sentence 
is  to  be  given  by  him  that  once  died  for  us, 
and  does  now  pray  for  us,  and  perpetually 
intercedes  ;  and  upon  souls  that  he  loves,  and 
in  the  salvation  of  which  himself  hath  a 
great  interest  and  increase  of  joy.  And  now 
upon  these  premises  we  may  dare  to  con- 
sider what  the  sentence  itself  shall  be,  that 
shall  never  be  reversed,  but  shall  last  for 
ever  and  ever. 

"Whether  it  be  good  or  bad."  I  cannot 
discourse  now  the  greatness  of  the  good  or 
bad,  so  far  (I  mean)  as  is  revealed  to  us  ;  the 
considerations  are  too  long  to  be  crowded  in- 
to the  end  of  a  sermon ;  only  in  general :  1 . 
If  it  be  good,  it  is  greater  than  all  the  good 
of  this  world,  and  every  man's  share  then, 
in  every  instant  of  his  blessed  eternity,  is 
greater  than  all  the  pleasures  of  mankind  in 
one  heap. 

aOavaala$  xpsitifov  ov8hv  fv%stao' 
"A  man  can  never  wish  for  any  thing  great- 
er than  this  immortality,"  said  Posidippus. 
2.  To  which  I  add  this  one  consideration, 
that  the  portion  of  the  good  at  the  day  of 
sentence  shall  be  so  great,  that  after  all  the 
labours  of  our  life,  and  suffering  persecu- 
tions, and  enduring  affronts,  and  the  labour 
of  love,  and  the  continual  fears  and  cares  of 
the  whole  duration  and  abode,  it  rewards  it 
all,  and  gives  infinitely  more ;  "  Non  sunt 
condigna;  passiones  hujus  sseculi;"  all  the 
!  torments  and  evils  of  this  world  are  not  to 


Serm.  III. 


CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT. 


25 


be  estimated  with  the  joys  of  the  blessed ;  it 
is  the  gift  of  God;  a  donative  beyond  the 
ih\Jiviov,  the  military  stipend,  it  is  beyond 
our  work  and  beyond  our  wages,  and  beyond 
the  promise  and  beyond  our  thoughts,  and 
above  our  understandings,  and  above  the ' 
highest  heavens,  it  is  a  participation  of  the 
joys  of  God,  and  of  the  inheritance  of  the 
Judge  himself. 

Ovx  tativ  Tithdaavh  ,  ovb  6q>9a%iAOt'3iv  tyixtbv 
'H/ttfrfpost,  rt  £fipi  tat3ftv  rriipte  fisyLCStrj 

It  is  a  day  of  recompenses,  in  which  all  our 
sorrows  shall  be  turned  into  joys,  our  perse- 
cutions into  a  crown,  the  cross  into  a  throne, 
poverty  into  the  riches  of  God  ;  loss,  and  af- 
fronts, and  inconveniences,  and  death,  into 
sceptres,  and  hymns,  and  rejoicings,  and 
hallelujahs,  and  such  great  things  which  are 
fit  for  us  to  hope,  but  too  great  for  us  to  dis- 
course of,  while  we  see  as  in  a  glass  darkly 
and  imperfectly.  And  he  that  chooses  to 
do  an  evil  rather  than  suffer  one,  shall  find 
it  but  an  ill  exchange  that  he  deferred  his 
little  to  change  for  a  great  one.  I  remember 
that  a  servant  in  the  old  comedy  did  choose 
to  venture  the  lash  rather  than  to  feel  a  pre- 
sent inconvenience,  "  Q,uia  illud  aderat 
malum,  istud  aberat  longius  :  illud  erat  prse- 
sens,  huic  erat  diecula  :"  but  this  will  be  but 
an  ill  account,  when  the  rods  shall  for  the 
delay  be  turned  into  scorpions,  and  from 
easy  shall  become  intolerable.  Better  it  is 
to  suffer  here,  and  to  stay  till  the  day  of  res- 
titution for  the  good  and  the  holy  portion ; 
for  it  will  recompense  both  for  the  suffering 
and  the  stay. 

But  how  if  the  portion  be  bad  ?  It  shall 
be  bad  to  the  greatest  part  of  mankind ;  that 
is  a  fearful  consideration  ;  the  greatest  part 
of  men  and  women  shall  dwell  in  the  por- 
tion of  devils  to  eternal  ages.  So  that  these 
portions  are  like  the  prophet's  figs  in  the 
vision  :  the  good  are  the  best  that  ever  were; 
and  the  worst  are  so  bad  that  worse  cannot 
be  imagined.  For  though  in  hell  the  ac- 
cursed souls  shall  have  no  worse  than  they 
have  deserved,  and  there  are  not  there  over- 
running measures,  as  there  are  in  heaven, 
and  therefore  that  the  joys  of  heaven  are  infi- 
nitely greater  joys  than  the  pains  of  hell  are 
great  pains,  yet  even  these  are  a  full  mea- 
sure to  a  full  iniquity,  pain  above  patience, 
sorrows  without  ease,  amazement  without 
consideration,  despair  without  the  intervals 
of  a  little  hope,  indignation  without  the  pos- 

*Xenoph. 

4 


session  of  any  good;  there  dwells  envy  and 
confusion,  disorder  and  sad  remembrances, 
perpetual  woes  and  continual  shriekings, 
uneasiness  and  all  the  evils  of  the  soul.  But 
if  we  will  represent  it  in  some  orderly  cir- 
cumstances, we  may  consider, 

t.  That  here,  all  the  trouble  of  our  spirits 
are  little  participations  of  a  disorderly  pas- 
sion; a  man  desires  earnestly  but  he  hath 
not,  or  he  envies  because  another  hath 
something  besides  him,  and  he  is  troubled  at 
the  want  of  one  when  at  the  same  time  he 
hath  a  hundred  good  things  ;  and  yet  ambi- 
tion and  envy,  impatience  and  confusion, 
covetousness  and  lust,  are  all  of  them  very- 
great  torments  ;  but  there  these  shall  be  in  es- 
sence and  abstracted  beings:  the  spirit  of  envy , 
and  the  spirit  of  sorrow;  devils,  that  shall 
inflict  all  the  whole  nature  of  the  evil  and 
pour  it  into  the  minds  of  accursed  men, 
where  it  shall  sit  without  abatement ;  for  he 
that  envies  there,  envies  not  for  the  emi- 
nence of  another  that  sits  a  little  above  him. 
and  excels  him  in  some  one  good,  but  he 
shall  envy  for  all;  because  the  saints  have 
all  and  they  have  none ;  therefore  all  their 
passions  are  integral,  abstracted,  perfect  pas- 
sions :  and  all  the  sorrow  in  the  world  at 
this  time,  is  but  a  portion  of  sorrow  ;  every 
man  hath  his  share,  and  yet  besides  that 
which  all  sad  men  have,  there  is  a  great  deal 
of  sorrow  which  they  have  not,  and  all  the 
devils'  portion  besides  that;  but  in  hell, 
they  shall  have  the  whole  passion  of  sorrow 
in  every  one,  just  as  the  whole  body  of  the 
sun  is  seen  by  every  one  in  the  same  hori- 
zon :  and  he  that  is  in  darkness  enjoys  it 
not  by  parts,  but  the  whole  darkness  is  the 
|  portion  of  one  as  well  as  of  another.  If  this 
consideration  be  not  too  metaphysical,  I  am 
sure  it  is  very  sad,  and  it  relies  upon  this  : 
that  as  in  heaven  there  are  some  holy  spirits 
whose  crown  is  all  love  ;  and  some  in  which 
the  brightest  jewel  is  understanding  ;  some 
are  purity  and  some  are  holiness  to  the 
Lord  :  so  in  the  regions  of  sorrow,  evil  and 
sorrow  have  an  essence  and  proper  being, 
and  are  set  there  to  be  suffered  entirely  by 
every  undone  man,  that  dies  there  for  ever. 

2.  The  evils  of  this  world  are  material  and 
bodily  j  the  pressing  of  a  shoulder,  or  the 
straining  of  a  joint ;  the  dislocation  of  a 
bone,  or  the  extending  of  an  artery  ;  a  bruise 
in  the  flesh,  or  the  pinching  of  the  skin ;  a 
hot  liver,  or  a  sickly  stomach ;  and  then 
the  mind  is  troubled  because  its  instrument 
is  ill  at  ease :  but  all  the  proper  troubles  of 
this  life  are  nothing  but  the  effects  of  an  un- 
C 


26  CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT.        Serm.  III. 


easy  body,  or  an  abused  fancy  ;  and  there- 
fore can  be  no  bigger  than  a  blow  or  a  cozen- 
age, than  a  wound  or  a  dream ;  only  the 
trouble  increases  as  the  soul  works  it;  and 
if  it  makes  reflex  acts,  and  begins  the  evil 
upon  its  own  account,  then  it  multiplies  and 
doubles,  because  the  proper  scene  of  grief  is 
opened,  and  sorrow  peeps  through  the  cor- 
ners of  the  soul.  But  in  those  regions  and 
days  of  sorrow,  when  the  soul  shall  be  no 
more  depending  upon  the  body,  but  the  per- 
fect principle  of  all  its  actions,  the  actions  are 
quick  and  the  perceptions  brisk  ;  the  passions 
are  extreme  and  the  motions  are  spiri- 
tual ;  the  pains  are  like  the  horrors  of  a  de- 
vil and  the  groans  of  an  evil  spirit ;  not  slow 
like  the  motions  of  a  heavy  foot,  or  a  load- 
ed arm,  but  quick  as  an  angel's  wing,  active 
as  lightning;  and  a  grief  then,  is  nothing 
like  a  grief  now  ;  and  the  words  of  a  man's 
tongue  which  are  fitted  to  the  uses  of  this 
world,  are  as  unfit  to  signify  the  evils  of  the 
next,  as  person,  and  nature,  and  hand,  and 
motion,  and  passion,  are  to  represent  the 
effects  of  the  Divine  attributes,  actions,  and 
subsistence. 

3.  The  evil  portion  of  the  next  world  is  so 
great,  that  God  did  not  create  or  design  it  in 
the  first  intention  of  things,  and  production 
of  essences;  he  made  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
drto  xarajSotoJs  xUfxov,  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world  ;  for  so  it  is  observable  that  Christ 
shall  say  to  the  sheep  at  his  right  hand, 
"  Receive  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  ;"*  but  to 
the  goats  and  accursed  spirits,  he  speaks  of 
no  such  primitive  and  original  design;  it 
was  accidental  and  a  consequent  to  horrid 
crimes,  that  God  was  forced  to  invent  and 
to  after-create  that  place  of  torments. 

4.  And  when  God  did  create  and  prepare 
that  place,  he  did  not  at  all  intend  it  for 
man ;  it  was  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels,  so  saith  the  Judge  himself,  "Go,  ye 
cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the 
uevil  and  his  an  gels,  f  3  yjtol/Mxasv  6  rtof^p  (xov 
*9  Sca/3(Ac),  which  my  father  prepared  for 
the  devil,"  so  some  copies  read  it :  God  in- 
tended i:  net  for  man,  but  man  would  imi- 
tate the  devil's  pride,  and  listen  to  the 
whispers  of  an  evil  spirit,  and  follow  his 
temptations,  and  rebel  against  his  Maker ; 
and  then  God  also,  against  his  first  design, 
resolved  to  throw  such  persons  into  that 
place  that  was  prepared  for  the  devil :  for  so 
great  was  the  love  of  God  to  mankind,  that 


he  prepared  joys  infinite  and  never-ceasing 
for  man,  before  he  had  created  him ;  but  he 
did  not  predetermine  him  to  any  evil ;  but 
when  he  was  forced  to  it  by  man's  malice, 
he  doing  what  God  forbad  him,  God  cast 
him  thither  where  he  never  intended  him ; 
but  it  was  not  man's  portion :  he  designed  it 
not  at  first,  and  at  last  also  he  invited  him  to 
repentance ;  and  when  nothing  could  do 
it,  he  threw  man  into  another's  portion,  be- 
cause he  would  not  accept  of  what  was 
designed  to  be  his  own. 

5.  The  evil  portion  shall  be  continual 
without  intermission  of  evil ;  no  days  of  rest, 
no  nights  of  sleep,  no  ease  from  labour,  no 
periods  of  the  stroke  nor  taking  off  the  hand, 
no  intervals  between  blow  and  blow;  but  a 
continued  stroke,  which  neither  shortens  the 
life,  nor  introduces  a  brawny  patience,  or 
the  toleration  of  an  ox,  but  it  is  the  same  in 
every  instant,  and  great  as  the  first  stroke  of 
lightning ;  the  smart  is  as  great  for  ever  as 
at  the  first  change,  from  the  rest  of  the  grave 
to  the  flames  of  that  horrible  burning.  The 
church  of  Rome  amongst  some  other  strange 
opinions  hath  inserted  this  one  into  her 
public  offices ;  that  the  perishing  souls  in 
hell  may  have  sometimes  remission  and  re- 
freshment, like  the  fits  of  an  intermitting  fe- 
ver :  for  so  it  is  in  the  Roman  missal  printed 
at  Paris,  1626,  in  the  mass  for  the  dead; 
"lit  quia  de  ejus  vitae  qualitate  diffidimus, 
etsi  plenam  veniam  anima  ipsius  obtinere  non 
potest,  saltern  vel  inter  ipsa  tormenta  quae 
forsan  patitur,  refrigerium  de  abundantia 
miserationum  tuarum  sentiat :"  and  some- 
thing like  this  is  that  of  Prudentius,* 

Sunt  et  spiritibus  saepe  nocentibus 
PcEnarum  celebres  sub  Styge  feriae.  &c. 

The  evil  spirits  have  ease  of  their  pain,  and 
he  names  their  holiday,  that  when  the  resur- 
rection of  our  Lord  from  the  grave  is  cele- 
brated : 

Marcent  suppliciis  Tartara  mitibus, 
Exultatque  sui  carceris  otio 
Umbrarum  populus  liber  ab  ignibus  : 
Nec  fervent  solito  flumina  sulphure. 
They  then  thought,  that  when  the  paschal 
taper  burned,  the  flames  of  hell  could  not 
burn  till  the  holy  wax  was  spent:  but  be- 
cause this  is  a  fancy  without  ground  or 
revelation,  and  is  against  the  analogy  of  all 
those  expressions  of  our  Lord,  "  wheie  the 
worm  diethnot,  and  the  fire  is  never  quench- 
ed," and  divers  others,  it  is  sufficient  to 
have  noted  it  without  further  consideration  ; 
the  pains  of  hell  have  no  rest,  no  drop  of 


*  Matt.  xxv.  34.      tVer.  41. 


Hymn  v.  lib.  Cathemer. 


SfittM.  III.      CHRIST'S  ADVEN 


T  TO  JUDGMENT.  27 


water  is  allowed  to  cool  the  tongue,  there 
is  no  advocate  to  plead  for  them,  no  mercy 
belongs  to  their  portion,  but  fearful  wrath 
and  continual  burnings. 

6.  And  yet  this  is  not  the  worst  of  it ;  for 
as  it  is  continual  during  its  abode,  so  its 
abode  is  for  ever ;  it  is  continual  and  eternal. 
Tertullian  speaks  of  something  otherwise, 
•"Pro  magnitudine  cruciatus  non  diuturni, 
verum  sempiterni ;"  not  continual,  or  the 
pains  of  every  day,  but  such  which  shall 
last  for  ever.  But  Lactantius  is  more  plain 
in  this  affair :  "  the  same  Divine  fire  by  the 
same  power  and  force  shall  burn  the  wicked, 
and  shall  repair  instantly  whatsoever  of  the 
body  it  does  consume :  "  Ac  sibi  ipsi  aeter- 
num  pabulum  subministrabit, — and  shall 
make  for  itself  an  eternal  fuel." 

Vermibus  et  flammis  et  discruciatibus  aevum 
Immortale  dedit,  senio  ne  poena  periret 
Non  pereunte  animd.  

So  Prudentius,  eternal  worms,  and  unextin- 
guished flames,  and  immortal  punishment, 
are  prepared  for  the  ever  never  dying  souls 
of  wicked  men.  Origen  is  charged  by  the 
ancient  churches  for  saying,  that  after  a 
long  time  the  devils  and  the  accursed  souls 
shall  be  restored  to  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  that  after  a  long  time  again  they  shall 
be  restored  to  their  state,  and  so  it  was  from 
their  fall,  and  shall  be  for  ever ;  and,  it  may 
be,  that  might  be  the  meaning  of  Tertullian's 
expression  of  "cruciatus  non  diuturni  sed 
sempiterni."  Epiph^anius  charges  not  the 
opinion  upon  Origen,  and  yet  he  "was  free 
enough  in  his  animadversion  and  reproof  of 
him;  but  St.  Austin  did,  and  confuted  the 
opinion  in  his  books  De  Civitate  Dei.  How- 
ever, Origen  was  not  the  first  that  said,  the 
pakis  of  the  damned  should  cease ;  Justin 
Martyr  in  his  dialogue  with  Triphon  ex- 
presses it  thus  :  "Neither  do  I  say  that  all 
the  souls  do  die,  for  that  indeed  would  be  to 
the  wicked  again  unlooked  for  :  what  then  ? 
The  souls  of  the  godly  in  a  better  place,  of 
the  wicked  in  a  worse,  do  tarry  the  time  of 
judgment;  then  they  that 'are  worthy  shall 
never  die  again,  but  those  that  are  designed 
to  punishment,  shall  abide  so  long  as  God 
please  to  have  them  to  live  and  to  be  pun- 
ished." But  I  observe  that  the  primitive 
doctors  were  very  willing  to  believe,  that  the 
mercy  of  God  would  find  out  a  period  to 
the  torment  of  accursed  souls ;  but  such  a 
period,  which  should  be  nothing  but  eternal 
destruction,  called  by  the  Scripture,  "the 
second  death  :"  only  Origen  (as  I  observed) 
is  charged  by  St.  Austin  to  have  said,  they 


shall  return  into  joys,  and  back  again  tc 
hell  by  an  eternal  revolution.  But  concern- 
ing the  death  of  a  wicked  soul,  and  its  being 
broken  into  pieces  with  fearful  torments, 
and  consumed  by  the  wrath  of  God,  they 
had  entertained  some  different  fancies  very 
early  in  the  church,  as  their  sentences  are 
collected  by  St.  Jerome  at  the  end  of  his 
commentaries  upon  Isaiah.  And  Ireneus* 
disputes  it  largely,  "  that  they  that  are  un- 
thankful to  God  in  this  short  life,  and  obey 
him  not,  shall  never  have  an  eternal  duration 
of  life  in  the  ages  to  come,"  "sed  ipse  se 
privat  in  sacculum  saeculiperseverantia, — he 
deprives  his  soul  of  living  to  eternal  ages;" 
for  he  supposes  an  immortal  duration  not  to 
be  natural  to  the  soul,  but  a  gift  of  God, 
which  he  can  take  away,  and  did  take  away 
from  Adam,  and  restored  it  again  in  Christ 
to  them  that  believe  in  him  and  obey  him  : 
for  the  other ;  they  shall  be  raised  again  to 
suffer  shame,  and  fearful  torments ;  and 
according  to  the  degree  of  their  sins,  so  shall 
be  continued  in  their  sorrows  ;  and  some 
shall  die,  and  some  shall  not  die :  the  devil, 
and  the  beast,  and  they  that  were  marked 
with  his  character,  these  St.  John  sailh 
"shall  be  tormented  for  ever  and  ever  ;"  he 
does  not  say  so  of  all,  but  of  some  certain 
great  criminals ;  07tu>s  av  0f6j  Qtty,  all  so 
long  as  God  please, — some  for  ever  and 
ever,  and  some  not  so  severely ;  and  where- 
as the  general  sentence  is  given  to  all  wicked 
persons,  to  all  on  the  left  hand,  to  go  into 
everlasting  fire ;  it  is  answered,  that  the  fire 
indeed  is  everlasting,  but  not  all  that  enters 
into  it  is  everlasting,  but  only  the  devils  for 
whom  it  was  prepared,  and  others,  more 
mighty  criminals  (according  as  St.  John  in- 
timates) :  though  also  everlasting  signifies 
only  to  the  end  of  its  proper  period. 

Concerning  this  doctrine  of  theirs,  so  se- 
vere, and  yet  so  moderated,  there  is  less  to  be 
objected  than  against  the  supposed  fancy  of 
Origen ;  for  it  is  a  strange  consideration  to 
suppose  an  eternal  torment  to  those  to  whom 
it  was  never  threatened,  to  those  wrho  never 
heard  of  Christ,  to  those  that  lived  probably 
well,  to  heathens  of  good  lives,  to  ignorants 
and  untaught  people,  to  people  surprised  in 
a  single  crime,  to  men  that  die  young  in 
their  natural  follies  and  foolish  lusts,  to  them 
that  fall  in  a  sudden  gaiety  and  excessive 
joy,  to  all  alike  ;  to  all  infinite  and  eternal, 
even  to  unwarned  people;  and  that  this 
should  be  inflicted  by  God  who  infinitely 


*  Lib.  ii.  cap.  65. 


28  CHRIST'S  ADVENT  TO  JUDGMENT.        Serm.  III. 


loves  his  creatures,  who  died  for  them,  who 
pardons  easily,  and  pities  readily,  and  ex- 
cuses much,  and  delights  in  our  being  saved, 
and  would  not  have  us  to  die,  and  takes  little 
things  in  exchange  for  great :  it  is  certain 
that  God's  mercies  are  infinite,  and  it  is  also 
certain  that  the  matter  of  eternal  torments 
cannot  truly  be  understood ;  and  when  the 
schoolmen  go  about  to  reconcile  the  Divine 
justice  to  that  severity,  and  consider  why 
God  punishes  eternally  a  temporal  sin,  or  a 
state  of  evil,  they  speak  variously,  and  un- 
certainly, and  unsatisfyingly.  But,  that  in 
this  question  we  may  separate  the  certain 
from  the  uncertain : 

1.  It  is  certain  that  the  torments  of  hell 
shall  certainly  last  as  long  as  the  soul  lasts  ; 
for  eternal  and  everlasting  can  signify  no 
less  but  to  the  end  of  that  duration,  to  the 
perfect  end  of  the  period  which  it  signifies. 
So  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  when  God 
rained  down  hell  from  heaven  upon  the 
earth,  (as  Salvain's  expression  is,)  they  are 
said  "to  suffer  the  vengeance  of  eternal 
fire  that  is,  of  a  fire  that  consumed  them 
finally,  and  they  never  were  restored :  and 
so  the  accursed  souls  shall  suffer  torments 
till  they  be  consumed;  who  because  they  are 
immortal  either  naturally  or  by  gift,  shall 
be  tormented  for  ever,  or  till  God  shall  take 
from  them  the  life  that  he  restored  to  them  on 
purpose  to  give  them  a  capacity  of  being 
miserable,  and  the  best  that  they  can  expect 
is  to  despair  of  all  good,  to  suffer  the  wrath 
of  God,  never  to  come  to  any  minute  of 
felicity,  or  of  a  tolerable  state,  and  to  be 
held  in  pain  till  God  be  weary  of  striking. 
This  is  the  gentlest  sentence  of  some  of  the 
old  doctors. 

But,  2.  The  generality  of  Christians  have 
been  taught  to  believe  worse  things  yet  con- 
cerning them  ;  and  the  words  of  our  blessed 
Lord  are  x6ixx6v$  atwnoj,  eternal  affliction  or 
smiting ; 

Nec  mortis  pcenas  mora  altera  finiet  hujus, 
Horaque  erit  tantis  ultima  nulla  malis. 

And  St.  John,*  who  well  knew  the  mind  of 
his  Lord,  saith,  "  the  smoke  of  their  torment 
ascendeth  up  for  ever  and  ever,  and  they 
have  no  rest  day  nor  night:"  that  is,  their 
torment  is  continual,  and  it  is  eternal.  Their 
second  death  shall  be  but  a  dying  to  all  feli- 
city; for  so  death  is  taken  in  Scripture: 
Adam  died  when  he  ate  the  forbidden  fruit ; 
that  is,  he  was  liable  to  sickness  and  sor- 
rows, and  pain  and  dissolution  of  soul  and 


body :  and  to  be  miserable  is  the  worse  death 
of  the  two  ;  they  shall  see  the  eternal  felicity 
of  the  saints,  but  they  shall  never  taste  of  the 
holy  chalice.  Those  joys  shall  indeed  be 
for  ever  and  ever;  for  immortality  is  part 
of  their  reward,  and  on  them  the  seconu 
death  shall  have  no  power :  but  the  wickea 
shall  be  tormented  horribly  and  insuffer- 
ably, till te  death  and  hell  be  thrown  into  the 
lake  of  fire,  and  shall  be  no  more  :  which 
is  the  second  death."*  But  that  they  may 
not  imagine  that  this  second  death  shall  be 
the  end  of  their  pains,  St.  John  speaks 
expressly  what  that  is,  Rev.  xxi.  8.  "The 
fearful  and  unbelieving,  the  abominable  and 
the  murderers,  the  whoremongers  and  sor- 
cerers, the  idolators  and  all  liars,  shall  have 
their  part  in  the  lake  which  burneth  with  fire 
and  brimstone  :  which  is  the  second  death  :" 
no  dying  there,  but  a  being  tormented,  burn- 
ing in  a  lake  of  fire,  that  is  the  second  death. 
For  if  life  be  reckoned  a  blessing,  then  to  be 
destitute  of  all  blessing  is  to  have  no  life ; 
and  therefore  to  be  intolerably  miserable  is 
this  second  death,  that  is,  death  eternal. 

3.  And  yet  if  God  should  deal  with  man 
hereafter  more  mercifully  and  proportionably 
to  his  weak  nature  than  he  does  to  angels, 
and  as  he  admits  him  to  repentance  here,  so 
in  hell  also  to  a  period  of  his  smart,  even 
when  he  keeps  the  angels  in  pain  for  ever ; 
yet  he  will  never  admit  him  to  favour,  he 
shall  be  tormented  beyond  all  the  measure  of 
human  ages,  and  be  destroyed  for  ever  and 
ever. 

It  concerns  us  all,  who  hear  and  believe 
these  things,  to  do  as  our  blessed  Lord  will 
do  before  the  day  of  his  coming ;  he  will 
call  and  convert  the  Jews  and  strangers  : 
conversion  to  God  is  the  best  preparatory  to 
doomsday :  and  it  concerns  all  them  who 
are  in  the  neighbourhood  and  fringes  of  the 
flames  of  hell,  that  is,  in  the  state  of  sin, 
quickly  to  arise  from  the  danger,  and  shake 
the  burning  coals  of  our  flesh,  lest  it  con- 
sume the  marrow  and  the  bones :  "Exuenda 
est  velociter  de  incendio  sarcina,  priusquam 
flammissupervenientibus  concremetur.  Ne- 
mo diu  tutus  est,  periculo  proximus,"  saith 
St.  Cyprian ;  "  No  man  is  safe  long,  that 
is  so  near  to  danger;"  for  suddenly  the 
change  will  come  in  which  the  j  udge  shall 
be  called  to  judgment,  and  no  man  to  plead 
for  him,  unless  a  good  conscience  be  his  ad- 
vocate ;  and  the  rich  shall  be  naked  as  a 
condemned  criminal  to  execution ;  and  there 


*  Rev.  xiv.  II. 


*  Rev.  xx.  14. 


Serm.  IV. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


29 


shall  be  no  regard  of  princes  or  of  nobles, 
and  the  differences  of  men's  account  shall 
be  forgotten,  and  no  distinction  remaining 
but  of  good  or  bad,  sheep  and  goats,  blessed 
and  accursed  souls.  Among  the  wonders 
of  the  day  of  judgment,  our  blessed  Saviour 
reckons  it,  that  men  shall  be  marrying  and 
giving  in  marriage,  yanovvtes  xai  iyyafu^ovtii, 
marrying  and  cross-marrying,  that  is,  rais- 
ing families  and  lasting  greatness  and  huge 
estates;  when  the  world  is  to  end  so  quickly, 
and  the  gains  of  a  rich  purchase  so  very  a 
trifle,  but  no  trifling  danger;  a  thing  that 
can  give  no  security  to  our  souls,  but  much 
hazards  and  a  great  charge.  More  reason- 
able it  is,  that  we  despise  the  world  and  lay 
up  for  heaven,  that  we  heap  up  treasures 
by  giving  alms,  and  make  friends  of  un- 
righteous Mammon;  but  at  no  hand  to 
enter  into  a  state  of  life,  that  is  all  the  way 
a  hazard  to  the  main  interest,  and  at  the 
best,  an  increase  of  the  particular  charge. 
Every  degree  of  riches,  every  degree  of 
greatness,  every  ambitious  employment, 
every  great  forlune,  every  eminency  above 
our  brother,  is  a  charge  to  the  accounts  of 
the  last  day.  He  that  lives  temperately  and 
charitably,  whose  employment  is  religion, 
whose  affections  are  fear  and  love,  whose 
desires  are  after  heaven,  and  do  not  dwell 
below  ;  that  man  can  long  and  pray  for  the 
hastening  of  the  coming  of  the  day  of  the 
Lord.  He  that  does  not  really  desire  and 
long  for  that  day,  either  is  in  a  very  ill  con- 
dition, or  does  not  understand  that  he  is  in 
a  good.  I  will  not  be  so  severe  in  this 
meditation  as  to  forbid  any  man  to  laugh, 
that  believes  himself  shall  be  called  to  so 
severe  a  judgment;  yet  St.  Jerome  said  it, 
"  Coram  ccelo  et  terra  rationem  reddemus 
totius  nostrae  vitse;  et  tu  rides?  Heaven 
and  earth  shall  see  all  the  follies  and  base- 
ness of  thy  life:  and  dost  thou  laugh  ?" 
That  we  may,  but  we  have  not  reason  to 
laugh  loudly  and  frequently  if  we  consider 
things  wisely,  and  as  we  are  concerned : 
but  if  we  do,  yet  "prsesentis  temporis  ita 
est  agenda  lsetitia,  ut  sequentis  judicii  ama- 
ritudo  nunquam  recedat  a  memoria : — so 
laugh  here  that  you  may  not  forget  your 
danger,  lest  you  weep  for  ever."  He  that 
thinks  most  seriously  and  most  frequently 
of  tfcis  fearful  appearance,  will  find  that  it 
is  better  staying  for  his  joys  till  this  sentence 
be  past ;  for  then  he  shall  perceive,  whether 
he  hath  reason  or  no.  In  the  mean  time 
wonder  not,  that  God,  who  loves  mankind 
sc.  well,  should  punish  him  so  severely  :  for 


therefore  the  evil  fall  into  an  accursed  por- 
tion, because  they  despised  that  which  God 
most  loves,  his  Son  and  his  mercies,  his 
graces  and  his  holy  Spirit;  and  they  that 
I  do  all  this,  have  cause  to  complain  of 
|  nothing  but  their  own  follies ;  and  they 
shall  feel  the  accursed  consequents  then, 
when  they  shall  see  the  Judge  sit  above 
them,  angry  and  severe,  inexorable  and 
terrible;  under  them,  an  intolerable  hell; 
within  them,  their  consciences  clamorous 
jand  diseased:  without  them,  all  the  world 
I  on  fire ;   on  the  right  hand,  those  men 
'  glorified  whom  they  persecuted  or  despised ; 
Ion  the  left  hand,  the  devils  accusing;  for 
this  is  the  day  of  the  Lord's  terror,  and  who 
is  able  to  abide  it  ? 

Seu  vigilo  interims  studiis,  seu  dormio,  semper 
Judicis  extremi  nostras  tuba  personet  aures. 


SERMON  IV. 

THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS ;  OR,  THE  CONDI- 
TIONS  OF  A  PRE  VAILING  PRAYER. 

JS~ow  we  know  that  God  heareth  not  sinners  ;  but 
if  any  man  be  a  worshipper  of  God,  and  doth 
his  will,  him  he  heareth. — John  ix.  31. 

I  enow  not  which  is  the  greater  wonder, 
either  that  prayer,  which  is  a  duty  so  easy 
and  facile,  so  ready  and  apted  to  the  powers, 
and  skill,  and  opportunities,  of  every  man, 
should  have  so  great  effects,  and  be  produc- 
tive of  such  mighty  blessings;  or,  that  we 
should  be  so  unwilling  to  use  so  easy  an 
[instrument  of  procuring  so  much  good. 
jThe  first  declares  God's  goodness,  but  this 
publishes  man's  folly  and  weakness,  who 
|  finds  in  himself  so  much  difficulty  to  per- 
j  form  a  condition  so  easy  and  full  of  advan- 
|  tage.  But  the  order  of  this  felicity  is  knotted 
like  the  foldings  of  a  serpent;  all  those  parts 
of  easiness,  which  invite  us  to  the  duty,  are 
become  like  Hit  joints  of  a  bulrush,  not 
bendings,  but  consolidations  and  stiffenings : 
t  the  very  facility  becomes  its  objection,  and 
in  every  of  its  stages,  we  make  or  find  a 
huge  uneasiness.  At  first,  we  do  not  know 
:  what  to  ask ;  and  when  we  do,  then  we  find 
j  difficulty  to  bring  our  will  to  desire  it;  and 
I  when  that  is  instructed  and  kept  in  awe,  it 
j  mingles  interest,  and  confounds  the  pur- 
1  poses;  and  when  it  is  forced  to  ask  honestly 
jand  severely,  then  it  wills  so  coldly,  that 
God  hates  the  prayer;  and,  if  it  desires 
c  2 


30 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  IV. 


fervently,  it  sometimes  turns  that  into  pas- 
sion, and  that  passion  breaks  into  murmurs 
or  unquietness ;  or,  if  that  be  avoided,  the 
indifference  cools  into  death,  or  the  fire 
burns  violently  and  is  quickly  spent;  our 
desires  are  dull  as  a  rock,  or  fugitive  as 
lightning;  either  we  ask  ill  things  earnestly, 
or  good  things  remissly ;  we  either  court 
our  own  danger,  or  are  not  zealous  for  our 
real  safety ;  or,  if  we  be  right  in  our  matter, 
or  earnest  in  our  affections,  and  lasting  in 
our  abode,  yet  we  miss  in  the  manner ;  and 
either  we  ask  for  evil  ends,  or  without 
religious  and  awful  apprehensions ;  or  we 
rest  on  the  words  and  signification  of  the 
prayer,  and  never  take  care  to  pass  on  to 
action ;  or  else  we  sacrifice  in  the  com- 
pany of  Korah,  being  partners  of  a  schism, 
or  a  rebellion  in  religion;  or  we  bring 
unhallowed  censers,  our  hearts  send  up 
to  God  an  unholy  smoke,  a  cloud  from 
the  fires  of  lust;  and  either  the  flames 
of  lust  or  rage,  of  wine  or  revenge,  kindle 
the  beast  that  is  laid  upon  the  altar;  or  we 
bring  swine's  flesh,  or  a  dog's  neck;  where- 
as God  never  accepts  or  delights  in  a  prayer, 
unless  it  be  for  a  holy  thing,  to  a  lawful  end, 
presented  unto  him  upon  the  wings  of  zeal 
and  love,  of  religious  sorrow,  or  religious 
joy;  by  sanctified  lips,  and  pure  hands,  and 
a  sincere  heart.  It  must  be  the  prayer  of 
a  gracious  man;  and  he  is  only  gracious 
before  God,  and  acceptable  and  effective  in 
his  prayer,  whose  life  is  holy,  and  whose 
prayer  is  holy ;  for  both  these  are  necessary 
ingredients  to  the  constitution  of  a  prevailing 
prayer;  there  is  a  holiness  peculiar  to  the 
man,  and  a  holiness  peculiar  to  the  prayer, 
that  must  adorn  the  prayer,  before  it  can  be 
united  to  the  intercession  of  the  holy  Jesus, 
in  which  union  alone  our  prayers  can  be 
prevailing. 

"God  heareth  not  sinners." — So  the  blind 
man  in  the  text,  and  confidently,  "this  we 
know :"  he  had  reason,  indeed,  for  his 
confidence;  it  was  a  proverbial  saying,  and 
every  where  recorded  in  their  Scriptures, 
which  were  read  in  the  synagogues  every 
sabbath-day.  "  For  what  is  the  hope  of  the 
hypocrite?  (saith  Job.)  Will  God  hear  his 
cry,  when  trouble  cometh  upon  him?"* 
No,  he  will  not.  "For  if  I  regard  iniquity 
in  my  heart,  the  Lord  will  not  hear  me,"f 
said  David ;  and  so  said  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  by  the  Son  of  David :  "When  distress 
and  anguish  come  upon  you,  then  shall  they 


*  Job  xxvii.  9.    t  Psalm  lxvi.  18. 


call  upon  me,  but  I  will  not  answer ;  they 
shall  seek  me  early,  but  they  shall  not  find 
me,"*  And  Isaiah,  "When  you  spread 
forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  mine  eyes 
from  you ;  yea,  when  you  make  many 
prayers,  I  will  not  hear;  your  hands  are  full 
of  blood. "f  And  again,  "  When  they  fast, 
I  will  not  hear  their  cry ;  and  when  they 
will  offer  burnt-offerings  and  oblations,  I 
will  not  accept  them.  For  they  have  loved 
to  wander,  they  have  not  refrained  their 
feet,  therefore  the  Lord  will  not  accept 
them;  he  will  now  remember  their  iniquity, 
and  visit  their  sins."J  Upon  these  and 
many  other  authorities,  §  it  grew  into  a 
proverb ;  "  Deus  non  exaudit  peccatores." 
It  was  a  known  case,  and  an  established 
rule  in  religion ;  "  Wicked  persons  are 
neither  fit  to  pray  for  themselves,  nor  for 
others." 

Which  proposition  let  us  first  consider  in 
the  sense  of  that  purpose  which  the  blind 
man  spoke  it  in,  and  then  in  the  utmost 
extent  of  it,  as  its  analogy  and  equal  reason 
go  forth  upon  us  and  our  necessities.  The 
man  was  cured  of  his  blindness,  and  being 
examined  concerning  him  that  did  it,  named 
and  gloried  in  his  physician;  but  the  spiteful 
Pharisees  bid  him  give  glory  to  God,  and 
defy  the  minister;  for  God  indeed  was  good, 
but  he  wrought  that  cure  by  a  wicked  hand. 
No,  says  he,  this  is  impossible.  If  this  man 
were  a  sinner  and  a  false  prophet,  (for  in 
that  instance  the  accusation  was  intended,) 
God  would  not  hear  his  prayer,  and  work 
miracles  by  him  in  verification  of  a  lie. — A 
false  prophet  could  not  work  true  miracles : 
this  hath  received  its  diminution,  when  the 
case  was  changed;  for  at  that  time,  when 
Christ  preached,  miracles  were,  the  only  or 
the  great  verification  of  any  new  revelation  ; 
and,  therefore,  it  proceeding  from  an  al- 
mighty God,  must  needs  be  the  testimony 
of  a  Divine  truth  ;  and  if  it  could  have  been 
brought  for  a  lie,  there  could  not  then  have 
been  sufficient  instruction  given  to  mankind, 
to  prevent  their  belief  of  false  prophets  and 
lying  doctrines.  But  when  Christ  proved 
his  doctrine  by  miracles,  that  no  enemy  of 
his  did  ever  do  so  great  before  or  after  him  : 
then  he  also  told,  that,  after  him,  his  friends 
should  do  greater,  and  his  enemies  snould 
do  some,  but  they  were  fewer,  and  very  in- 
considerable;  and,  therefore,  could  have  in 
them  no  unavoidable  cause  of  deception, 

*  Prov.  i.  28.  t  Isa.  i.  15.  \  Jer.  xiv.  12,  10. 
§  Vide  etiam,  Psalm  xxxiv.  6.  Micah  iii.  4.  1 
Pet.  iii.  12. 


Serm.  IV. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


31 


because  they  were  discovered  by  a  prophecy 
and  caution  was  given  against  them  by  him  1 
that  did  greater  miracles,  and  yet  ought  to 
have  been  believed,  if  he  had  done  but  one ; 
because  against  him  there  had  been  no 
caution,  but  many  prophecies  creating  such 
expectations  concerning  him,  which  he 
verified  by  his  great  works.  So  that,  in  this 
sense  of  working  miracles,  though  it  was 
infinitely  true  that  the  blind  man  said,  then 
when  he  said  it,  yet  after  that  the  case  was 
altered;  and  sinners,  magicians,  astrologers, 
witches,  heretics,  simoniacs,  and  wicked 
persons  of  other  instances,  have  done  mira- 
cles, and  God  hath  heard  sinners,  and 
wrought  his  own  works  by  their  hands,  or 
suffered  the  devil  to  do  his  works  under 
their  pretences ;  and  many  at  the  day  of 
judgment  shall  plead  that  they  have  done 
miracles  in  Christ's  name,  and  yet  they 
shall  be  rejected;  Christ  knows  them  not, 
and  their  portion  shall  be  with  dogs,  and 
goats,  and  unbelievers. 

There  is,  in  this  case,  only  this  difference; 
that  they  who  do  miracles  in  opposition  to 
Christ,  do  them  by  the  power  of  the  devil, 
to  whom  it  is  permitted  to  do  such  things, 
which  we  think  miracles;  and  that  is  all 
one  as  though  they  were;  but  the  danger 
of  them  is  none  at  all,  but  to  them  that  will 
not  believe  him  that  did  greater  miracles,  and 
prophesied  of  these  less,  and  gave  warning 
of  their  attending  danger,  and  was  confirmed 
to  be  a  true  teacher  by  voices  from  heaven, 
and  by  the  resurrection  of  his  body  after  a 
three  days'  burial:  so  that  to  these  the 
proposition  still  remains  true,  "God  hears 
not  sinners,"  God  does  not  work  those 
miracles;  but  concerning  sinning  Christians, 
God,  in  this  sense,  and  towards  the  pur- 
poses of  miracles,  does  hear  them,  and  hath 
wrought  miracles  by  them,  for  they  do  them 
"in  the  name  of  Christ,"  and  therefore 
Christ  said,  "  cannot  easily  speak  ill  of  him ;" 
and  although  they  either  prevaricate  in  their 
lives,  or  in  superinduced  doctrines,  yet, 
because  the  miracles  are  a  verification  of 
the  religion,  not  of  the  opinion,  of  the 
power  of  truth  of  Christ,  not  of  the  veracity 
of  the  man,  God  hath  heard  such  persons 
many  times,  whom  men  have  long  since, 
and  to  this  day,  called  heretics ;  such  were 
the  Novatians  and  Arians;  for  to  the  hea- 
thens they  could  only  prove  their  religion, 
by  which  they  stood  distinguished  from 
them;  but  we  find  not  that  they  wrought 
miracles  among  the  Christians,  or  to  verify 
their  superstructures  and  private  opinions. 


But,  besides  this,  yet  we  may  also  by  such 
means  arrest  the  forwardness  of  our  judg- 
ments and  condemnations  of  persons  dis- 
agreeing in  their  opinions  from  us ;  for 
those  persons,  whose  faith  God  confirmed 
by  miracles,  was  an  entire  faith;  and  al- 
though they  might  have  false  opinions,  or 
mistaken  explications  of  true  opinions,  either 
inartificial,  or  misunderstood,  yet  we  have 
reason  to  believe  their  faith  to  be  entire  ;  for 
that  which  God  would  have  the  heathen  to 
believe,  and  to  that  purpose  proved  it  by  a 
miracle,  himself  intended  to  accept,  first  to 
a  holy  life,  and  then  to  glory.  The  false 
opinion  should  burn,  and  themselves  escape. 
One  thing  more  is  here  very  considerable, 
that  in  this  very  instance  of  working  mira- 
cles, God  was  so  very  careful  not  to  hear 
sinners  or  permit  sinners,  till  he  had  pre- 
vented all  dangers  to  good  and  innocent 
persons,  that  the  case  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles  working  miracles,  was  so  clearly 
separated  and  remarked  by  the  finger  of 
God,  and  distinguished  from  the  impostures 
and  pretences  of  all  the  many  antichrists 
that  appeared  in  Palestine,  Cyprus,  Crete, 
Syria,  and  the  vicinage,  that  there  were  but 
very  few  Christians  that,  with  hearty  per- 
suasions, fell  away  from  Christ,  ©o^tov 
tovs  drto  XpKffoi  ixeta8i8d%£C£,  said  Galen,  "It 
is  not  easy  to  teach  anew  him  that  hath 
been  taught  by  Christ:"  and  St.  Austin 
tells  a  story  of  an  unbelieving  man,  that, 
being  troubled  that  his  wife  was  a  Christian, 
went  to  the  oracle  to  ask  by  what  means 
he  should  alter  her  persuasion ;  but  he  was 
answered,  "  it  could  never  be  done,  he 
might  as  well  imprint  characters  upon  the 
face  of  a  torrent,  or  a  rapid  river,  or  himself 
fly  in  the  air,  as  alter  the  persuasion  of  a 
hearty  and  an  honest  Christian  ;"  I  would 
to  God  it  were  so  now  in  all  instances,  and 
that  it  were  so  hard  to  draw  men  from  the 
severities  of  a  holy  life,  as  of  old  they  could 
be  cozened,  disputed,  or  forced  out  of  their 
faith.  Some  men  are  vexed  with  hypocrisy, 
and  then  their  hypocrisy  was  punished  with 
infidelity  and  wretchless  spirit.  Demas,  and 
Simon  Magus,  and  Ecebolius,  and  the  lapsed 
confessors,  are  instances  of  human  craft  or 
human  weakness;  but  they  are  scarce  a 
number  that  are  remarked,  in  ancient  story, 
to  have  fallen  from  Christianity  by  direct 
persuasions,  or  the  efficacy  of  abusing  ar- 
guments and  discourses.  The  reason  of  it 
is  the  truth  of  the  text:  God  did  so  avoid 
hearing  sinners  in  this  affair,  that  he  never 
permitted  them  to  do  any  miracles,  so  as  to 


32 


THE  RETURN 


OP  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  IV. 


do  any  mischief  to  the  souls  of  good  men ; 
and  therefore  it  is  said,  the  enemies  of  Christ 
came,  "in  the  power  of  signs  and  wonders, 
able  to  deceive  (if  it  were  possible)  even  the 
very  elect;"  but  that  was  not  possible; 
without  their  faults  it  could  not  be;  the  elect 
were  sufficiently  strengthened,  and  the  evi- 
dence of  Christ's  being  heard  of  God,  and 
that  none  of  his  enemies  were  heard  of  God 
to  any  dangerous  effect,  was  so  great,  that 
if  any  Christian  had  apostatized  or  fallen 
away  by  direct  persuasion,  it  was  like  the 
sin  of  a  falling  angel,  of  so  direct  a  malice, 
that  he  never  could  repent,  and  God  never 
would  pardon  him,  as  St.  Paul  twice  re- 
marks in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The 
result  of  this  discourse  is  the  first  sense  and 
explication  of  the  words,  "  God  heareth  not 
sinners,"  viz.  in  that  in  which  they  are 
sinners:  a  sinner  in  his  manners  may  be 
heard  in  his  prayer,  in  order  to  the  confirma- 
tion of  his  faith ;  but  if  he  be  a  sinner  in  his 
faith,  God  hears  him  not  at  all  in  that 
wherein  he  sins;  for  God  is  truth,  and 
cannot  confirm  a  lie,  and  whenever  he  per- 
mitted the  devil  to  do  it,  he  secured  the 
interest  of  his  elect,  that  is,  of  all  that 
believe  in  him  and  love  him,  "  lifting  up 
holy  hands  without  wrath  and  doubting." 

2.  Thatwhich  yet  concerns  us  more  nearly 
is,  that  "God  heareth  not  sinners ;"  that  is, 
if  we  be  not  good  men,  our  prayers  will  do 
us  no  good :  we  shall  be  in  the  condition 
of  them  that  never  pray  at  all.  The  prayers 
of  a  wicked  man  are  like  the  breath  of  cor- 
rupted lungs;  God  turns  away  from  such 
unwholesome  breathings.  But  that  I  may 
reduce  this  necessary  doctrine  to  a  method, 
I  shall  consider  that  there  are  some  persons 
whose  prayers  are  sins,  and  some  others 
whose  prayers  are  ineffectual :  some  are 
such  who  do  not  pray  lawfully ;  they  sin 
when  they  pray,  while  they  remain  in  that 
state  and  evil  condition;  others  are  such 
who  do  not  obtain  what  they  pray  for,  and 
yet  their  prayer  is  not  a  direct  sin:  the 
prayer  of  the  first  is  a  direct  abomination, 
the  prayer  of  the  second  is  hindered ;  the 
first  is  corrupted  by  a  direct  state  of  sin,  the 
latter  by  some  intervening  imperfection  and 
unhandsome  circumstance  of  action  ;  and  in 
proportion  to  these,  it  is  required,  1.  that  he 
be  in  a  state  and  possibility  of  acceptation  ; 
and,  2.  that  the  prayer  itself  be  in  a  proper 
disposition.  1.  Therefore  we  shall  con- 
sider, what  are  those  conditions,  which  are 
required  in  every  person  that  prays,  the 
want  of  which  makes  the  prayer  to  be  a 


sin  ?  2.  What  are  the  conditions  of  a  good 
man's  prayer,  the  absence  of  which  makes 
that  even  his  prayer  return  empty  ?  3. 
What  degrees  and  circumstances  of  piety 
are  required  to  make  a  man  fit  to  be  an 
intercessor  for  others,  both  with  holiness  in 
himself  and  effect  to  them  he  prays  for? 
And,  4.  as  an  appendix  to  these  considera- 
tions, I  shall  add  the  proper  indices  and 
signification,  by  which  we  may  make  a 
judgment  whether  God  hath  heard  cur 
prayers  or  no. 

1.  Whosoever  prays  to  God  while  he  is  in 
a  state  or  in  the  affection  to  sin,  his  prayer 
is  an  abomination  to  God.  This  was  a 
truth  so  believed  by  all  nations  of  the  world, 
that  in  all  religions  they  ever  appointed 
baptisms  and  ceremonial  expiations,  to 
cleanse  the  persons,  before  they  presented 
themselves  in  their  holy  offices.  "  Deorum 
templa  cum  adire  disponitis,  ab  omini  vos 
labe  puros,  lautos,  castissimosque  praestatis," 
ssid  Arnobius  to  the  gentiles  :  "  When  you 
address  yourselves  to  the  temples  of  your 
God,  you  keep  yourselves  chaste,  and  clean, 
and  spotless."  They  washed  their  hands  and 
wore  white  garments,  they  refused  to  touch 
a  dead  body,  they  avoided  a  spot  upon  their 
clothes  as  they  avoided  a  wound  upon  their 
head,  [Arj  xaBapcp  yap  xaOapov  itydrttsaOav  (xti  ov 
Osy-itov  jj.  That  was  the  religious  ground 
they  went  upon  ;  "  an  impure  thing  ought 
not  to  touch  that  which  is  holy,"  much  less 
to  approach  the  Prince  of  purities ;  and  this 
was  the  sense  of  the  old  world  in  their 
lustrations,  and  of  the  Jews  in  their  pre- 
paratory baptisms ;  they  washed  their  hands 
to  signify,  that  they  should  cleanse  them 
from  all  iniquity,  and  keep  them  pure  from 
blood  and  rapine ;  they  washed  their  gar- 
ments ;  but  that  intended,  they  should  not 
be  spotted  with  the  flesh ;  and  their  follies 
consisted  in  this,  that  they  did  not  look  to 
the  bottom  of  their  lavatories  ;  they  did  not 
see  through  the  veil  of  their  ceremonies. 
"  Flagitiis  omnibus  inquinati  veniunt  ad 
precandum,  et  se  pie  sacrific&sse  opinantur, 
si  cutem  laverint,  tanquam  libidines  intra 
pectrus  inclusas  ulla  amnis  abluat,  aut  ulla 
maria  purificent,"  said  Lactantius  ;  "  They 
come  to  their  prayers  dressed  round  about 
with  wickedness,  ut  quercus  hederd ;  and 
think  God  will  accept  their  offering,  if  their 
skin  be  washed ;  as  if  a  river  could  purify 
their  lustful  souls,  or  a  sea  take  off  their 
guilt."  But  David  reconciles  the  ceremony 
with  the  mystery,  "  I  will  wash  my  hands, 
I  will  wash  them  in  innocency,  and  so  1 


Serm.  IV. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


33 


will  go  to  thine  altar."  Hae  sunt  verae 
munditia?,  (saith  Tertullian,)  non  quas 
plerique  superstitione  curant  ad  omnem 
orationem,  etiam  cum  lavacro  totius  cor- 
poris aquam  sumentes.  "  This  is  the  true 
purification,  not  that  which  most  men  do, 
superstitiously  cleansing  their  hands  and 
washing  when  they  go  to  prayers,  but 
cleansing  the  soul  from  all  impiety,  and 
leaving  every  affection  to  sin;  then  they 
come  pure  to  God:"  and  this  is  it  which 
the  apostle  also  signifies,  having  translated 
the  gentile  and  Jewish  ceremony  into  the 
spirituality  of  the  gospel,  "I  will  therefore, 
that  men  pray  every  where,  levantes  puras 
manus,  lifting  up  clean  hands,"  so  it  is  in 
the  vulgar  Latin ;  6aiov$  ££tpa$,  so  it  is  in  the 
Greek,  holy  hands;  that  is  the  purity  that 
God  looks  for  upon  them  that  lift  up  their 
hands  to  him  in  prayer:  and  this  very  thing 
is  founded  upon  the  natural  constitution  of 
things,  and  their  essential  proportion  to  each 
other. 

1.  It  is  an  act  of  profanation  for  any 
unholy  person  to  handle  holy  things  and 
holy  offices.  For  if  God  was  ever  careful 
to  put  all  holy  things  into  cancels,  and  im- 
mure them  with  acts  and  laws  and  cautions 
of  separation;  and  the  very  sanctification 
of  them  was  nothing  else  but  the  solemn 
separating  them  from  common  usages,  that 
himself  might  be  distinguished  from  men  by 
actions  of  propriety;  it  is  naturally  certain, 
he  that  would  be  differenced  from  common 
things,  would  be  infinitely  divided  from 
things  that  are  wicked.  If  things  that  are 
lawful  may  yet  be  unholy  in  this  sense, 
much  more  are  unlawful  things  most  un- 
holy in  all  senses.  If  God  will  not  admit 
of  that  which  is  beside  religion,  he  will  less 
endure  that  which  is  against  religion.  And 
therefore  if  a  common  man  must  not  serve 
at  the  altar,  how  shall  he  abide  a  wicked 
man  to  stand  there  ?  No :  he  will  not 
endure  him,  but  he  will  cast  him  and  his 
prayer  into  the  separation  of  an  infinite  and 
eternal  distance.  "  Sic  profanatis  sacns 
peritura  Troja  perdidit  primum  Deos  ; — So 
Troy  entered  into  ruin  when  their  prayers 
became  unholy,  and  they  profaned  the  rites 
of  their  religion." 

2.  A  wicked  person,  while  he  remains  in 
t.iat  condition,  is  not  the  natural  object  of 
pity  :  Etoo$  iati  ?.vrCrj  irii  ava^uaf  xaxorca- 
Qovvtt,  said  Zeno ;  "  Mercy  is  a  sorrow 
or  a  trouble  at  that  misery,  which  falls 
upon  a  person  which  deserved  it  not." 
And  so  Aristotle  defines   it,   it  is  ?.ik?7 

5 


ft$  irti  1*9  7iQvrtp^>  tov  draitou  tvyzavtLv, 
'ewhen  we  see  the  person  deserves  a  better 
fortune,"  or  is  disposed  to  a  fairer  entreaty, 
then  we  naturally  pity  him  :  and  Sinon 
pleaded  for  pity  to  the  Trojans,  saying, 

 Miserere  animi  non  digna  ferentis. 

For  who  pitieth  the  fears  of  a  base  man,  who 
hath  treacherously  murdered  his  friend  ?  or 
who  will  lend  a  friendly  sigh,  when  he  sees 
a  traitor  to  his  country  pass  forth  through 
the  execrable  gates  of  cities  ?  and  when  any 
circumstance  of  baseness,  that  is,  any  thing 
that  takes  off  the  excuse  of  infirmity,  does 
accompany  a  sin,  (such  as  are  ingratitude, 
|  perjury,  perseverance,  delight,  malice,  trea- 
|chery,)  then  every  man  scorns  the  criminal, 
and  God  delights  and  rejoices  in.  and  laughs 
|  at  the  calamity  of  such  a  person.  When 
I  Vitellius  with  his  hands  bound  behind  him, 
I  his  imperial  robe  rent,  and  with  a  dejected 
countenance  and  an  ill  name,  was  led  to 
I  execution,  every  man  cursed  him,  but  no 
i  man  wept.    "  Deformitas  exitus  misericor- 
idiam  abstulerat,"  saith  Tacitus,  "The  filthi- 
'ness  of  his  life  and  death  took  away  pity." 
So  it  is  with  us  in  our  prayers  ;  while  we 
!  love  our  sin,  we  must  nurse  all  its  children  ; 
;  and  when  we  roar  in  our  lustful  beds,  and 
groan  with  the  whips  of  an  exterminating 
angel,  chastising  those  vrtoya^tpiov^  ijit&vfrias, 
(as  Aretas  calls  them,)  "  the  lusts  of  the 
lower  belly,"  wantonness,  and  its  mother 
intemperance,  we  feel  the  price  of  our  sin„ 
that  which  God  foretold  to  be  their  issues,, 
that  which  he  threatened  us  withal,  and 
that  which  is  the  natural  consequence,  and 
its  certain  expectation,  that  which  we  de 
lighted  in,  and  chose,  even  then  when  we 
refused  God,  and  threw  away  felicity,  and 
!  hated  virtue.    For  punishment  is  but  the 
latter  part  of  sin ;  it  is  not  a  new  thing  and 
distinct  from  it:  or  if  we  will  kiss  the 
hyaena,  or  clip  the  lamia  about  the  neck, 
we  have  as  certainly  chosen  the  tail,  and  its 
venomous  embraces,  as  the  face  and  lip. 
Every  man  that  sins  against  God  and  loves 
(it,  or,  which  is  all  one,  continues  in  it.  for 
,by  interpretation  tnat  is  love,  hath  all  the 
j  circumstances  of  unworthiness  towards  God  ; 
he  is  unthankful,  and  a  breaker  of  his  vows, 
iand  a  despiser  of  his  mercies,  and  impudent 
against  his  judgments;  he  is  false  to  his 
i profession,  false  to  his  faith;  he  is  an  un- 
friendly person,  and  useth  him  barbarously, 
who  hath  treated  him  with  an  affection  not 
|  less  than  infinite;  and  if  any  man  does  half 
[so  much  evil,  and  so  unhandsomely  to  a 
irnan,  we  stone  him  with  stones  and  curses, 


34 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  IV. 


with  reproach,  and  an  unrelenting  scorn.  |  of  sorrow  and  carefulness  ;  therefore  we  are 
And  how  then  shall  such  a  person  hope ;  commanded  to  fast,  that  we  may  pray  with 
that  God  should  pity  him?  For  God  better 1  more  spirituality,  and  with  repentance;  that 
understands,  and  deeper  resents,  and  more '  is,  without  the  loads  of  meat,  and  without 
essentially  hates,  and  more  severely  exacts,  the  loads  of  sin.  Of  the  same  consideration 
the  circumstances  and  degrees  of  baseness, lit  is  that  alms  are  prescribed  together  with 


than  we  can  do;  and  therefore  proportionably 
scorns  the  person  and  derides  the  calamity. 
Is  not  unthankful ness  to  God  a  greater 
baseness  and  unworthiness  than  unthank- 
fulness  to  our  patron?  And  is  not  he  as 
sensible  of  it,  and  more  than  we  ?  These 
things  are  more  than  words ;  and  therefore 
if  no  man  pities  a  base  person,  let  us 
remember,  that  no  man  is  so  base  in  any 
thing  as  in  his  unhandsome  demeanour 
towards  God.  Do  Ave  not  profess  ourselves 
his  servants,  and  yet  serve  the  devil  ?  Do 


prayer,  because  it  is  a  part  of  that  charity, 
without  which  our  souls  are  enemies  to  all 
that,  which  ought  to  be  equally  valued  with 
our  own  lives.  But  besides  this,  we  may 
easily  observe  what  special  indecencies  there 
are,  which  besides  the  general  malignity  and 
demerit,  are  special  deleteries  and  hinder- 
ances  to  our  prayers,  by  irreconciling  the 
person  of  him  that  prays. 

1.  The  first  is  unmercifulness.  vOvts  f£ 
tspov  Qufibv,  ovts  i%  d^pwrri-v^s^vcffwj  atyaiptTtov 
tbvtteov,  said  one  in  Stobaeus;  and  they  were 


we  not  live  upon  God's  provision,  and  yet  well  joined  together:  "  He  that  takes  mercy 
stand  or  work  at  the  command  of  lust  or  from  a  man,  is  like  him  that  takes  an  altar 


avarice,  human  regards  and  little  interests 
of  the  world  ?  We  call  him  Father  when 
we  desire  our  portion,  and  yet  spend  it  in 
the  society  of  all  his  enemies.  In  short,  let 
our  actions  to  God  and  their  circumstances 
be  supposed  to  be  done  towards  men,  and 
we  should  scorn  ourselves;  and  how  then 
can  we  expect  God  should  not  scorn  us, 


from  the  temple ;"  the  temple  is  of  no  use 
without  an  altar,  and  the  man  cannot  pray 
without  mercy;  and  there  are  infinite  of  pray  - 
ers  sent  forth  by  men  which  God  never  attends 
to,  but  as  to  so  many  sins,  because  the  men 
live  in  a  course  of  rapine,  or  tyranny,  or 
oppression,  or  uncharitableness,  or  some- 
thing that  is  most  contrary  to  God,  because 


and  reject  our  prayer,  when  we  have  done  |  it  is  unmerciful.  Remember,  that  God 
all  the  dishonour  to  him,  and  with  all  the  sometimes  puts  thee  into  some  images  of 
unhandsomeness  in  the  world  ?  Take  heed  j  his  own  relation.  We  beg  of  God  for 
lest  we  fall  into  a  condition  of  evil,  in  which  mercy,  and  our  brother  begs  of  us  for  pity  : 
it  shall  be  said,  you  may  thank  yourselves ;  I  and  therefore  let  us  deal  equally  with  God 
and  be  infinitely  afraid  lest  at  the  same  time  and  all  the  world.  I  see  myself  fall  by  a 
we  be  in  a  condition  of  person,  in  which  I  too  frequent  infirmity,  and  still  I  beg  for 
God  will  upbraid  our  unworthiness,  and  ;  pardon,  and  hope  for  pity  :  thy  brother  that 
scorn  our  persons,  and  rejoice  in  our  ca- !  offends  thee,  he  hopes  so  too,  and  would 
lamity.  The  first  is  intolerable,  the  second  is  fain  have  the  same  measure,  and  Avould  be 
irremediable ;  the  first  proclaims  our  folly,  as  glad  thou  wouldst  pardon  him,  as  thou 
and  the  second  declares  God's  final  justice;  j  wouldst  rejoice  in  thy  own  forgiveness.  I 
in  the  first  there  is  no  comfort,  in  the  latter  am  troubled  when  God  rejects  my  prayer, 
there  is  no  remedy ;  that  therefore  makes  j  or,  instead  of  hearing  my  petition,  sends  a 


us  miserable,  and  this  renders  us  desperate. 

3.  This  great  truth  is  further  manifested 
by  the  necessary  and  convenient  appendages 
of  prayer  required,  or  advised,  or  recom- 


judgment:  is  not  thy  tenant,  or  thy  ser- 
vant, or  thy  client,  so  to  thee?  Does  not 
he  tremble  at  thy  frown,  and  is  of  an  un- 
certain soul  till  thou  speakest  kindly  unto 


mended,  in  Holy  Scripture.  For  why  is  him,  and  observe  thy  looks  as  he  watches 
fasting  prescribed  together  with  prayer  ?  j  the  colour  of  the  bean  coming  from  the  box 
For  "  neither  if  we  eat,  are  we  the  better ;  I  of  sentence,  life  or  death  depending  on  it  ? 
neither  if  we  eat  not,  are  we  the  worse  ;"  When  he  begs  of  thee  for  mercy  ,  his  passion 
and  God  does  not  delight  in  that  service,  is  greater,  his  necessities  more  pungent,  his 
the  first,  second,  and  third  part  of  which  is  apprehension  more  brisk  and  sensitive,  his 
nothing  but  pain  and  self-affliction.  But 'case  dressed  with  the  circumstance  of  pity, 
therefore  fasting  is  useful  with  prayer, 1  and  thou  thyself  canst  better  feel  his  con- 
because  it  is  a  penal  duty,  and  an  action  of  dition  than  thou  dost  usually  perceive  the 
repentance;  for  then  only  God  hears  sin- '  earnestness  of  thy  own  prayers  to  God;  and 
ners,  when  they  enter  first  into  the  gates  of  j  if  thou  regardest  not  thy  brother  whom  thou 
repentance,  and  proceed  in  all  the  regions  seest,  whose  case  thou  feelest,  whose  cir 


Serm.  IV. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


35 


cumstances  can  afflict  thee,  whose  passion 
is  dressed  to  thy  fancy,  and  proportioned 
to  thy  capacity, — how  shall  God  regard  thy 
distant  prayer,  or  be  melted  with  thy  cold 
desire,  or  softened  with  thy  dry  story,  or 
moved  by  thy  unrepenting  soul  ?  If  I  be 
sad,  I  seek  for  comfort,  and  go  to  God  and 
to  the  ministry  of  his  creatures  for  it;  and  is 
it  not  just  in  God  to  stop  his  own  fountains, 
and  seal  the  cisterns  and  little  emanations 
of  the  creatures  from  thee,  who  shuttest  thy 
hand,  and  shuttest  thy  eye,  and  twistest  thy 
bowels  against  thy  brother,  who  would  as 
fain  be  comforted  as  thou  ?  It  is  a  strange 
iliacal  passion  that  so  hardens  a  man's 
bowels,  that  nothing  proceeds  from  him  but 
the  name  of  his  own  disease ;  a  e '  miserere 
mei  Deus,"  a  prayer  to  God  for  pity  upon 
him,  that  will  not  show  pity  to  others.  We 
are  troubled  when  God  through  severity 
breaks  our  bones,  and  hardens  his  face 
against  us  ;  but  we  think  our  poor  brother 
is  made  of  iron,  and  not  of  flesh  and  blood, 
as  we  are.  God  hath  bound  mercy  upon 
us  by  the  iron  bands  of  necessity,  and 
though  God's  mercy  is  the  measure  of  his 
justice,  yet  justice  is  the  measure  of  our 
mercy ;  and  as  we  do  to  others,  it  shall  be 
done  to  us,  even  in  the  matter  of  pardon 
and  of  bounty,  of  gentleness  and  remission, 
of  bearing  each  other's  burdens,  and  fair 
interpretation;  "Forgive  us  our  trespasses, 
as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against 
us,"  so  we  pray.  The  final  sentence  in 
this  affair  is  recorded  by  St.  James,  "  He 
that  shows  no  mercy,  shall  have  justice 
without  mercy  as  thy  poor  brother  hath 
groaned  under  thy  cruelty  and  ungentle 
nature  without  remedy,  so  shalt  thou  before 
the  throne  of  God;  thou  shalt  pray,  and 
plead,  and  call,  and  cry,  and  beg  again, 
and  in  the  midst  of  thy  despairing  noises  be 
carried  into  the  regions  of  sorrow,  which 
never  did  and  never  shall  feel  a  mercy. 
**  God  never  can  hear  the  prayers  of  an 
unmerciful  man." 

2.  Lust  and  uncleanness  are  a  direct 
enemy  to  the  praying  man,  an  obstruction 
to  his  prayers  ;  for  this  is  not  only  a  profa- 
nation, but  a  direct  sacrilege;  it  defiles  a 
temple  to  the  ground ;  it  takes  from  a  man 
all  affection  to  spiritual  things,  and  mingles 
his  very  soul  with  the  things  of  the  world ; 
it  makes  his  understanding  low,  and  his 
reasonings  cheap  and  foolish,  and  it  destroys 
his  confidence,  and  all  his  manly  hopes ;  it 

*  James  ii.  13. 


makes  his  spirit  light,  effeminate,  and  fan- 
tastic, and  dissolves  his  attention ;  and  makes 
his  mind  so  to  disaffect  all  the  objects  of  his 
desires,  that  when  he  prays  he  is  as  uneasy 
as  an  impaled  person,  or  a  condemned 
criminal  upon  the  hook  or  wheel;  and  it 
hath  in  it  this  evil  quality,  that  a  lustful 
person  cannot  pray  heartily  against  his  sin ; 
he  cannot  desire  his  cure,  for  his  will  is 
contradictory  to  his  collect,  and  he  would 
not  that  God  should  hear  the  words  of  his 
prayer,  which  he  poor  man  never  intended. 
For  no  crime  so  seizes  upon  the  will  as 
that ;  some  sins  steal  an  affection,  or  obey  a 
temptation,  or  secure  an  interest,  or  work 
by  the  way  of  understanding,  but  lust  seizes 
directly  upon  the  will,  for  the  devil  knows 
well  that  the  lusts  of  the  body  are  soon 
cured;  the  uneasiness  that  dwells  there^  is 
a  disease  very  tolerable,  and  every  degree 
of  patience  can  pass  under  it.  But  there- 
fore the  devil  seizes  upon  the  will,  and  that 
is  it  that  makes  adulteries  and  all  the  species 
of  uncleanness;  and  lust  grows  so  hard  a 
cure,  because  the  formality  of  it  is,  that  it 
will  not  be  cured ;  the  will  loves  it,  and  so 
long  as  it  does,  God  cannot  love  the  man  ; 
for  God  is  the  prince  of  purities,  and  the 
Son  of  God  is  the  king  of  virgins,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  all  love,  and  that  is  all  purity 
and  all  spirituality ;  and  therefore  the  prayer 
of  an  adulterer,  or  an  unclean  person,  is 
like  the  sacrifices  to  Moloch,  or  the  rights 
of  Flora,  "  ubi  Cato  spectator  esse  non 
potuit."  A  good  man  will  not  endure 
them;  much  less  will  God  entertain  such 
reekings  of  the  Dead  sea  and  clouds  of 
Sodom.  For  so  an  impure  vapour, — be- 
gotten of  the  slime  of  the  earth  by  the  fevers 
and  adulterous  heats  of  an  intemperate 
summer-sun,  striving  by  the  ladder  of  a 
mountain  to  climb  up  to  heaven,  and  rolling 
into  various  figures  by  an  uneasy,  unfixed 
revolution,  and  stopped  at  the  middle  region 
of  the  air,  being  thrown  from  his  pride  and 
attempt  of  passing  towards  the  seat  of  the 
stars, — turns  into  an  unwholesome  flame, 
and  like  the  breath  of  hell  is  confined  into  a 
prison  of  darkness,  and  a  cloud,  till  it  breaks 
into  diseases,  plagues,  and  mildews,  stink 
and  blastings ;  so  is  the  prayer  of  an  un 
chaste  person  ;  it  strives  to  climb  the  battle 
ments  of  heaven,  but  because  it  is  a  flame 
of  sulphur,  salt,  and  bitumen,  and  was 
kindled  in  the  dishonourable  regions  below, 
derived  from  hell,  and  contrary  to  God,  it 
cannot  pass  forth  to  the  element  of  love,  but 
ends  in  barrenness  and  murmur,  fantastic 


S6 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  V. 


expectations,  and  trifling  imaginative  con- 
fidences ;  and  they  at  last  end  in  sorroAvs 
and  despair.  Every  state  of  sin  is  against 
the  possibility  of  a  man's  being  accepted ; 
but  these  have  a  proper  venom  against  the 
graciousness  of  the  person,  and  the  power 
of  the  prayer.  God  can  never  accept  an 
unholy  prayer,  and  a  wicked  man  can  never 
send  forth  any  other ;  the  waters  pass 
through  impure  aqueducts  and  channels  of 
brimstone,  and  therefore  may  end  in  brim- 
stone and  fire,  but  never  in  forgiveness,  and 
the  blessings  of  an  eternal  charity. 

Henceforth,  therefore,  never  any  more 
wonder  that  men  pray  so  seldom ;  there  are 
few  that  feel  the  relish,  and  are  enticed  witb 
the  deliciousness,  and  refreshed  with  the 
comforts,  and  instructed  with  the  sanctity, 
and  acquainted  with  the  secrets  of  a  holy 
prayer;  but  cease  also  to  wonder,  that  of 
those  few  that  say  many  prayers,  so  few 
find  any  return  of  any  at  all.  To  make  up 
a  good  and  a  lawful  prayer,  there  must  be 
charity,  with  all  its  daughters,  "  alms,  for- 
giveness," not  judging  uncharitably;  there 
must  be  purity  of  spirit,  that  is,  purity  of 
intention ;  and  there  must  be  purity  of  the 
body  and  soul,  that  is,  the  cleanness  of 
chastity ;  and  there  must  be  no  vice  remain- 
ing, no  affection  to  sin ;  for  he  that  brings 
his  body  to  God,  and  hath  left  his  will  in 
the  power  of  any  sin,  offers  to  God  the 
calves  of  his  lips,  but  not  a  whole  burnt- 
offering;  a  lame  oblation,  but  not  a  "  reason- 
able sacrifice;  and  therefore  their  portion 
shall  be  amongst  them  whose  prayers  were 
never  recorded  in  the  book  of  life,  whose 
tears  God  never  put  into  his  bottle,  whose 
desires  shall  remain  ineffectual  to  eternal 
ages.  Take  heed  you  do  not  lose  your 
prayers;  "for  by  them  ye  hope  to  have 
eternal  life ;"  and  let  any  of  you,  whose 
conscience  is  most  religious  and  tender, 
consider  what  condition  that  man  is  in,  that 
hath  not  said  his  prayers  in  thirty  or  forty 
years  together ;  and  that  is  the  true  state  of 
him,  who  hath  lived  so  long  in  the  course 
of  an  unsanctified  life ;  in  all  that  while  he 
never  said  one  prayer  that  did  him  any 
good,  but  they  ought  to  be  reckoned  to  him 
upon  the  account  of  his  sins.  He  that  is  in 
the  affection,  or  in  the  habit,  or  in  the  state, 
of  any  one  sin  whatsoever,  is  at  such  dis- 
tance from  and  contrariety  to  God,  that  he 
provokes  God  to  anger  in  every  prayer  he 
makes:  and  then  add  but  this  consideration;  i 
that  prayer  is  the  great  sum  of  our  religion, 
it  is  the  effect,  and  the  exercise,  and  the 


beginning,  and  the  promoter,  of  all  graces, 
and  the  consummation  and  perfection  of 
many ;  and  all  those  persons  who  pretend 
towards  heaven,  and  yet  are  not  experienced 
in  the  secrets  of  religion,  they  reckon  their 
piety,  and  account  their  hopes,  only  upon 
the  stock  of  a  few  prayers.  It  may  be  they 
pray  twice  every  day,  it  may  be  thrice,  and 
blessed  be  God  for  it ;  so  far  is  very  well  ; 
but  if  it  shall  be  remembered  and  considered, 
that  this  course  of  piety  is  so  far  from  war- 
ranting any  one  course  of  sin,  that  any  one 
habitual  and  cherished  sin  destroys  the 
effect  of  all  that  piety,  we  shall  see  there  is 
reason  to  account  this  to  be  one  of  those 
great  arguments,  with  which  God  hath  so 
bound  the  duty  of  holy  living  upon  us,  that 
without  a  holy  life  we  cannot  in  any  sense 
be  happy,  or  have  the  effect  of  one  prayer. 
But  if  we  be  returning  and  repenting  sin- 
ners, God  delights  to  hear,  because  he 
delights  to  save  us  : 

 Si  precibus  (dixerunt)  numina  justis 

Victa  remollescunt  

When  a  man  is  holy,  then  God  is  gra- 
cious, and  a  holy  life  is  the  best,  and  it  is  a 
continual  prayer;  and  repentance  is  the 
best  argument  to  move  God  to  mercy,  be- 
cause it  is  the  instrument  to  unite  our  pray- 
ers to  the  intercession  of  the  holy  Jesus. 


SERMON  V. 

PART  II. 

After  these  evidences  of  Scripture,  and 
reason  derived  from  its  analogy,  there  will 
be  less  necessity  to  take  any  particular 
notices  of  those  little  objections,  which  are 
usually  made  from  the  experience  of  the 
success  and  prosperities  of  evil  persons. 
For  true  it  is,  there  is  in  the  world  a  gene- 
ration of  men  that  pray  long  and  loud,  and 
ask  for  vile  things,  such  which  they  ought 
to  fear,  and  pray  against,  and  yet  they  are 
heard;  "the  fat  upon  earth  eat  and  wor- 
ship :"*  but  if  these  men  ask  things  hurtful 
and  sinful,  it  is  certain  God  hears  them  not 
in  mercy :  they  pray  to  God  as  despairing 
Saul  did  to  his  armour-bearer,  "Sta  super 
me  et  interfice  me;"  "Stand  upon  me  and 
kill  me;  and  he  that  obeyed  his  voice  did 
him  dishonour,  and  sinned  against  the  head 


*  Psal.  xxii.  29 


Skrm.V.  THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS.  37 


of  his  king,  and  his  own  life.  And  the  vi- 
cious persons  of  old  prayed  to  Laverna, 

 Pulchra  Laverna, 

Da  mihi  fallere.  da  justum  sanctumque  videri, 
Noctem  peccatis  et  iraudibus  objice  nubem. 

"Give  me  a  prosperous  robbery,  a  rich  prey, 
and  secret  escape,  let  me  become  rich,  with 
thieving,  and  still  be  accounted  holy  :  n  for 
every  sort  of  men  hath  some  religion  01 
other,  by  the  measures  of  which  they  propor- 
tion their  lives  and  their  prayers ;  now,  as  I 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  teaching  us  to  pray, 
makes  us  like  himself,  in  order  to  a  holy  and 
an  effective  prayer ;  and  no  man  prays  well, 
but  he  that  prays  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  "  the  j 
Spirit  of  holiness,"  and  he  that  prays  with 
the  spirit  must  be  made  like  to  the  Spirit ;  he 
is  first  sanctified  and  made  holy,  and  then 
made  fervent,  and  then  his  prayer  ascends 
beyond  the  clouds :  first,  he  is  renewed  in 
the  spirit  of  his  mind,  and  then  he  is  in- 
flamed with  holy  fires,  and  guided  by  a 
bright  star;  first  purified  and  then  lightened, 
then  burning  and  shining :  so  is  every  man 
in  every  of  his  prayers ;  he  is  always  like 
the  Spirit  by  which  he  prays :  if  he  be  a 
lustful  person,  he  prays  with  a  lustful  spirit; 
if  he  does  not  pray  for  it,  he  cannot  heartily 
pray  against  it :   if  he  be  a  tyrant  or  a 
usurper,  a  robber  or  a  murderer,  he  hath 
his  Laverna  too,  by  which  all  his  desires 
are  guided,  and  his  prayers  directed,  and 
his  petitions  furnished:    he  cannot  pray 
against  that  spirit  that  possesses  him,  and 
hath  seized  upon  his  will  and  affections  :  if 
he  be  filled  with  a  lying  spirit,  and  be 
conformed  to  it  in  the  image  of  his  mind, 
he  will  be  also  in  the  expressions  of  his 
prayer,  and  the  sense  of  his  soul.  Since, 
therefore,  no  prayer  can  be  good  but  that 
which  is  taught  by  the  Spirit  of  grace,  none 
holy  but  the  man  whom  God's  Spirit  hath 
sanctified,  and  therefore  none  heard  to  any 
purposes  of  blessing,  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
does  not  make  for  us  (for  he  makes  interces- 
sion for  the  saints;  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is 
the  precentor  or  rector  chori,  the  master 
of  the  choir);   it  follows  that  all  other 
prayers,  being  made  with  an  evil  spirit, 
must  have  an  evil  portion;  and  though 
the  devils  by  their  oracles  have  given  some 
answers,  and  by  their  significations  have 
foretold  some  future  contingencies,  and  in 
their  government  and  subordinate  rule  have 
assisted  some  armies,  and  discovered  some 
treasures,  and  prevented  some  snares  of 
chance  and  accidents  of  men;  yet  no  man, 
that  reckons  by  the  measures  of  reason  or 


religion,   reckons  witches   and  conjurors 
amongst  blessed  and  prosperous  persons: 
these  and  all  other  evil  persons  have  an 
evil  spirit,  by  the  measures  of  which  their 
desires  begin  and  proceed  on  to  issue;  but 
this  success  of  theirs  neither  comes  from 
God/  nor  brings  felicity:  but  if  it  comes 
from  God,  it  is  anger;  if  it  descends  upon 
good  men,  it  is  a  curse ;  if  upon  evil  men, 
it  is  a  sin;  and  then  it  is  a  present  curse, 
and  leads,  on  to  an  eternal  infelicity.  Plu- 
tarch reports,  that  the  Tyrians  tied  their 
gods  with  chains,  because  certain  persons 
did  dream,  that  Apollo  said  he  would  leave 
their  city,  and  go  to  the  party  of  Alexander, 
who  then  besieged  the  town  :  and  Apollo- 
dorus  tells  of  some,  that  tied  the  image  of 
Saturn  with  bands  of  wool  upon  his  feet. 
So  some  Christians ;  they  think  God  is  tied 
to  their  sect,  and  bound  to  be  of  their  side, 
and  the  interest  of  their  opinion ;  and  they 
think,  he  can  never  go  to  the  enemy's  party, 
so  long  as  they  charm  him  with  certain 
form  of  words  or  disguises  of  their  own ; 
and  then  all  the  success  they  have,  and  all 
the  evils  that  are  prosperous,  all  the  mis- 
chiefs they  do,  and  all  the  ambitious  designs 
|  that  do  succeed,    they  reckon  upon  the 
account  of  their  prayers ;  and  well  they  may : 
I  for  their  prayers  are  sins,  and  their  desires 
are  evil ;  they  wish  mischief,  and  they  act 
!  iniquity,  and  they  enjoy  their  sin :  and  if 
|  this  be  a  blessing  or  a  cursing,  themselves 
|  shall  then  judge,  and  all  the  world  shall 
!  perceive,   when  the  accounts  of  all  the 
|  world  are  truly  stated ;  then,  when  prosperity 
shall  be  called  to  accounts,  and  adversity 
j  shall  receive  its  comforts,  when  virtue  shall 
i  have  a  crown,  and  the  satisfaction  of  all 
sinful  desires  shall  be  recompensed  with  an 
I  intolerable  sorrow,  and  the  despair  of  a  per- 
ishing soul.   Nero's  mother  prayed  passion- 
I  ately,  that  her  son  might  be  emperor ;  and 
many  persons,  of  whom  St.  James  speaks, 
"pray  to  spend  upon  their  lusts,"  and  they 
are  heard  too :  some  were  not,  and  very 
many  are :  and  some,  that  fight  against 
a  just  possessor  of  a  country,  pray,  that 
their  wars  may  be  prosperous;  and  some- 
times they  have  been  heard  too  :  and  Julian 
the  Apostate  prayed,  and  sacrificed,  and  in- 
quired of  demons,  and  burned  man's  flesh, 
and  operated  with  secret  rites,  and  all  that 
he  might  craftily  and  powerfully  oppose  the 
religion  of  Christ;  and  he  was  heard  to,  and 
did  mischief  beyond  the  malice  and  the 
effect  of  his  predecessors,  that  did  swim  in 
Christian  blood:   but  when  we  sum  up  the 


38 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS.  Serm.  V. 


accounts  at  the  foot  of  their  lives,  or  as  soon 
as  the  thing  was  understood,  and  find  that 
the  effect  of  Agrippian's  prayer  was,  that 
her  son  murdered  her;  and  of  those  lustful 
petitioners,  in  St.  James,  that  they  were 
given  over  to  the  tyranny  and  possession  of 
their  passions,  and  baser  appetites ;  and  the 
effect  of  Julian  the  Apostate's  prayer  was, 
that  he  lived  and  died  a  professed  enemy  of 
Christ;  and  the  effect  of  the  prayers  of 
usurpers  is,  that  they  do  mischief,  and  reap 
curses,  and  undo  mankind,  and  provoke 
God,  and  live  hated,  and  die  miserable,  and 
shall  possess  the  fruit  of  their  sin  to  eternal 
ages ;  these  will  be  no  objections  to  the  truth 
nf  the  former  discourse ;  but  the  greater 
instances,  that,  if  by  hearing  our  prayers, 
we  mean  or  intend  a  blessing,  we  must  also, 
by  making  prayers,  mean,  that  the  man  first 
be  holy,  and  his  desires  just  and  charitable, 
before  he  can  be  admitted  to  the  throne 
of  grace,  or  converse  with  God  by  the  inter- 
courses of  a  prosperous  prayer. 

That  is  the  first  general.  2.  Many  times 
good  men  pray,  and  their  prayer  is  not  a  sin, 
but  yet  it  returns  empty ;  because,  although 
the  man  may  be,  yet  the  prayer  is  not, 
m  proper  disposition ;  and  here  I  am  to  ac- 
count to  you  concerning  the  collateral  and 
accidental  hinderances  of  the  prayer  of  a 
good  man. 

The  first  thing  that  hinders  the  prayer  of 
a  good  man  from  obtaining  its  effects,  is  a 
violent  anger  and  a  violent  storm  in  the 
spirit  of  him  that  prays.  For  anger  sets  the 
house  on  fire,  and  all  the  spirits  are  busy 
upon  trouole,  and  intend  propulsion,  defence, 
displeasure,  or  revenge  ;  it  is  a  short  mad- 
ness, and  an  eternal  enemy  to  discourse,  and 
sober  counsels,  and  fair  conversation ;  it 
intends  its  own  object  with  all  the  earnest- 
ness of  perception,  or  activity  of  design,  and 
a  quicker  motion  of  a  too  warm  and  distem- 
pered blood ;  it  is  a  fever  in  the  heart,  and  a 
calenture  in  the  head,  and  a  fire  in  the  face, 
and  a  sword  in  the  hand,  and  a  fury  all  over ; 
and  therefore  can  never  suffer  a  man  to 
be  in  a  disposition  to  pray.  For  prayer  is 
an  action,  and  a  state  of  intercourse  and 
desire,  exactly  contrary  to  this  character  of 
anger.  Prayer  is  an  action  of  likeness  to 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Spirit  of  gentleness 
and  dove-like  simplicity  ;  an  imitation  of 
the  holy  Jesus,  whose  spirit  is  meek,  up  to 
the  greatness  of  the  biggest  example,  and  a 
conformity  to  God ;  whose  anger  is  always 
just,  and  matches  slowly,  and  is  without 
transportation,  and  often  hindered,  and  never 


hasty,  and  is  full  of  mercy :  prayer  is  the 
peace  of  our  spirit,  the  stillness  of  our 
thoughts,  the  evenness  of  recollection,  the 
seat  of  meditation,  the  rest  of  our  cares,  and 
the  calm  of  our  tempest ;  prayer  is  the  issue 
of  a  quiet  mind,  of  untroubled  thoughts,  it 
is  the  daughter  of  charity,  and  the  sister  of 
meekness ;  and  he  that  prays  to  God  with  an 
angry,  that  is,  with  a  troubled  and  discom- 
posed spirit,  is  like  him  that  retires  into 
a  battle  to  meditate,  and  sets  up  his  closet  in 
the  out-quarters  of  an  army,  and  chooses 
a  frontier-garrison  to  be  wise  in.  Anger  is 
a  perfect  alienation  of  the  mind  from  prayer, 
and  therefore  is  contrary  to  that  attention, 
which  presents  our  prayers  in  a  right  line  to 
God.  For  so  have  I  seen  a  lark  rising  from 
his  bed  of  grass,  and  soaring  upwards, 
singing  as  he  rises,  and  hopes  to  get  to 
heaven,  and  climb  above  the  clouds;  but 
the  poor  bird  was  beaten  back  with  the  loud 
sighings  of  an  eastern  wind,  and  his  motion 
made  irregular  and  inconstant,  descending 
more  at  every  breath  of  the  tempest,  than  it 
could  recover  by  the  libration  and  frequent 
weighing  of  his  wings ;  till  the  little  creature 
was  forced  to  sit  down  and  pant,  and 

I  stay  till  the  storm  was  over;  and  then 
it  made  a  prosperous  flight,  and  did  rise  and 
sing,  as  if  it  had  learned  music  and  motion 

Ifrom  an  angel,  as  he  passed  sometimes 
through  the  air,  about  his  ministries  here 
below :  so  is  the  prayer  of  a  good  man  ; 

;  when  his  affairs  have  required  business,  and 
his  business  was  matter  of  discipline,  and  his 
discipline  was  to  pass  upon  a  sinning  person, 
or  had  a  design  of  charity,  his  duty  met 

I  with  infirmities  of  a  man,  and  anger  was  its 
instrument,  and  the  instrument  became 
stronger  than  the  prime  agent,  and  raised  a 
tempest,  and  overruled  the  man ;  and  then 
his  prayer  was  broken,  and  his  thoughts 

I  were  troubled,  and  his  words  went  up  to- 

I  wards  a  cloud,  and  his  thoughts  pulled  them 

I  back  again,  and  made  them  without  inten- 
tion ;  and  the  good  man  sighs  for  his 
infirmity,  but  must  be  content  to  loose 
the  prayer,  and  he  must  recover  it  when  his 

j  anger  is  removed,  and  his  spirit  is  becalmed, 
made  even  as  the  brow  of  Jesus,  and  smooth 
like  the  heart  of  God ;  and  then  it  ascends  to 
heaven  upon  the  wings  of  the  holy  dove, 
and  dwells  with  God,  till  it  returns,  like  the 
useful  bee,  loaded  with  a  blessing  and 
the  dew  of  heaven. 

But  besides  this ;  anger  is  a  combination 
of  many  other  things,  every  one  of  which 
is  an  enemy  to  prayer;  it  is  Tart*?,  and  opi£i$, 


Serm.  V. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


39 


and  tc/xio^a,  and  it  is  and  it  is  aOpoos, 
and  it  is  xo%aa^,  and  s7tttliAr(oi$ ;  so  it  is  in 
the  several  definitions  of  it,  and  in  its  natural 
constitution.  It  hath  in  it  the  trouble  of 
sorrow,  and  the  heats  of  lust,  and  the  disease 
of  revenge,  and  the  boilings  of  a  fever,  and 
the  rashness  of  precipitancy,  and  the  dis- 
turbance of  persecution ;  and  therefore  is 
a  certain  effective  enemy  against  prayer; 
which  ought  to  be  a  spiritual  joy,  and  an 
act  of  mortification ;  and  to  have  in  it  no 
heats,  but  of  charity  and  zeal;  and  they  are 
to  be  guided  by  prudence  and  consideration, 
rind  allayed  with  the  deliciousness  of  mercy, 
and  the  serenity  of  a  meek  and  a  quiet  spirit; 
and  therefore  St.  Paul  gave  caution,  that "  the 
sun  should  not  go  down  upon  our  anger," 
meaning,  that  it  should  not  stay  upon  us 
till  evening  prayer  ;  for  it  would  hinder  our 
evening  sacrifice;  but  the  stopping  of  the 
first  egressions  of  anger,  is  a  certain  artifice 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  prevent  unmerciful- 
ness,  which  turns  not  only  our  desires  into 
vanity,  but  our  prayers  into  sin;  and,  re- 
member, that  Elisha's  anger,  though  it  was 
also  zeal,  had  so  discomposed  his  spirit, 
when  the  two  kings  came  to  inquire  of  the 
Lord,  that,  though  he  was  a  good  man  and 
a  prophet,  yet  he  could  not  pray,  he  could 
not  inquire  of  the  Lord,  till  by  rest  and 
music  he  had  gathered  himself  into  the 
evenness  of  a  dispassionate  and  recollected 
mind;  therefore,  let  your  prayers  be  without 
wrath.    BovKstai  av-tov$  avadiBd^ai  §ta  Gvfifio'kictv 

O7t0t£,  7if>00£p%OlVtO  ftj  fiu>[A.OV$  £V%dy,£VOl  7}  £VXa' 

pi&tijaaargss,  fi-qbav  d/jjjiooT,»fti*a  rj  TidOog  £7tiq>ip£69ac 
?yj  ^vxq  ;  "  for  God,  by  many  significations, 
hath  taught  us,  that  when  men  go  to  the 
altars  to  pray  or  give  thanks,  they  must 
bring  no  sin  or  violent  passion  along  with 
ihem  to  the  sacrifice,"  said  Philo. 

2.  Indifferency  and  easiness  of  desire  is  a 
great  enemy  to  the  success  of  a  good  man's 
prayer.  When  Plato  gave  Diogenes  a  great 
vessel  of  wine,  who  asked  but  a  little,  and 
a  few  caraways,  the  Cynic  thanked  him 
with  his  rude  expression:  "Cum  interroga- 
ns, quot  sint  duo  et  duo,  respondes  viginti; 
ita  non  secundum  ea,  quae  rogaris,  das ;  nec 
ad  ea,  quae  interrogaris,  respondes:"  "Thou 
neither  answerest  to  the  question  thou  art 
asked,  nor  givest  according  as  thou  art  de- 
sired: being  inquired  of,  how  many  are  two 
and  two,  thou  answerest,  twenty."  So  it 
is  with  God  and  us  in  the  intercourse  of  our 
prayers :  we  pray  for  health,  and  he  gives 
us,  it  may  be,  a  sickness  that  carries  us  into 
eternal  life ;  we  pray  for  necessary  support 


|  for  our  persons  and  families,  and  he  gives 
j  us  more  than  we  need ;  we  beg  for  a  re- 
moval of  a  present  sadness,  and  he  gives  us 
I  that  which  makes  us  able  to  bear  twenty 
sadnesses,  a  cheerful  spirit,  a  peaceful  con- 
science and  a  joy  in  God,  as  an  antepast  of 
eternal  rejoicings  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
But,  then,  although  God  doth  very  fre- 
quently give  us  beyond  the  matter  of  our 
desires,  yet  he  does  not  so  often  give  us 
great  things  beyond  the  spirit  of  our  desires, 
beyond  the  quickness,  vivacity,  and  fervour 
of  our  minds  :  for  there  is  but  one  thing  in 
the  world  that  God  hates  besides  sin,  that 
is,  indifferency  and  lukewarmness;*'  which, 
although  it  hath  not  in  it  the  direct  nature 
of  sin,  yet  it  hath  this  testimony  from  God, 
that  it  is  loathsome  and  abominable;  and 
excepting  this  thing  alone,  God  never  said 
so  of  any  thing  in  the  New  Testament,  but 
what  was  a  direct  breach  of  a  command- 
ment. The  reason  of  it  is,  because  luke- 
warmness, or  an  indifferent  spirit,  is  an 
undervaluing  of  God  and  of  religion  ;  it  is  a 
separation  of  reason  from  affections,  and  a 
perfect  conviction  of  the  understanding  to 
the  goodness  of  a  duty,  but  a  refusing  to 
follow  what  we  understand.  For  he  that 
is  lukewarm  alway,  understands  the  better 
way,  and  seldom  pursues  it;  he  hath  so 
much  reason  as  is  sufficient,  but  he  will  not 
obey  it ;  his  will  does  not  follow  the  dictate 
of  his  understanding,  and  therefore  it  is 
unnatural.  It  is  like  the  fantastic  fires  of 
the  night,  where  there  is  light,  and  no  heat; 
and  therefore  may  pass  on  to  the  real  fires 
of  hell,  where  there  is  heat,  and  no  light ; 
and  therefore,  although  an  act  of  lukewarm- 
ness is  only  an  indecency,  and  no  sin,  yet 
a  state  of  lukewarmness  is  criminal,  and  a 
sinful  state  of  imperfection  and  indecency; 
an  act  of  indifferency  hinders  a  single  prayer 
from  being  accepted;  but  a  state  of  it  makes 
the  person  ungracious  and  despised  in  the 
court  of  heaven :  and  therefore  St.  James, 
in  his  accounts  concerning  an  effective 
prayer,  not  only  requires  that  he  be  a  just 
|  man  who  prays,  but  his  prayer  must  be 
fervent;  8iq<sis  Sixaiov  iptpyovfievrj,  "  an  effec- 
tual prayer,"  so  our  English  reads  it;  it 
must  be  an  intent,  zealous,  busy,  operative 
prayer;  for  consider  what  a  huge  indecency 
it  is,  that  a  man  should  speak  to  God  for  a 
thing  that  he  values  not ;  or  that  he  should 
not  value  a  thing,  without  which  he  cannot 
be  happy;  or  that  he  should  spend  his 


*  See  Sermon  II.  of  Lukewarmness  and  Ze.ii 


40 


THE   RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  V 


religion  upon  a  trifle;  and  if  it  be  not  a  1  and  inapprehensive,  without  resolution  ana 
trifle,  that  he  should  not  spend  his  affections  determination,  never  choosing  clearly,  nor 
upon  it.    If  our  prayers  be  for  temporal  pursuing  earnestly,  and  therefore  never  en- 


ihings,  I  shall  not  need  to  stir  up  your 
affections  to  be  passionate  for  their  pur- 
chase ;  we  desire  them  greedily,  we  run 
after  them  intemperately,  we  are  kept  from 
them  with  huge  impatience,  we  are  delayed 
with  infinite  regrets  ;  we  prefer  them  before 
our  duty,  we  ask  them  unseasonably ;  we 


ter  into  possession;  but  always  stand  at  the 
gate  of  weariness,  unnecessary  caution,  and 
perpetual  irresolution.  But  so  it  is  too  of- 
ten in  our  prayers  ;  we  come  to  God  because 
it  is  civil  so  to  do,  and  a  general  custom, 
but  neither  drawn  thither  by  love,  nor 
pinched  by  spiritual  necessities  and  puD 


receive  them  with  our  own  prejudice,  and  J  gent  apprehensions;  we  say  so  many  pray 
we  care  not;  we  choose  them  to  our  hurt  ers,  because  we  are  resolved  so  to  do,  and 
and  hinderance,  and  yet  delight  in  the  pur-  'we  pass  through  them,  sometimes  with  a 
chase;  and  when  we  do  pray  for  them,  we  j  little  attention,  sometimes  with  none  at 
can  hardly  bring  ourselves  to  it,  to  submit  jail;  and  can  we  think  that  the  grace  of 
to  God's  will,  but  will  have  them  (if  we  |  chastity  can  be  obtained  at  such  a  purchase, 
can)  whether  he  be  pleased  or  no ;  like  the  that  grace,  that  hath  cost  more  labours  than 


parasite  in  the  comedy  ,  "Qui  comedit  quod 
fuit  et  quod  non  fuit:"  "he  ate  all  and  more 
than  all ;  what  was  set  before  him,  and 
what  was  kept  from  him."  But  then,  for 
spiritual  things,  for  the  interests  of  our 
souls,  and  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  we 
pray  to  God  with  just  such  a  zeal,  as  a  man 
begs  of  a  chirurgeon  to  cut  him  of  the 
stone ;  or  a  condemned  man  desires  his 
executioner  quickly  to  put  him  out  of  his 
pain,  by  taking  away  his  life;  when  things 
are  come  to  that  pass,  it  must  be  done,  but 
God  knows  with  what  little  complacency 
and  desire  the  man  makes  his  request  :  and 
yet  the  things  of  religion  and  the  Spirit  are 
the  only  things  that  ought  to  be  desired 
vehemently,  and  pursued  passionately,  be- 
cause God  hath  set  such  a  value  upon 


all  the  persecutions  of  faith,  and  all  the  dis- 
putes of  hope,  and  all  the  expense  of  charity 
besides,  amounts  to?  Can  we  expect  that 
our  sins  should  be  washed  by  a  lazy  prayer? 
Can  an  indifferent  prayer  quench  the  flames 
of  hell,  or  rescue  us  from  an  eternal  sorrow  ? 
Is  lust  so  soon  overcome,  that  the  very  naming 
it  can  master  it  ?  Is  the  devil  so  slight  and 
easy  an  enemy,  that  he  will  fly  away  from 
us  at  the  first  word,  spoken  without  power 
and  without  vehemence?  Read  and  attend 
to  the  accents  of  the  prayers  of  saints.  "I 
cried  day  and  night  before  thee,  O  Lord  ; 
my  soul  refused  comfort ;  my  throat  is  dry 
with  calling  upon  my  God,  my  knees  are 
weak  through  fasting ;"  and,  "  Let  me 
alone,"  says  God  to  Moses,  and,  "  I  will 
not  let  thee  go  till  thou  hast  blessed  me," 


them,  that  they  are  the  effects  of  his  greatest  I  said  Jacob  to  the  angel.    And  I  shall  tell 

you  a  short  character  of  a  fervent  prayer 
out  of  the  practice  of  St.  Jerome,  in  his 
epistle  "ad  Eustachium  de  Custodia  Vir- 
ginitatis."  "Being  destitute  of  all  help.  I 
threw  myself  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus;  I 
watered  his  feet  with  tears,  and  wiped  them 
witn  my  hair,  and  mortified  the  lust  of  my 
flesh  with  the  abstinence  and  hungry  diet 
of  many  weeks;  I  remember  that  in  my 
crying  to  God,  I  did  frequently  join  the 
night  and  the  day,  and  never  did  entertain 
to  call,  nor  cease  from  beating  my  breast, 
till  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  brought  to  me 
peace  and  freedom  from  temptation.  After 
many  tears,  and  my  eyes  fixed  in  heaven, 
I  thought  myself  sometimes  encircled  with 
a  |  troops  of  angels,  and  then  at  last  I  sang  to 
God,  'We  will  run  after  thee  into  the  smell 
and  deliciousness  of  thy  precious  oint- 
ments ;'  " — such  a  prayer  as  this  will  never 
return  without  its   errand.     But  though 


loving-kindness ;  they  are  the  purchases  of 
Christ's  blood,  and  the  effect  of  his  con- 
tinual intercession,  the  fruits  of  his  bloody 
sacrifice,  and  the  gifts  of  his  healing  and 
saving  mercy  ;  the  graces  of  God's  Spirit, 
and  the  only  instruments  of  felicity  :  and  if 
we  can  have  fondnesses  for  things  indiffer- 
ent or  dangerous,  our  prayers  upbraid  our 
spirits,  when  we  beg  coldly  and  tamely  for 
those  things  for  which  we  ought  to  die, 
which  are  more  precious  than  the  globes 
of  kings,  and  weightier  than  imperial  scep- 
tres, richer  than  the  spoils  of  the  sea,  or  the 
treasures  of  the  Indian  hills. 

He  that  is  cold  and  tame  in  his  prayers, 
hath  not  tasted  of  the  deliciousness  of  re- 
ligion and  the  goodness  of  God  ;  he  is 
stranger  to  the  secrets  of  the  kingdom,  and 
therefore  he  does  not  know  what  it  is, 
either  to  have  hunger  or  satiety  ;  and  there- 
fore neither  are  they  hungry  for  God,  nor 


satisfied  with  the  world ;  but  remain  stupid  your  person  be  as  gracious  as  David  or 


Serm.  V. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


41 


Job,  and  your  desire  as  holy  as  the  love  of 
angels,  and  your  necessities  great  as  a  new 
penitent,  yet  it  pierces  not  the  clouds,  unless 
it  be  also  as  loud  as  thunder,  passionate  as 
the  cries  of  women,  and  clamorous  as  ne- 
cessity. And  we  may  guess  at  the  degrees 
of  importunity  by  the  insinuation  of  the 
apostle:  "Let  the  married  abstain  for  a 
time,"  ut  vacent  orationi  et  jejwiio,  "  that 
they  may  attend  to  prayer it  is  a  great 
attendance,  and  a  long  diligence,  that  is 
promoted  by  such  a  separation ;  and  sup- 
poses a  devotion  that  spends  more  than 
many  hours :  for  ordinary  prayers,  and 
many  hours  of  every  day,  might  well 
enough  consist  with  an  ordinary  cohabita- 
tion ;  but  that  which  requires  such  a  sepa- 
ration, calls  for  a  longer  time  and  a  greater 
attendance  than  we  usually  consider.  For 
every  prayer  we  make  is  considered  by 
God,  and  recorded  in  heaven;  but  cold 
prayers  are  not  put  into  the  account,  in 
order  to  effect  and  acceptation  ;  but  are  laid 
aside  like  the  buds  of  roses,  which  a  cold 
wind  hath  nipped  into  death,  and  the  dis- 
coloured, tawny  face  of  an  Indian  slave : 
and  when  in  order  to  your  hopes  of  obtain- 
ing a  great  blessing,  you  reckon  up  your 
prayers,  with  which  you  have  solicited  your 
suit  in  the  court  of  heaven,  you  must  reckon, 
not  by  the  number  of  the  collects,  but  by 
your  sighs  and  passions,  by  the  vehemence 
of  your  desires,  and  the  fervour  of  your 
spirit,  the  apprehension  of  your  need,  and 
the  consequent  prosecution  of  your  supply. 
Christ  prayed  xpavycuj  ttfgvpats  "with  loud 
cryings,"  and  St.  Paul  made  mention  of  his 
.scholars  in  his  prayers  "night  and  day." 
Fall  upon  your  knees  and  grow  there,  and 
let  not  your  desires  cool  nor  your  zeal 
remit,  but  renew  it  again  and  again,  and  let 
not  your  offices  and  the  custom  of  praying 
put  thee  in  mind  of  thy  need,  but  let  thy 
need  draw  thee  to  thy  holy  offices;  and 
remember,  how  great  a  God,  how  glorious 
a  majesty  you  speak  to ;  therefore,  let  not 
your  devotions  and  addresses  be  little.  Re- 
member, how  great  a  need  thou  hast;  let 
not  your  desires  be  less.  Remember,  how 
great  the  thing  is  you  pray  for;  do  not 
undervalue  it  with  thy  indifTerency.  Re- 
member, that  prayer  is  an  act  of  religion : 
let  it,  therefore,  be  made  thy  business  :  and, 
lastly,  Remember  that  God  hates  a  cold 
prayer  ;  and,  therefore,  will  never  bless  it, 
but  it  shall  be  always  ineffectual. 

3.  Under  this  title  of  lukewarmness  and 
tepidity  mav  be  comprised  also  these  cau- 
6 


tions:  that  a  good  man's  prayers  are  some- 
times hindered  by  inadvertency,  sometimes 
by  Avant  of  perseverance.   For  inadvertency, 

;or  want  of  attendance  to  the  sense  and  in- 
tention of  our  prayers,  is  certainly  an  effect 

•  of  lukewarmness,  and  a  certain  companion 
and  appendage  to  human  infirmity;  and  is 

:  only  so  remedied,  as  our  prayers  are  made 
zealous,  and  our  infirmities  pass  into  the 
strengths  of  the  Spirit.    But  if  we  were 

1  quick  in  our  perceptions,  either  concerning 
our  danger,  or  our  need,  or  the  excellency 

'<  of  the  object,  or  the  glories  of  God,  or  the 

(niceties  and  perfections  of  religion,  we 
should  not  dare  to  throw  away  our  prayers 

!so  like  fools,  or  come  to  God  and  say  a 
prayer  with  our  mind  standing  at  distance, 
trifling  like  untaught  boys  at  their  books, 
with  a  truantly  spirit.  1  shall  say  no  more 
to  this,  but  that,  in  reason,  we  can  never 
hope,  that  God  in  heaven  will  hear  our 
prayers,  which  we  ourselves  speak,  and  yet 
hear  not  at  the  same  time,  when  we  our- 
selves speak  them  with  instruments  joined 
to  our  ears  ;  even  wTith  those  organs,  which 
are  parts  of  our  hearing  faculties.  If  they 
be  not  worth  our  own  attending  to,  they 
are  not  worth  God's  hearing ;  if  they  are 
worth  God's  attending  to,  we  must  make 
them  so  by  our  own  zeal,  and  passion,  and 
industry,  and  observation,  and  a  present 
and  a  holy  spirit. 

But  concerning  perseverance,  the  con- 
sideration is  something  distinct.  For  when 
our  prayer  is  for  a  great  matter,  and  a  great 

j  necessity,  strictly  attended  to,  yet  we  pursue 
it  only  by  chance   or   humour,   by  the 

j  strengths  of  fancy,  and  natural  disposition  ; 

j  or  else  our  choice  is  cool  as  soon  as  hot, 

I  like  the  emissions  of  lightning,  or  like  a 

.sunbeam  often  interrupted  with  a  cloud,  or 

I  cooled  with  intervening  showers  :  and  our 
prayer  is  without  fruit,  because  the  desire 
lasts  not,  and  the  prayer  lives  like  the  re- 
pentance of  Simon  Magus,  or  the  trembling 
of  Felix,  or  the  Jews'  devotion  for  seven 
days  of  unleavened  bread,  during  the  pass- 
over,  or  the  feast  of  tabernacles  :  but  if  we 
would  secure  the  blessing  of  our  prayers, 
and  the  effect  of  our  prayers,  we  must 
never  leave  till  we  have  obtained  what  we 
need. 

There  are  many  that  pray  against  a 
temptation  for  a  month  together,  and  so 
long  as  the  prayer  is  fervent,  so  long  the 
I  man  hath  a  nolition,  and  a  direct  enmity 
against  the  lust;  he  consents  not  all  that 
(while;  but  when  the  month  is  gone,  and 
d2 


42 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  V. 


the  prayer  is   removed,  or  become  less 
active,  then  the  temptation  returns,  and 
forages,  and  prevails,  and  seizes  upon  all 
our  unguarded  strengths.    There  are  some 
desires  which  have  a  period,  and  God's 
visitations  expire  in  mercy  at  the  revolution 
of  a  certain  number  of  days ;   and  our 
prayer  must  dwell  so  long  as  God's  anger 
abides ;  and  in  all  the  storm  we  must  out- 
cry the  noise  of  the  tempest,  and  the  voices 
of  that  thunder.    But  if  we  become  harden- 
ed, and  by  custom  and  cohabitation  with 
the  danger  lose  our  fears,  and  abate  of  our 
desires  and  devotions,  many  times  we  shall 
find,  that  God,  by  a  sudden  breach  upon 
us,  will  chastise  us  for  letting  our  hands  go 
down.     Israel  prevailed   no  longer  than 
Moses  held  up  his  hands  in  prayer;  and  he 
was  forced  to  continue  his  prayer,  till  the 
going  down  of  the  sun;  that  is,  till  the 
danger  was  over,  till  the  battle  was  done. 
But  when  our  desires,  and  prayers,  are  in 
the  matter  of  spiritual  danger,  they  must 
never  be  remitted,  because  danger  continues 
for  ever,  and,  therefore,  so  must  our  watch- , 
fulness,  and  our  guards.    "  Vult  enim  Deus 
rogari,  vult  cogi,  vult  quadam  importuni- 
tate  vinci,"  says  St.  Gregory ;  "  God  loves 
to  be  invited,  entreated,  importuned,  with 
an  unquiet  restless  desire  and  a  persevering 
prayer."    Xpr  ttSio&a'rfrws  tv%£o9ai  rrj  rtfpt  to 
&lov  epritxtlas,  said  Proclus.    That  is  a  holy 
and  a  religious  prayer,  that  never  gives 
over,  but  renews  the  prayer,  and  dwells 
upon  the  desire ;  for  this  only  is  effectual. 
<±r9vvovti  ,3porcj  xpaurtvoi    /.idxapts  ttte^ovai, 
"  God  hears  the  persevering  man,  and  the 
unwearied  prayer."    For  it  is  very  con- 
siderable, that  we  be  very  curious  to  ob- 
serve, that  many  times  a  lust  is  sopita,  non 
mortua,  "  it  is  asleep  ;"  the  enemy  is  at 
truce,  and  at  quiet  for  a  while,  but  not 
conquered,  "  not  dead  ;"  and  if  we  put  off 
our  armour  too  soon,  we  lose  all  the  benefit 
of  our  former  war,  and  are  surprised  by 
indiligence  and  a  careless  guard.    For  God 
sometimes  binds  the  devil  in  a  short  chain, 
and  gives  his  servants  respite,  that  they 
may  feel  the  short  pleasures  of  a  peace,  and 
the  rest  of  innocence;  and  perceive,  what 
are  the  eternal  felicities  of  heaven,  where  it 
shall  be  so  for  ever;  but  then  we  must 
return  to  our  warfare  again;  and  every 
second  assault  is  more  troublesome,  because 
it  finds  our  spirits  at  ease,  and  without 
watchfulness,  and  delighted  with  a  spiritual 
rest,  and  keeping  holyday.    But  let  us  take 
heed;  for  whatsoever  temptation  we  can  be 


troubled  withal  by  our  natural  temper,  or 
by  the  condition  of  our  life,  or  the  evil  circum- 
stances of  our  condition,  so  long  as  we  have 
capacity  to  feel  it,  so  long  we  are  in  danger, 
and  must  "watch  thereunto  with  prayer"  and 
continual  diligence.  And  when  your  temp- 
tations let  you  alone,  let  not  your  God 
alone;  but  lay  up  prayers  and  the  blessings 
of  a  constant  devotion  against  the  day  of 
trial.  Well  may  your  temptation  sleep,  but 
if  your  prayers  do  so,  you  may  chance  to 
be  awakened  with  an  assult  that  may  ruin 
you.  However,  the  rule  is  easy:  What 
soever  you  need,  ask  it  of  God  so  long  as 
you  want  it,  even  till  you  have  it.  For 
God,  therefore,  many  times  defers  to  grant, 
that  thou  mayest  persevere  to  ask;  and 
because  every  holy  prayer  is  a  glorification 
of  God  by  the  confessing  many  of  his  attri- 
butes, a  lasting  and  a  presevering  prayer  is  a 
little  image  of  the  hallelujahs  and  services 
of  eternity ;  it  is  a  continuation  to  do  that, 
according  to  our  measures,  which  we  shall 
be  doing  to  eternal  ages :  therefore,  think 
not  that  five  or  six  hearty  prayers  can  se- 
cure to  thee  a  great  blessing,  and  a  supply 
of  a  mighty  necessity.  He  that  prays  so, 
and  then  leaves  off,  hath  said  some  prayers, 
and  done  the  ordinary  offices  of  his  religion ; 
but  hath  not  secured  the  blessing,  nor  used 
means  reasonably  proportionable  to  a  mighty 
interest. 

4.  The  prayers  of  a  good  man  are  often- 
times hindered,  and  destitute  of  their  effect, 
for  want  of  praying  in  good  company;  for 
sometimes  an  evil  or  an  obnoxious  person 
hath  so  secured  and  ascertained  a  mischief 
to  himself,  that  he  that  stays  in  his  company 
or  his  traffic,  must  also  share  in  his  punish- 
ment :  and  the  Tyrian  sailors  with  all  their 
vows  and  prayers  could  not  obtain  a  pros- 
perous voyage,  so  long  as  Jonas  was  within 
the  bark ;  for  in  this  case  the  interest  is  di- 
vided, and  the  public  sin  prevails  above  the 
private  piety.  When  the  philosopher  asked 
a  penny  of  Antigonus,  he  told  him  "  it  was 
too  little  for  a  king  to  give;"  when  he  asked 
a  talent,  he  told  him  "it  was  too  much  for 
a  philosopher  to  receive ;"  for  he  did  pur- 
pose to  cozen  his  own  charity,  and  elude 
the  other's  necessity,  upon  pretence  of  a 
double  inequality.  So  it  is  the  case  of  a 
'good  man  mingled  in  evil  company;  if  a 
j  curse  be  too  severe  for  a  good  man,  a  mercy 
is  not  to  be  expected  by  evil  company;  and 
jhis  prayer,  when  it  is  made  in  common, 
must  partake  of  that  event  of  things  which 
,is  appropriate  to  that  society.    The  purpose 


Sbrm.  V. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


43 


of  that  caution  is,  that  every  good  man  be 
careful,  that  he  do  not  mingle  his  devotion 
in  the  communions  of  heretical  persons,  and 
in  schismatical  conventicles;  for  although 
he  be  like  them  that  follow  Absalom  in  the 
simplicity  of  their  heart,  yet  his  intermedial 
fortune,  and  the  event  of  his  present  affairs, 
may  be  the  same  with  Absalom's ;  and  it 
is  not  a  light  thing,  that  we  curiously  choose 
the  parties  of  our  communion.  I  do  not  say 
it  is  necessary  to  avoid  all  the  society  of 
evil  persons  :  "  for  then  we  must  go  out  of 
the  world ;"  and  when  we  have  thrown  out 
a  drunkard,  possibly  we  have  entertained  a 
hypocrite ;  or  when  a  swearer  is  gone,  an 
oppressor  may  stay  still ;  or  if  that  be  reme- 
died, yet  pride  is  soon  discernible,  but  not 
easily  judicable:  but  that  which  is  of  cau- 
tion in  this  question,  is,  that  we  never  min- 
gle with  those,  whose  very  combination  is  a 
sin  ;  such  as  were  Corah  and  his  company 
that  rebelled  against  Moses  their  prince  ;  and 
Dathan  and  Jlbiram,  that  made  a  schism  in 
religion  against  Aaron  the  priest :  for  so 
said  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  "Come  out 
from  the  congregation  of  these  men,  lest  ye 
perish  in  their  company  ;"  and  all  those  that 
were  abused  in  their  communion,  did  perish 
in  the  gainsaying  of  Corah.  It  is  a  sad 
thing  to  see  a  good  man  cozened  by  fair 
pretences,  and  allured  into  an  evil  snare ; 
for  besides  that  he  dwells  in  danger,  and 
cohabits  with  a  dragon,  and  his  virtue  may 
change  by  evil  persuasion  into  an  evil  dis- 
position, from  sweetness  to  bitterness,  from 
thence  to  evil  speaking,  from  thence  to  be- 
lieve a  lie,  and  from  believing  to  practise  it ; 
— besides  this,  it  is  a  very  great  sadness, 
that  such  a  man  should  lose  all  his  prayers 
to  very  many  purposes.  God  will  not  re- 
spect the  offering  of  those  men,  who  assem- 
ble by  a  peevish  spirit;  and  therefore, 
although  God  in  pity  regards  the  desires  of 
a  good  man,  if  innocently  abused,  yet  as  it 
unites  in  that  assembly,  God  will  not  hear  it 
to  any  purposes  of  blessing  and  holiness : 
unless  "we  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace,"  we  cannot  have  the 
blessing  of  the  Spirit  in  the  returns  of  a  holy 
prayer;  and  all  those  assemblies,  which 
meet  together  against  God  or  God's  ordi- 
nance, may  pray  and  call,  and  cry  loudly 
and  frequently,  and  still  they  provoke  God 
to  anger;  and  many  times  he  will  not  have 
so  much  mercy  for  them,  as  to  deny  them ; 
but  lets  them  prosper  in  their  sin,  till  it 
swells  to  intolerable  and  unpardoDable.  But 
when  good  men  pray  with  one  heart,  and 


in  a  holy  assembly,  that  is,  holy  in  their 
!  desires,  lawful  in  their  authority,  though 
'the  persons  be  of  different  complexions, 
J  then  the  prayer  flies  up  to  God  like  the 
hymns  of  a  choir  of  angels  ;  for  God — that 
Jmade  body  and  soul  to  be  one  man,  and 
|  God  and  man  to  be  one  Christ ;  and  three 
persons  are  one  God,  and  his  praises  are 
sung  to  him  by  choirs,  and  the  persons  are 
joined  in  orders,  and  the  orders  into  hier- 
archies, and  all,  that  God  might  be  served 
by  unions  and  communities — loves  that  his 
church  should  imitate  the  concords  of  hea- 
ven, and  the  unions  of  God,  and  that  every 
good  man  should  promote  the  interests  of 
his  prayers  by  joining  in  the  communion  of 
saints  in  the  unions  of  obedience  and  charity, 
with  the  powers  that  God  and  the  laws  have 
ordained. 

The  sum  is  this:  If  the  man  that  makes 
the  prayer  be  an  unholy  person,  his  prayer 
is  not  the  instrument  of  a  blessing,  but  a 
curse;  but  when  the  sinner  begins  to  repent 
truly,  then  his  desires  begin  to  be  holy.  But 
if  they  be  holy,  and  just,  and  good,  yet  they 
are  without  profit  and  effect,  if  the  prayer 
be  made  in  schism,  or  an  evil  communion, 
or  if  it  be  made  without  attention,  or  if  the 
man  soon  gives  over,  or  if  the  prayer  be  not 
zealous,  or  if  the  man  be  angry.  There  are 
very  many  ways  for  a  good  man  to  become 
unblessed  and  unthriving  in  his  prayers, 
and  he  cannot  be  secure  unless  he  be  in  the 
state  of  grace,  and  his  spirit  be  quiet,  and 
his  mind  be  attentive,  and  his  society  be 
lawful,  and  his  desires  earnest  and  passion- 
ate, and  his  devotions  persevering,  lasting 
till  his  needs  be  served  or  exchanged  for 
another  blessing  :  so  that  what  Lselius  (apud 
Cicer.  de  souctute)  said  concerning  old  age, 
"  neque  in  summa  inopia  levis  esse  senectus 
potest,  ne  sapienti  quidem,  nec  insipienti 
etiam  in  summa  copia  non  gravis;"  "that 
a  wise  man  could  not  bear  old  age,  if  it 
were  extremely  poor;  and  yet  if  it  were 
very  rich,  it  were  intolerable  to  a  fool;"  we 
may  say  concerning  our  prayers ;  they  are 
sins  and  unholy,  if  a  wicked  man  makes 
them ;  and  yet  if  they  be  made  by  a  good 
man,  they  are  ineffective,  unless  they  be 
improved  by  their  proper  dispositions.  A 
good  man  cannot  prevail  in  his  prayers,  if 
his  desires  be  cold,  and  his  affections  tri- 
fling, and  his  industry  soon  weary,  and  his 
society  criminal ;  and  if  all  these  appen- 
dages of  prayer  be  observed,  yet  they  will  do 
no  good  to  an  evil  man :  for  his  prayer  that 
begins  in  sin,  shall  end  in  sorrow. 


44 


THE  RETURN 


OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  VI. 


SERMON  VI. 

PART  III. 

3.  Next  I  am  to  inquire  and  consider, 
What  degrees  and  circumstances  of  piety 
are  required  to  make  us  fit  to  be  intercessors 
for  others,  and  to  pray  for  them  with  pro- 
bable effect  ?  I  say  "  with  probable  effect  j" 
for  when  the  event  principally  depends  upon 
that  which  is  not  within  our  own  election, 
such  as  are  the  lives  and  actions  of  others, 
all  that  we  can  consider  in  this  affair  is, 
whether  we  be  persons  fit  to  pray  in  the 
behalf  of  others,  that  hinder  not,  but  are 
persons  within  the  limit  and  possibilities  of 
the  present  mercy.  When  the  emperor 
Maximinus  was  smitten  with  the  wrath  of 
God,  and  a  sore  disease,  for  his  cruel  perse- 
cuting the  Christian  cause,  and  putting  so 
many  thousand  innocent  and  holy  persons 
to  death,  and  he  understood  the  voice  of 
God  and  the  accents  of  thunder,  and  dis- 
cerned that  cruelty  was  the  cause, — he  re- 
voked their  decrees  made  against  the  Chris- 
tians, recalled  them  from  their  caves  and 
deserts,  their  sanctuaries  and  retirements, 
and  enjoined  them  to  pray  for  the  life  and 
health  of  their  prince.  They  did  so ;  and 
they  who  could  command  mountains  to 
remove  and  were  obeyed,  they  who  could 
do  miracles,  they  who  with  the  key  of 
prayer  could  open  God's  four  closets,  of  the 
womb  and  the  grave,  of  providence  and  rain, 
could  not  obtain  for  their  bloody  emperor 
one  drop  of  mercy,  but  he  must  die  misera- 
ble for  ever.  God  would  not  be  entreated 
for  him ;  and  though  he  loved  the  prayer 
because  he  loved  the  advocates,  yet  Max- 
iminus was  not  worthy  to  receive  the  bless- 
ing. And  it  was  threatened  to  the  rebel- 
lious people  of  Israel,  and  by  them  to  all 
people  that  should  sin  grievously  against 
the  Lord,  God  te  would  break  their  staff  of 
bread,"  and  even  the  righteous  should  not 
be  prevailing  intercessors  ;  "  Though  Noah, 
Job,  or  Daniel,  were  there,  they  should  de- 
liver but  their  own  souls  by  their  righteous- 
ness, saith  the  Lord  God  :"*  and  when 
Abraham  prevailed  very  far  with  God  in 
the  behalf  of  Sodom,  and  the  five  cities  of 
the  plain,  it  had  its  period :  if  there  had 
been  ten  righteous  in  Sodom,  it  should  have 
been  spared  for  their  sakes ;  but  four  only 
were  found,  and  they  only  delivered  their 
own  souls  too  ;  but  neither  their  righteous- 


ness, nor  Abraham's  prayer,  prevailed  any 
farther.  And  we  have  this  case  also  men- 
tioned in  the  New  Testament :  "  If  any  man 
see  his  brother  sin  a  sin  which  is  not  unto 
death,  he  shall  ask,  and  he  shall  give  him 
life  for  them  that  sin  not  unto  death."  *  At 
his  prayer  the  sinner  shall  receive  pardon ; 
God  shall  "give  him  life  for  them,"  to  him 
that  prays  in  their  behalf  that  sin,  provided 
it  be  "not  a  sin  unto  death;"  for  "there  is 
a  sin  unto  death,  but  I  do  not  say  that  he 
shall  pray  for  it:"  there  his  commission 
expires,  and  his  power  is  confined.  For 
there  are  some  sins  of  that  state  and  great- 
ness that  God  will  not  pardon.  St.  Austin 
in  his  books  "de  Sermone  Domini  in 
Monte"  affirms  it,  concerning  some  one 
single  sin  of  a  perfect  malice.  It  was  also 
the  opinion  of  Origen  and  Athanasius,  and 
is  followed  by  Venerable  Bede;  and.  whether 
the  apostle  means  a  peculiar  state  of  sin,  or 
some  one  single  great  crime  which  also  sup- 
poses a  precedent  and  a  present  state  of 
criminal  condition;  it  is  such  a  thing  as 
will  hinder  our  prayers  from  prevailing  in 
their  behalf:  we  are  therefore  not  encour- 
aged to  pray,  because  they  cannot  receive  the 
benefit  of  Christ's  intercession,  and  there- 
fore much  less  of  our  advocation,  which 
only  can  prevail  by  virtue  and  participation 
of  his  mediation.  For  whomsoever  Christ 
prays,  for  them  we  pray ;  that  is,  for  all 
them  that  are  within  the  covenant  of  re- 
pentance, for  all  whose  actions  have  not 
destroyed  the  very  being  of  religion,  who 
have  not  renounced  their  faith,  nor  volun- 
tarily quit  their  hopes,  nor  openly  opposed 
the  Spirit  of  grace,  nor  grown  by  a  long 
progress  to  a  resolute  and  final  impiety,  nor 
done  injustices  greater  than  sorrow,  or  res- 
titution, or  recompence,  or  acknowledgment. 
However,  though  it  may  be  uncertain  and 
disputed  concerning  the  number  of  "sins 
unto  death,"  and  therefore  to  pray,  or  not  to 
pray,  is  not  matter  of  duty  ; — yet  it  is  all  one 
as  to  the  effect,  whether  we  know  them  or 
no;  for  though  we  intend  charity,  when 
we  pray  for  the  worst  of  men — yet  concern- 
ing the  event  God  will  take  care,  and  will 
certainly  return  thy  prayer  upon  thy  own 
head,  though  thou  didst  desire  it  should 
water  and  refresh  thy  neighbour's  dryness  ; 
and  St.  John  so  expresses  it,  as  if  he  had 
left  the  matter  of  duty  undetermined;  be- 
cause the  instances  are  uncertain ;  yet  the 
event  is  certainly  none  at  all,  therefore  be- 


*  Ezek.  xiv.  14. 


*  1  John  v.  16. 


Serm.  VI. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


45 


cause  we  are  not  encouraged  to  pray,  and 
because  it  is  a  "  sin  unto  death  ;"  that  is, 
such  a  sin  that  hath  no  portion  in  the  pro- 
mises of  life,  and  the  state  of  repentance. 
But  now,  suppose  the  man,  for  whom  we 
pray,  to  be  capable  of  mercy,  within  the 
covenant  of  repentance,  and  not  far  from 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  j  yet, 

1.  No  prayers  of  others  can  further  pre- 
\  ail,  than  to  remove  this  person  to  the  next 
stage  in  order  to  felicity.  When  St.  Monica 
prayed  for  her  son,  she  did  not  pray  to  God 
to  save  him,  but  to  convert  him  ;  and  when 
God  intended  to  reward  the  prayers  and  alms 
of  Cornelius,  he  did  not  do  it  by  giving  him 
a  crown,  but  by  sending  an  apostle  to  him 
to  make  him  a  Christian  ;  the  meaning  of 
which  observation  is,  that  we  may  under- 
stand, that  as,  in  the  person  prayed  for, 
there  ought  to  be  the  great  disposition 
of  being  in  a  savable  condition;  so  there 
ought  also  to  be  all  the  intermedial  apt- 
nesses ;  for  just  as  he  is  disposed,  so  can 
we  prevail;  and  the  prayers  of  a  good  man 
first  prevail  in  behalf  of  a  sinner,  that  he 
shall  be  invited,  that  he  shall  be  reproved, — 
and  then  that  he  shall  attend  to  it,  then  that 
lie  shall  have  his  heart  opened,  and  then 
that  he  shall  repent :  and  still  a  good  man's 
prayers  follow  him  through  the  several 
stages  of  pardon,  of  sanctification,  of  re- 
straining graces,  of  a  mighty  Providence,  of 
great  assistance,  of  perseverance,  and  a  holy 
death.  No  prayers  can  prevail  upon  an 
indisposed  person.  For  the  sun  himself 
cannot  enlighten  a  blind  eye,  nor  the  soul 
move  a  body  whose  silver  cord  is  loosed, 
and  whose  joints  are  untied  by  the  rudeness 
and  dissolutions  of  a  pertinacious  sickness. 
But  then,  suppose  an  eye  quick  and  health- 
ful, or  apt  to  be  refreshed  with  light  and  a 
friendly  prospect;  yet  a  glow-worm  or  a 
diamond,  the  shells  of  pearl,  or  a  dead  man's 
candle,  are  not  enough  to  make  him  discern 
the  beauties  of  the  world,  and  to  admire  the 
glories  of  creation.  Therefore, 

2.  As  the  persons  must  be  capable  for 
whom  we  pray,  so  they  that  pray  for  others 
must  be  persons  extraordinary  in  something. 
1.  If  persons  be  of  an  extraordinary  piety, 
they  are  apt  to  be  intercessors  for  others.  This 
appears  in  the  case  of  Job ;  when  the  wrath 
of  God  was  kindled  against  Eliphaz  and 
his  two  friends,  God  commanded  them  to 
offer  a  sacrifice,  but  "  my  servant  Job  shall 
pray  for  you,  for  him  will  I  accept;"* 

*  Chap,  xliii.  7,  8. 


and  it  was  so  in  the  case  of  the  prevaricating 
Israelites ;  God  was  full  of  indignation 
against  them,  and  smote  them  ;  "then  stood 
up  Phinehas  and  prayed,  and  the  plague 
ceased."  For  this  man  was  a  good  man,  and 
the  spirit  of  an  extraordinary  zeal  rilled  him, 
and  he  did  glory  to  God  in  the  execution  upon 
Zimri  and  his  fair  Midianite.  And  it  was  a 
huge  blessing,  that  was  entailed  upon  the  pos- 
terity of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob ;  because 
they  had  a  great  religion,  a  great  power  with 
God,  and  their  extraordinary  did  consist  es- 
pecially in  the  matter  of  prayers  and  devotion; 
for  that  was  eminent  in  them,  besides  their 
obedience:  for  so  Maimonides  tells  concerning 
them,  that  Abraham  first  instituted  morning- 
prayer.  The  affairs  of  religion  had  not  the 
same  constitution  then  as  now.  They 
worshipped  God  never  but  at  their  memo- 
rials, and  in  places,  and  seldom  times  of 
separation.  They  bowed  their  heads  when 
they  came  to  a  hallowed  stone,  and  upon 
the  top  of  their  staff,  and  worshipped  when 
they  came  to  a  consecrated  pillar,  but  this 
was  seldom  ;  and  they  knew  not  the  secrets 
and  the  privileges  of  a  frequent  prayer,  of 
intercourses  with  God  by  ejaculations,  and 
the  advantages  of  importunity  :  and  the 
doctors  of  the  Jews, — that  record  the  praver 
of  Noah,  who  in  all  reason  knew  the  secret 
best,  because  he  was  to  teach  it  to  all  the 
world, — yet  have  transmitted  to  us  but  a 
short  prayer  of  some  seven  lines  long;  and 
this  he  only  said  within  the  ark,  in  that 
great  danger,  on  a  day,  provoked  by  his 
fear,  and  stirred  up  by  a  religion  then  made 
actual,  in  those  days  of  sorrow  and  penance. 
But  in  the  descending  ages,  when  God  be- 
gan to  reckon  a  church  in  Abraham's  family; 
there  began  to  be  a  new  institution  of  offices, 
and  Abraham  appointed  that  God  should  be 
prayed  to  every  morning.  Isaac  being  taught 
by  Abraham,  made  a  law,  or  at  least  com- 
mended the  practice,  and  adopted  it  into  the 
religion,  that  God  should  be  worshipped  by 
decimation  or  tithing  of  our  goods ;  and  he 
added  an  order  of  prayer  to  be  said  in  the 
afternoon  ;  and  Jacob,  to  make  up  the  office 
complete,  added  evening-prayer ;  and  God 
was  their  God,  and  they  became  fit  persons 
to  bless,  that  is,  of  procuring  blessings  to 
their  relatives  ;  as  appears  in  the  instances 
of  their  own  families,  of  the  king  of  Egypt, 
and  the  cities  of  the  plain.  For  a  man  of 
ordinary  piety  is  like  Gideon's  fleece,  wet  in 
its  own  locks ;  but  it  could  not  water  a  poor 
man's  garden ;  but  so  does  a  thirsty  land 
drink  all  the  dew  of  heaven  that  wets  its 


46 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  VI. 


face,  and  a  greater  shower  makes  no  torrent, 
nor  digs  so  much  as  a  little  furrow,  that  the 
drills  of  the  water  might  pass  into  rivers,  or 
refresh  their  neighbour's  weariness ;  but 
when  the  earth  is  full,  and  hath  no  strange 
consumptive  needs,  then  at  the  next  time, 
when  God  blesses  it  with  a  gracious  show- 
er, it  divides  into  portions,  and  sends  it 
abroad  in  free  and  equal  communications, 
that  all  that  stand  round  about  may  feel 
the  shower.  So  is  a  good  man's  prayer ; 
his  own  cup  is  full,  it  is  crowned  with 
health,  and  overflows  with  blessings,  and 
all  that  drink  of  his  cup  and  eat  at  his  table, 
are  refreshed  with  his  joys,  and  divide  with 
him  in  his  holy  portions.  And  indeed  he 
hath  need  of  a  great  slock  of  piety,  who  is 
first  to  provide  for  his  own  necessities,  and 
then  to  give  portions  to  a  numerous  relation. 
It  is  a  great  matter,  that  every  man  needs 
for  himself, — the  daily  expenses  of  his  own 
infirmities,  the  unthriving  state  of  his 
omission  of  duty,  and  recessions  from  per- 
fection,— and  sometimes  the  great  losses  and 
shipwrecks,  the  plunderings  and  burning  of 
his  house  by  a  fall  into  a  deadly  sin ;  and 
most  good  men  are  in  this  condition,  that 
they  have  enough  to  do  to  live,  and  keep 
themselves  above  water  ;  but  how  few  men 
are  able  to  pay  their  own  debts,  and  lend 
great  portions  to  others?  The  number  of 
those  who  can  effectually  intercede  for 
others  to  great  purposes  of  grace  and  pardon, 
are  as  soon  told  as  the  number  of  wise  men, 
as  the  gates  of  a  city,  or  the  entries  of  the 
river  Nilus. 

But  then  do  but  consider,  what  a  great 
engagement  this  is  to  a  very  strict  and  holy 
life.  If  we  chance  to  live  in  times  of  an 
extraordinary  trouble,  or  if  our  relatives  can 
be  capaole  of  great  dangers  or  great  sorrows, 
or  if  we  ourselves  would  do  the  noblest 
friendship  in  the  world,  and  oblige  others 
by  acts  of  greatest  benefit ;  if  we  would 
assist  their  souls  and  work  towards  their 
salvation  ;  if  we  would  be  public  ministers 
of  the  greatest  usefulness  to  our  country ; 
if  we  would  support  kings,  and  relieve  the 
great  necessities  of  kingdoms  ;  if  we  would 
be  effective  in  the  stopping  of  a  plague,  or 
in  the  success  of  armies ; — a  great  and  an 
exemplar  piety,  and  a  zealous  and  holy 
prayer,  can  do  all  this.  "  Semper  tu  hoc 
facito,  ut  cogites  id  optimum  esse,  tute  ut 
sis  optimus ;  si  id  nequeas,  saltern  ut  opti- 
mis  sis  proximus  "He  that  is  the  best 
man  towards  God,  is  certainly  the  best 
minister  to  his  prince  or  country,  and  there- 


fore do  thou  endeavour  to  be  so,  and  if  thou 
canst  not  be  so,  be  at  least  next  to  the  best." 
For  in  that  degree  in  which  our  religion  is 
great,  and  our  piety  exemplar,  in  the  same 
we  can  contribute  towards  the  fortune  of 
a  kingdom  :  and  when  Elijah  was  taken 
into  heaven,  Elisha  mourned  for  him,  be- 
cause it  was  a  loss  to  Israel :  "  My  father, 
my  father,  the  chariots  of  Israel  and  horse- 
men thereof."  But  consider  how  useless 
thou  art,  when  thou  canst  not  by  thy 
prayers  obtain  so  much  mercy,  as  to  prevail 
for  the  life  of  a  single  trooper,  or  in  a  plague 
beg  of  God  for  the  life  of  a  poor  maid-servant ; 
but  the  ordinary  emanations  of  Providence 
shall  proceed  to  issue  without  any  arrest,  and 
the  sword  of  the  angel  shall  not  be  turned  aside 
in  one  single  infliction.  Remember,  although 
he  is  a  great  and  excellent  person,  that  can 
prevail  with  God  for  the  interest  of  others  ; 
yet  thou,  that  hast  no  stock  of  grace  and  fa- 
vour, no  interest  in  the  court  of  heaven,  art 
but  a  mean  person,  extraordinary  in  nothing; 
thou  art  unregarded  by  God,  cheap  in  the 
sight  of  angels,  useless  to  thy  prince  or 
country  ;  thou  mayest  hold  thy  peace  in  a 
time  of  public  danger.  For  kings  never  par- 
don murderers  at  the  intercession  of  thieves  ; 
and  if  a  mean  mechanic  should  beg  a  re- 
prieve for  a  condemned  traitor,  he  is  ridicu- 
lous and  impudent :  so  is  a  vicious  advocate 
or  an  ordinary  person  with  God.  It  is  well 
if  God  will  hear  him  begging  for  his  own 
pardon,  he  is  not  yet  disposed  to  plead  for 
others. 

And  yet  every  man  that  is  in  the  state  of 
grace,  every  man  that  can  pray  without  a 
sinful  prayer,  may  also  intercede  for  others  ; 
and  it  is  a  duty  for  all  men  to  do  it ;  all  men, 
I  say,  who  can  pray  at  all  acceptably :  "  I 
will,  therefore,  that  prayers,  and  supplica- 
tions, and  intercessions,  and  giving  of 
thanks,  be  made  for  all  men  ;"  and  this  is  a 
duty  that  is  prescribed  to  all  them  that  are 
concerned  in  the  duty  and  in  the  blessings 
of  prayer  ;  but  this  is  it  which  I  say — if  their 
piety  be  but  ordinary,  their  prayer  can  be 
effectual  but  in  easy  purposes,  and  to 
smaller  degrees ;  but  he, — that  would  work 
effectually  towards  a  great  deliverance,  or  in 
great  degrees  towards  the  benefit  or  ease  of 
any  of  his  relatives — can  be  confident  of  his 
success  but  in  the  same  degree  in  which  his 
person  is  gracious.  "There  are  strange 
things  in  heaven judgments  there  are 
made  of  things  and  persons  by  the  measures 
of  religion,  and  a  plain  promise  produces 
effects  of  wonder  and  miracle ;  and  the 


SfcRfc.  VL 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


17 


changes  that  are  there  made,  are  not  effected 
by  passions,  and  interests,  and  corporal 
changes  ;  and  the  love  that  is  there,  is  not 
the  same  thing  that  is  here  ;  it  is  more  bene- 
ficial, more  reasonable,  more  holy,  of  other 
designs,  and  strange  productions  ;  and  upon 
that  stock  it  is,  that  a  holy  poor  man, — that 
possesses  no  more,  (it  may  be)  than  a  ewe- 
lamb,  that  eats  of  his  bread,  and  drinks  of 
his  cup,  and  is  a  daughter  to  him,  and  is  all 
his  temporal  portion, — this  poor  man  is 
ministered  to  by  angels,  and  attended  to  by 
God,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  makes  intercession 
for  him,  and  Christ  joins  the  man's  prayer 
to  his  own  advocation,  and  the  man  by 
prayer  shall  save  the  city,  and  destroy  the 
fortune  of  a  tyrant-army,  even  then  when 
God  sees  it  good  it  should  be  so  :  for  he 
will  no  longer  deny  him  any  thing,  but  when 
it  is  no  blessing  ;  and  when  it  is  otherwise, 
his  prayer  is  most  heard  when  it  is  most 
denied. 

2.  That  we  should  prevail  in  intercessions 
for  others,  we  are  to  regard  and  to  take  care, 
that  as  our  piety,  so  also  must  our  offices  be 
extraordinary.  He  that  prays  to  recover  a 
family  from  an  hereditary  curse,  or  to  re- 
verse a  sentence  of  God,  to  cancel  a  decree  of 
Heaven  gone  out  against  his  friend  ;  he  that 
would  heal  the  sick  with  his  prayer,  or  with 
his  devotion  prevail  against  an  army,  must 
not  expect  such  great  effects  upon  a  morning 
or  evening  collect,  or  an  honest  wish  put 
into  the  recollections  of  a  prayer,  or  a  period 
put  in  on  purpose.  Mamercus,  bishop  of 
Vienna,  seeing  his  city  and  all  the  diocess  in 
great  danger  of  perishing  by  an  earthquake, 
instituted  great  litanies,  and  solemn  suppli- 
cations, besides  the  ordinary  devotions  of  his 
usual  hours  of  prayer  ;  and  the  church  from 
his  example  took  up  the  practice,  and  trans- 
lated it  into  an  anniversary  solemnity,  and 
upon  St.  Mark's  day  did  solemnly  intercede 
with  God  to  divert  or  prevent  his  judgments 
falling  upon  the  people,  "majoribus  litaniis," 
so  they  are  called ;  with  the  more  solemn 
supplications  they  did  pray  unto  God  in 
behalf  of  their  people.  And  this  hath  in  it 
the  same  consideration,  that  is  in  every  great 
necessity ;  for  it  is  a  great  thing  for  a  man 
to  be  so  gracious  with  God  as  to  be  able  to 
prevail  for  himself  and  his  friend,  for  him- 
self and  his  relatives ;  and  therefore  in  these 
cases,  as  in  all  great  needs,  it  is  the  way  of 
prudence  and  security,  that  we  use  all  those 
greater  offices,  which  God  hath  appointed 
as  instruments  of  importunity,  and  argu- 
ments of  hope,  and  acts  of  prevailing,  and 


means  of  great  effect  and  advocation  :  such 
as  are,  separating  days  for  solemn  prayer, 
all  the  degrees  of  violence  and  earnest  ad- 
dress, fasting  and  prayer,  alms  and  prayer, 
acts  of  repentance  and  prayer,  praying  to- 
gether in  public  with  united  hearts,  and, 
above  all,  praying  in  the  susception  and 
communication  of  the  holy  sacrament ;  the 
effects  and  admirable  issues  of  which  we 
know  not,  and  perceive  not;  we  lose  be- 
cause we  desire  not,  and  choose  to  lose 
many  great  blessings  rather  than  purchase 
them  with  the  frequent  commemoration  of 
that  sacrifice,  which  was  offered  up  for  all 
the  needs  of  mankind,  and  for  obtaining  all 
favours  and  graces  to  the  Catholic  church. 
Ev*^?  Sixcuas  oix  avrtxoo$  ©fbj,  "God  never 
refuses  to  hear  a  holy  prayer ;"  and  our 
prayers  can  never  be  so  holy,  as  when  they 
are  offered  up  in  the  union  of  Christ's  sacri- 
fice :  for  Christ,  by  that  sacrifice,  reconciled 
God  and  the  world ;  and  because  our  needs 
continue,  therefore  we  are  commanded  to 
continue  the  memory,  and  to  represent  to 
God  that  which  was  done  to  satisfy  all  our 
needs :  then  we  receive  Christ ;  we  are, 
after  a  secret  and  mysterious,  but  most  real 
and  admirable  manner,  made  all  one  with 
Christ;  and  if  God  giving  us  his  Son  could 
not  but  "with  him  give  us  all  things  else." 
how  shall  he  refuse  our  persons,  when  we 
are  united  to  his  person,  when  our  souls  are 
joined  to  his  soul,  our  body  nourished  by  his 
body,  and  our  souls  sanctified  by  his  blood, 
and  clothed  with  his  robes,  and  marked  with 
his  character,  and  sealed  with  his  Spirit,  and 
renewed  with  holy  vows,  and  consigned  to 
all  his  glories,  and  adopted  to  his  inheritance? 
when  we  represent  his  death,  and  pray  in 
virtue  ef  his  passion,  and  imitate  his  inter- 
cession, and  do  that  which  God  commands, 
and  offer  him  in  our  manner  that  which  he 
essentially  loves ;  can  it  be  that  either  any 
\  thing  should  be  more  prevalent,  or  that  God 
can  possibly  deny  such  addresses  and  such 
importunities  ?  Try  it  often,  and  let  all 
things  else  be  answerable,  and  you  cannot 
have  greater  reason  for  your  confidence. 
Do  not  all  the  Christians  in  the  world,  that 
understand  religion,  desire  to  have  the  holy 
sacrament  when  they  die;  when  they  are 
to  make  their  great  appearance  before  God, 
and  to  receive  their  great  consignation  to 
I  their  eternal  sentence,  good  or  bad  ?  And 
I  if  then  be  their  greatest  needs,  that  is  their 
greatest  advantage,  and  instrument  of  accep- 
tation. Therefore  if  you  have  a  great  need 
to  be  served,  or  a  great  charity  to  serve,  and 


48 


THE   RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  VI. 


i  great  pity  to  minister,  and  a  dear  friend 
in  a  sorrow,  take  Christ  along  in  thy  prayers : 
in  all  the  ways  thou  canst,  take  him ;  take 
him  in  affection,  and  take  him  in  a  solemni- 
ty ;  take  him  by  obedience,  and  receive  him 
in  the  sacrament;  and  if  thou  then  offerest 
up  thy  prayers,  and  makest  thy  needs 
known  ;  if  thou  nor  thy  friend  be  not  re- 
lieved ;  if  thy  party  be  not  prevalent,  and 
the  war  be  not  appeased,  or  the  plague  be 
not  cured,  or  the  enemy  taken  off,  there  is 
something  else  in  it :  but  thy  prayer  is  good 
and  pleasing  to  God,  and  dressed  with  cir- 
cumstances of  advantage,  and  thy  person  is 
apt  to  be  an  intercessor,  and  thou  hast  done 
all  that  thou  canst ;  the  event  must  be  left  to 
God ;  and  the  secret  reasons  of  the  denial, 
either  thou  shalt  find  in  time,  or  thou  mayest 
trust  with  God,  who  certainly  does  it  with 
tiie  greatest  wisdom  and  the  greatest  charity. 
I  have  in  this  thing  only  one  caution  to 
insert  ;  viz. 

That  is  our  importunity  and  extraordinary 
offices  for  others,  we  must  not  make  our 
accounts  by  multitude  of  words,  and  long 
prayers,  but  by  the  measures  of  the  spirit, 
by  the  holiness  of  the  soul,  and  the  justness 
of  the  desire,  and  the  usefulness  of  the  re- 
quest, and  its  order  to  God's  glory,  and  its 
place  in  the  order  of  providence,  and  the 
sincerity  of  our  heart,  and  the  charity  of  our 
wishes,  and  the  perseverance  of  our  advo- 
cation.   There   are   some,   (as  Tertullian 

observes,)  "Qui  loquacitatem  facundiam  prevailing  intercession 
existimant,  et  impudentiam  constantiam 
deputant ;"  "  they  are  praters  and  they  are 
impudent,  and  they  call  that  constancy  and 
importunity:"  concerning  which,  the  ad- 
vice is  easy:  many  words  or  few  are  ex- 
trinsical to  the  nature,  and  not  at  all  con- 
sidered in  the  effects  of  prayer ;  but  much 
desire,  and  much  holiness,  are  essential  to 
its  constitution:  but  we  must  be  very  curi- 
ous, that  our  importunity  do  not  degenerate 
into  impudence  and  rude  boldness.  Capi- 
tolinus  said  of  Antoninus  the  emperor  and 
philosopher,  "  Sane  quamvis  esset  constans, 
•Tat  etiam  verecundus :"  "he  was  modest 
even  when  he  was  most  pertinacious  in  his 
desires."  So  must  we;  though  we  must 
not  be  ashamed  to  ask  for  whatsoever  we 
need,  "  Rebus  semperpudor  absit  in  arctis:" 
and  in  this  sense  it  is  true,  that  Stasimus  in 


pensed  withal:"  so  it  is  in  our  prayers; 
whatsoever  our  necessity  calls  to  us  for,  we 
must  call  to  God  for ;  and  he  is  not  pleased 
with  that  rusticity  or  fond  modesty  of  being 
ashamed  to  ask  of  God  any  thing,  that  is 
honest  and  necessary  ;  yet  our  importunity 
hath  also  bounds  of  modesty,  but  such  as 
are  to  be  expressed  with  other  significa- 
tions;  and  he  is  rightly  modest  towards 
God,  who,  without  confidence  in  himself, 
but  not  without  confidence  in  God's  mercy, 
cr  without  great  humility  of  person,  and 
reverence  of  address,  presents  his  prayers  to 
God   as  earnestly  as   he  can;  provided 
always,   that  in  the  greatest  of  our  de- 
sires,  and  holy  violence,  we  submit  to 
God's  will,  and  desire  him  to  choose  for  us. 
Our  modesty  to  God  in  prayers  hath  no 
other  measures  but  these  :  1.  Distrust  of  our- 
selves :  2.  Confidence  in  God  :  3.  Humility 
of  person  :  4.  Reverence  of  address  :  and, 
5.  Submission  to  God's  will.    These  are  all, 
unless  you  also  will  add  that  of  Solomon, 
"  Be  not  rash  with  thy  mouth,  and  let  not 
thy  heart  be  hasty  to  utter  a  thing  before 
God  ;  for  God  is  in  heaven,  and  thou  upon 
earth :  therefore  let  thy  words  be  few." 
These  things  being  observed,  let  your  im- 
portunity be  as  great  as  it  can;  it  is  still  the 
more  likely  to  prevail,  by  how  much  it  is 
the  more  earnest,  and  signified  and  repre- 
sented by  the  most  offices  extraordinary. 
3.  The  last  great  advantage  towards  a 
for  others  is,  that 
the  person  that  prays  for  his  relatives,  be  a 
person  of  an  extraordinary  dignity,  employ- 
ment, or  designation.    For  God  hath  ap- 
pointed some  persons  and  callings  of  men  to 
pray  for  others,  such  are  fathers  for  their 
children,  bishops  for  their  diocesses,  kings 
for  their  subjects,  and  the  whole  order  ec- 
clesiastical for  all  the  men  and  women  in 
the  Christian  church.  And  it  is  well  it  is  so  : 
for,  as  things  are  now,  and  have  been  too 
long,  how  few  are  there  that  understand  it 
to  be  their  duty,  or  part  of  their  necessary 
employment,  that  some  of  their  time, 
and  much  of  their  prayers,  and  an  equal 
portion  of  their  desires,  be  spent  upon  the 
necessities  of  others.    All  men  do  not  think 
it  necessary,  and  fewer  practise  it  frequently, 
and  they  but  coldly,  without  interest  and 
deep  resentment :  it  is  like  the  compassion 


the  comedy  said  concerning  meat,  "  Vere-  '  we  have  in  other  men's  miseries  ;  we  are 
rundari  neminem  apud  mensam  decet,  Nam  'not  concerned  in  it,  and  it  is  not  our  case, 


ibi  de  divinis  et  humanis  cernitui 


men  and  our  hearts  ache  not  when  another  man's 


must  not  be  bashful  so  as  to  lose  their  meat; 
for  that  is  a  necessary  that  cannot  be  dis- 


children  are  made  fatherless,  or  his  wife  a 
sad  widow  :  and  just  so  are  our  prayers  for 


Serm.VI.  THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


49 


their  relief:  if  we  thought  their  evils  to  be 
outs, — if  we  and  they,  as  members  of  the 
same  body,  had  sensible  and  real  commu- 
nications of  good  and  evil, — if  we  under- 
stood what  is  really  meant  by  being  "  mem- 
bers one  of  another,"  or  if  we  did  not  think 
it  a  spiritual  word  of  art,  instrumental  only 
to  a  science,  but  no  part  of  duty,  or  real 
relation, — surely  we  should  pray  more  earn- 
estly one  for  another  than  we  usually  do. 
How  few  of  us  are  troubled,  when  he  sees 
his  brother  wicked,  or  dishonourably  vici- 
ous !  Who  is  sad  and  melancholy,  when 
his  neighbour  is  almost  in  hell?  when  he 
sees  him  grow  old  in  iniquity?  How 
many  days  have  we  set  apart  for  the  pub- 
lic relief  and  interests  of  the  kingdom? 
How  earnestly  have  we  fasted,  if  our  prince 
be  sick  or  afflicted?  What  alms  have  we 
given  for  our  brother's  conversion  ?  Or  if 
this  be  great,  how  importunate  and  passion- 
ate have  we  been  with  God  by  prayer  in 
his  behalf,  by  prayer  and  secret  petition  ? 
But,  however,  though  it  were  well,  very 
well,  that  all  of  us  would  think  of  this  duty 
a  little  more;  because,  besides  the  excellency 
of  the  duty  itself,  it  would  have  this  blessed 
consequent,  that  for  whose  necessities  we 
pray,  if  we  do  desire  earnestly  they  should 
be  relieved,  we  would,  whenever  we  can, 
and  in  all  we  can,  set  our  hands  to  it;  and 
if  we  pity  the  orphan-children,  and  pray 
for  them  heartily,  we  would  also,  when  we 
could,  relieve  them  charitably  :  but  though 
it  were  therefore  very  well,  that  things  were 
thus  with  all  men,  yet  God,  who  takes  care 
of  us  all,  makes  provision  for  us  in  special 
manner;  and  the  whole  order  of  the  clergy 
are  appointed  by  God  to  pray  for  others  to 
be  ministers  of  Christ's  priesthood,  to  be 
followers  of  his  advocation,  to  stand  be- 
tween God  and  the  people,  and  to  present 
to  God  all  their  needs,  and  all  their  desires. 
That  this  God  hath  ordained  and  appointed, 
and  that  this  rather  he  will  bless  and  accept, 
appears  by  the  testimony  of  God  himself, 
for  he  only  can  be  witness  in  this  particular, 
for  it  depends  wholly  upon  his  gracious 
favour  and  acceptation.  It  was  the  case  of 
Abraham  and  Abimelech :  "  Now,  there- 
fore, restore  the  man  his  wife,  for  he  is  a 
prophet,  and  he  will  pray  for  thee,  and  thou 
shalt  live  :"*  and  this  caused  confidence  in 
Micah  :  "  Now  know  I  that  the  Lord  will 
do  me  good,  seeing  I  have  a  Levite  to 
my  priest  :"f  meaning  that  in  his  ministry, 


*  Gen.  xx.  7. 


t  Judg.  xvii.  13. 


|  in  the  ministry  of  priests,  God  hath  esta- 
blished the  alternate  returns  of  blessing  and 
prayers,  the  intercourses  between  God  and 
his  people ;  and  through  the  descending 
ages  of  the  synagogue  it  came  to  be  trans- 
mitted also  to  the  Christian  church,  that  the 
ministers  of  religion  are  advocates  for  us 
under  Christ,  by  "  the  ministry  of  reconci- 
liation," by  their  dispensing  the  holy  sacra- 
ments, by  "the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  by  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper, 
by  "binding  and  loosing,"  by  "the  word  of 
God  and  prayers ;"  and,  therefore,  saith  St. 
James,  "If  any  man  be  sick  among  you, 
let  him  send  for  the  elders  of  the  church, 
and  let  them  pray  over  him:"*  meaning 
that  God  hath  appointed  them  especially, 
and  will  accept  them  in  ordinary  and  ex- 
traordinary ;  and  this  is  that  which  is  meant 
by  blessing.  A  father  blesses  his  child, 
and  Solomon  blessed  his  people,  and  Mel- 
chisedec  the  priest  blessed  Abraham,  and 
Moses  blessed  the  sons  of  Israel,  and  God 
appointed  the  Levitical  priest  to  "bless  the 
congregation ;"  and  this  is  more  than  can 
be  done  by  the  people  ;  for  though  they 
can  say  the  same  prayer,  and  the  people 
pray  for  their  kings,  and  children  for  their 
parents,  and  the  flock  for  the  pastor,  yet 
they  cannot  bless  him  as  he  blesseth  them ; 
"  for  the  less  is  blessed  of  the  greater,  and 
not  the  greater  of  the  less;"  and  this  is 
"  without  all  contradiction,"  said  St.  Paul:f 
the  meaning  of  the  mystery  is  this,  That 
God  hath  appointed  the  priest  to  pray  for 
the  people,  and  because  he  hath  made  it  to 
be  his  ordinary  office  and  employment,  he 
also  intends  to  be  seen  in  that  way,  which 
he  hath  appointed,  and  chalked  out  for  us  ; 
his  prayer,  if  it  be  "found  in  the  way  of 
righteousness,"  is  the  surer  way  to  prevail 
in  his  intercessions  for  the  people. 

But  upon  this  stock  comes  in  the  greatest 
difficulty  of  the  text :  for  if  "  God  heareth 
not  sinners,"  there  is  an  infinite  necessity, 
that  the  ministers  of  religion  should  be  very 
holy :  for  all  their  ministries  consist  in 
preaching  and  praying;  to  these  two  art- 
reducible  all  the  ministries  ecclesiastical, 
which  are  of  Divine  institution  :  so  the 
apostles  summed  up  their  employment: 
"  But  we  will  give  ourselves  continually  to 
prayer,  and  to  the  ministry  of  the  word  :"$  to 
exhort,  to  reprove,  to  comfort,  to  cast  down, 
to  determine  cases  of  conscience,  and  to 
rule  in  the  church  by  "  the  word  of  their 

*  James  v.  14;    t  Heh.  vii.  7.    t  Acts  vi.  4. 
E 


50 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


Serm.  VI. 


proper  ministry ;"  and  the  very  making 
laws  ecclesiastical,  is  the  ministry  of  the 
word ;  for  so  their  dictates  pass  into  laws  ■ 
by  being  duties  enjoined  by  God,  or  the] 
acts,  or  exercises,  or  instruments  of  some 
enjoined  graces.  To  prayer  is  reduced  "  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments  but  "  bind- 
ing and  losing,"  and  "  visitation  of  the 
sick,"  are  mixed  offices,  partly  relating  to 
one,  partly  to  the  other.  Now  although  the 
word  of  God  preached  will  have  a  great 
effect,  even  though  it  be  preached  by  an 
evil  minister,  a  vicious  person  ;  yet  it  is  not  j 
so  well  there  as  from  a  pious  man,  because  | 
by  prayer  also  his  preaching  is  made  effec- 
tual, and  by  his  good  example  his  homilies 
and  sermons  are  made  active ;  and  there- 
fore it  is  very  necessary  in  respect  of  this 
half  of  the  minister's  office,  (<  the  preaching 
of  the  word,"  he  be  a  good  man;  unless  he 
be,  much  perishes  to  the  people,  most  of  the 
advantages  are  lost.  But  then  for  the  other 
hnlf,  all  those  ministries  which  are  by  way 
of  prayer,  are  rendered  extremely  invalid, 
and  ineffectual,  if  they  be  ministered  by  an 
evil  person.  For  upon  this  very  stock  it 
was  that  St.  Cyprian  affirmed,  that  none 
were  to  be  chosen  to  the  ministry  but  "  im- 
maculati  et  integri  antistites,  e  holy  and  up- 
right men,'  who,  offering  their  sacrifices 
worthily  to  God  and  hclily,  may  be  heard 
in  their  prayers,  which  they  make  for  the 
safety  of  the  Lord's  people."*'  But  he 
presses  this  caution  to  a  further  issue  :  that 
it  is  not  only  necessary  to  choose  holy  per- 
sons to  these  holy  ministries  for  fear  of  los- 
ing the  advantages  of  a  sanctified  ministry, 
but  also  that  the  people  may  not  be  guilty 
of  an  evil  communion,  and  a  criminal 
state  of  society.  "Nec  enim  sibi  plebs 
blandiatur,  quasi  immunis  a  contagione 
delicti  esse  possit,  cum  sacerdote  peccatore 
communicans  ;  f  The  people  cannot  be  in- 
nocent if  they  communicate  with  a  vicious 
priest:'  for  so  said  the  Lord  by  the  prophet 
Hosea,  Sacrificia  eorum  panis  luctus ;  for 
'  their  sacrifices  are  like  bread  of  sorrow,' 
whosoever  eats  thereof  shall  be  defiled." 
The  same  also  he  says  often  and  more  vehe- 
mently, ibid,  et  lib.  4.  ep.  2.  But  there  is 
yet  a  further  degree  of  this  evil.  It  is  not 
only  a  loss,  and  also  criminal  to  the  people, 
to  communicate  with  a  minister  of  a  notori- 
ous evil  life  and  scandalous,  but  it  is  affirm- 
ed by  the  doctors  of  the  church  to  be  wholly 
without  effect ;  and  their  prayers  are  sins, 


*  Lib.  L  Ep.  4. 


their  sacraments  are  null  and  ineffective, 
their  communions  are  without  consecration, 
their  hand  is  ^ftpaxupoj,  "a  dead  hand,"  the 
blessing  vain,  their  sacrifices  rejected,  their 
ordinations  imperfect,  their  order  is  vanish- 
ed, their  character  is  extinguished,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  will  not  descend  upon  the 
mysteries,  when  he  is  invocated  by  unholy 
hands  and  unsanctified  lips.  This  is  a  sad 
story,  but  it  is  expressly  affirmed  by  Diony- 
sius,  by  St.  Jerome  upon  the  second  chap- 
ter of  Zephaniah,*  affirming  that  they  do 
wickedly  who  affirm,  "  Eucharistiam  im- 
precantis  facere  verba,  non  vitam ;  et  neces- 
s^riam  esse  tantum  solennem  orationem  et 
non  sacerdotum  merita:"  "  that  the  eucha- 
rist  is  consecrated  by  the  word  and  solemn 
prayer,  and  not  by  the  life  and  holiness  of 
the  priest ;"  and  by  St.  Gelasius,f  by  the 
author  of  the  imperfect  work  attributed  to 
St.  Chrysostom,$  who  quotes  the  eighth 
book  of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions  for 
the  same  doctrine ;  the  words  of  which  in 
the  first  chapter  are  so  plain,  that  Boviusjj 
and  Sixtus  Senensis§  accuse  both  the  author 
of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions,  and  St. 
Jerome,  and  the  author  of  these  homilies,  to 
be  guilty  of  the  doctrine  of  John  Huss,  who 
for  the  crude  delivery  of  this  truth  was  sen- 
tenced by  the  council  of  Constance.  To  the 
^  same  sense  and  signification  of  doctrine  is 
'  that,  which  is  generally  agreed  upon  by  al- 
most all  persons;  that  he  that  enters  into  his 
ministry  by  simony,  receives  nothing  but  a 
j  curse,  which  is  expressly  affirmed  by  Petrus 
Damiani,*[  and  Tarasius*'*  the  patriarch  of 
!  Constantinople,  by  St.  Gregory,ff  and  St. 
I  Ambrose.:^ 

For  if  the  Holy  Ghost  leaves  polluted 
temples  and  unchaste  bodies,  if'  he  takes 
1  away  his  grace  from  them  that  abuse  it,  if 
i  the  Holy  Ghost  would  not  have  descended 
upon  Simon  Magus  at  the  prayer  of  St. 
i  Peter,  if  St.  Peter  had  taken  money  from 
him:  it  is  but  reasonable  to  believe  the 
Holy  Ghost  will  not  descend   upon  the 
simoniacal,  unchaste  concubinaries,  schisma- 
tics, and  scandalous  priests,  and  excommu- 
nicate.   And  besides  the  reasonableness  of 
the  doctrine,  it  is  also   further  affirmed 
by   the   council   of  Neocaesarea,    by  St. 
Chrysostom,!!  Innocentius,$$  Nicholaus  the 

*  Ad  Demo.  1 1,  q.  I.  c.  sacro  sancta.  t  Homil. 

53.    II  In  Scholiis  ad  hunc  locum.    §  Lib.  vi.  A. 

D.  108.  Biblioth.  IT  Ep.  16,  Biblioth.  pp.  torn. 
I  3.  n.  19.  **  Decret.  I.  q.  I.  ad  c.  eos  qui.  tt  Lib. 
j  vi.  regist.  5.  in  decretis  et  I.  vii.  c.  120.  Jt  De 
i  dignit.  sacerd.  c.  5.  II II  Can.  9.  orat.  4.  de  sacerd. 
I  ffl.  in  ep.  20.  horn  I.  part.  2.  ep.27. 


S£RM.  VI. 


THE  RETURN  OF  PRAYERS. 


51 


first,*  and  by  the  Master  of  the  Sentences  upon 
(lie  saying  of  God  by  the  prophet  Malachi, 
i.  "Maledicam  benedictionibus  vestris,"  u  I 
will  curse  your  blessings  :"  upon  the  stock 
of  these  scriptures,  reasons,  and  authorities, 
we  may  see  how  we  are  to  understand  this 
advantage  of  intercession.  The  prayer  and 
offices  of  the  holy  ministers  are  of  great  ad- 
vantages for  the  interest  of  the  people ;  but 
if  they  be  ministered  to  by  evil  men,  by 
vicious  and  scandalous  ministers,  this  extra- 
ordinary advantage  is  lost,  they  are  left  to 
stand  alone  or  to  fall  by  their  own  crimes ;  so 
much  as  is  the  action  of  God,  and  so  much  as 
is  the  piety  of  the  man  that  attends  and  prays 
in  the  holy  place  with  the  priest,  so  far  he 
shall  prevail,  but  no  farther;  and  therefore, 
the  church  hath  taught  her  ministers  to 
pray  thus  in  their  preparatory  prayer  to  con- 
secration ;  "Q,uoniam  me  peccatorem  inter 
te  eteundem  pop  ulum  medium  esse  voluisti, 
licet  in  me  boni  operis  testimonium  non  ag- 
noscas,  officium  dispensationis  creditce  non 
recuses,  nec  per  me,  indignum  famulum 
tuum,  eorum  salutis  pereat  pretium,  pro 
quibus  victima  factus  salutaris,  dignatus  est 
fieri  redemptio."  For  we  must  know,  that 
God  hath  not  put  the  salvation  of  any  man 
into  the  power  of  another.  And  although 
the  church  of  Rome,  by  calling  the  priest's 
actual  intention  simply  necessary,  and  the 
sacraments  also  indispensibly  necessary, 
hath  left  it  in  the  power  of  every  curate  to 
damn  very  many  of  his  parish;  yet  it  is 
otherwise  with  the  accounts  of  truth  and 
the  Divine  mercy;  and,  therefore,  he  will 
never  exact  the  sacraments  of  us  by  the 
measures  and  proportions  of  an  evil  priest, 
but  by  the  piety  of  the  communicant,  by  the 
prayers  of  Christ,  and  the  mercies  of  God. 
But  although  the  greatest  interest  of  salvation 
depends  not  upon  this  ministry ;  yet,  as  by 
this  we  receive  many  advantages,  if  the 
minister  be  holy;  so,  if  he  be  vicious,  we 
lose  all  that  which  could  be  conveyed  to  us 
by  his  part  of  the  holy  ministration  ;  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  assembly  prays  and 
joins  in  the  effect,  and  for  the  obtaining  the 
blessing ;  but  the  more  vain  persons  are  as- 
sembled, the  less  benefits  are  received,  even 
by  good  men  there  present;  and  therefore, 
much  is  the  loss,  if  a  wicked  priest  ministers, 
though  the  sum  of  affairs  is  not  entirely 
turned  upon  his  office  or  default,  yet  many 
advantages  are.  For  we  must  not  think,  that 

*  Ep.  9.  Tom,  3.  ad  Micael.  imperator.  d.  in  4. 
dist.  13. 


the  effect  of  the  sacraments  is  indivisibly 
done  at  once,  or  by  one  ministry ;  but  they 
operate  by  parts,  and  by  moral  operation,  by 
the  length  of  time,  and  whole  order  of  piety  , 
and  holy  ministries;  every  man  is  <jvwpy6j 
"a  fellow-worker  with  God,"  in 
the  work  of  his  salvation  ;  and  as  in  our  de- 
votion, no  one  prayer  of  our  own  alone 
prevails  upon  God  for  grace  and  salvation, 
but  all  the  devotions  of  our  life  are  upon 
God's  account  for  them  ;  so  is  the  blessing 
of  God  brought  upon  the  people  by  all  the 
parts  of  their  religion,  and  by  all  the  as- 
sistances of  holy  people,  and  by  the  minis- 
tries, not  of  one,  but  of  all  God's  ministers, 
and  relies  finally  upon  our  own  faith,  and 
obedience,  and  the  mercies  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ ;  but  yet,  for  want  of  holy  persons 
to  minister,  much  diminution  of.  blessing 
and  a  loss  of  advantage  is  unavoidable ; 
therefore,  if  they  have  great  necessities,  they 
can  best  hope,  that  God  will  be  moved  to 
mercy  on  their  behalf,  if  their  necessities  be 
recommended  to  God  by  persons  of  a  great 
piety,  of  a  holy  calling,  and  by  the  most 
solemn  offices. 

Lastly,  I  promised  to  consider  concerning 
the  signs  of  having  our  prayers  heard :  con- 
cerning which,  there  is  not  much  of  particu- 
lar observation;  but  if  our  prayers  be 
according  to  the  warrant  of  God's  word,  if 
we  ask  according  to  God's  will  things  honest 
and  profitable,  we  are  to  rely  upon  the  pro- 
mises ;  and  we  are  sure  that  they  are  heard, 
and,  besides  this,  we  can  have  no  sign  but 
"  the  thing  signified  ;"  when  we  feel  the  ef- 
fect, then  we  are  sure  God  hath  heard  us ; 
but  till  then  we  are  to  leave  it  with  God, 
and  not  to  ask  a  sign  of  that,  for  which  he 
hath  made  us  a  promise.  And  yet  Cassian 
hath  named  one  sign,  which,  if  you  give  me 
leave,  I  will  name  unto  you.  "It  is  a  sign 
we  shall  prevail  in  our  prayers,  when  the 
Spirit  of  God  moves  us  to  pray,— «  cum 
fiducia  et  quasi  securitate  impetrandi,'  'with 
a  confidence  and  a  holy  security  of  receiving 
what  we  ask/  "*  But  this  is  no  otherwise 
a  sign,  but  because  it  is  a  part  of  the  duty ; 
and  trusting  in  God  is  an  endearing  him, 
and  doubting  is  a  dishonour  to  him ;  and  he 
that  doubts  hath  no  faith;  for  all  good  prayers 
rely  upon  God's  word,  and  we  must  judge 
of  the  effect  by  Providence ;  for  he  that  asks 
what  is  "  not  lawful,"  hath  made  an  unholy 
prayer;  if  it  be  lawful  and  tC  not  profitable" 
we  are  then  heard,  when  God  denies  us ; 

*  Collat.  ix.  c.  23. 


52 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


Serm.  VII. 


a  consuming  fire. — Heb.  xii. 
and  29th  verses. 


part  of  the  28th 


and  if  both  these  be  in  the  prayer,  "  he  that 
doubts  is  a  sinner,"  and  then  God  will  not 
hear  him  ;  but  beyond  this  I  know  no  confi-  EXftMEN  tvp  zupw,  so  our  Testaments 
dence  is  warrantable ;  and  if  this  be  a  sign  usually  read  it,  from  the  authority  of  Theo- 
of  prevailing,  then  all  the  prudent  prayers  of  phylact;  tfLet  us  have  grace,"  but  some 
all  holy  men  shall  certainly  be  heard ;  and  copies  read  in  the  indicative  mood,  t-zopsv, 


because  that  is  certain,  we  need  no  farther 
inquiry  into  signs. 

I  sum  up  all  in  the  words  of  God  by  the 
prophet ;  "  Run  to  and  fro  through  the 
streets  of  Jerusalem,  and  see,  and  know,  and 
seek  in  the  broad  places  thereof,  if  you  can 
find  a  man  ;  if  there  be  any  that  executeth 
judgment,  that  seeketh  truth,  i  virum  quae- 
rentem  fidem,'  6  a  man  that  seeketh  for 
faith  ;'  '  et  propitius  ero  ei,'  'and  I  will  par- 
don it.'  "*  God  would  pardon  all  Jerusa- 
lem for  one  good  man's  sake;  there  are  such 
days  and  opportunities  of  mercy,  when 
God,  at  the  prayer  of  one  holy  person,  will 
save  a  people  ;  and  Ruffinus  spake  a  great 
thing,  but  it  was  hugely  true ;  "Q,uis  dubitet 
mundum  stare  precibus  sanctorum?"  "the 
world  itself  is  established  and  kept  from  dis- 
solution by  the  prayers  of  saints ;"  and  the 
prayers  of  saints  shall  hasten  the  day  of 
judgment ;  and  we  cannot  easily  find  two 
effects  greater.  But  there  are  many  othei 
very  great  ones;  for  the  prayers  of  holy 
men  appease  God's  wrath,  drive  away 
temptations,  and  resist  and  overcome  the 
devil :  holy  prayer  procures  the  ministry 
and  service  of  angels,  it  rescinds  the  decrees 
of  God,  it  cures  sicknesses  and  obtains  par- 
don., it  arrests  the  sun  in  its  course,  and 
stays  the  wheels  of  the  chariot  of  the  moon  ; 
it  rules  over  all  God's  creatures,  and  opens 
and  shuts  the  storehouses  of  rain;  it  un- 
locks the  cabinet  of  the  womb,  and  quenches 
the  violence  of  fire  ;  it  stops  the  mouths  of 
lions,  and  reconciles  our  sufferance  and 
weak  faculties,  with  the  violence  of  tor- 
ment and  sharpness  of  persecution ;  it  pleases 
God  and  supplies  all  our  needs.  But  prayer 
that  can  do  thus  much  for  us,  can  do  nothing 
at  all  without  holiness  ;  for  "  God  heareth 
not  sinners,  but  if  any  man  be  a  worshipper 
of  God,  and  doth  his  will,  him  hp  heareth." 


SERMON  VII. 
OF  GODLY  FEAR,  &<x 


Let  us  have  grace,  viherehy  we  may  serve  God 
with  reverence  and  godly  fear.    For  our  God  is 


*  Jer.  v.  1 


"  We  have  grace,  by  which  we  do  serve;" 
and  it  is  something  better  consonant  to  the 
discourse  of  the  apostle.  For  having 
enumerated  the  great  advantages,  which  the 
gospel  hath  above  those  of  the  law,  he 
makes  an  argument  "a  majori;"  and  an- 
swers a  tacit  objection.  The  law  was 
delivered  by  angels,  but  the  gospel  by  the 
Son  of  God :  the  law  was  delivered  from 
mount  Sinai,  the  gospel  from  mount  Sion, 
from  "the  heavenly  Jerusalem :"  the  law 
was  given  with  terrors  and  noises,  with 
amazements  of  the  standers-by,  and  Moses 
himself,  "the  minister,  did  exceeding] y 
quake  and  fear,"  and  gave  demonstration 
how  infinitely  dangerous  it  was  by  breaking 
that  law  to  provoke  so  mighty  a  God,  who 
with  his  voice  did  shake  the  earth ;  but  the 
gospel  was  given  by  a  meek  Prince,  a  gentle 
Saviour,  with  a  still  voice,  scarce  heard  in 
the  streets.  But  that  this  may  be  no  objec- 
tion, he  proceeds  and  declares  the  terror  oi 
the  Lord:  "Deceive  not  yourselves,  our 
Lawgiver  appeared  so  upon  earth,  and  was 
so  truly,  but  now  he  is  ascended  into 
heaven,  and  from  thence  he  speaks  to  us." 
See  that  ye  refuse  not  him  that  speaketh ; 
for  if  they  escaped  not,  who  refused  him 
that  spake  on  earth,  much  more  shall  not 
we  escape,  if  we  turn  away  from  him  that 
speaketh  from  heaven  ;"*  for  as  God  once 
shook  the  earth,  and  that  was  full  of  terror, 
so  our  Lawgiver  shall  do,  and  much  more, 
and  be  far  more  terrible,  "En  arta|  iy&  oslou 
tov  ovpcwov  xoi  trjv  yrjv  xai  tip  ^dlnaoav  xai  trji 
i^paf,  said  the  prophet  Haggai,  which  the 
apostle  quotes  here,  he  once  shook  the 
earth.  But  "once  more  I  shake ;"  asLaui, 
it  is  in  the  prophecy,  "Iwill  shake,  not  the 
earth  only,  but  also  heaven,"  +  with  a  great- 
er terror  than  was  upon  mount  Sinai,  with 
the  voice  of  an  archangel,  with  the  trump 
of  God,  with  a  concussion  so  great,  that 
heaven  and  earth  shall  be  shaken  in  pieces 
and  new  ones  come  in  their  room.  This  is 
an  unspeakable  and  an  unimaginable  terror: 
Mount  Sinai  was  shaken,  but  it  stands  to 
this  day  ;  but  when  that  shaking  shall  be. 
"the  things  that  are  shaken  shall  be  no  more; 
that  those  things  that  cannot  be  shaken  may 


•  Hcb*.  xii.  25. 


tii.  6. 


Serm.  VII. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


53 


remain  :"  that  is,  not  only  that  the  celestial 
Jerusalem  may  remain  for  ever,  but  that 
you,  who  do  not  turn  away  from  the  faith 
and  obedience  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  you,  who 
cannot  be  shaken  nor  removed  from  your 
duty,  you  may  remain  for  ever  ;  that  when 
the  rocks  rend,  and  the  mountains  fly  in 
pieces,  like  the  drops  of  a  broken  cloud,  and 
the  heavens  shall  melt,  and  the  sun  shall 
be  a  globe  of  consuming  fire,  and  the  moon 
shall  be  dark  like  an  extinguished  candle, 
then  you  poor  men,  who  could  be  made  to 
tremble  with  an  ague,  or  shake  by  the  vio- 
lence of  a  northern  wind,  or  be  removed 
from  your  dwellings  by  the  unjust  decree  of 
a  persecutor,  or  be  thrown  from  your  estates 
by  the  violence  of  an  unjust  man,  yet  could 
not  be  removed  from  your  duty,  and  though 
you  went  trembling,  yet  would  go  to  death 
for  the  testimony  of  a  holy  cause,  and  you 
that  would  die  for  your  faith,  would  also 
live  according  to  it;  you  shall  be  established 
by  the  power  of  God,  and  supported  by  the 
arm  of  your  Lord,  and  shall  in  all  this 
great  shaking  be  unmovable ;  as  the  corner- 
stone of  the  gates  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
you  shall  remain  and  abide  for  ever.  This 
is  your  case.    And,  to  sum  up  the  whole 
force  of  the  argument,  the  apostle  adds  the 
words  of  Moses  :  as  it  was  then,  so  it  is  true 
now,  "  Our  God  is  a  consuming  fire;"*  he 
was  so  to  them  that  brake  the  law,  but  he 
will  be  much  more  to  them  that  disobey  his 
Son  ;  he  made  great  changes  then,  but  those 
which  remain  are  far  greater,  and  his  terrors 
are  infinitely  more  intolerable ;  and  therefore, 
although  he  came  not  in  the  spirit  of  Elias, 
but  with  meekness  and  gentle  insinuations, 
soft  as  the  breath  of  heaven,  not  willing  to 
disturb  the  softest  stalk  of  a  violet,  yet  his 
second  coming  shall  be  with  terrors  such  as 
shall  amaze  all  the  world,  and  dissolve  it 
into  ruin  and  a  chaos.    This  truth  is  of  so 
great  efficacy  to  make  us  do  our  duty,  that 
now  we  are  sufficiently  enabled  with  this 
consideration.    This  is  the  grace  which  we 
have  to  enable  us,  this  terror  will  produce 
fear,  and  fear  will  produce  obedience,  and 
"we  therefore  have  grace,"  that  is,  we  have 
such  a  motive  to  make  us  reverence  God 
and  fear  to  offend  him,  that  he  that  dares 
continue  in  sin,  and  refuses  to  hear  him 
that  speaks  to  us  from  heaven,  and  from 
thence  shall  come  with  terrors,  this  man 
despises  the  grace  of  God,  he  is  a  graceless, 
fearless,  impudent  man,  and  he  shall  find 

*Deut.  iv.  24. 


that  true  in  "  hypothesi,"  and  in  his  own 
ruin,  which  the  apostle  declares  in  "  thesi," 
and  by  way  of  caution,  and  provisionary 
terror,  "Our  God  is  a  consuming  fire;" 
this  is  the  sense  and  design  of  the  text. 

Reverence  and  godly  fear,  they  are  the 
effects  of  this  consideration,  they  are  the 
duties  of  every  Christian,  they  are  the  graces 
of  God.    I  shall  not  press  them  only  to 
purposes  of  awfulness  and  modesty  of 
opinion  and  prayers,  against  those  strange 
doctrines,  which  some  have  introduced  into 
religion,  to  the  destruction  of  all  manners 
and  prudent  apprehensions  of  the  distances 
of  God  and  man  ;   such  as  are  the  doctrine 
of  necessity  of  familiarity  with  God,  and  a 
civil  friendship,  and  a  party  of  estate,  and  an 
evenness  of  adoption ;  from  whence  proceed 
rudeness  in  prayer,  flat  and  indecent  expres- 
sions, affected  rudeness,  superstitious  sitting 
at  the  holy  sacrament,  making  it  to  be  a 
part  of  religion  to  be  without  fear  and  rever- 
ence ;  the  stating  of  the  question  is  a  suffi- 
cient reproof    of  this  folly;  whatsoevei 
actions  are  brought  into  religion  without 
"reverence  and  godly  fear,"  are  therefore  to 
be  avoided,  because  they  are  condemned  in 
this  advice  of  the  apostle,  and  are  destruc- 
tive of  those  effects  which  are  to  be  imprinted 
upon  our  spirits  by  the  terrors  of  the  day  of 
judgment.    But  this  fear  and  reverence,  the 
apostle  intends,  should  be  a  deletery  to  all 
sin  whatsoever;  fyopepbv  brfkr^rfiiov'  <|>6j3o$, 
tyvyri'  says  the  Etymologicum  :   "  Whatso- 
ever is  terrible,  is  destructive  of  that  thing  for 
which  it  is  so ;"  and  if  we  fear  the  evil  effects 
of  sin,  let  us  fly  from  it,  we  ought  to  fear  its 
alluring  face  too  ;  let  us  be  so  afraid,  that  we 
may  not  dare  to  refuse  to  hear  him  whose 
throne  is  heaven,  whose  voice  is  thunder, 
whose  tribunal  is  clouds,  whose  seat  is  the 
right  hand  of  God,  whose  word  is  with 
power;   whose  law  is  given  with  mighty 
demonstration   of  the  Spirit,  who  shall 
reward  with  heaven  and  joys  eternal,  and 
who  punishes  his  rebels,  that  will  not  have 
him  to  reign  over  them,  with  brimstone  and 
fire,  with  a  worm  that  never  dies,  and  a  fire 
that  never  is  quenched  ;  let  us  fear  him  who 
is  terrible  in  his  judgments,  just  in  his  dis- 
pensation, secret  in  his  providence,  severe  in 
his  demands,  gracious  in  his  assistances, 
bountiful  in  his  gifts,  and  is  never  wanting 
to  us  in  what  we  need ;  and  if  all  this  be  not 
argument  strong  enough  to  produce  fear,  and 
that  fear  great  enough  to  secure  obedience, 
all  arguments  are  useless,  all  discourses  are 
vain,  the  grace  of  God  is  ineffective,  and  we 
e  2 


54 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


Serm.  VII. 


are  as  dull  as  the  Dead  sea;  inactive  as 
a  rock,  and  we  shall  never  dwell  with  God 
in  any  sense,  but  as  "  he  is  a  consuming 
fire,"  that  is,  dwell  in  everlasting  burnings. 

AtSw$  xoi  tifhafisia,  Reverence  and  caution, 
modesty  and  fear,  (ista  f^XajSst'aj  xai  8iov$,  so  it 
is  in  some  copies,  with  caution  and  fear  ;  or 
if  we  render  svTudfisia  to  be  "  fear  of  punish- 
ment, "  as  it  is  generally  understood  by 
interpreters  of  this  place,  and  is  in  Hesychius 
eiftaj3«itf£at,  ^v'hd'ttta'^tt,  q>ofisto$<u,  then  the 
expression  is  the  same  in  both  words,  and  it 
is  all  one  with  the  other  places  of  Scripture, 
"  Work  out  your  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling,"  degrees  of  the  same  duty ;  and 
they  signify  all  those  actions  and  graces, 
which  are  the  proper  effluxes  of  fear ;  such 
as  are  reverence,  prudence,  caution,  and 
diligence,  chastity,  and  a  sober  spirit; 
tvTji^Bva,  ct/jivotqs,  so  also  say  the  grammari- 
ans ;  and  it  means  plainly  this :  since  our 
God  will  appear  so  terrible  at  his  second 
coming,  "  let  us  pass  the  time  of  our  sojourn- 
ing here  in  fear,  "*  that  is,  modestly ,  with- 
out too  great  confidence  of  ourselves ;  soberly, 
without  bold  crimes,  which  when  a  man 
acts,  he  must  put  on  shamelessness  ;  rever- 
ently towards  God,  as  fearing  to  offend  him ; 
diligently  observing  his  commandments, 
inquiring  after  his  will,  trembling  at  his 
voice,  attending  to  his  word,  reverencing  his 
judgments,  fearing  to  provoke  him  to  anger; 
for  "it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  living  God."  Thus  far  it  is 
a  duty. 

Concerning  which,  that  I  may  proceed 
orderly,  I  shall  first  consider  how  far  fear  is 
a  duty  of  Christian  religion.  2.  Who  and 
what  states  of  men  ought  to  fear,  and  upon 
what  reasons.  3.  What  is  the  excess  of 
fear,  or  the  obliquity  and  irregularity  where- 
by it  becomes  dangerous,  penal,  and  crim- 
inal ;  a  state  of  evil,  and  not  a  state  of  duty. 

1.  Fear  is  taken  sometimes  in  Holy 
Scripture  for  the  whole  duty  of  man,  for  his 
whole  religion  towards  God.  "  And  now, 
[srael,  what  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require 
of  thee,  but  to  fear  the  Lord  thy  God  V'f — 
fear  is  obedience,  and  fear  is  love,  and  fear 
is  humility,  because  it  is  the  parent  of  all 
these,  and  is  taken  for  the  whole  duty  to 
which  it  is  an  introduction.  "  The  fear  of 
the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom,  and  a 
good  understanding  have  all  they  that  do 
thereafter ;  the  praise  of  it  endureth  for 
ever  :"J  and,  "Fear  God  and  keep  his  com- 


mandments, for  this  is  the  whole  duty  ot 
man  :m  and  thus  it  is  also  used  in  the  New 
Testament:  "Let  us  cleanse  ourselves  from 
all  filthiness  of  the  flesh  and  spirit,  perfect- 
ing holiness  in  the  fear  of  God."f 

2.  Fear  is  sometimes  taken  for  worship  : 
for  so  our  blessed  Saviour  expounds  the 
words  of  Moses  in  Matt.  iv.  10,  taken  from 
Deut.  x.  20.  "Thou  shalt  fear  the  Lord 
thy  God,"  so  Moses  ;  "  Thou  shalt  worship 
the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou 
serve,"  said  our  blessed  Saviour  ;  and  so  it 
was  used  by  the  prophet  Jonah ;  "lam  a 
Hebrew,  and  1  fear  the  Lord  the  God 
of  heaven, "$  that  is,  I  worship  him ;  he  is 
the  Deity  that  I  adore,  that  is,  my  worship 
and  my  religion ;  and  because  the  new 
colony  of  Assyrians  did  not  do  so,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  their  dwelling  there,  "  ihey  feared 
not  the  Lord,"  that  is,  they  worshipped  other 
gods,  and  not  the  God  of  Israel,  therefore 
God  sent  lions  among  them,  which  slew 
many  of  them.|  Thus  far  fear  is  not  a  dis- 
tinct duty,  but  a  word  signifying  something 
besides  itself;  and  therefore  cannot  come 
into  the  consideration  of  this  text.  There- 
fore, 3.  Fear,  as  it  is  a  religious  passion,  is 
divided  as  the  two  Testaments  are ;  and  re- 
lates to  the  old  and  new  covenant,  and 
accordingly  hath  its  distinction.  In  the  law, 
God  used  his  people  like  servants ;  in 
the  gospel,  he  hath  made  us  to  be  sons.  In 
the  law,  he  enjoined  many  things,  hard, 
intricate,  various,  painful,  and  expensive  ;  in 
the  gospel,  he  gave  commandments,  not 
hard,  but  full  of  pleasure,  necessary  and 
profitable  to  our  life,  and  well-being  of 
single  persons  and  communities  of  men.  In 
the  law,  he  hath  exacted  those  many  pre- 
cepts by  the  covenant  of  exact  measures, 
grains  and  scruples  ;  in  the  gospel,  he  makes 
abatement  for  human  infirmities,  tempta- 
tions, moral  necessities,  mistakes,  errors,  foi 
every  thing  that  is  pitiable,  for  every  thing 
that  is  not  malicious  and  voluntary.  In  the 
law,  there  are  many  threatenings,  and  but 
few  promises,  the  promise  of  temporal  pros- 
perities branched  into  single  instances ;  in 
the  gospel,  there  are  but  few  threatenings,  and 
many  promises :  and  when  God  by  Moses 
gave  the  ten  commandments,  only  one  of 
them  was  sent  out  with  a  promise,  the  pre- 
cept of  obedience  to  all  our  parents  and 
superiors;  but  when  Christ  in  his  first  ser- 
mon recommended  eight  duties,  §  Christian 


*1  Pet.  i.  17.    t  Dcut.  x.  12.     t  Psal.  c;d.  10. 


*  Eccles.  xii  .13.  t  2  Cor.  vii.  1.  f  Jonah  i.  9. 
!l  2  Kings  xvii.  25.    §  Matt.  v.  ad  v.  10. 


serm.  ra 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


55 


duties  to  the  college  of  disciples,  every  one  I  duty,  and  that  duty  without  hope  can  never 
01  them  begins  with  a  blessing  and  ends  with  1  go  forward.  For  what  should  that  man  do, 
a  promise,  and  therefore  grace  is  opposed  to  i  who,  like  Nausiclides,  ovts  tap,  ovtt  fWjt^j, 


hath  neither  spring  nor  harvest,"  friend; 
nor  children,  rewards  nor  hopes  ?    A  man 
will  very  hardly  be  brought  to  deny  his  own 
pleasing  appetite,  when  for  so  doing  he 
cannot  hope  to  have  recompense;  when  the 
mind  of  a  man  is  between  hope  and  fear,  it 
is  intent  upon  its  work;  "At  postquam 
adempta  spes  est,  lassus,  cura  confectus, 
stupet,"  e:  If  you  take  away  the  hope,  the 
mind  is  weary,  spent  with  care,  hindered 
by  amazements:"  "Aut  aliquem  sumpseri- 
mus  temeraria  in  Deos  desperatione,"  saith 
Amobius;"  "A  despair  of  mercy  makes 
men  to  despise  God:"  and  the  damned  in 
hell,  when  they  shall  for  ever  be  without 
hope,  are  also  without  fear;  their  hope  is 
turned  into  despair,  and  their  fear  into  blas- 
phemy, and  they  curse  the  fountain  of 
blessing,  and  revile  God  to  eternal  ages. 
When  Dyonysius  the  tyrant  imposed  in- 
tolerable tributes  upon  his  Sicilian  subjects, 
it  amazed  them,  and  they  petitioned  and 
cried  for  help,  and  flattered  him,  and  feared 
and  obeyed  him  carefully ;  but  he  imposed 
still  new  ones,  and  greater,  and  at  last  left 
them  poor  as  the  valleys  of  Vesuvius,  or 
the  top  of  iEtna;  but  then,  all  being  gone, 
the   people  grew  idle  and   careless,  and 
walked  in  the  markets  and  public  places, 
cursing  the  tyrant,  and  bitterly  scoffing  his 
person  and  vices ;  which  when  Dionysius 
heard,  he  caused  his  publicans  and  com- 
mittees to  withdraw  their  impost:  for  '"'now 
(says  he)  they  are  dangerous,  because  they 
are  desperate,"  vvv  yap,  oi8sv  Ixovgiv,  or? 
xatatppovovaiv  rtu.Zjv.  When  men  have  nothing 
left,  they  will  despise  their  rulers  :  and  so  it  is 
in  religion  ;  w  Audaces  cogimur  esse  metu/' 
If  our  fears  be  unreasonable,  our  diligence 
is  none  at  all ;  and  from  whom  we  hope  for 
nothing,  neither  benefit  nor  indemnity,  we 
despise  his  command,  and  break  his  yoke, 
and  trample  it  under  our  most  miserable 
feet;   and  therefore,  yEschylus  calls  these 
people  ^fpuoiis,  <;  hot,"  mad,  and  furious, 
careless  of  what  they  do,  and  he  opposes 
them  to  pious  and  holy  people.    Let  your 
confidence  be  allayed  with  fear,  and  your 
fear  be  sharpened  with  the  intertextures  of 
a  holy  hope,  and  the  active  powers  of  our 
souls  are  furnished  with  feet  and  wings, 
because  Christian  fear  is  an  instrument  of  |  with  eyes  and  hands,  with  consideration 

and  diligence,  with  reason  and  encourage- 


law*    So  that  upon  these  different  interests, 
the  world  put  on  the  affections  of  servants, 
and  sons  ;  they  of  old  feared  God  as  a  severe 
Lord,  much  in  his  commands,  abundant  in 
threatenings,  angry  in  his  executions,  terri- 
ble in  his  name,  in  his  majesty  and  appear- 
ance dreadful  unto  death ;   and  this  the 
apostle  calls  7tvsv[Aa  Bovteias,  "the  spirit  of 
bondage,"  or  of  a  servant.    But  we  have 
not  received  that  Spirit,       $63ov,  "unto 
fear,"  not  a  servile  fear,  M  but  the  spirit  of 
adoption"  and  filial  fear  we  must  have  ;f — 
God  treats  us  like  sons,  he  keeps  us  under 
rliscipiine,   but  designs  us  to  the  inheri- 
tance :  and  his  government  is  paternal,  his 
disciplines  are  merciful,  his  conduct  gentle, 
his  Son  is  our  Brother,  and  our  Brother  is 
our  Lord,  and  our  Judge  is  our  Advocate, 
and  our  priest  hath  felt  our  infirmities,  and 
therefore  knows  how  to  pity  them,  and  he 
is  our  Lord,  and  therefore  he  can  relieve 
them :  and  from  hence  we  have  affections  of 
sons  ;  so  that  a  fear  we  must  not  have,  and 
yet  a  fear  we  must  have  ;  and  by  these  pro- 
portions  we   understand    the  difference : 
"Malo  vereri  quam  timeri  me  a.  meis,"said 
one  in  the  comedy,  "  I  had  rather  be  reve- 
renced than  feared  by  my  children."  The 
English  doth  not  well  express  the  difference, 
but  the  apostle  doth  it  rarely  well.  For 
that  which  he  calls  tivtvpa  douteias  in  Rom. 
viii.  15,  he  calls  7iviv^a  8nUa$,  2  Tim.  i.  7. 
The  spirit  of  bondage  is  the  spirit  of  timor- 
nusness,  or  fearfubiess,  rather  than  fear; 
when  we  are  fearful  that  God  will  use  us 
harshly  ;  or  when  we  think  of  the  accidents  1 
ihat  happen,  worse  than  the  things  are, 
when  they  are  proportioned  by  measures 
of  eternity;  and  from  this  opinion  conceive 
forced  resolutions  and  unwilling  obedience. 
Xapovs  6s  orsoi  oi  81  ou6w,  dx^a  Sea  $>63ov  avrb 
5pw5t,  xai  tyivyovtss  ov»  to  aiaxfov,  awA  to 
'kvrtr^ov,  said  Aristotle ;   "  Good  men  are 
guided  by  reverence,  not  by  fear,  and  they 
avoid  not  that  which  is  afflictive,  but  that 
which  is  dishonest;"  they  are  not  so  good 
whose  rule  is  otherwise.    But  that  we  may 
take  more  exact  measures,  I  shall  describe 
the  proportions  of  Christian  or  godly  fear  by 
the  following  propositions. 

1.  Godly  fear  is  ever  without  despair; — , 


*  John 
riii.  15. 


i.  17.    tHora.  vi.  14,  15.     t  Rom 


j  ments :  but  despair  is  part  of  the  punish- 
■  ment  that  is  in  hell,  and  the  devils  still  do 


56 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


Serm.  VII. 


evil  things,  because  they  never  hope  to>< 
receive  a  good,  nor  find  a  pardon.  j] 
2.  Godly  fear  must  always  be  with  hon-  j  i 
ourable  opinion  of  God, — without  disparage- 1 1 
meats  of  his  mercies,  without  quarrellings  at 
the  intrigues  of  his  providence,  or  the  rough 
ways  of  his  justice ;  and  therefore  it  must 
be  ever  relative  to  ourselves  and  our  own 
failings  and  imperfections. 

©aptfftV'  ovHoi  Zfi;j  av^im  >.o|w  ezei. 

"  God  never  walks  perversely  towards  us, 
unless  we  walk  crookedly  towards  him 
and  therefore  persons, — that  only  consider 
the  greatness  and  power  of  God,  and  dwell 
for  ever  in  the  meditation  of  those  severe 
executions,  which  are  transmitted  to  us  by 
story,  or  we  observe  by  accident  and  con- 
versation,— are  apt  to  be  jealous  concerning 
God,  and  fear  him  as  an  enemy,  or  as 
children  fear  fire,  or  women  thunder,  only 
because  it  can  hurt  them  j  Ssepius  illud 
eogitant,  quid  possit  is,  cujus  in  ditione  i 
sunt,  quam  quid  debeat  facere"  (Cicero  pro 
Quinctio)  :  "  They  remember  oftener  what 
God  can  do,  than  what  he  will ;"  being 
more  affrighted  at  his  judgments,  than  de- 
lighted with  his  mercy.  Such  as  were  the 
Lacedaemonians,  whenever  they  saw  a  man 
grow  popular,  or  wise,  or  beloved,  and  by 
consequence  powerful,  they  turned  him  out 
of  the  country :  and  because  they  were 
afraid  of  the  power  of  Ismenias,  and  knew 
that  Pelopidas  and  Pherenicius  and  Andro- 
clydes  could  hurt  them,  if  they  listed,  they 
banished  them  from  Sparta,  but  they  let  Epa- 
minondas  alone,  w$  8ut  /xhv  tyCkoaotytav  drtpay- 
fiova  8ta  6f  rtsvlav  aSvmtov,  "  as  being  studious 
and  therefore  inactive,  and  poor  and  there- 
fore harmless  :"  it  is  harder  when  men  use 
God  thus,  and  fear  him  as  the  great  justici- 
ary of  the  world;  who  sits  in  heaven,  and 
observes  all  we  do,  and  cannot  want  excuse 
to  punish  all  mankind.  But  this  caution  I 
have  now  inserted  for  their  sakes,  whose 
schools  and  pulpits  raise  doctrinal  fears 
concerning  God ;  which,  if  they  were  true, 
the  greatest  part  of  mankind  would  be 
tempted  to  think,  they  have  reason  not  to 
love  God  ;  and  all  the  other  part,  that  have 
not  apprehended  a  reason  to  hate  bim, 
would  have  very  much  reason  to  suspect 
his  severity,  and  their  own  condition.  Such 
are  they,  which  say,  That  God  hath  decreed 
the  greatest  part  of  mankind  to  eternal  dam- 
nation; and  that  only  to  declare  his  severity, 
and  to  manifest  his  glory  by  a  triumph  in 
our  torments,  and  rejoicings  in  the  gnashing 


of  our  teeth.  And  they  also  fear  God  un- 
reasonably, and  speak  no  good  things  con- 
cerning his  name,  who  say,  That  God 
commands  us  to  observe  laws  which  are 
impossible ;  that  think  he  will  condemn 
innocent  persons  for  errors  of  judgment, 
which  they  cannot  avoid ;  that  condemn 
who*e  nations  for  different  opinions,  which 
they  are  pleased  to  call  heresy ;  that  think 
God  will  exact  the  duties  of  a  man  by  the 
measures  of  an  angel,  or  will  not  make 
abatement  for  all  our  pitiable  infirmities.  The 
precepts  of  this  caution  are,  that  we  remem- 
ber God's  mercies  to  be  over  all  his  works, 
that  is,  that  he  shows  mercy  to  all  his 
creatures  that  need  it ;  that  God  delights  to 
have  his  mercy  magnified  in  all  things,  and 
hy  all  persons,  and  at  all  times,  and  will  not 
suffer  his  greatest  honour  to  be  most  of  all 
undervalued ;  and  therefore  as  he,  that 
would  accuse  God  of  injustice,  were  a 
blasphemer,  so  he  that  suspects  his  mercy. 
:  dishonours  God  as  much,  and  produces  in 
himself  that  fear,  which  is  the  parent  of 
trouble,  but  no  instrument  of  duty. 

3.  Godly  fear  is  operative,  diligent,  and 
instrumental  to  caution  and  strict  walking  : 
for  so  fear  is  the  mother  of  holy  living;  and 
the  apostle  urges  it  by  way  of  upbraiding  : 
"  What !  do  we  provoke  God  to  anger  ? 
Are  we  stronger  than  he?"*  meaning,  "  that 
if  we  be  not  strong  enough  to  struggle  with 
a  fever,  if  our  voices  cannot  outroar  thun- 
der, if  we  cannot  check  the  ebbing  and 
flowing  of  the  sea,  if  we  cannot  add  one 
cubit  to  our  stature,  how  shall  we  escape 
the  mighty  hand  of  God?"  And  here, 
heighten  your  apprehensions  of  the  Divine 
power,  of  his  justice  and  severity,  of  the 
fierceness  of  his  anger,  and  the  sharpness 
of  his  sword,  the  heaviness  of  his  hand  and 
the  swiftness  of  his  arrows,  as  much  as 
ever  you  can ;  provided  the  effect  pass  on 
no  farther,  but  to  make  us  reverent  and 
obedient:  but  that  fear  is  unreasonable, 
servile,  and  unchristian,  that  ends  in  bondage 
and  servile  affections,  scruple  and  trouble, 
vanity  and  incredulity,  superstition  and  des- 
peration :  its  proper  bounds  are  "  humble 
and  devout  prayers,"  and  "a  strict  and  holv 
piety"  according  to  his  laws,  and  glorifi- 
cation of  God,"  or  speaking  good  things  of 
his  holy  name;  and  then  it  cannot  be 
amiss:  we  must  be  full  of  confidence  to- 
wards God,  we  must  with  cheerfulness 
rely  upon  God's  goodness  for  the  issue  of 


*  1  Cor.  x.  22. 


S'erm.  VII.  OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


57 


our  souls,  and  our  final  interests ;  but  this  love  to  be  abused  ;  he  is  malicious,  and  we 
expectation  of  the  Divine  mercy  must  be  in  are  credulous;  he  is  powerful  and  we  are 
the  ways  of  piety  :  "Commit  yourselves  to  weak;  he  is  too  ready  of  himself,  and  yet 
God  in  well-doing  as  unto  a  faithful  Crea-  we  desire  to  be  tempted;  the  world  is 
tor."*  Alcibiades  was  too  timorous ;  who  alluring,  and  we  consider  not  its  vanity  ; 
being  called  from  banishment  refused  to  sin  puts  on  all  pleasures,  and  yet  we  take 
return,  and  being  asked,  If  he  durst  not  it,  though  it  puts  us  to  pain  :  in  short,  we 


trust  his  country,  answered,  Ta  fuv  oOAartar- 
ra,  Ttfpi  Bs  4a'#^S  rrS  ^rpt*  jJ.rtrtu>s 

dyror'jasa,  r>jv  ftHauxuf  o-vti  rrfi  "Kivxr^  ertevsyxrj 


are  vain,  and  credulous,  and  sensual,  and 
trifling;  we  are  tempted,  and  tempt  our- 
selves, and  we  sin  frequently,  and  contract 


^gifw," In  every  thing  else,  but  in  the  question  evil  habits,  and  they  become  second  natures, 
of  his  life  he  would  not  trust  his  mother,  lest  and  bring  in  a  second  death  miserable  and 
igoorantly  she  should  mistake  the  black  bean  eternal :  every  man  hath  need  to  fear 
for  the  white,  and  intending  a  favour  should  because  every  man  hath  weakness,  and 
do  him  a  mischief.''  We  must,  we  may  most  enemies,  and  temptations,  and  dangers,  and 
safely,  trust  God  with  our  souls;  the  stake  causes,  of  his  own.  But  I  shall  only  in- 
is  great,  but  the  venture  is  none  at  all:  for  stance  in  some  peculiar  sorts  of  men,  who. 


he  is  our  Creator,  and  he  is  faithful;  he  is 
our  Redeemer,  and  he  bought  them  at  a 
dear  rate ;  he  is  our  Lord,  and  they  are  his 


it  may  be,  least  think  of  it,  and,  therefore, 
have  most  cause  to  fear. 

1.  Are  those  of  whom  the  apostle  speaks. 


own,  he  prays  for  them  to  his  heavenly  "  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standelh,  take 
Father,  and  therefore  he  is  an  interested  '  heed  lest  he  fall."*  'Ev  gimp  i^vt  axdvOac  oix 
person.  So  that  he  is  a  party,  and  an  ivsisiv,  (Jij  $rt>3iv  6  A^uoxptroj)  said  the  Greek 
advocate,  and  a  judge  too  ;  and  therefore 1  proverb,  "In  ordinary  fish  we  shall  never  meet 
there  can  be  no  greater  security  in  the  with  thorns,  and  spiny  prickles  :"  and  in  per- 
world  on  God's  part ;  and  this  is  our  hope, '  sons  of  ordinary  even  course  of  life,  we  find 
and  our  confidence  :  but  because  we  are  but  I  in  it  too  often,  that  they  have  no  checks  of 
earthen  vessels  under  a  law,  and  assaulted  j  conscience,  or  sharp  reflections  upon  their 
by  enemies,  and  endangered  by  temptations  :  ' condition ;  they  fall  into  no  horrid  crimes. 


therefore  it  concerns  us  to  fear,  lest  we 
make  God  our  enemy,  and  a  party  against 
us.  And  this  brings  me  to  the  next  part 
ot  the  consideration  ;  Who  and  what  states 
of  men  ought  to  fear,  and  for  what  reasons? 
For,  as  the  former  cautions  did  limit,  so 


and  they  think  all  is  peace  round  about 
them.  But  you  must  know,  that  as  grace 
is  the  improvement  and  bettering  of  nature, 
and  Christian  graces  are  the  perfections  of 
moral  habits,  and  are  but  new  circum- 
stances,  formalities,   and   degrees ;   so  it 


this  will  encourage;  those  did  direct,  but  grows  in  natural  measures  by  supernatural 
this  will  exercise  our  godly  fear.  !  aids,  and  it  hath  its  degrees,  its  strengths 

I.  I  shall  not  here  insist  upon  the  general1  and  weaknesses,  its  promotions  and  arrests, 
reason  of  fear,  which  concerns  every  man,  I  its  stations  and  declensions,  its  direct  sick- 
thous:h  it  be  most  certain,  that  ever v  one  nesses  and  indispositions:  and  there  is  a 

state  of  srace  that  is  next  to  sin  ;  it  inclines 


hath  cause  to  fear,  even  the  most  confident 
and  holy,  because  his  way  is  dangerous 
and  narrow,  troublesome  and  uneven,  full 


to  evil  and  dwells  with  a  temptation;  its 
acts  are  imperfect,  and  the  man  is  within 


of  ambushes  and  pitfalls  ;  and  I  remember'  the  kingdom,  but  he  lives  in  its  borders,  and 
what  Polynices  said  in  the  tragedy,  when '  is  "dubiae  jurisdictionis."  These  men  have 
he  was  unjustly  thrown  from  his  father's  cause  to  fear;  these  men  seem  to  stand,  but 
kingdom,  and  refused  to  treat  of  peace  but '  they  reel  indeed,  and  decline  towards  danger 
with  a  sword  in  his  hand,  "Anavta  yap  to%-  and  death.  "Let  these  men  (saith  the 
Hwoe  8nva  fraivitac.  "Otav  8i  f^^paV  nov<;  apostle)  take  heed  lest  they  fall,"  for  they 
a.ftsl'3r;taL  x9ovb?\  "  Every  step  is  a  danger!  shake  already;  such  are  persons,  whom  the 
for  a  valiant  man,  when  he  walks  in  his  ene-J  Scriptures  call  "weak  in  faith."  I  do  not 
ray's  country  :"  and  so  it  is  with  us  :  we  are  mean  new  beginners  in  religion,  but  such, 
espied  by  God,  and  observed  by  angels  :  j  who  have  dwelt  long  in  its  confines,  and 
we  are  betrayed  within,  and  assaulted  with-  j  yet  never  enter  into  the  heart  of  the  country ; 
out :  the  devil  is  our  enemy,  and  we  are  such  whose  faith  is  tempted,  whose  piety- 
fond  of  his  mischiefs;  he  is  crafty,  and  we  does  not  grow;  such  who  yield  a  little 


*  1  Pet.  iv.  19.     t  Apud  Empir.  in  Phoenissis. 
8 


+  1  Cor.  x.  12. 


58 

people  that  do  all  that  they  can  lawfully  do, 
and  study  how  much  is  lawful,  that  they 
may  lose  nothing  of  a  temporal  interest ; 
people  that  will  not  be  martyrs  in  any 
degree,  and  yet  have  good  affections  ;  and 
love  the  cause  of  religion,  and  yet  will 
surfer  nothing  for  it :  these  are  such  of 
which  the  apostle  speaks,  Soxovaw  totavcu, 
''they  think  they  stand,"  and  so  they  do 
upon  one  leg,  that  is,  so  long  as  they  are 
untempted  ;  but  when  the  tempter  comes, 
hen  they  fall  and  bemoan  themselves,  that 
)y  losing  peace  they  lost  their  inheritance. 
There  are  a  great  many  sorts  of  such  per- 
sons :  some,  when  they  are  full,  are  content 
and  rejoice  in  God's  providence ;  but  mur- 
mur and  are  amazed,  when  they  fall  into 
poverty. .  They  are  chaste,  so  long  as  they 
are  within  the  protection  of  marriage,  but 
when  they  return  to  liberty,  they  fall  into 
bondage,  and  complain  they  cannot  help  it. 
They  are  temperate  and  sober,  if  you  let 
them  alone  at  home  ;  but  call  them  abroad, 
and  they  will  lose  their  sober  thoughts,  as 
Dinah  did  her  honour,  by  going  into  new 
company .  These  men  in  these  estates  think 
they  stand,  but  God  knows  they  are  soon 
weary,  and  stand  stiff  as  a  cane,  which  the 
heat  of  the  Syrian  star,  or  the  flames  of  the 
sun,  cannot  bend ;  but  one  sigh  of  a  northern 
wind  shakes  them  into  the  tremblings  of  a 
palsy :  in  this  the  best  advice  is,  that  such 
persons  should  watch  their  own  infirmities, 
and  see  on  which  side  they  are  most  open, 
and  by  what  enemies  they  use  to  fall,  and 
to  fly  from  such  parties,  as  they  would 
avoid  death.  But  certainly  they  have  great 
cause  to  fear,  who  are  sure  to  be  sick  when 
the  weather  changes :  or  can  no  longer 
retain  their  possession,  but  till  an  enemy 
please  to  take  it  away;  or  will  preserve 
their  honour,  but  till  some  smiling  tempta- 
tion ask  them  to  forego  it. 

2.  They  also  have  great  reason  to  fear, 
whose  repentance  is  broke  into  fragments, 
and  is  never  a  whole  or  entire  change  of 
life:  I  mean  those,  that  resolve  against  a 
sin,  and  pray  against  it,  and  hate  it  in  all 
the  resolutions  of  their  understanding,  till 
that  unlucky  period  comes,  in  which  they 
use  to  act  it;  but  then  they  sin  as  certainly, 
as  they  will  infallibly  repent  it,  when  they 
have  done :  there  are  a  great  many  Chris- 
tians, who  are  esteemed  of  the  better  sort 
of  penitents,  yet  feel  this  feverish  repentance 
to  be  their  best  state  of  health;  they  fall 
certainly  in  the  returns  of  the  same  circum- 
stances, or  at  a  certain  distance  of  time;  but, 


Serm.  VII. 

God  knows,  they  do  not  get  the  victory 
over  their  sin,  but  are  within  its  power. 
For  this  is  certain,  they  who  sin  and  repent, 
and  sin  again  in  the  same  or  like  circum- 
stances, are  in  some  degree  under  the  power 
and  dominion  of  sin;  when  their  action  can 
be  reduced  to  an  order  or  a  method,  to  a 
rule  or  a  certainty,  that  oftener  hits  than 
fails,  that  sin  is  habitual ;  though  it  be  the 
least  habit,  yet  a  habit  it  is ;  every  course, 
or  order,  or  method  of  sin,  every  constant 
or  periodical  return,  every  return  that  can 
be  regularly  observed,  or  which  a  man  can 
foresee,  or  probably  foretell,  even  then  when 
he  does  not  intend  it,  but  prays  against  it, 
every  such  sin  is  to  be  reckoned,  not  for  a 
single  action,  or  upon  the  accounts  of  a 
pardonable  infirmity,  but  it  is  a  combination, 
an  evil  state,  such  a  thing  as  the  man  ought 
to  fear  concerning  himself,  lest  he  be  sur- 
prised and  called  from  this  world,  before 
this  evil  state  be  altered  :  for  if  he  be,  his 
securities  are  but  slender,  and  his  hopes 
will  deceive  him.    It  was  a  severe  doctrine 
that  was  maintained  by  some  great  clerks 
and  holy  men  in  the  primitive  church, 
"  That  repentance  was  to  be  but  once  after 
baptism:"  "One  faith,  one  Lord,  one  oap- 
tism,  one  repentance;"*  all  these  the  Scrip- 
ture saith ;  and  it  is  true,  if  by  repentance 
we  mean  the  entire  change  of  our  condition ; 
for  he  that  returns  willingly  to  the  state  of 
an  unbelieving,  or  heathen,  profane  person, 
entirely  and  choosingly,  in  defiance  of,  and 
apostasy  from,  his  religion,  cannot  be  re- 
newed again;  as  the  apostle  twice  affirms 
in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews.    But  then, 
concerning  this  state  of  apostasy,  when  it 
happened  in  the  case,  not  of  faith,  but  of 
charity  and  obedience,  there  were  many 
fears  and  jealousies :  they  were,  therefore, 
very  severe  in  their  doctrines,  lest  men 
should  fall  into  so  evil  a  condition,  they 
enlarged  their  fear,  that   they  might  be 
stricter  in  their  duty;  and  generally  this 
they  did  believe,  that  every  second  repent- 
ance was  worse  than  the  first,  and  the  third 
worse  than  the  second,  and  still  as  the  sin 
returned,  the  Spirit  of  God  did  the  less  love 
to  inhabit;  and  .if  he  were  provoked  too 
often,  would  so  withdraw  his  aids  and  com- 
fortable cohabitation,  that  the  church  had 
little  comfort  in  such   children  ;   so  said 
Clemens  Alexandr.  Stromat.  2.  Al  8s  awsxsU 
xai  litaXtoflM  lid  "toi$  afiapt^/xaoi  /.ittdrouxi, 
ov8h  tW  xaQurtaJ;  /jltj  7tS7ti6-tevx67tu>v  8ia$spoimv' 


*  Heb.  vi.  6.  x.  26.  2  Pet.  ii.  22. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


Sum.  VIII. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


^9 


u  Those  frequent  and  alternate  repentances, 
that  is,  repentances  and  sinnings  inter- 
changeably, differ  not  from  the  conditions 
cf  men  that  are  not  within  the  covenant  of 
grace,  from  them  that  are  not  believers," 
ij  uojq  ru  ttumiu^todat  oti  a/xaptdvovoi,  "  save 
only  (says  he)  that  these  men  perceive  that 
they  sin they  do  it  more  against  their 
conscience  than  infidels  and  unbelievers  ; 
and  therefore  they  do  it  with  less  honesty 
and  excuse,  xol  ovx  olb'  ortorfpov  avrotj  *£tpov, 
rj  to  eiSota  auapramv,  rt  fitravor^avra,  ift  ol$ 
qftafHtoPj  rttyp/tctetv  av^tj"  "I  know  not  which 
is  worse,  either  to  sin  knowingly  or  willingly: 
or  to  repent  of  our  sin,  and  sin  it  over 
again."  And  the  same  severe  doctrine  is 
delivered  by  Theodoret  in  his  twelfth  book 
against  the  Greeks,  and  is  hugely  agreeable 
to  the  discipline  of  the  primitive  church  : 
and  it  is  a  truth  of  so  great  severity,  that  it 
ought  to  quicken  the  repentance  and  sour 
the  gaieties  of  easy  people,  and  make  them 
fear :  whose  repentance  is,  therefore,  in- 
effectual, because  it  is  not  integral  or  united, 
but  broken  in  pieces  by  the  intervention  of 
new  crimes ;  so  that  the  repentance  is  every 
time  to  begin  anew  ;  and  then  let  it  be  con- 
sidered, what  growth  that  repentance  can 
make,  that  is  never  above  a  week  old,  that 
is  for  ever  in  its  infancy,  that  is  still  in  its 
birth,  that  never  gets  the  dominion  over  sin. 
These  men,  I  say,  ought  to  fear,  lest  God 
reject  their  persons,  and  deride  the  folly  of 
their  new-begun  repentances,  and  at  last  be 
weary  of  giving  them  more  opportunities, 
since  they  approve  all,  and  make  use  of 
none;  their  understanding  is  right,  and  their 
will  a  slave,  their  reason  is  for  God,  and 
their  affections  for  sin ;  these  men  (as  the 
apostle's  expression  is)  "  walk  not  as  wise, 
but  as  fools  :"  for  we  deride  the  folly  of 
those  men,  that  resolve  upon  the  same 
thing  a  thousand  times,  and  never  keep 
one  of  those  resolutions.  These  men  are 
vain  and  light,  easy  and  effeminate,  childish 
and  abused;  these  are  they  of  whom  our 
blessed  Saviour  said  those  sad  decretory 
words,  "  Many  shall  seek  to  enter  in,  and 
shall  not  be  able." 


SERMON  VII 


3.  They  have  great  reason  to  fear,  whose 
sins  are  not  yet  remitted;  for  they  are  within 


'  the  dominion  of  sin,  within  the  kingdom  of 
darkness,  and  the  regions  of  fear :  light  mak's 
I  us  confident;  and  sin  checks  the  spirit  of  a 
j  man  into  pusillanimity  and  cowardice  of  a 
girl  or  a  conscious  boy :  and  they  do  their 
work  in  the  days  of  peace  and  wealthy 
fortune,  and  come  to  pay  their  symbol  in  a 
war  or  in  a  plague  ;  then  they  spend  of  their 
treasure  of  wrath,  which  they  laid  up  in 
their  vessels  of  dishonour:  and,  indeed, 
want  of  fear  brought  them  to  it ;  for  if  they 
had  known  how  to  have  accounted  con- 
cerning the  changes  of  mortality,  if  they 
could  have  reckoned  right  concerning  God's 
judgments  falling  upon  sinners,  and  remem- 
bered, that  themselves  are  no  more  to  God 
than  that  brother  of  theirs  that  died  in  a 
drunken  surfeit,  or  was  killed  in  a  rebel 
war,  or  was,  before  his  grave,  corrupted  by 
the  shames  of  lust;  if  they  could  have  told 
the  minutes  of  their  life,  and  passed  on 
towards  their  grave  at  least  in  religious  and 
sober  thoughts,  and  considered  that  there 
must  come  a  time  for  them  to  die,  and 
"after  death  comes  judgment,"  a  fearful 
and  an  intolerable  judgment, — it  would  not 
have  come  to  this  pass,  in  which  th^ir 
present  condition  of  affairs  does  amaze 
them,  and  their  sin  hath  made  them  liable 
unto  death,  and  that  death  is  the  beginning 
of  an  eternal  evil.  In  this  case  it  is  natural 
I  to  fear;  and  if  men  consider  their  condition, 
and  know  that  all  the  felicity,  and  all  the 
J  security,  they  can  have,  depends  upon 
i  God's  mercy  pardoning  their  sins, — they 
!  cannot  choose  but  fear  infinitely,  if  they 
have  not  reason  to  hope  that  their  sins  are 
pardoned.  Now  concerning  this,  men  in- 
deed have  generally  taken  a  course  to  put 
this  affair  to  a  very  speedy  issue.  "God  is 
merciful,"  and  "  God  forgive  me,"  and  all 
is  done  :  it  may  be,  a  few  sighs,  like  the 
deep  sobbings  of  a  man  that  is  almost  dead 
with  laughter,  that  is,  a  trifling  sorrow, 
returning  upon  a  man  after  he  is  full  of  sin, 
and  hath  pleased  himself  with  violence, 
and  revolving  only  by  a  natural  change 
from  sin  to  sorrow,  from  laughter  to  a 
groan,  from  sunshine  to  a  cloudy  day;  or, 
it  may  be,  the  good  man  hath  left  some  one 
sin  quite,  or  some  degrees  of  all  sin,  and 
then  the  conclusion  is  firm,  he  is  "rectus  in 
curia,"  his  sins  are  pardoned,  he  was  in- 
deed in  an  evil  condition,  but  "  now  he  is 
purged,"  he  "is  sanctified"  and  clean. 
These  things  are  very  bad  :  but  it  is  much 
worse  that  men  should  continue  in  their 
sin,  and  grow  old  in  it,  and  arrive  at  con- 


GO 


OF  GODL 


Y  FEAR. 


Serm.  VIII. 


firavation,  and  the  strength  of  habitual  wick- 
edness, and  grow  fond  of  it;  and  yet  think 
if  they  die,  their  account  stands  as  fair  in 
the  eyes  of  God's  mercy,  as  St.  Peter's, 
after  his  tears  and  sorrow.  Our  sins  are 
not  pardoned  easily  and  quickly;  and  the 
longer  and  the  greater  hath  been  the  in- 
iquity, the  harder  and  more  difficult  and 
uncertain  is  the  pardon ;  it  is  a  great  pro- 
gress to  return  from  all  the  degrees  of  death 
to  life,  to  motion,  to  quickness,  to  purity, 
to  acceptation,  to  grace,  to  contention,  and 
growth  in  grace,  to  perseverance,  and  so  to 
pardon  :  for  pardon  stands  no  where  but  at 
the  gates  of  heaven.  It  is  a  great  mercy, 
that  signifies  a  final  and  universal  acquit- 
tance. God  sends  it  out  in  little  scrolls,  and 
excuses  you  from  falling  by  the  sword  of 
an  enemy,  or  the  secret  stroke  of  an  angel 
in  the  days  of  the  plague ;  but  these  are  but 
little  entertainments  and  enticings  of  our 
hopes  to  work  on  towards  the  great  pardon, 
which  is  registered  in  the  leaves  of  the  book 
of  life.  And  it  is  a  mighty  folly  to  think, 
that  every  little  line  of  mercy  signifies  glory 
and  absolution  from  the  eternal  wrath  of 
God;  and  therefore,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  wicked  men  are  unwilling  to  die;  it 
is  a  greater  wonder,  that  many  of  them  die 
with  so  little  resentment  of  their  danger  and 
their  evil.  There  is  reason  for  them  to  trem- 
ble, when  the  Judge  summons  them  to  ap- 
pear. When  his  messenger  is  clothed  with 
horror,  and  speaks  in  thunder;  when  their 
conscience  is  their  accuser,  and  their  accu- 
sation is  great,  and  their  bills  uncancelled, 
and  they  have  no  title  to  the  cross  of  Christ, 
no  advocate,  no  excuse ;  when  God  is  their 
enemy,  and  Christ  is  the  injured  person,  and 
the  Spirit  is  grieved,  and  sickness  and  death 
come  to  plead  God's  cause  against  the  man; 
then  there  is  reason,  that  the  natural  fears 
of  death  should  be  high  and  pungent,  and 
those  natural  fears  increased  by  the  reason- 
able and  certain  expectations  of  that  anger, 
which  God  hath  laid  up  in  heaven  for  ever, 
to  consume  and  destroy  his  enemies. 

And,  indeed,  if  we  consider  upon  how 
trifling  and  inconsiderable  grounds  most  men 
hope  for  pardon,  (if  at  least  that  may  be 
called  hope,  which  is  nothing  but  a  careless 
boldness,  and  an  unreasonable  wilful  confi- 
dence,) we  shall  see  much  cause  to  pity 
very  many,  who  are  going  merrily  to  a  sad 
and  intolerable  death.  Pardon  of  sins  is  a 
mercy,  which  Christ  purchased  with  his 
dearest  blood,  which  he  ministers  to  us  upon 
conditions  of  an  infinite  kindness,  but  yet  of 


great  holiness  and  obedience,  and  an  active 
living  faith  ;  it  is  a  grace,  that  the  most  holy 
persons  beg  of  God  with  mighty  passion, 
and  labour  for  with  a  great  diligence,  and 
expect  with  trembling  fears,  and  concerning 
it  many  times  suffer  sadnesses  with  uncertain 
souls,  and  receive  it  by  degrees,  and  it 
enters  upon  them  by  little  portions,  and  it  is 
broken  as  their  sighs  and  sleeps.  But  so 
have  I  seen  the  returning  sea  enter  upon  the 
strand  ;  and  the  waters,  rolling  towards  the 
shore,  throw  up  little  portions  of  the  tide, 
and  retire  as  if  nature  meant  to  play,  and 
not  to  change  the  abode  of  waters  ;  but 
still  the  flood  crept  by  little  steppings, 
and  invaded  more  by  his  progressions  than 
he  lost  by  his  retreat:  and  having  told 
the  number  of  its  steps,  it  possesses  its  new 
portion  till  the  angel  calls  it  back,  that  it  may 
leave  its  unfaithful  dwelling  of  the  sand  :  so 
is  the  pardon  of  our  sins  ;  it  comes  by  slow 
motions,  and  first  quits  a  present  death,  and 
turns,  it  may  be,  into  a  sharp  sickness ;  and 
if  that  sickness  prove  not  health  to  the  soul, 
it  washes  off,  and,  it  may  be,  will  dash 
against  the  rock  again,  and  proceed  to  take 
off  the  several  instances  of  anger  and  the 
periods  of  wrath,  but  all  this  while  it  is  un- 
certain concerning  our  final  interest,  whether 
it  be  ebb  or  flood  :  and  every  hearty  prayer, 
and  every  bountiful  alms,  still  enlarges  the 
pardon,  or  adds  a  degree  of  probability 
and  hope ;  and  then  a  drunken  meeting,  or 
a  covetous  desire,  or  an  act  of  lust,  or  looser 
swearing,  idle  talk,  or  neglect  of  religion, 
makes  the  pardon  retire ;  and  while  it  is  dis- 
puted between  Christ  and  Christ's  enemy, 
who  shall  be  Lord,  the  pardon  fluctuates 
like  the  wave,  striving  to  climb  the  rock,  and 
is  washed  off  like  its  own  retinue,  and  it 
gets  possession  by  time  and  uncertainty,  by 
difficulty  and  the  degrees  of  a  hard  progres- 
sion. When  David  had  sinned  but  in  one 
instance,  interrupting  the  course  of  a  holy 
life  by  one  sad  calamity,  it  pleased  God 
to  pardon  him;  but  see  upon  what  hard 
terms:  he  prayed  long  and  violently,  he 
wept  sore,  he  was  humbled  in  sack-cloth 
and  ashes,  he  ate  the  bread  of  affliction  and 
drank  his  bottle  of  tears;  he  lost  his  princely 
spirit,  and  had  an  amazed  conscience;  he 
suffered  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the  sword 
never  did  depart  from  his  house:  his  son 
rebelled,  and  his  kingdom  revolted ;  he  fled 
on  foot,  and  maintained  spies  against  his 
child;  he  was  forced  to  send  an  army 
against  him  that  was  dearer  than  his  own 
eyes,  and  to  fight  against  him  whom  he 


Sum.  VIII. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


61 


would  not  hurt  for  all  the  riches  of  Syria 
and  Egypt;  his  concubines  were  defiled  by 
an  incestuous  mixture,  in  the  face  of  the  sun, 
before  all  Israel ;  and  his  child,  that  was  the 
fruit  of  sin,  after  a  seven  day's  fever,  died, 
and  left  him  nothing  of  his  sin  to  show,  but 
sorrow,  and  the  scourges  of  the  Divine  ven- 
geance; and  after  all  this,  God  pardoned  him 
finally,  because  he  was  for  ever  sorrowful,  and 
never  did  the  sin  again.  He  that  hath  sin- 
ned a  thousand  times  for  David's  once, 
is  too  confident  if  he  thinks  that  all  his  shall 
be  pardoned  at  a  less  rate  than  was  used  to 
expiate  that  one  mischief  of  the  religious 
king:  "the  Son  of  David"  died  for  his 
father  David,  as  well  as  he  did  for  us ; 
he  was  '*  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world ;"  and  yet  the  death,  and  that 
relation,  and  all  the  heap  of  the  Divine  fa- 
vours, which  crowned  David  with  a  circle 
richer  than  the  royal  diadem,  could  not  ex- 
empt him  from  the  portion  of  sinners,  when 
he  descended  into  their  pollutions.  I  pray 
God  we  may  find  the  "  sure  mercies  of  Da- 
vid," and  may  have  our  portion  in  the  re- 
demption wrought  by  the  "  Son  of  David  ;" 
but  we  are  to  expect  it  upon  such  terms  as 
are  revealed,  such  which  include  time,  and 
labour,  and  uncertainty,  and  watchfulness, 
and  fear,  and  holy  living.  But  it  is  a  sad 
observation,  that  the  case  of  pardon  of  sins  is 
so  administered,  that  they  that  are  most  sure 
of  it,  have  the  greatest  fears  concerning  it;  and 
they  to  whom  it  doth  not  belong  at  all,  are  as 
confident  as  children  and  fools,  who  believe 
every  thing  they  have  a  mind  to,  not  because 
they  have  reason  so  to  do,  but  because  with- 
out it  they  are  presently  miserable.  The  god- 
ly and  holy  persons  of  the  church  "  work  out 
their  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling  :" 
and  the  wicked  go  to  destruction  with  gaiety 
and  confidence  :  these  men  think  all  is  well, 
while  they  are  "  in  the  gall  of  bitterness;  " 
and  good  men  are  tossed  in  a  tempest,  crying 
and  praying  for  a  safe  conduct;  and  the  sighs 
of  their  fears,  and  the  wind  of  their  prayers, 
waft  them  safely  to  their  port.  Pardon  of  sins 
is  ni  t  easily  obtained  ;  because  they  who  only 
certainly  can  receive  it,  find  difficulty,  and 
danger,  and  fears,  in  the  obtaining  it ;  and 
therefore,  their  case  is  pitiable  and  deplora- 
ble, who,  when  they  have  least  reason  to 
expect  pardon,  yet  are  mcst  confident 
and  careless. 

But  because  there  are  sorrows  on  one 
side,  and  dangers  on  the  other,  and  tempta- 
tions on  both  sides,  it  will  concern  all  sorts 
of  men  to  know  when  their  sins  are  par- 


doned. For  then,  when  they  can  perceive 
their  signs  certain  and  evident,  they  may 
rest  in  their  expectations  of  the  Divine 
mercies;  when  they  cannot  see  the  signs, 
they  may  leave  their  confidence,  and  change 
it  into  repentance,  and  watchfulness,  and 
stricter  observation  ;  and,  in  order  to  this,  I 
shall  tell  you  that  which  shall  never  fail  you ; 
a  certain  sign  that  you  may  know  whether 
or  no,  and  when,  and  in  what  degree,  your 
persons  are  pardoned. 

1.  I  shall  not  consider  the  evils  of  sin  by 
any  metaphysical  and  abstracted  effects,  but 
by  sensible,  real,  and  material.  He  that  re- 
venges himself  of  another,  does  something 
that  will  make  his  enemy  grieve,  something 
that  shall  displease  the  offender  as  much  as 
sin  did  the  offended  ;  and  therefore,  all  the 
evils  of  sins  are  such  as  relate  to  us,  and 
are  to  be  estimated  by  our  apprehensions. 
Sin  makes  God  angry  ;  and  God's  anger,  if 
it  be  not  turned  aside,  will  make  us  misera- 
ble and  accursed ;  and  therefore,  in  propor- 
tion to  this  we  are  to  reckon  the  propor- 
tion of  God's  mercy  in  forgiveness,  or  his 
anger  in  retaining. 

2.  Sin  hath  obliged  us  to  suffer  many 
evils,  even  whatsoever  the  anger  of  God  is 
pleased  to  inflict;  sickness  and  dishonour, 
poverty  and  shame,  a  caitiff  spirit  and  a 
guilty  conscience,  famine  and  war,  plague 
and  pestilence,  sudden  death  and  a  short 
life,  temporal  death  or  death  eternal,  accord- 
ing as  God  in  the  several  covenants  of  the 
law  and  gospel  hath  expressed. 

3.  For  in  the  lav/  of  Moses,  sin  bound 
them  to  nothing  but  temporal  evils,  but 
they  were  sore,  and  heavy,  and  many;  but 
these  only  there  were  threatened  :  in  the 
gospel,  Christ  added  the  menaces  of  evils 
spiritual  and  eternal. 

4.  The  great  evil  of  the  Jews  was  their 
abscission  and  cutting  off  from  being  God's 
people,  to  which  eternal  damnation  answers 
amongst  us  ;  and  as  sickness,  and  war,  and 
other  intermedial  evils,  were  lesser  strokes, 
in  order  to  the  final  anger  of  God  against 
their  nation  ;  so  are  these  and  spiritual  evils 
intermedial,  in  order  to  the  eternal  destruc- 
tion of  sinning  and  unrepenting  Christians. 

5.  When  God  had  visited  any  of  the 
sinners  of  Israel  with  a  grievous  sickness, 
then  they  lay  under  the  evil  of  their  sin, 
and  were  not  pardoned  till  God  took  away 
I  the  sickness  ;  but  the  taking  the  evil  away, 
I  the  evil  of  the  punishment,  was  the  pardon 
'of the  sin;  "to  pardon  the  sin  is  to  spare 
the  sinner :"  and  this  appears ;  for  when 

F 


62  OF  GODLY  FEAR.  Serm.  VIII. 


Christ  had  said  to  the  man  sick  of  the 
palsy,  "  Son,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee,"* 
the  Pharisees  accused  him  of  blasphemy, 
because  none  had  power  to  forgive  sins  but 
God  only  ;  Christ  to  vindicate  himself,  gives 
them  an  ocular  demonstration,  and  proves 
his  words  :  "That  ye  may  know,  the  Son 
of  man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins, 
he  saith  to  the  man  sick  of  the  palsy,  Arise, 
and  walk ;"  then  he  pardoned  the  sin, 
when  he  took  away  the  sickness,  and  proved 
the  power  by  reducing  it  to  act :  for  if  par- 
don of  sins  be  any  thing  else,  it  must  be 
easier  or  harder:  if  it  be  easier^  then  sin 
hath  not  so  much  evil  in  it  as  a  sickness, 
which  no  religion  as  yet  ever  taught :  if  it  be 
harder,  then  Christ's  power  to  do  that  which 
was  harder,  could  not  be  proved  by  doing 
that  which  was  easier.  It  remains,  there- 
fore, that  it  is  the  same  thing  to  take  the 
punishment  away,  as  to  procure  or  give  the 
pardon ;  because,  as  the  retaining  the  sin 
was  an  obligation  to  the  evil  of  punishment, 
so  the  remitting  the  sin  is  the  disobliging  to 
its  penalty.  So  far  then  the  case  is  manifest. 

6.  The  next  step  is  this  ;  that,  although 
in  *  tne  gospel  God  punishes  sinners  with 
temporal  judgments.;  and  sicknesses,  and 
deaths,  witn  sad  accidents,  and  evil  angels, 
and  messengers  of  wrath  ;  yet  besides  these 
lesser  strokes,  he  hath  scorpions  to  chastise, 
and  loads  of  worse  evils  to  oppress  the  diso- 
bedient: he  punishes  one  sin  with  another, 
vile  acts  with  evil  habits,  these  with  a  hard 
heart,  and  this  with  obstinacy,  and  obstinacy 
with  impenitence,  and  impenitence  with 
damnation.  Now,  because  the  worst  of 
evils  which  are  threatened  to  us,  are  such 
which  consign  to  hell  by  persevering  in  sin, 
as  God  takes  off  our  love  and  our  affections, 
our  relations  and  bondage  under  sin,  just  in 
the  same  degree  he  pardons  us ;  because  the 
punishment  of  sin  being  taken  off  and  par- 
doned, there  can  remain  no  guilt.  Guiltiness 
is  an  insignificant  word,  if  there  be  no  obli- 
gation to  punishment.  Since,  therefore, 
spiritual  evils,  and  progressions  in  sin,  and 
the  spirit  of  reprobation,  and  impenitence, 
and  accursed  habits,  and  perseverance  in 
iniquity,  are  the  worst  of  evils;  when  these 
are  taken  off,  the  sin  hath  lost  its  venom  and 
appendant  curse :  for  sin  passes  on  to  eternal 
death  only  by  the  line  of  inpenitence,  and  it 
can  never  carry  us  to  hell,  if  we  repent 
timely  and  effectually  ;  in  the  same  degree, 
therefore,  that  any  man  leaves  his  sin,  just 

*  Matt.  ix.  2. 


in  the  same  degree  he  is  pardoned,  and 
he  is  sure  of  it :  for  although  curing  the  tem- 
poral evil  was  the  pardon  of  sins  among 
the  Jews,  yet  we  must  reckon  our  pardon 
by  curing  the  spiritual.    If  I  have  sinned 
against  God  in  the  shameful  crime  of  lust, 
then  God  hath  pardoned  my  sins,  when, 
upon  my  repentance  and  prayers,  he  hath 
given  me  the  grace  of  chastity.    My  drunk- 
enness is  forgiven  when  I  have  acquired  the 
grace  of  temperance,  and  a  sober  spirit.  My 
covetousness  shall  no  more  be  a  damning  sin, 
when  I  have  a  loving  and  charitable  spirit ; 
loving  to  do  good,  and  despising  the  world  : 
for  every  further  degree  of  sin  being  a  near- 
er step  to  hell,  and  by  consequence  the  worst 
punishment  of  sin,  it  follows  inevitably, 
that  according  as  we  are  put  into  a  contrary 
state,  so  are  our  degrees  of  pardon,  and 
the  worst  punishment  is  already  taken  off. — 
And,  therefore,  we  shall  find,  that  the  great 
blessing,  and  pardon,  and  redemption,  which 
Christ  wrought  for  us,  is  called  "  sanctifica- 
tion,  holiness,"  and  "  turning  us  away  from 
our  sins  :"  so  St.  Peter ;  "  Ye  know  that  you 
were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things,  ' 
as  silver  and  gold,  from  your  vain  conversa- 
tion;"* that  is  your  redemption,  that  is 
your  deliverance :   you  were  taken  from 
your  sinful  state  ;  that  was  the  state  of  death, 
this  of  life  and  pardon;  and  therefore  they  are 
made  synonyma  by  the  same  apostle ;  "Ac- 
cording as  his  Divine  power  hath  given  us  all 
things  that  pertain  to  life  and  godliness  :"f 
"  to  live"  and  "to  be  godly,"  is  all  one  ;  to 
remain  in  sin  and  abide  in  death,  is  all  one  ; 
to  redeem  us  from  sin,  is  to  snatch  us  from 
hell ;  he  that  gives  us  godliness,  gives  us  life, 
and  that  supposes  the  pardon,  or  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  rites  of  eternal  death  :   and  this 
was  the  conclusion  of  St.  Peter's  sermon  ,  and 
the  sum  total  of  our  redemption  and  of  our 
pardon;  "God  having  raised  up  his  Son, 
sent  him  to  bless  you,  in  turning  away  every 
one  of  you  from  your  iniquity ;":}:  this  is  the 
end  of  Christ's  passion  and  bitter  death,  the 
purpose  of  all  his  and  all  our  preaching,  the 
effect  of  baptism,  purging,  washing,  sancti- 
fying ;   the  work  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  supper  ;  and  the  same  body  that  was 
broken,  and  the  same  blood  that  was  shed  for 
our  redemption,  is  to  conform  us  into  his 
image  and  likeness  of  living  and  dying, 
of  doing  and  suffering.    The  case  is  plain  : 
just  as  we  leave  our  sins,  so  God's  wrath 
shall  be  taken  from  us  ;  as  we  get  the  graces 

*1  Pet.  i.  18.   t  2  Pet.  i.  3.    t  Acts  Hi.  26. 


Serm.  VIII. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


63 


contrary  to  our  former  vices,  so  infallibly 
we  are  consigned  to  pardon.  If  therefore 
you  are  in  contestation  against  sin,  while 
you  dwell  in  difficulty  and  sometimes  yield 
to  sin,  and  sometimes  overcome  it,  your 
pardon  is  uncertain,  and  is  not  discernible 
in  its  progress;  but  when  sin  is  mortified, 
and  your  lusts  are  dead,  and  under  the 
power  of  grace,  and  you  are  "  led  by  the 
Spirit,"  all  your  fears  concerning  your  state 
of  pardon  are  causeless,  and  afflictive  with- 
out reason ;  but  so  long  as  you  live  at  the 
old  rate  of  lust  or  intemperance,  of  covetous- 
ness  or  vanity,  of  tyranny  or  oppression, 
of  carelessness  or  irreligion,  flatter  not  your- 
selves; you  have  no  more  reason  to  hope 
for  pardon  than  a  beggar  for  a  crown,  or  a 
condemned  criminal  to  be  made  heir-ap- 
parent to  that  prince  whom  he  would 
traitorously  have  slain. 

4.  They  have  great  reason  to  fear  con- 
cerning their  condition,  who  having  been 
in  the  state  of  grace,  who  having  begun  to 
lead  a  good  life,  and  given  their  names  to 
God  bv  solemn  deliberate  acts  of  will  and 
understanding,  and  made  some  progress  in 
the  way  of  godliness,  if  they  shall  retire  to 
folly,  and  unravel  all  their  holy  vows,  and 
commit  those  evils,  from  which  they  for- 
merly ran  as  from  a  fire  or  inundation ; 
their  case  hath  in  it  so  many  evils,  that 
they  have  great  reason  to  fear  the  anger  of 
God,  and  concerning  the  final  issue  of  their 
souls.  For  return  to  folly  hath  in  it  many 
evils  beyond  the  common  state  of  sin  and 
death  ;  and  such  evils,  which  are  most  con- 
trary to  the  hopes  of  pardon.  1.  He  that 
falls  back  into  those  sins  he  hath  repented 
of,  does  "grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  by 
which  he  was  sealed  to  the  day  of  redemp- 
tion." For  so  the  antithesis  is  plain  and 
obvious:  if  "at  the  conversion  of  a  sinner 
there  is  joy  before  the  beatified  spirits,  the 
angels  of  God,"  and  that  is  the  consumma- 
tion of  our  pardon  and  our  consignation  to 
felicity,  then  we  may  imagine  how  great  an 
evil  it  is  to  "grieve  the  Spirit  of  God,"  who 
is  greater  than  the  angels.  The  children 
of  Israel  were  carefully  warned,  that  they 
should  not  offend  the  angel :  "  Behold,  I 
send  an  angel  before  thee,  beware  of  him, 
and  obey  his  voice ;  provoke  him  not,  for 
he  will  not  pardon  your  transgressions."* 
that  is,*  he  will  not  spare  to  punish  you  if 
you  grieve  him :  much  greater  is  the  evil, 
if  we  grieve  him  who  sits  upon  the  throne 

*  Exod.  xxiii.  20,  21. 


of  God,  who  is  the  Prince  of  all  the  spirits : 
and  besides,  grieving  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
an  affection,  that  is  as  contrary  to  his  felicity 
as  lust  is  to  his  holiness;  both  which  are 
essential  to  him.    "  Tristitia  enim  omnium 
spirituum  nequissima  est,  et  pessima  servis 
Dei,    et  omnius    spiritus   exterminat,  et 
cruciat  Spiritum  sanctum,"  said  Hennas: 
"  Sadness  is  the  greatest  enemy  to  God's 
servants ;  if  you  grieve  God's  Spirit,  you 
cast  him  out;"  for  he  cannot  dwell  with 
sorrow  and  grieving;  unless  it  be  such  a 
sorrow,  which  by  the  way  of  virtue  passes 
on  to  joy  and  never-ceasing  felicity.  Now 
by  grieving  the  Holy  .Spirit,  is  meant  those 
things  which  displease  him,  doing  unkind- 
ness  to  him  ;  and  then  the  grief,  which 
cannot  in  proper  sense  seize  upon  him,  will 
in  certain  effects  return  upon  us:  "Itaenim 
dico  (said  Seneca)  ;  sacer  intra  nos  Spiritus 
sedet,  bonorum    malorumque  nostrorum 
observator  et  custos ;    hie  prout  a  nobis 
tractatus  est,  ita  nos  ipse  tractat :"   "  There 
is  a  Holy  Spirit  dwells  in  every  good  man. 
who  is  the  observer  and  guardian  of  all  our 
actions ;  and  as  we  treat  him,  so  will  he 
treat  us."    "Now  we  ought  to  treat  him 
sweetly  and  tenderly,  thankfully  and  with 
observation  :    "  Deus   praecepit,  Spiritum 
Sanctum,  utpote   pro   naturae   suae  bono 
tenerum  et  delicatum,  tranquillitate,  et  leni- 
tate,  et  quiete,  et  pace  tractare,"  said  Ter- 
tullian  "de  Spectaculis."    The.  Spirit  of 
God  is  a  loving  and  kind  Spirit,  gentle  and 
easy,  chaste  and  pure,  righteous  and  peace- 
able ;  and  when  he  hath  done  so  much  for 
|  us  as  to  wash  us  from  our  impurities,  and 
to  cleanse  us  from  our  stains,  and  straighten 
our  obliquities,  and  to  instruct  our  igno- 
rances, and  to  snatch  us  from  an  intolerable 
death,  and  to  consign  us  to  the  day  of 
'  redemption,  that  is,  to  the  resurrection  of 
I  our  bodies  from  death,  corruption,  and  the 
I  dishonours  of  the  grave,  and  to  appease  all 
the  storms  and  uneasiness,  and  to  "  make 
!  us  free  as  the  sons  of  God,"  and  furnished 
j  with  the  riches  of  the  kingdom;  and  all  this 
i  with  innumerable  arts,  with  difficulty,  and 
in  despite  of  our  lusts  and  reluctances,  with 
1  parts  and  interrupted  steps,  with  waitings 
!  and  expectations,  with  watchfulness  and 
'  stratagems,  with  inspirations  and  collateral 
assistances  ;  after  all  this  grace,  and  bounty, 
and  diligence,  that  we  should  despite  this 
j  grace,  and  trample  upon  the  blessings,  and 
:  scorn  to  receive  life  at  so  great  an  expense. 
'.  and  love  of  God :  this  is  so  great  a  baseness 
•and  unworthiness,  that  bv  troubling  t/v- 


64 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


Serm.  VIII. 


tenderest  passions,  it  turns  into  the  most 
bitter  hostilities;  by  abusing  God's  love  it 
turns  into  jealousy,  and  rage,  and  indigna- 
tion. il  Go  and  sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse 
thing  happen  to  thee." 

2.  Falling  away  after  we  have  begun  to 
live  well,  is  a  great  cause  of  fear ;  because 
there  is  added  to  it  the  circumstance  of  in- 
excusableness.  The  man  hath  been  taught 
the  secrets  of  the  kingdom,  and  therefore 
his  understanding  hath  been  instructed;  he 
hath  tasted  the  pleasures  of  the  kingdom, 
and  therefore  his  will  hath  been  sufficiently 
entertained.  He  was  entered  into  the  state 
of  life,  and  renounced  the  ways  of  death  ; 
his  sin  began  to  be  pardoned,  and  his  lusts 
to  be  crucified ;  he  felt  the  pleasures  of 
victory,  and  the  blessings  of  peace,  and 
therefore  fell  away,  not  only  against  his 
reason,  but  also  against  his  interest ;  and  to 
such  a  person  the  questions  of  his  soul  have 
been  so  perfectly  stated,  and  his  prejudices 
and  enviable  abuses  so  clearly  taken  ofF, 
and  he  was  so  made  to  view  the  paths  of 
life  and  death,  that  if  he  chooses  the  way 
of  sin  again,  if  must  be,  not  by  weakness, 
or  the  infelicity  of  his  breeding,  or  the 
weakness  of  his  understanding,  but  a  direct 
preference  or  prelation,  a  preferring  sin 
before  grace,  the  spirit  of  lust  before 
the  purities  of  the  soul,  the  madness  of 
drunkenness  before  the  fulness  of  the  Spirit, 
money  before  our  friend,  and  above  our 
religion,  and  heaven,  and  God  himself. 
This  man  is  not  to  be  pitied  upon  pretence 
that  he  is  betrayed;  or  to  be  relieved,  be- 
cause he  is  oppressed  with  potent  enemies; 
or  to  be  pardoned,  because  he  could  not 
help  it :  for  he  once  did  help  it,  he  did 
overcome  his  temptation,  and  choose  God, 
and  delight  in  virtue,  and  was  an  heir  of 
heaven,  and  was  a  conqueror  over  sin,  and 
delivered  from  death  ;  and  he  may  do  so 
still,  and  God's  grace  is  upon  him  more 
plentifully,  and  the  lust  does  not  tempt  so 
strongly;  and  if  it  did,  he  hath  more  power 
to  resist  it ;  and  therefore,  if  this  man  falls, 
it  is  because  he  wilfully  chooses  death,  it  is 
the  portion  that  he  loves  and  descends  into 
with  willing  and  unpitied  steps.  "Q,uam 
vilis  facta  es,  nimis  iterans  vias  tuas !"  said 
God  to  Judah.* 

3.  He  that  returns  from  virtue  to  his  old 
vices,  is  forced  to  do  violence  to  his  own 
reason,  to  make  his  conscience  quiet:  he 
does  so  unreasonably,  so  against  all  his  fair 


Jer.  ii.  36. 


■inducements,  so  against  his  reputation,  and 
I  the  principles  of  his  society,  so  against  his 
|  honour,  and  his  promises,  and  his  former 
discourses  and  his  doctrines;  his  censuring 
I  of  men  for  the  same  crimes,  and  the  bitter 
I  invectives  and  reproofs  which  in  the  days 
of  his  health  and  reason  he  used  against  his 
]  erring  brethren,  that  he  is  now  constrained 
I  to  answer  his  own  arguments,  he  is  en- 
|  tangled  in  his  own  discourses,  he  is  ashamed 
with  his  former  conversation ;  and  it  will  be 
remembered  against  him,  how  severely  he 
reproved  and  how  reasonably  he  chastised 
the  lust,  which  now  he  runs  to  in  despite 
of  himself  and  all  his  friends.  And  because 
this  is  his  condition,  he  hath  no  way  left 
him,  but  either  to  be  impudent,  which  is 
hard  for  him  at  first;  it  being  too  big  a 
natural  change  to  pass  suddenly  from  grace 
to  immodest  circumstances  and  hardnesses 
of  face  and  heart:  or  else,  therefore,  he 
must  entertain  new  principles,  and  apply 
his  mind  to  believe  a  lie ;  and  then  begins 
to  argue,  "  There  is  no  necessity  of  being 
so  severe  in  my  life ;  greater  sinners  than  I 
have  been  saved;  God's  mercies  are  greater 
than  all  the  sins  of  man;  Christ  died  for  us, 
and  if  I  may  not  be  allowed  to  sin  this  sin, 
what  ease  have  I  by  his  death?  or,  This 
sin  is  necessary,  and  I  cannot  avoid  it;  or, 
It  is  questionable,  whether  this  sin  be  of 
so  deep  a  dye  as  is  pretended ;  or,  Flesh 
j  and  blood  is  always  with  me,  and  I  cannot 
;  shake  it  off;  or,  There  are  some  sects  of 
Christians  that  do  allow  it,  or,  if  they  do 
not,  yet  they  declare  it  easy  pardonable, 
upon  no  hard  terms,  and  very  reconcilable 
with  the  hopes  of  heaven  ;  or,  The  Scrip- 
tures are  not  rightly  understood  in  their 
pretended  condemnations ;  or  else,  Other 
men  do  as  bad  as  this,  and  there  is  not  one 
in  ten  thousand  but  hath  his  private  retire- 
ments from  virtue;  or  else,  When  I  am 
old,  this  sin  will  leave  me,  and  God  is  very 
pitiful  to  mankind." — But  while  the  man, 
j  like  an  entangled  bird,  flutters  in  the  net, 
I  and  wildly  discomposes  that  which  should 
!  support  him,  and  that  which  holds  him, 
jthe  net  and  his  own  wings,  that  is,  the  laws 
:of  God  and  his  own  conscience  and  per- 
suasion, he  is  resolved  to  do  the  thing,  and 
j  seeks  excuses  afterward ;  and  when  he  hath 
j  found  out  a  fig-leaved  apron  that  he  could 
put  on,  or  a  cover  for  his  eyes,  that  he  may 
not  see  his  own  deformity,  then  he  fortifies 
his  error  with  irresolution  and  inconsidera- 
tion  ;  and  he  believes  it,  because  he  will ; 
and  he  will,  because  it  serves  his  turn : 


Serm.  IX. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


65 


then  he  is  entered  upon  his  state  of  fear ; 
and  if  he  does  not  fear  concerning  himself, 
yet  his  condition  is  fearful,  and  the  man 
hath  vovv  oZox^ov,  "a  reprobate  mind,"  that 
is,  a  judgment  corrupted  by  lust :  vice  hath 
abused  his  reasoning,  and  if  God  proceeds 
in  the  man's  method,  and  lets  him  alone  in 
his  course,  and  gives  him  over  to  believe  a 
lie,  so  that  he  shall  call  good  evil,  and  evil 
good,  and  come  to  be  heartily  persuaded 
that  his  excuses  are  reasonable,  and  his 
pretences  fair, — then  the  man  is  desperately 
undone  u  through  the  ignorance  that  is  in 
him,-'  as  St.  Paul  describes  his  condition  ; 
"  his  heart  is  blind,  he  is  past  feeling,  his 
understanding  is  darkened ;"  then  he  may 
"waik  in  the  vanity  of  his  mind,"  and 
"give  himself  over  to  lasciviousness,"  and 
shall  "work  all  uncleanness  with  greedi- 
ness ;"*  then  he  needs  no  greater  misery  : 
this  is  the  state  of  evil,  which  his  fear  ought 
to  have  preven^d,  but  now  it  is  past  fear, 
and  is  to  be  recovered  with  sorrow,  or  else 
to  be  run  through,  till  death  and  hell  are 
become  his  portion  ;  "  fiunt  novissima  illius 
pejora  prioribus ;"  "  His  latter  end  is  worse 
than  his  beginning. "f 

4.  Besides  all  this,  it  might  easily  be 
added,  that  he  that  falls  from  virtue  to  vice 
again,  adds  the  circumstance  of  ingratitude 
to  his  load  of  sins ;  he  sins  against  God's 
mercy,  and  puts  out  his  own  eyes,  he 
strives  to  unlearn  what  with  labour  he  hath 
purchased,  and  despises  the  trouble  of  his 
holy  days,  and  throws  away  the  reward  of 
virtue  for  an  interest,  which  himself  despised 
the  first  day  in  which  he  began  to  take  sober 
counsels;  he  throws  himself  back  in  the 
accounts  of  eternity,  and  slides  to  the  bottom 
of  the  hill,  from  whence  with  sweat  and 
labour  of  his  hands  and  knees  he  had  long 
been  creeping ;  he  descends  from  the  spirit 
to  the  flesh,  from  honour  to  dishonour, 
from  wise  principles  to  unthrifty  practices  ; 
like  one  of  ''the  vainer  fellows,"  who 
grows  a  fool,  and  a  prodigal,  and  a  beggar, 
because  he  delights  in  inconsideration,  in 
madness  of  drunkenness,  and  the  quiet  of  a 
lazy  and  unprofitable  life.  So  that  this 
man  hath  great  cause  to  fear;  and,  if  he 
does,  his  fear  is  as  the  fear  of  enemies  and 
not  sons  :  I  do  not  say.  that  it  is  a  fear  that 
is  displeasing  to  God  ;  but  it  is  such  a  one, 
as  may  arrive  at  goodness,  and  the  fear  of 
sons,  if  it  be  rightly  managed. 


*  Ephes.  iv.  17,  18.  t  Matt.  xii.  45.  Vide  2 
Pet.  ii.  20. 

9 


For  we  must  know,  that  no  fear  is  dis- 
pleasing to  God  ;  no  fear  of  itself,  whether 
,  it  be  fear  of  punishment,  or  fear  to  offend  ; 
the  "  fear  of  servants,"  or  the  "  fear  of 
sons  :"  but  the  effects  of  fear  do  distinguish 
the  man,  and  are  to  be  entertained  or  re- 
jected -accordingly.  If  a  servile  fear  makes 
us  to  remove  our  sins,  and  so  passes  us 
towards  our  pardon,  and  the  receiving  such 
graces  which  may  endear  our  duty  and 
oblige  our  affection ;  that  fear  is  imperfect, 
but  not  criminal ;  it  is  "  the  beginning  of 
wisdom,"  and  the  first  introduction  to  it; 
but  if  that  fear  sits  still,  or  rests  in  a  servile 
mind,  or  a  hatred  of  God,  or  speaking  evil 
things  concerning  him,  or  unwillingness  to 
do  our  duty,  that  which  at  first  was  indif- 
ferent, or  at  the  worst  imperfect,  proves 
miserable  and  malicious ;  so  we  do  our 
duty,  it  is  no  matter  upon  what  principles 
we  do  it;  it  is  no  matter  where  we  begin,  so 
from  that  beginning  we  pass  on  to  duties 
and  perfection.  If  we  fear  God  as  an 
enemy,  an  enemy  of  our  sins,  and  of  our 
persons  for  their  sakes,  as  yet  this  fear  is 
but  a  servile  fear ;  it  cannot  be  a  filial  fear, 
since  we  ourselves  are  not  sons ;  but  if  this 
servile  fear  makes  us  to  desire  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God,  that  he  may  no  longer  stay  at 
enmity  with  us,  from  this  fear  we  shall 
soon  pass  to  carefulness,  from  carefulness  to 
love,  from  love  to  diligence,  from  diligence  to 
perfection ;  and  the  enemies  shall  become 
servants,  and  the  servants  shall  become 
adopted  sons,  and  pass  into  the  society  and 
the  participation  of  the  inheritance  of  Jesus : 
for  this  fear  is  also  reverence,  and  then  our 
God,  instead  of  being  "  a  consuming  fire," 
shall  become  to  us  the  circle  of  a  glorious 
crown,  and  a  globe  of  eternal  light. 


SERMON  IX. 

PART  III. 

I  am  now  to  give  account  concerning  tin- 
excess  of  fear,  not  directly  and  abstract- 
edly, as  it  is  a  passion,  but  as  it  is  subjected 
in  religion,  and  degenerates  into  supersti- 
tion :  for  so  among  the  Greeks,  fear  is  the 
ingredient  and  half  of  the  constitution  of 
that  folly  ;  AftcrtSatuowa,  fnSoOna.  said  Hesy- 
chius,  "it  is  a  fear  of  God."  ktiubaiiuw, 
6ftXo5,  that  is  more;  it  is  a  timorousness  ; 
"  the  superstitious  man  is  afraid  of  the 
f2 


66 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


Serm.  IX. 


gods,"  (said  the  etymologist,)  SeSuIjj  t'ous 
Otobs  ucrrtsp  ifovs  tvpdvvovs,  "  fearing  of  God, 
as  if  he  were  a  tyrant,"  and  an  unreasonable  j 
exacter  of  duty  upon  unequal  terms,  and  j 
disproportionate,  impossible  degrees,  and  ' 
unreasonable,  and  great  and  little  instances. 

1.  But  this  fear  some  of  the  old  philoso- 
phers thought  unreasonable  in  all  cases, 
even  towards  God  himself;  and  it  was  a 
branch  of  the  Epicurean  doctrine,  that  God 
meddled  not  with  any  thing  below,  and 
was  to  be  loved  and  admired,  but  not  feared 
at  all  j  and  therefore  they  taught  men 
neither  to  fear  death,  nor  to  fear  punishment 
after  death,  nor  any  displeasure  of  God  : 
"His  terroribus  ab  Epicuro  soluti  non 
metuimus  Deos,"  said  Cicero  ;*  and  thence 
came  this  acceptation  of  the  word,  that 
superstition  should  signify  "an  unreason- 
able fear  of  God  :"  it  is  true,  he  and  all  his 
scholars  extended  the  case  beyond  the  mea- 
sure, and  made  all  fear  unreasonable ;  but 
then  if  we,  upon  grounds  of  reason  and 
Divine  revelation,  shall  better  discern  the 
measure  of  the  fear  of  God  ;  whatsoever 
fear  we  find  to  be  unreasonable,  we  may  by 
the  same  reason  call  it  superstition,  and 
reckon  it  criminal,  as  they  did  all  fear;  that 
it  may  be  called  superstition,  their  authority 
is  sufficient  warrant  for  the  grammar  of  the 
appellative;  and  that  it  is  criminal,  we  shall 
derive  from  better  principles. 

But,  besides  this,  there  was  another  part 
of  its  definition,  AststSou^wv,  6  ta  a6\<Aa 
0£/3«v'  ftScokokarp^s,  "The  superstitious  man 
is  also  an  idolater,"  HsoJbs  rtapa  ^£oi>$,  "  one 
that  is  afraid  of  something  besides  God." 
The  Latins,  according  to  their  custom,  imi- 
tating the  Greeks  in  all  their  learned  notices 
of  things,  had  also  the  same  conception  of 
this,  and  by  their  word  superstitio  under- 
stood "  the  worship  of  demons,"  or  separate 
spirits ;  by  which  they  meant,  either  their 
minores  deos,  or  else  their  jypwaj  aTioOecodfatas, 
"'their  braver  personages,  whose  souls  were 
supposed  to  live  after  death  ;"  the  fault  of 
this  was  the  object  of  their  religion ;  they 
gave  a  worship  or  a  fear  to  whom  it  was 
not  due;  for  whenever  they  worshipped  the 
great  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  they  never 
called  that  superstition  in  an  evil  sense, 
except  the  "A&ot,  "they  that  believed  there 
was  no  God  at  all."  Hence  came  the  ety- 
mology of  superstition:  it  was  a  worshipping 
or  fearing  the  spirits  of  their  dead  heroes, 
"quos  superstites  credebant,"  "whom  they 


thought  to  be  alive"  after  their  drtofltwcus,  or 
deification,  "quos  superstantes  credebant," 
"  standing  in  places  and  thrones  above  us  ; 
and  it  alludes  to  that  admirable  description 
of  old  oge,  which  Solomon  made  beyond  all 
the  rhetoric  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans; 
"  Also  they  shall  be  afraid  of  that  which  is 
high,  and  fears  shall  be  in  the  way 
intimating  the  weakness  of  old  persons, 
who,  if  ever  they  have  been  religious,  are 
apt  to  be  abused  into  superstition  ;  they  are 
"  afraid  of  that  which  is  high ;"  that  is,  of 
spirits,  and  separate  souls  of  those  excellent 
beings,  which  dwell  in  the  regions  above ; 
meaning,  that  then  they  are  superstitious. 
However,  fear  is  most  commonly  its  prin- 
ciple, always  its  ingredient.  For  if  it  enter 
first  by  credulity  and  a  weak  persuasion,  yet 
it  becomes  incorporated  into  the  spirit  of  a 
man,  and  thought  necessary,  and  the  action 
it  persuades  to,  dares  not  be  omitted,  for 
fear  of  evil  themselves  dream  of;  upon  this 
account  the  sin  is  reducible  to  two  heads : 
the  1.  is  superstition  of  an  undue  object ;  2. 
superstition  of  an  undue  expression  to  a 
right  object. 

1.  Superstition  of  an  undue  object,  is  that 
which  the  etymologist  calls  tuv  ctSwtoy 
(jipaafjut,  "  the  worshipping  of  idols ;  the 
Scripture  adds  $vstv  bai^oviov^,  "a  sacrificing 
to  demons,"  in  St.  Paul,f  and  in  Baruch ;% 
where,  although  we  usually  read  it  "  sacri- 
ficing to  devils,"  yet  it  was  but  accidental 
that  they  were  such;  for  those  indeed  were 
evil  spirits  who  had  seduced  them,  and 
tempted  them  to  such  ungodly  rites  ;  (and 
yet  they  who  were  of  the  Pythagorean  sect, 
pretended  a  more  holy  worship,  and  did 
their  devotion  to  angels);  but  whosoever 
shall  worship  angels,  do  the  same  thing; 
they  worshipped  them  because  they  are 
good  and  powerful,  as  the  Gentiles  did  the 
devils,  whom  they  thought  so ;  and  the 
error  which  the  apostle  reproves,  was  not 
in  matter  of  judgment,  in  mistaking  bad 
angels  for  good,  but  in  matter  of  manners 
and  choice;  they  mistook  the  creature  for 
the  Creator;  and  therefore,  it  is  more  fully 
expressed  by  St.  Paul,  in  a  general  signifi- 
cation, "  they  worshipped  the  creature," 
rtapa  tbv  xtisavta,  "besides  the  Creator ;"§ 
so  it  should  be  read  ;  if  we  worship  any 
creature  besides  God,  worshipping  so  as 
the  worship  of  him  becomes  a  part  of  re- 
ligion, it  is  also  a  direct  superstition ;  but, 


*  Lib.  de  Nat.  Dcorum. 


*  Eccles.  xii.  5.  1 1  Cor.  x.  20. 
X  Bar.  iv.  7.  §  Rom.  i.  25. 


Serm.  IX. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


67 


concerning  this  part  of  superstition,  I  shall 
not  trouble  this  discourse,  because  I  know 
no  Christians  blamable  in  this  particular 
but  the  church  of  Rome,  and  they  that 
communicate  with  her  in  the  worshipping 
of  images,  of  angels,  and  saints,  burning 
lights  and  perfumes  to  them,  making  offer- 
ings, confidences,  advocations,  and  rows  to 
them;  and  direct  and  solemn  Divine  wor- 
shipping the  symbols  of  bread  and  wine, 
when  they  are  consecrated  in  the  holy 
sacrament.  These  are  direct  superstition, 
as  the  word  is  used  by  all  authors,  profane 
and  sacred,  and  are  of  such  evil  report,  that 
wherever  the  word  superstition  does  signify 
any  thing  criminal,  these  instances  must 
come  under  the  definition  of  it.  They  are 
tatrpa'a  trjs  xt tocos'  A  "katpsla  rtapatov  xtltiavta 
a  **  cultus  superstitum"  a  "  cultus  dcemo- 
num ;"  and  therefore,  besides  that  they  have 
ISiov  tKsyxov,  "9.  proper  reproof "  in  Christian 
religion,  are  condemned  by  all  wise  men 
which  call  superstition  criminal. 

But  as  it  is  superstition  to  worship  any 
thing  rtapa  tov  xtlaavta,  "besides  the  Crea- 
tor;" so  it  is  superstition  to  worship  God  rtapa 
to  fvo^uor,  rtapa  to  rtpertov,  rtap  o  5ft,  "'other- 
wise than  is  decent,  proportionable,  or  de- 
scribed." Every  inordination  of  religion, 
that  is  not  in  defect,  is  properly  called 
superstition :  o  fuv  siasfirjs  $<,'fcos  ©59  6  Se  I 
SftffcScw'jUwv  zoAol  Qeov,  said  Maximus  Tyrius ;  j 
"  The  true  worshipper  is  a  lover  of  God, 
the  superstitious  man  loves  him  not,  but 
flatters."  To  which  if  we  add,  that  fear, 
unreasonable  fear,  is  also  superstition,  and 
an  ingredient  in  its  definition,  we  are  taught 
by  this  word  to  signify  all  irregularity  and 
inordination  in  actions  of  religion.  The 
sum  is  this:  the  atheist  called  all  worship 
of  God  superstition;  the  Epicurean  called 
all  fear  of  God  superstition,  but  did  not 
condemn  his  worship;  the  other  part  of 
wise  men  called  all  unreasonable  fear  and 
inordinate  worship  superstition,  but  did  not 
condemn  all  fear  :  but  the  Christian,  besides 
this,  calls  every  error  in  worship,  in  the 
manner,  or  excess,  by  this  name,  and  con- 
demns it. 

Now  because  the  three  great  actions  of 
religion  are,  "  to  worship  God,"  "  to  fear 
God,"  and  "to  trust  in  him,"  by  the  in- 
ordination of  these  three  actions,  we  may 
reckon  three  sorts  of  this  crime;  "the  excess 
of  fear,"  and  "the  obliquity  in  trust,"  and 
"  the  errors  in  worship,"  are  the  three  sorts 
of  superstition :  the  first  of  which  is  only 
pertinent  to  our  present  consideration. 


1.  Fear  is  the  duty  we  owe  to  God,  as 
being  the  God  of  power  and  justice,  the 
great  Judge  of  heaven  and  earth,  the 
avenger  of  the  cause  of  widows,  the  patron 
of  the  poor,  and  the  advocate  of  the  op- 
pressed, a  mighty  God  and  terrible :  and  so 
essential  an  enemy  to  sin,  that  he  spared 
not  his  own  Son,  but  gave  him  over  to 
death,  and  to  become  a  sacrifice,  when  he 
took  upon  him  our  nature,  and  became  a 
person  obliged  for  our  guilt.  Fear  is  the 
great  bridle  of  intemperance,  the  modesty 
of  the  spirit,  and  the  restraint  of  gaieties 
and  dissolutions ;  it  is  the  girdle  to  the  soul, 
and  the  handmaid  to  repentance :  the  arrest 
of  sin,  and  the  cure  or  antidote  to  the  spirit 
of  reprobation;  it  preserves  our  apprehen- 
sions of  the  Divine  Majesty,  and  hinders 
our  single  actions  from  combining  to  sinful 
habits ;  it  is  the  mother  of  consideration, 
and  the  nurse  of  sober  counsels  ;  and  it  puts 
the  soul  to  fermentation  and  activity,  making 
it  to  pass  from  trembling  to  caution,  from 
caution  to  carefulness,  from  carefulness  to 
watchfulness,  from  thence  to  prudence;  and, 
by  the  gates  and  progresses  of  repentance, 
it  leads  the  soul  on  to  love,  and  to  felicity, 
and  to  joys  in  God,  that  shall  never  cease 
again.  Fear  is  the  guard  of  a  man  in  the 
days  of  prosperity  ;  and  it  stands  upon  the 
watch-towers  and  spies  the  approaching 
danger,  and  gives  warning  to  them  that 
laugh  loud  and  feast  in  the  chambers  of 
rejoicing,  where  a  man  cannot  consider  by 
reason  of  the  noises  of  wine,  and  jest,  and 
music :  and  if  prudence  takes  it  by  the 
hand,  and  leads  it  on  to  duty,  it  is  a  state 
of  grace,  and  a  universal  instrument  to 
infant  religion,  and  the  only  security  of  the 
less  perfect  persons;  and,  in  all  senses,  is 
that  homage  we  owe  to  God,  who  sends  often 
to  demand  it,  even  then,  when  he  speaks  in 
thunder,  or  smites  by  a  plague,  or  awakens 
us  by  threatenings,  or  discomposes  our  easi- 
ness by  sad  thoughts,  and  tender  eyes,  and 
fearful  hearts,  and  trembling  considerations. 

But  this  so  excellent  grace  is  soon  abused 
in  the  best  and  most  tender  spirits  ;  in  those 
who  are  softened  by  nature  and  by  religion, 
by  infelicities  or  cares,  by  sudden  accidents 
or  a  sad  soul :  and  the  devil  observing  that 
fear,  like  spare  diet,  starves  the  fevers  of 
lust,  and  quenches  the  flames  of  hell,  en- 
deavours to  heighten  this  abstinence  so 
much  as  to  starve  the  man,  and  break  the 
spirit  into  timorousness  and  scruple,  sadness 
and  unreasonable  tremblings,  credulity  and 
trifling  observation,  suspicion  and  false 


68 


OF  GODLY  PEAR. 


Serm.  IX. 


accusations  of  God ;  and  then  vice,  being 
turned  out  at  the  gate,  returns  in  at  the 
postern,  and  does  the  work  of  hell  and  death 
by  running  too  inconsiderately  in  the  paths 
which  seem  to  lead  to  heaven.  But  so 
have  I  seen  a  harmless  dove,  made  dark 
with  an  artificial  night,  and  her  eyes  sealed 
and  locked  up  with  a  little  quill,  soaring 
upward  and  flying  with  amazement,  fear, 
and  an  undiscerning  wing ;  she  made  to- 
wards heaven,  but  knew  not  that  she  was 
made  a  train  and  an  instrument,  to  teach 
her  enemy  to  prevail  upon  her  and  all  her 
defenceless  kindred :  so  is  a  superstitious 
man,  zealous  and  blind,  forward  and  mis- 
taken, he  runs  towards  heaven  as  he  thinks, 
but  he  chooses  foolish  paths ;  and  out  of 
fear  takes  any  thing  that  he  is  told;  or 
fancies  and  guesses  concerning  God  by 
measures  taken  from  his  own  diseases  and 
imperfections.  But  fear,  when  it  is  inordi- 
nate, is  never  a  good  counsellor,  nor  makes 
a  good  friend  ;  and  he  that  fears  God  as  his 
enemy,  is  the  most  completely  miserable 
person  in  the  world.  For  if  he  with  reason 
believes  God  to  be  his  enemy,  then  the  man 
needs  no  other  argument  to  prove  that  he 
is  undone  than  this,  that  the  fountain  of 
blessing  (in  this  state  in  which  the  man  is) 
will  never  issue  any  thing  upon  him  but 
cursings.  But  if  he  fears  this  without 
reason,  he  makes  his  fears  true  by  the  very 
suspicion  of  God,  doing  him  dishonour, 
and  then  doing  those  fond  and  trifling  acts 
of  jealousy,  which  will  make  God  to  be 
what  the  man  feared  he  already  was.  We 
do  not  know  God,  if  we  can  think  any  hard 
thing  concerning  him.  If  God  be  merciful, 
let  us  only  fear  to  offend  him  ;  but  then  let 
us  never  be  fearful  that  he  will  destroy  us, 
when  we  are  careful  not  to  displease  him. 
There  are  some  persons  so  miserable  and 
scrupulous,  such  perpetual  tormentors  of 
themselves  with  unnecessary  fears,  that 
their  meat  and  drink  is  a  snare  to  their  con- 
sciences ;  if  they  eat,  they  fear  they  are 
gluttons ;  if  they  fast,  they  fear  they  are 
hypocrites;  and  if  they  would  watch, 
they  complain  of  sleep  as  of  a  deadly  sin ; 
and  every  temptation,  though  resisted, 
makes  them  cry  for  pardon ;  and  every 
anger  of  God  will  break  them  in  pieces. 

These  persons  do  not  believe  noble  things  j 
concerning  God ;  they  do  not  think  that  he 
is  as  ready  to  pardon  them,  as  they  are  to 
pardon  a  sinning  servant ;  they  do  not 
believe  how  much  God  delights  in  mercy, 
nor  how  wise  he  is  to  consider  and  to  make 


abatement  for  our  unavoidable  infirmities : 
they  make  judgment  of  themselves  by  the 
measures  of  an  angel,  and  take  the  account 
of  God  by  the  proportions  of  a  tyrant.  The 
best  that  can  be  said  concerning  such  per- 
sons is,  that  they  are  hugely  tempted,  or 
hugely  ignorant.  For  though  "  ignorance,'7 
is  by  some  persons  named  the  "  mother  of 
devotion j*9  yet,  if  it  falls  in  a  hard  ground, 
it  is  the  "mother  of  atheism  :"  if  in  a  soft 
ground,  it  is  the  "parent  of  superstition;" 
but  if  it  proceeds  from  evil  or  mean  opinions 
of  God,  (as  such  scruples  and  unreasonable 
fears  do  many  times,)  it  is  an  evil  of  a  great 
impiety,  and  in  some  sense,  if  it  were  in 
equal  degrees,  is  as  bad  as  atheism  :  for  so 
he  that  says,  There  was  no  such  man  as 
Julius  Csesar,  does  him. less  displeasure,  than 
he  that  says,  There  was,  but  that  he  was  a 
tyrant,  and  a  bloody  parricide.  And  the 
Cimmerians  were  not  esteemed  impious  for 
saying,  that  there  was  no  sun  in  the 
heavens;  but  Anaxagoras  was  esteemed 
irreligious  for  saying,  the  sun  was  ^.  very 
stone  :  and  though  to  deny  there  is  a  God 
is  a  high  impiety  and  intolerable,  yet  he 
says  worse  who,  believing  there  is  a  God, 
says,  He  delights  in  human  sacrifices,  in 
miseries  and  death,  in  tormenting  his  ser- 
vants, and  punishing  their  very  infelicities 
and  unavoidable  mischances.  To  be  God, 
and  to  be  essentially  and  infinitely  good,  is 
the  same  thing;  and  therefore,  to  deny 
either,  is  to  be  reckoned  among  the  greatest 
crimes  in  the  world. 

Add  to  this,  that  he  that  is  afraid  of  God, 
cannot  in  that  disposition  love  him  at  all ; 
for  what  delight  is  there  in  that  religion, 
which  draws  me  to  the  altar  as  if  I  were 
going  to  be  sacrificed,  or  to  the  temple  as 
to  the  dens  of  bears  ?  "-  Oderunt  quos 
metuunt,  sed  colunt  tamen  :w  kC  Whom 
men  fear,  they  hate  certainly,  and  flatter 
readily,  and  worship  timorously and  he 
that  saw  Hermolaus  converse  with  Alex- 
ander, and  Pausanias  follow  Philip  the 
Macedonian,  or  Chsereas  kissing  the  feet 
of  Caius  Caligula,  would  have  observed 
how  sordid  men  are  made  with  fear,  and 
how  unhappy  and  how  hated  tyrants  are 
in  the  midst  of  those  acclamations,  which 
are  loud,  and  forced,  and  unnatural,  and 
without  love  or  fair  opinion.  And  there- 
fore, although  the  atheist  says,  "  There  is 
no  God,"  the  scrupulous,  fearful,  and  su- 
perstitious man,  does  heartily  wish  what 
the  other  does  believe. 

But  that  the  evil  may  be  proportionable 


Serm. IX. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


"39 


to  the  folly,  and  the  punishment  to  the! 
crime,  there  is  no  man  more  miserable  in : 
the  world  than  the  man  who  fears  God  as  j 
his  enemy,  and  religion  as  a  snare,  and 
duty  intolerable,  and  the  commandments  as 
impossible,  and  his  Judge  as  implacable, 
and  his  anger  as  certain,  insufferable,  and 
unavoidable:  whither  shall  this  man  go? 
where  shall  he  lay  his  burden  ?  where  shall 
he  take  sanctuary  ?  for  he  fears  the  altars  as 
the  places  where  his  soul  bleeds  and  dies  ; 
and  God,  who  is  his  Saviour,  he  looks  upon 
as  his  enemy ;  and  because  he  is  Lord  of 
all,  the  miserable  man  cannot  change  his 
service,  unless  it  be  apparently  for  a  worse. 
And  therefore,  of  all  the  evils  of  the  mind, 
fear  is  certainly  the  worst  and  the  most  in- 
tolerable :  levity  and  rashness  have  in  them 
some  spritefulness,  and  greatness  of  action  ; 
anger  is  valiant  j  desire  is  busy  and  apt  to 
hope ;  credulity  is  oftentimes  entertained 
and  pleased  with  images  and  appearances : 
but  fear  is  dull,  and  sluggish,  and  treacher- 
ous and  flattering,  and  dissembling,  and 
miserable,  and  foolish.  Every  false  opinion 
concerning  God  is  pernicious  and  danger- 
ous ;  but  if  it  be  joined  with  trouble  of 
spirit,  as  fear,  scruple,  or  superstition  are, 
it  is  like  a  wound  with  an  inflammation,  or 
a  strain  of  a  sinew  with  a  contusion  or  con- 
trition of  the  part,  painful  and  unsafe ;  it 
puts  on  two  actions  when  itself  is  driven  : 
it  urges  reason  and  circumscribes  it,  and 
makes  it  pitiable,  and  ridiculous  in  its  con- 
sequent follies  ;  which,  if  we  consider  it, 
will  sufficiently  reprove  the  folly,  and  de- 
clare the  danger. 

Almost  all  ages  of  the  world  have  observed 
many  instances  of  fond  persuasions  and 
foolish  practices  proceeding  from  violent 
fears  and  scruples  in  matter  of  religion,  j 
Diomedon  and  many  other  captains  werel 
condemned  to  die,  because  after  a  great  naval 
victory  they  pursued  the  flying  enemies,  and! 
did  not  first  bury  their  dead.  But  Chabrias, 
in  the  same  case,  first  buried  the  dead,  and 
by  that  time  the  enemy  rallied,  and  returned, 
and  beat  his  navy,  and  made  his  masters 
pay  the  price  of  their  importune  super- 
stition :  they  feared  where  they  should  not, 
and  where  they  did  not,  they  should.  From 
hence  proceeds  observation  of  signs  and 
unlucky  days  ;  and  the  people  did  so,  when 
the  Gregorian  account  began,  continuing  to 
call  those  unlucky  days  which  were  so 
signified  in  their  tradition  or  crra  pater, 
although  the  day  upon  this  account  fell  ten 
days  sooner;  and  men  were  transported 


with  many  other  trifling  contingencies  and 
little  accidents  ;  which,  when  they  are  once 
entertained  by  weakness,  prevail  upon  their 
own  strength,  and  in  sad  natures  and  weak 
spirits  have  produced  effects  of  great  danger 
and  sorrow.  Aristodemas,  king  of  the  Mes- 
senians,  in  his  war  against  the  Spartans, 
prevented  the  sword  of  the  enemy  by  a 
violence  done  upon  himself,  only  because 
his  dogs  howled  like  wolves ;  and  the 
soothsayers  were  afraid,  because  the  briony 
grew  up  by  the  walls  of  his  father's 
house :  and  Nicias,  general  of  the  Athenian 
forces,  sat  with  his  arms  in  his  bosom,  and 
suffered  himself  and  forty  thousand  men 
tamely  to  fall  by  the  insolent  enemy,  only 
because  he  was  afraid  of  the  labouring  and 
eclipsed  moon.  When  the  marble  statues 
in  Rome  did  sweat,  (as  naturally  they  did 
against  all  rainy  weather,)  the  augurs  gave 
an  alarm  to  the  city ;  but  if  lightning  struck 
the  spire  of  the  capitol,  they  thought  the 
sum  of  affairs,  and  the  commonwealth  itself, 
was  endangered.  And  this  heathen  folly 
hath  stuck  so  close  to  the  Christians,  that 
all  the  sermons  of  the  church  for  sixteen 
hundred  years  have  not  cured  them  all :  but 
the  practices  of  weaker  people,  and  the 
artifice  of  ruling  priests,  have  superinduced 
many  new  ones.  When  Pope  Eu genius 
sang  mass  at  Rheims,  and  some  few  drops 
from  the  chalice  were  spilt  upon  the  pave- 
ment, it  was  thought  to  foretell  mischief, 
wars,  and  bloodshed  to  all  Christendom, 
though  it  was  nothing  but  carelessness  and 
mischance  of  the  priest:  and  because  Tho- 
mas Beckett,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  sang 
the  mass  of  requiem  upon  the  day  he  was 
reconciled  to  his  prince,  it  was  thought  to 
foretell  his  own  death  by  that  religious 
office :  and  if  men  can  listen  to  such  whis- 
pers, and  have  not  reason  and  observation 
enough  to  confute  such  trifles,  they  shall 
still  be  affrighted  with  the  noise  of  birds, 
and  every  night-raven  shall  foretell  evil  as 
Micaiah  to  the  king  of  Israel,  and  every  old 
woman  shall  be  a  prophetess,  and  the  events 
of  human  affairs,  which  should  be  managed 
by  the  conduct  of  counsel,  of  reason,  and  re- 
ligion shall  succeed  by  chance,  by  the  flight 
of  birds,  and  the  meeting  with  an  evil  eye, 
by  the  falling  of  the  salt,  or  the  decay  of 
reason,  of  wisdom,  and  the  just  religion  of 
a  man. 

To  this  may  be  reduced  the  observation 
of  dreams,  and  fears  commenced  from  the 
fancies  of  the  night.  For  the  superstitious 
man  does  not  rest  even  when  he  sleeps ; 


70 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


Serm.  IX. 


neither  is  he  safe,  because  dreams  usually 
are  false,  but  he  is  afflicted  for  fear  they 
should  tell  true.  Living  and  waking  men 
have  one  world  in  common,  they  use  the 
same  air  and  fire,  and  discourse  by  the 
same  principles  of  logic  and  reason ;  but 
men  that  are  asleep,  have  every  one  a  world 
to  himself,  and  strange  perceptions ;  and  the 
superstitious  hath  none  at  all :  his  reason 
sleeps,  and  his  fears  are  waking ;  and  all  his 
rest,  and  his  very  securities,  to  the  fearful 
man  turn  into  affrights  and  insecure  ex- 
pectation of  evils,  that  never  shall  happen  ; 
they  make  their  rest  uneasy  and  chargeable, 
and  they  still  vex  their  weary  soul,  not 
considering  there  is  no  other  sleep  for  sleep 
to  rest  in  :  and  therefore,  if  the  sleep  be 
troublesome,  the  man's  cares  be  without 
remedy  till  they  be  quite  destroyed.  Dreams 
lollow  the  temper  of  the  body,  and  com- 
monly proceed  from  trouble  or  disease, 
business  or  care,  an  active  head  and  a  rest- 
less mind,  from  fear  or  hope,  from  wine  or 
passion,  from  fulness  or  emptiness,  from 
fantastic  remembrances,  or  from  some  de- 
mon, good  or  bad :  they  are  without  rule 
and  without  reason,  they  are  as  contin- 
gent, as  if  a  man  should  study  to  make  a 
prophecy,  and  by  saying  ten  thousand 
things  may  hit  upon  one  true,  which  was 
therefore  not  foreknown,  though  it  was 
forespoken;  and  they  have  no  certainty, 
because  they  have  no  natural  causality  nor 
proportion  to  those  effects,  which  many 
times  they  are  said  to  foresignify.  The 
dream  of  the  yolk  of  an  egg  importeth  gold 
(saith  Artemidorus) ;  and  they  that  use  to 
remember  such  fantastic  idols,  are  afraid  to 
lose  a  friend  when  they  dream  their  teeth 
shake,  when  naturally  it  will  rather  signify 
a  scurvy;  for  a  natural  indisposition  and 
an  imperfect  sense  of  the  beginning  of  a 
disease,  may  vex  the  fancy  into  a  sym- 
bolical representation  ;  for  so  the  man  that 
dreamed  he  swam  against  the  stream  of 
blood,  had  a  pleurisy  beginning  in  his  side ; 
and  he  that  dreamt  he  dipped  his  foot  into 
water,  and  that  it  was  turned  to  a  marble, 
was  enticed  into  the  fancy  by  a  beginning 
dropsy  ;  and  if  the  events  do  answer  in  one 
instance,  we  become  credulous  in  twenty.  | 
For  want  of  reason  we  discourse  ourselves 
into  folly  and  weak  observation,  and  give  j 
the  devil  power  over  us  in  those  circum- 
•fences,  in  which  we  can  least  resist  him. 
'Ei>  bptyvy  SpowttT^s  /juya  uBtvsi,  "  A  thief  is  j 
confident  in  the  twilight if  you  suffer. 


impressions  to  be  made  upon  you  by 
dreams,  the  devil  hath  the  reins  in  his  own 
hands,  and  can  tempt  you  by  that,  which 
will  abuse  you,  when  you  can  make  no 
resistance.  Dominica,  the  wife  of  Valens 
the  emperor,  dreamed  that  God  threatened 
to  take  away  her  only  son  for  her  despiteful 
usage  of  St.  Basil :  the  fear  proceeding 
from  this  instance  was  safe  and  fortunate  ; 
but  if  she  had  dreamed  in  the  behalf  of  a 
heretic,  she  might  have  been  cozened  into 
a  false  proposition  upon  a  ground  weaker 
than  the  discourse  of  a  waking  child.  Let 
the  grounds  of  our  actions  be  noble,  begin- 
ning upon  reason,  proceeding  with  pru- 
dence, measured  by  the  common  lines  of 
men,  and  confident  upon  the  expectation 
of  a  usual  providence.  Let  us  proceed 
from  causes  to  effects,  from  natural  means 
to  ordinary  events,  and  believe  felicity  not 
to  be  a  chance  but  a  choice ;  and  evil  to  be 
the  daughter  of  sin  and  the  Divine  anger, 
not  of  fortune  and  fancy;  let  us  fear  God, 
when  we  have  made  him  angry,  and  not 
be  afraid  of  him,  when  we  heartily  and 
laboriously  do  our  duty  ;  our  fears  are  to  be 
measured  by  open  revelation  and  certain 
experience,  by  the  threatenings  of  God  and 
the  sayings  of  wise  men,  and  their  limit  is 
reverence,  and  godliness  is  their  end  ;  and 
then  fear  shall  be  a  duty,  and  a  rare  in- 
strument of  many :  in  all  other  cases  it  is 
superstition  or  folly,  it  is  sin  or  punishment, 
the  ivy  of  religion,  and  the  misery  of  an 
honest  and  a  weak  heart  ;  and  is  to  be  cured 
only  by  reason  and  good  company,  a  wise 
guide  and  a  plain  rule,  a  cheerful  spirit  and 
a  contented  mind,  by  joy  in  God  according 
to  the  commandments,  that  is,  "  a  rejoicing 
evermore." 

2.  But  besides  this  superstitious  fear, 
there  is  another  fear  directly  criminal,  and 
it  is  called  "worldly  fear,"  of  which  the 
Spirit  of  God  hath  said,  "  But  the  fearful 
and  incredulous  shall  have  their  part  in  the 
lake  that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone, 
which  is  the  second  death  ;"*  that  is,  such 
fears,  which  make  men  to  fall  in  the  time 
of  persecution,  those  that  dare  not  own 
their  faith  in  the  face  of  a  tyrant,  or  in 
despite  of  an  accursed  law.  For  though  it 
be  lawful  to  be  afraid  in  a  storm,  yet  it  is 
not  lawful  to  leap  into  the  sea;  though 
we  may  be  more  careful  for  our  fears,  yet 
we  must  be  faithful  too ;  and  we  may 
fly  from  the  persecution  till  it  overtakes  us ; 
but  when  it  does,  we  must  not  change  our 


*  Eurip, 


*  Rev.  xxi.  8. 


Sekm.  IX. 


OF  GODLY  FEAR. 


71 


religion  for  our  safety  ,  or  leave  the  robe  of 
baptism  in  the  hand  of  the  tempter,  and  run 
away  by  all  means.  St.  Athanasius  for 
forty-six  years  did  run  and  fight,  he  disputed 
with  the  Arians  and  fled  from  their  officers  : 
and  he  that  flies,  may  be  a  man  worth  pre- 
serving, if  he  bears  his  faith  along  with 
him,  and  leaves  nothing  of  his  duty  behind. 
But  when  duty  and  life  cannot  stand  to- 
gether, he  that  then  flies  a  persecution  by 
deliveriog  up  his  soul,  is  one  that  hath  no 
charity,  no  love  to  God,  no  trust  in  promises, 
no  just  estimation  of  the  rewards  of  a  noble 
contention.  "  Perfect  love  casts  out  fear" 
(saith  the  apostle) ;  that  is,  he  that  loves 
God,  will  not  fear  to  die  for  him,  or  for  his 
sake  to  be  poor.  In  this  sense,  no  man  can 
fear  man  and  love  God  at  the  same  time ; 
and  when  St.  Lawrence  triumphed  over 
Valerianus,St.  Sebastian  over  Dioclesian,  St. 
Vincentius  over  Dacianus,  and  the  armies 
of  martyrs  over  the  pro- consuls,  accusers, 
and  executioners,  they  showed  their  love  to 
God  by  triumphing  over  fear,  and  "leading 
captivity  captive,"  by  the  strength  of  their 
Captain,  whose  "  garments  were  red  from 
Bozrah." 

3.  But  this  fear  is  also  tremulous  and 
criminal,  if  it  be  a  trouble  from  the  appre- 
hension of  the  mountains  and  difficulties 
of  duty,  and  is  called  pusillanimity.  For 
some  see  themselves  encompassed  with 
temptations,  they  observe  their  frequent 
falls,  their  perpetual  returns  from  good  pur- 
poses to  weak  performances,  the  daily  mor- 
tifications that  are  necessary,  the  resisting 
natural  appetites,  and  the  laying  violent 
hands  upon  the  desires  of  flesh  and  blood, 
the  uneasiness  of  their  spirits,  and  their 
hard  labours,  and  therefore  this  makes  them 
afraid ;  and  because  they  despair  to  run 
through  the  whole  duty,  in  all  its  parts  and 
periods,  they  think  it  as  good  not  to  begin 
at  all,  as  after  labour  and  expense  to  lose 
the  jewel  and  the  charges  of  their  venture. 
St.  Augustine  compares  such  men  to  chil- 
dren and  fantastic  persons,  affrighted  with 
phantasms  and  spectres;  "terribiles  visu 
formae,"  the  sight  seems  full  of  horror;  but 
touch  them  and  they  are  very  nothing,  the 
mere  daughters  of  a  sick  brain  and  a  weak 
heart,  an  infant  experience  and  a  trifling 
judgment :  so  are  the  illusions  of  a  weak 
piety,  or  an  unskilful  confident  soul :  they 
fancy  to  see  mountains  of  difficulty ;  but 
touch  them,  and  they  seem  like  clouds 
riding  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind,  and  put 
on  shapes  as  we  please  to  dream.    He  that 


denies  to  give  alms  for  fear  of  being  poor, 
or  to  entertain  a  disciple  for  fear  of  being 
suspected  of  the  party,  or  to  own  a  duty  for 
fear  of  being  put  to  venture  for  a  crown ; 
he  that  takes  part  of  the  intemperance, 
because  he  dares  not  displease  the  company  , 
or  in  any  sense  fears  the  fears  of  the  world, 
and  not  the  fear  of  God, — this  man  enters 
into  his  portion  of  fear  betimes,  but  it  will 
not  be  finished  to  eternal  ages.  To  fear 
the  censures  of  men,  when  God  is  your 
judge;  to  fear  their  evil,  when  God  is  your 
defence;  to  fear  death,  when  he  is  the 
entrance  to  life  and  felicity,  is  unreasonable 
and  pernicious  ;  but  if  you  will  turn  your 
passion  into  duty,  and  joy,  and  security,  fear 
to  offend  God,  to  enter  voluntarily  into 
temptation ;  fear  the  alluring  face  of  lust, 
and  the  smooth  entertainments  of  intem- 
perance :  fear  the  anger  of  God,  when  you 
have  deserved  it ;  and  when  you  have  re- 
covered from  the  snare,  then  infinitely  fear 
to  return  into  that  condition,  in  which 
whosoever  dwells,  is  the  heir  of  fear  and 
eternal  sorrow. 

Thus  far  I  have  discoursed  concerning 
good  fear  and  bad,  that  is,  filial  and  servile: 
they  are  both  good,  if  by  servile  we  intend 
initial,  or  the  new  beginning  fear  of  peni- 
tents; a  fear  to  offend  God  upon  less  perfect 
considerations  :  but  servile  fear  is  vicious, 
when  it  still  retains  the  affection  of  slaves, 
and  when  its  effects  are  hatred,  weariness, 
displeasure,  and  want  of  charity  :  and  of 
the  same  cognations  are  those  fears,  which 
are  superstitious,  and  wordly. 

But  to  the  former  sort  of  virtuous  fear, 
some  also  add  another,  which  they  cal'i 
angelical,  that  is,  such  a  fear  as  the  blessed 
angels  have,  who  before  God  hide  their 
faces,  and  tremble  at  his  presence,  and 
"fall  down  before  his  footstool,"  and  are 
ministers  of  his  anger  and  messengers  of 
his  mercy,  and  night  and  day  worship  him 
with  the  profoundest  adoration.  This  is  the 
same  that  is  spoken  of  in  the  text :  "  Let  us 
serve  God  with  reverence  and  godly  fear;" 
all  holy  fear  partakes  of  the  nature  of  thi> 
which  divines  call  angelical,  and  it  is  ex- 
pressed in  acts  of  adoration,  of  vows  and 
holy  prayers,  in  hymns  and  psalms,  in  the 
eueharist  and  reverential  addresses;  and 
while  it  proceeds  in  the  usual  measures  of 
common  duty,  it  is  but  human  :  but  as 
it  rises  to  great  degrees,  and  to  perfection,  it 
is  angelical  and  Divine;  and  then  it  apper 
tains  to  mystic  theology,  and  therefore  i?  to 
be  considered  in  another  place  ;  but,  for  the 


72 


THE  FLESH  A 


ND  THE  SPIRIT.  Serm.  X. 


present,  that  which  will  regularly  concern 
all  our  duty,  is  this,  that  when  the  fear  of 
God  is  the  instrument  of  our  duty,  or  God's 
worship,  the  greater  it  is,  it  is  so  much  the 
better.  It  was  an  old  proverbial  saying 
among  the  Romans,  "  Religentem  esse, 
oportet;  religiosum,  nefas;"  "  Every  excess 
in  the  actions  of  religion  is  criminal;"  they 
supposing,  that,  in  the  services  of  their 
gods,  there  might  be  too  much.  True  it  is, 
there  may  be  too  much  of  their  undecent 
expressions ;  and  in  things  indifferent,  the 
very  multitude  is  too  much,  and  becomes 
an  undecency :  and  if  it  be  in  its  own 
nature  undecent  or  disproportionable  to  the 
end,  or  the  rules,  or  the  analogy,  of  the 
religion,  it  will  not  stay  for  numbers  to 
make  it  intolerable  ;  but  in  the  direct  actions 
of  glorifying  God,  in  doing  any  thing  of  his 
commandments,  or  any  thing  which  he 
commands,  or  counsels,  or  promises  to 
reward,  there  can  never  be  excess  or  super- 
fluity :  and  therefore,  in  these  cases,  do  as 
much  as  you  can ;  take  care  that  your  ex- 
pressions be  prudent  and  safe,  consisting 
with  thy  other  duties ;  and  for  the  passions 
of  virtues  themselves,  let  them  pass  from 
beginning  to  great  progresses,  from  man  to 
angel,  from  the  imperfection  of  man  to 
the  perfections  of  the  sons  of  God ;  and, 
whenever  we  go  beyond  the  bounds  of 
nature,  and  grow  up  with  all  the  extension, 
and  in  the  very  commensuratior.  of  a  full 
grace,  we  shall  never  go  beyond  the  excel- 
lencies of  God :  for  ornament  may  be  too 
much,  and  turn  to  curiosity;  cleanness  may  be 
changed  into  niceness ;  and  civil  compliance 
may  become  flattery;  and  mobility  of  tongue 
may  rise  into  garrulity ;  and  fame  and  hon- 
our may  be  great  unto  envy;  and  health 
itself,  if  it  be  athletic,  may  by  its  very 
excess  become  dangerous  :  but  wisdom,  and 
duty,  and  comeliness,  and  discipline,  a  good 
mind,  and  the  fear  of  God,  and  doing  hon- 
our to  his  holy  name,  can  never  exceed : 
but  if  they  swell  to  great  proportions,  they 
pass  through  the  measures  of  grace,  and 
are  united  to  felicity  in  the  comprehensions 
of  God,  in  the  joys  of  an  eternal  glory. 

SERMON  X. 

THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 
PART  I. 

The  spirit  indeed  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak. 
Matt.  xxvi.  41  ;  latter  part. 

From  the  beginning  of  days,  man  hath 


been  so  cross  to  the  Divine  commandments, 
that  in  many  cases  there  can  be  no  reason 
given,  why  a  man  should  choose  some 
ways,  or  do  some  actions,  but  only  because 
they  are  forbidden.  When  God  bade  the 
Israelites  rise  and  go  up  against  the  Canaan- 
ites  and  possess  the  land,  they  would  not 
stir ;  the  men  were  Anakims,  and  the  cities 
were  impregnable  ;  and  there  was  a  lion  in 
the  way  :  but,  presently  after,  when  God 
forbade  them  to  go,  they  would  and  did  go, 
though  they  died  for  it.  I  shall  not  need  to 
instance  in  particulars,  when  the  whole 
life  of  man  is  a  perpetual  contradiction;  and 
the  state  of  disobedience  is  called  the  "  con- 
tradictions of  sinners  ;"  even  the  man  in  the 
gospel,  that  had  two  sons,  they  both  crossed 
him,  even  he  that  obeyed  him,  and  he  that 
obeyed  him  not:  for  the  one  said  he  would, 
and  did  not;  the  other  said  he  would  not, 
and  did  ;  and  so  do  we :  we  promise  fair, 
and  do  nothing ;  and  they  that  do  best,  are 
such  as  come  out  of  darkness  into  light, 
such  as  said  ('  they  would  not,"  and  at  last 
have  better  bethought  themselves.  And 
who  can  guess  at  any  other  reason,  why 
men  should  refuse  to  be  temperate?  For  he 
that  refuseth  the  commandment,  first  does 
violence  to  the  commandment,  and  puts  on  a 
preternatural  appetite  ;  he  spoils  his  health 
and  he  spoils  his  understanding;  he  brings  to 
himself  a  world  of  diseases  and  a  healthless 
constitution ;  smart  and  sickly  nights,  a  loath- 
ing stomach  and  a  staring  eye,  a  giddy  brain 
and  a  swelled  belly,  gouts  and  dropsies, 
catarrhs  and  oppilations.  If  God  should 
enjoin  men  to  suffer  all  this,  heaven  and 
earth  should  have  heard  our  complaints 
against  unjust  laws,  and  impossible  com- 
mandments :  for  we  complain  already,  even 
when  God  commands  us  to  drink  so  long 
as  it  is  good  for  us ;  this  is  one  of  the  im- 
possible laws :  it  is  impossible  for  us  to 
know  when  we  are  dry,  or  when  we  need 
drink ;  for  if  we  do  know,  I  am  sure  it  is 
possible  enough,  not  to  lift  up  the  wine  to 
our  heads.  And  when  our  blessed  Saviour 
hath  commanded  us  to  love  our  enemies, 
we  think  we  have  so  much  reason  against 
it,  that  God  will  excuse  our  disobedience  in 
this  case ;  and  yet  there  are  some  enemies, 
whom  God  hath  commanded  us  not  to  love, 
and  those  we  dote  on,  we  cherish  and  feast 
them,  and,  as  St.  Paul  in  another  case, 
"upon  our  uncomely  parts  we  bestow  more 
abundant  comeliness."  For  whereas  our 
body  itself  is  a  servant  to  our  soul,  we 
make  it  the  heir  of  all  things,  and  treat  it 


Serm. X. 


THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


73 


here  already  as  if  it  were  in  majority  ;  and 
make  that,  which  at  the  best  was  but  a  weak 
friend,  to  become  a  strong  enemy  ;  and  hence 
proceed  the  vices  of  the  worst,  and  the  fol- 
lies and  imperfections  of  the  best :  the 
spirit  is  either  in  slavery  or  in  weakness, 
and  when  the  flesh  is  not  strong  to  mischief, 
it  is  weak  to  goodness ;  and  even  to  the 
apostles  our  blessed  Lord  said,  "  The  spirit 
is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak." 

"The  spirit,"  that  is,  o  e<wx»£pwto$,  "  the 
inward  man,"  or  the  reasonable  part  of  man, 
especially  as  helped  by  the  Spirit  of  grace, 
that  is  willing ;  for  it  is  the  principle  of  all 
good  actions,  the  ivspyrjtixov,  "  the  power  of 
working"  is  from  the  spirit ;  but  the  flesh 
is  but  a  dull  instrument,  and  a  broken  arm, 
in  which  there  is  a  principle  of  life,  but  it 
moves  uneasily ;  and  the  flesh  is  so  weak, 
that  in  Scripture  to  be  "  in  the  flesh,"  sig- 
nifies a  state  of  weakness  and  infirmity  :  so 
the  humiliation  of  Christ  is  expressed  by 
being  "in  the  flesh,"  ^65  fyavspuOsis  iv  oapxi, 
"  God  manifested  in  the  flesh ;"  and  what 
St.  Peter  calls  "put to  death  in  the  flesh," 
St.  Paul  calls  "  crucified  through  weakness ;"  | 
and  "  ye  know  that  through  the  infirmity 
of  the  flesh  I  preached  unto  you,"  said  St.  j 
Paul :  but  here,  flesh  is  not  opposed  to  the 
Spirit  as  a  direct  enemy,  but  as  a  weak  ser- 
vant :  for  if  the  flesh  be  powerful  and  oppo- 
site, the  Spirit  stays  not  there  : 

 veniunt  ad  Candida  tecta  Columbae  :  (Ovid.) 

The  old  man  and  the  new  cannot  dwell  to- 
gether ;  and  therefore  here,  where  the  spirit 
inclining  to  good,  well  disposed,  and  apt  to 
holy  counsels,  does  inhabit  in  society  with 
the  flesh,  it  means  only  a  weak  and  unapt 
nature,  or  a  state  of  infant  grace ;  for  in 
both  these,  and  in  these  only,  the  text  is 
verified. 

1.  Therefore  we  are  to  consider  the  in- 
firmities of  the  flesh  naturally.  2.  Its  weak- 
ness in  the  first  beginnings  of  the  state  of 
grace,  its  daily  pretensions  and  temptations, 
its  excuses  and  lessenings  of  duty.  3.  What 
remedies  are  there  in  the  spirit  to  cure  the 
evils  of  nature.  4.  How  far  the  weakness 
of  the  flesh  can  consist  with  the  Spirit  of 
grace  in  well-grown  Christians.  This  is 
the  sum  of  what  I  intend  upon  those  words. 

1.  Our  nature  is  too  weak,  in  order  to  our 
duty  and  final  interest,  that  at  first  it  cannot 
move  one  step  towards  God,  unless  God, 
by  his  pieventing  grace,  puts  into  it  a  new 
possibility. 

Oi&kv  axiSvottpov  yoia  tpttysi*  <w£pu>rfoio, 
Hdptuv,  bloats  ycuav  ertiTtveltite  xoi  f'prtft.  Od. 
10 


•'There  is  nothiag  that  creeps  upon  theeaith, 
nothing  that  ever  God  made,  weaker  than 
man  ;"  for  God  fitted  horses  and  mules  with 
strength,  bees  and  pismires  with  sagacity, 
harts  and  hares  with  swiftness,  birds  with 
feathers  and  a  light  airy  body  ;  and  they  all 
know  their  times,  and  are  fitted  for  their 
work,  and  regularly  acquire  the  proper  end 
of  their  creation  ;  but  man,  that  was  design- 
ed to  an  immortal  duration,  and  the  fruition 
of  God  for  ever,  knows  not  how  to  obtain 
it;  he  is  made  upright  to  look  up  to  heaven, 
but  he  knows  no  more  how  to  purchase  it 
than  to  climb  to  it.  Once,  man  went  to  make 
an  ambitious  tower  to  outreach  the  clouds,  or 
the  preternatural  risings  of  the  water,  but 
could  not  do  it ;  he  cannot  promise  himself 
the  daily  bread  of  his  necessity  upon  the 
stock  of  his  own  wit  or  industry  ;  and  for 
going  to  heaven,  he  was  so  far  from  doing 
that  naturally,  that  as  soon  as  ever  he  was 
made,  he  became  the  son  of  death,  and  he 
knew  not  how  to  get  a  pardon  for  eating  of 
an  apple  against  the  Divine  commandment: 
Km  rutv  fyvGu  t-ixva  opy-zjj,  said  the  apostle  : 
"  By  nature  we  are  the  sons  of  wrath," 
that  is,  we  were  born  heirs  of  death,  which 
death  came  upon  us  from  God's  anger  for 
the  sin  of  our  first  parents  ;  or  by  nature, 
that  is,  bvtu>$  ahrfius,  "  really,"  not  by  the 
help  of  fancy,  and  fiction  of  law,  for  so 
(Ecumenius  and  Theophylact  expound  it;* 
but  because  it  does  not  relate  to  the  sin  of 
Adam  in  its  first  intention,  but  to  the  evil 
state  of  sin,  in  which  the  Ephesians  walked 
before  their  conversion  ;  it  signifies,  that  our 
nature  of  itself  is  a  state  of  opposition  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace;  it  is  privately  opposed,  that 
is,  that  there  is  nothing  in  it  that  can  bring  us 
to  felicity;  nothing  but  an  obediential  capa- 
city; our  flesh  can  become  sanctified,  as  "the 
stones  can  become  children  unto  Abraham," 
or  as  dead  seed  can  become  living  corn  ; 
and  so  it  is  with  us,  that  it  is  necessary 
God  should  make  us  a  new  creation,  if  he 
means  to  save  us ;  he  must  take  our  hearts 
of  stone  away,  and  give  us  hearts  of  flesh  ; 
he  must  purge  the  old  leaven,  and  make  us 
a  new  conspersion ;  he  must  destroy  the 
flesh,  and  must  breathe  into  us  "  spiritum 
vitae,"  the  celestial  breath  of  life,  without 
which  we  can  neither  live,  nor  move,  nor 
have  uur  being.  "No  man  can  come  unto 
me,  (said  Christ,)  unless  my  Father  draw 
him  :"  vri  tpwroj  aprtowa^f  vte$  ovpariou,  xaOartFp 
oi  f3axxti'6/.isioi  xai  xopv3avtiCovtes  fvOovsid^ovai, 


*Enhcs.  ii.  3. 
G 


74 


THE  FLESH  AN 


D  THE  SPIRIT. 


Serm.  X. 


jui^ptj  av  to  7iodov{nvov  l§u>6i.  ie  The  Divine ' 
love  must  come  upon  us  and  snatch  us" 
from  our  imperfection,  enlighten  our  under- 
standing, move  and  stir  our  affections,  open 
the  gates  of  heaven,  turn  our  nature  into  grace, 
entirely  forgive  our  former  prevarications, 
take  us  by  the  hand,  and  lead  us  all  along ; 
and  we  only  contribute  our  assent  unto  it, 
just  as  a  child  when  he  is  tempted  to  learn 
to  go,  and  called  upon,  and  guided,  and  up- 
held, and  constrained  to  put  his  feet  to  the 
ground,  lest  he  feel  the  danger  by  the  smart 
of  a  fall ;  just  so  is  our  nature  and  our  state 
of  flesh.  God  teaches  us  and  invites  us,  he 
makes  us  willing,  and  then  makes  us  able, 
he  lends  us  helps,  and  guides  our  hands  and 
feet ;  and  all  the  way  constrains  us,  but  yet 
so  as  a  reasonable  creature  can  be  constrain- 
ed ;  that  is,  made  willing  with  arguments 
and  new  inducements,  by  a  state  of  circum- 
stances and  conditional  necessities :  and  as 
this  is  a  great  glorification  of  the  free  grace 
of  God,  and  declares  our  manner  of  co-ope- 
ration, so  it  represents  our  nature  to  be  weak 
as  a  child,  ignorant  as  infancy,  helpless  as 
an  orphan,  averse  as  an  uninstructed  per- 
son, in  so  great  degrees  that  God  is  forced 
to  bring  us  to  a  holy  life,  by  arts  great  and 
many  as  the  power  and  principles  of  the 
creation  ;  with  this  only  difference,  that  the 
subject  matter  and  object  of  this  new  creation 
is  a  free  agent:  in  the  first  it  was  purely 
obediential  and  passive ;  and  as  the  passion 
of  the  first  was  an  effect  of  the  same  power 
that  reduced  it  to  act,  so  the  freedom  of  the 
second  is  given  us  in  our  nature  by  Him, 
that  only  can  reduce  it  to  act ;  for  it  is  a 
freedom  that  cannot  therefore  choose,  be- 
cause it  does  not  understand,  nor  taste,  nor 
perceive,  the  things  of  God ;  and  therefore 
must  by  God's  grace  be  reduced  to  action, 
as  at  first  the  whole  matter  of  the  world  was 
by  God's  almightiness  ;  for  so  God  "  vvork- 
eth  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  own  good 
pleasure."  But  that  I  may  instance  in  par- 
ticulars :  our  natural  weakness  appears  best 
in  two  things,  even  in  the  two  great  in- 
stances of  temptations,  pleasure,  and  pain  ; 
in  both  which  the  flesh  is  destroyed,  if  it  be 
not  helped  by  a  mighty  grace,  as  certainly 
as  the  canes  do  bow  their  heads  before  the 
breath  of  a  mighty  wind. 

1.  In  pleasure  we  see  it  by  the  public 
miseries  and  follies  of  the  world.  An  old 
Greek  said  well,  Qv  ov8iv  cWr^ws  vyus  iativ, 
aXku  ei(Ji  Tfov  xf'pSous  artav-tf  j  rjitovF?  **  There 
is  amongst  men  nothing  perfect,  because 
men  carry  themselves  as  persons  that  are 


less  than  money,  servants  of  gain  and  in- 
terest; we  are  like  the  foolish  poet  that 
Horace  tells  of: 

Gestit  enim  nummum  in  loculos  demittere  ;  post 
hoc 

Securus,  cadat,  an  recto  stet  fabula  talo. 

Let  him  but  have  money  for  rehearsing  his 
comedy,  he  cares  not  whether  you  like  it  or 
no ;  and  if  a  temptation  of  money  comes 
strong  and  violent,  you  may  as  well  tie  a 
wild  dog  to  quietness  with  the  guts  of  a 
tender  kid,  as  suppose  that  most  men  can 
do  virtuously,  when  they  sin  at  a  great  price. 
Men  avoid  poverty,  not  only  because  it  hath 
some  inconveniences,  for  they  are  few  an^ 
little ;  but  because  it  is  the  nurse  of  virtue  ; 
they  run  from  it  as  children  from  strict 
parents  and  tutors,  from  those  that  would 
confine  them  to  reason  and  sober  counsels, 
that  would  make  them  labour,  that  they 
may  become  pale  and  lean,  that  they  may 
become  wise:  but  because  riches  is  at- 
tended by  pride  and  lust,  tyranny  and 
oppression,  and  hath  in  its  hand  all  that  it 
hath  in  its  heart ;  and  sin  waits  upon  wealth 
ready  dressed  and  fit  for  action ;  therefore, 
in  some  temptations  they  confess,  how  little 
their  souls  are,  they  cannot  stand  that  assault; 
but  because  this  passion  is  the  daughter  of 
voluptuousness,  and  very  often  is  but  a  ser- 
vant-sin, ministering  to  sensual  pleasures, 
the  great  weakness  of  the  flesh  is  more  seen 
in  the  matter  of  carnal  crimes,  lust  and 
drunkenness.  "Nemo  enim  se  adsuefacit  ad 
vitandum  et  ex  animo  evellendum  ea,  qua? 
molesta  ei  non  sunt:"  "Men  are  so  in 
love  with  pleasure,  that  they  cannot  think 
of  mortifying  or  crucifying  their  lust ;  we 
do  violence  to  what  we  hate,  not  to  what 
we  love."  But  the  weakness  of  the  flesh, 
and  the  empire  of  lust,  are  visible  in  nothing 
so  much,  as  in  the  captivity  and  folly  of 
wise  men.  For  you  shall  see  some  men 
fit  to  govern  a  province,  sober  in  their 
counsels,  wise  in  the  conduct  of  their 
affairs,  men  of  discourse  and  reason,  fit 
to  sit  Avith  princes,  or  to  treat  concerning 
peace  and  war,  the  fate  of  empires  and  the 
changes  of  the  world ;  yet  these  men  shall 
fall  at  the  beauty  of  a  woman,  as  a  man 
dies  at  the  blow  of  an  angel,  or  gives  up 
his  breath  at  the  sentence  and  decree  of 
God.  Was  not  Solomon  glorious  in  all 
things,  but  when  he  bowed  to  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  and  then  to  devils?  And  is  it 
not  published  by  the  sentence  and  observa- 
tion of  all  the  world,  that  the  bravest  men 
have  been  softened  into  effeminacy  by  th<^ 


Serm.  X. 


THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


75 


lisping  charms  and  childish  noises  of  women  j  tient 
and  imperfect  persons  ?  A  fair  slave  bowed 
the  neck  of  stout  Polydamas,  which  was 
stiff  and  inflexible  to  the  contentions  of  an 
enemy:  and  suppose  a  man  set,  like  the 
brave  boy  of  the  king  of  Nicomedia,  in  the 
midst  of  temptation  by  a  witty  beauty,  tied 
upon  a  bed  with  silk  and  pretty  violences, 
courted  with  music  aud  perfumes,  with 
promises  and  easy  postures,  invited  by  op- 
portunity and  importunity,  by  rewards  and 
impunity,  by  privacy  and  a  guard  ;  what 
would  his  nature  do  in  this  throng  of  evils 


when  pain  is  sent  to  us,  from  him 
that  ought  to  send  it,  and  intends  it  as  a 
mercy  when  it  comes.  But  in  the  matter 
of  afflictions  and  bodily  sickness,  we  are  so 
weak  and  broken,  so  uneasy  and  unapt  to 
sufferance,  that  this  alone  is  beyond  the  cure 
of  the  old  philosophy.  Many  can  endure 
poverty,  and  many  can  retire  from  shame 
and  laugh  at  home,  and  very  many  can 
endure  to  be  slaves;  but  when  pain  and 
sharpness  are  to  be  endured  for  the  interests 
of  virtue,  we  find  but  few  martyrs :  and 
thev  that  are,  suffer  more  within  themselves 


and  vile  circumstances  ?  The  grace  of  God  i  by  their  fears  and  their  temptations,  by  then- 
secured  the  young  gentleman,  and  the  spirit ,  uncertain  purposes  and  violence  to  nature, 
rode  in  triumph  ;  but  what  can  flesh  do  in,  than  the  hangman's  sword:  the  martyrdom 


such  a  day  of  danger  ?  Is  it  not  neces- 
sary, that  we  take  in  auxiliaries  from  rea- 
son and  religion,  from  heaven  and  earth, 
from  observation  and  experience,  from  hope 
and  fear,  and  cease  to  be  what  we  are,  lest 
we  become  what  we  ought  not?  It  is  cer- 
tain that  in  the  cases  of  temptations  to  volup- 
tuousness, a  man  is  naturally,  as  the  prophet 
said  of  Ephraim,  "  like  a  pigeon  that  hath 


is  within;  and  then  he  hath  won  his  crown, 
not  when  he  hath  suffered  the  blow,  but 
when  he  hath  overcome  his  fears,  and  made 
his  spirit  conqueror.  It  was  a  sad  instance 
of  our  infirmity,  when  of  the  forty  martyrs 
of  Cappadocia,  set  in  a  freezing  lake,  almost 
consummate,  and  an  angel  was  reaching 
the  crown,  and  placing  it  upon  their  brows, 
the  flesh  failed  one  of  them,  and  drew  the 


no  heart,"  no  courage,  no  conduct,  no  reso-  spirit  after  it;  and  the  man  was  called  off 
lution,  no  discourse,  but  falls  as  the  waters  from  his  scene  of  noble  contention,  and 
of  Nilus  when  it  comes  to  its  cataracts, — it  died  in  warm  water: 

falls  infinitely  and  without  restraint :  and  if  !  Qdi  arms,  frailemque  hunc  corporis  usum 


we  consider,  how  many  drunken  meetings 
the  sun  sees  every  day,  how  many  markets, 
and  fairs,  and  clubs,  that  is,  so  many  solem- 
nities of  drunkenness,  are  at  this  instant  un- 
der the  eye  of  heaven,  that  many  nations 
are  marked  for  intemperance,  and  that  it  is 
less  noted  because  it  is  so  popular,  and  uni- 
versal, and  that  even  in  the  midst  of  the 
glories  of  Christianity  there  are  so  many 
persons  drunk,  or  too  full  with  meat,  or 
greedy  of  lust;  even  now  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  given  to  us  to  make  us  sober,  and 
temperate,  and  chaste, — we  may  well  ima- 
gine, since  all  men  have  flesh,  and  all  men 


Desertorera  animi- 
We  carry  about  us  the  body  of  death,  and 
we  bring  evils  upon  ourselves  by  our  follies, 
and  then  know  not  how  to  bear  them;  and 
the  flesh  forsakes  the  spirit.  And,  indeed, 
in  sickness  the  infirmity  is  so  very  great, 
that  God  in  a  manner  at  that  time  hath 
reduced  all  religion  into  one  virtue;  patience 
with  its  appendages  is  the  sum  total  of 
almost  all  our  duty,  that  is  proper  to  the 
days  of  sorrow  ;  and  we  shall  find  it  enough 
to  entertain  all  our  powers,  and  to  employ 
all  our  aids  :  the  counsels  of  wise  men  and 


the  comforts  of  our  friends,  the  advices  of 
have  not  the  Spirit,  the  flesh  is  the  parent  Scripture  and  the  results  of  experience,  the 


of  sin  and  death,  and  it  can  be  nothing  else. 

5.  And  it  is  no  otherwise,  when  we 
are  tempted  with  pain.  We  are  so  impa- 
tient of  pain,  that  nothing  can  reconcile  us 
to  it :  not  the  laws  of  God,  nor  the  necessi- 
ties of  nature,  not  the  society  of  all  our  kin- 
dred, and  of  all  the  world,  not  the  interest 
of  virtue,  not  the  hopes  of  heaven;  we  will 
submit  to  pain  upon  no  terms,  but  the  basest 
and  most  dishonourable  ;  for  if  sin  brings  us 
to  pain,  or  affront,  or  sickness,  we  choose 
that,  so  it  be  in  the  retinue  of  a  lust,  and  a 
base  desire ;  but  we  accuse  nature,  and 


graces  of  God,  and  the  strength  of  our  own 
resolutions,  are  all  then  full  of  employ- 
ments, and  find  it  work  enough  to  secure 
that  one  grace.  For  then  it  is,  that  a  cloud 
is  wrapped  about  our  heads,  and  our  reason 
stoops  under  sorrow;  the  soul  is  sad,  and 
its  instrument  is  out  of  tune;  the  auxili- 
aries are  disordered,  and  every  thought  sits 
heavily ;  then  a  comfort  cannot  make  the 
body  feel  it,  and  the  soul  is  not  so  abstracted 
to  rejoice  much  without  its  partner;  so  that 
the  proper  joys  of  the  soul, — such  as  are 
hope,  and  wise  discourses,  and  satisfactions 


blaspheme  God,  we  murmur  and  are  impa-of  reason,  and  the  offices  of  religion,-— are 


76 


THE  FLESH  A 


ND  THE  SPIRIT. 


Serm.  X. 


felt,  just  as  we  now  perceive  the  joys  of 
heaven,  with  so  little  relish,  that  it  comes 
as  news  of  a  victory  to  a  man  upon  the 
rack,  or  the  birth  of  an  heir  to  one  con- 
demned to  die;  he  hears  a  story,  which  was 
made  to  delight  him,  but  it  came  when  he 
was  dead  to  joy,  and  in  all  its  capacities ; 
and,  therefore,  sickness,  though  it  be  a  good 
monitor,  yet  it  is  an  ill  stage  to  act  some 
virtues  in  ;  and  a  good  man  cannot  then  do 
much;  and  therefore,  he  that  is  in  the  state 
of  flesh  and  blood,  can  do  nothing  at  all. 

But  in  these  considerations  we  find  our 
nature  in  disadvantages ;  and  a  strong  man 
may  be  overcome,  when  a  stronger  comes 
to  disarm  him ;  and  pleasure  and  pain  are 
the  violences  of  choice  and  chance  ;  but  it 
is  no  better  in  any  thing  else  :  for  nature  is 
weak  in  all  its  strengths,  and  in  its  fights, 
at  home  and  abroad,  in  its  actions  and 
passions ;  we  love  some  things  violently, 
and  hate  others  unreasonably  ;  any  thing 
can  fright  us  when  we  would  be  confident, 
and  nothing  can  scare  us  when  we  ought 
to  fear;  the  breaking  of  a  glass  puts  us  into 
a  supreme  anger,  and  we  are  dull  and 
indifferent  as  a  stoic  when  we  see  God 
dishonoured ;  we  passionately  desire  our 
preservation,  and  yet  we  violently  destroy 
ourselves,  and  will  not  be  hindered;  we 
cannot  deny  a  friend,  when  he  tempts  us  to 
sin  and  death,  and  yet  we  daily  deny  God, 
when  he  passionately  invites  us  to  life  and 
health;  we  are  greedy  after  money,  and  yet 
spend  it  vainly  upon  our  lusts  ;  we  hate  to 
see  any  man  flattered  but  ourselves,  and  we 
can  endure  folly,  if  it  be  on  our  side,  and  a 
sin  for  our  interest;  we  desire  health,  and 
yet  we  exchange  it  for  wine  and  madness  ; 
we  sink  when  a  persecution  comes,  and  yet 
cease  not  daily  to  persecute  ourselves,  doing 
mischiefs  worse  than  the  sword  of  tyrants, 
and  great  as  the  malice  of  a  devil. 

But  to  sum  up  all  the  evils  that  can  be 
spoken  of  the  infirmities  of  the  flesh  ;  the 
proper  nature  and  habitudes  of  men  are  so 
foolish  and  impotent,  so  averse  and  peevish 
to  all  good,  that  a  man's  will  is  of  itself 
only  free  to  choose  evils.  Neither  is  it  a 
contradiction  to  say  liberty,  and  yet  suppose 
it  determined  to  one  object  only ;  because 
that  one  object  is  the  thing  we  choose.  For 
although  God  hath  set  life  and  death  before 
us,  fire  and  water,  good  and  evil,  and  hath 
primarily  put  man  into  the  hands  of  his 
own  counsel,  that  he  might  have  chosen 
good  as  well  as  evil;  yet  because  he  did  not, 
but  fell  into  an  evil  condition  and  corrupted 


manners,  and  grew  in  love  with  it,  and 
infected  all  his  children  with  vicious  ex- 
amples ;  and  all  nations  of  the  world  have 
contracted  some  universal  stains,  and  "the 
thoughts  of  men's  hearts  are  only  evil,  and 
that  continually,"  and  "there  is  not  one 
that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one  that  sinneth 
not;"  since  (1  say)  all  the  world  have 
sinned,  we  cannot  suppose  a  liberty  of  in- 
differency  to  good  and  bad ;  it  is  impossible 
in  such  a  liberty,  that  there  should  be  no 
variety,  that  all  should  choose  the  same 
thing;  but  a  liberty  of  complacency  or 
delight  we  may  suppose ;  that  is  so,  that 
though  naturally  he  might  choose  good,  yet 
morally  he  is  so  determined  with  his  love 
to  evil,  that  good  seldom  comes  into  dispute; 
and  a  man  runs  to  evil  as  he  runs  to  meat 
or  sleep  ;  for  why  else  should  it  be,  that 
every  one  can  teach  a  child  to  be  proud,  or 
to  swear,  to  lie,  or  to  do  little  spites  to  his 
playfellow,  and  can  train  him  up  to  infant 
follies  ?  But  the  severity  of  tutors,  and  the 
care  of  parents,  discipline  and  watchfulness, 
art  and  diligence,  all  is  too  little  to  make 
him  love  but  to  say  his  prayers,  or  to  do 
that,  which  becomes  persons  designed  for 
honest  purposes,  and  his  malice  shall  out- 
run his  years;  he  shall  be  a  man  in  villainy, 
before  he  is  by  law  capable  of  choice  or  in- 
heritance ;  and  this  indisposition  lasts  upon 
us  for  ever ;  even  as  Jong  as  we  live,  just  in 
the  same  degrees  as  flesh  and  blood  do  rule 
US  :  "ZiAfmtos  pav  yap  apjjuxstlav  idtao  t£%vv], 
•tyvZW  &£  vodrjfjia  lotfpoj  iatai  ^tdvatoi'  "  Art  of 
Physicians  can  cure  the  evils  of  the  body, 
but  this  strange  propensity  to  evil  nothing 
can  cure  but  death ;"  the  grace  of  God 
eases  the  malignity  here,  but  it  cannot  be 
cured  but  by  glory :  that  is,  this  freedom 
of  delight,  or  perfect  unabated  election  of 
evil,  which  is  consequent  to  the  evil  man- 
ners of  the  world,  although  it  be  lessened 
by  the  intermedial  state  of  grace,  yet  it  is 
not  cured  until  it  be  changed  into  its  quite 
contrary ;  but  as  it  is  in  heaven,  all  that  is 
happy,  and  glorious,  and  free,  yet  can 
choose  nothing  but  the  love  of  God,  and 
excellent  things,  because  God  fills  all  the 
capacities  of  saints,  and  there  is  nothing 
without  him  that  hath  any  degrees  of 
amiability;  so  in  the  state  of  nature,  of  flesh 
and  blood ;  there  is  so  much  ignorance  of 
spiritual  excellencies,  and  so  much  propor- 
tion to  sensual  objects,  which  in  most  in- 
stances and  in  many  degrees  are  prohibited, 
that,  as  men  naturally  know  no  good,  but 
to  please  a  wild,   undetermined,  infinite 


Serm.  X. 


THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


appetite,  so  they  will  nothing  else  but  what 
is  good  in  their  limit  and  proportion ;  and  it 
is  with  us  as  it  was  with  the  she-goat  that 
suckled  the  wolf's  whelp ;  he  grew  up  by 
nis  nurse's  milk,  and  at  last  having  forgot 
nis  foster-mother's  kindness,  ate  that  udder 
which  gave  him  drink  and  nourishment : 

Improbitas  nullo  flectitur  obsequio ; 
For  no  kindness  will  cure  an  ill  nature  and 
a  base  disposition  :  so  are  we  in  the  fimt 
constitution  of  our  nature ;  so  perfectly 
given  to  natural  vices,  that  by  degrees  we 
degenerate  into  unnatural,  and  no  education 
or  power  of  art  can  make  us  choose  wisely 
or  honestly  :  'Eyw  8e  fiiav  evytvtiav  ooSa  rr(v 
apstriv,  said  Phalaris;  "There  is  no  good 
nature  but  only  virtue  :"  till  we  are  new 
created,  we  are  wolves  and  serpents,  free 
and  delighted  in  the  choice  of  evil,  but 
stones  and  iron  to  all  excellent  things  and 
purposes. 

2.  Next  I  am  to  consider  the  weakness 
of  the  flesh,  even  when  the  state  is  changed, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  state  of  grace :  for 
many  persons,  as  soon  as  the  grace  of  God 
rises  in  their  hearts,  are  all  on  fire,  and 
inflamed;  it  is  with  them  as  Homer  said  of 
the  Sirian  star : 

Aaurtpotatos  fikv  by  iotl,  xaxbv  &  to  cr/xa 

Kat  ts  ^)ipct  TtctiXov  jivptrbv  bert-oiii  jpototwo.  II. 
"It  shines  finely,  and  brings  fevers;"  splen- 
dour and  zeal  are  the  effects  of  the  first 
grace,  and  sometimes  the  first  turns  into 
pride,  and  the  second  into  uncharitableness  ; 
and  either  by  too  dull  and  slow  motions,  or 
by  too  violent  and  unequal,  the  flesh  will 
make  pretences,  and  too  often  prevail  upon 
the  spirit,  even  after  the  grace  of  God  hath 
set  up  its  banners  in  our  hearts. 

1 .  In  some  dispositions  that  are  forward 
and  apt,  busy  and  unquiet,  when  the  grace 
of  God  hath  taken  possession,  and  begins 
to  give  laws,  it  seems  so  pleasant  and  gay 
to  their  undiscerning  spirits  to  be  delivered 
from  the  sottishness  of  lust,  and  the  follies 
of  drunkenness,  that,  reflecting  upon  the 
change,  they  begin  to  love  themselves  too 
well,  and  take  delight  in  the  wisdom  of  the 
change,  and  the  reasonableness  of  the  new 
life;  and  then  they,  hating  their  own  follies, 
begin  to  despise  them  that  dwell  below :  it 
was  the  trick  of  the  old  philosophers  whom 
Aristophanes  thus  describes,  rov?  ctax^dvaj, 
tovi  w^piwi-ras,  *ovf  airnobirtovs  te'yfis*  "pale, 
and  barefoot,  and  proud  ;"  that  is,  persons 
singular  in  their  habit,  eminent  in  their  in- 
stitution, proud  and  pleased  in  their  persons, 


and  despisers  of  them  that  are  less  glorious 
in  their  virtue  than  themselves ;  and  for  this 
very  thing  our  blessed  Saviour  remarks  the 
Pharisees,  they  were  severe  and  fantastical 
advancers  of  themselves,  and  judges  of 
their  neighbours ;  and  here,  when  they  have 
mortified  corporal  vices,  such  which  are 
scandalous  and  punishable  by  men,  they 
keep  the  spiritual,  and  those  that  are  only 
discernible  by  God:  these  men  do  but 
change  their  sin  from  scandal  to  danger, 
and  that  they  may  sin  more  safely,  they 
sin  more  spiritually. 

2.  Sometimes  the  passions  of  the  flesh 
spoil  the  changes  of  the  spirit,  by  natural 
excesses,  and  disproportion  of  degrees  ;  it 
mingles  violence  with  industry,  and  fury 
with  zeal,  and  uncharitableness  with  re- 
proof, and  censuring  with  discipline,  and 
violence  with  desires,  and  immortifications 
in  all  the  appetites  and  prosecutions  of  the 
soul.  Some  think  it  is  enough  in  all  in- 
stances, if  they  pray  hugely  and  fervently ; 
and  that  it  is  religion,  impatiently  to  desire 
a  victory  over  our  enemies,  or  the  life  of  a 
child,  or  an  heir  to  be  born  ;  they  call  it 
holy,  so  they  desire  it  in  prayer;  that  if 
they  reprove  a  vicious  person,  they  may 
say  what  they  list,  and  be  as  angry  as  they 
please;  that  when  they  demand  but  reason, 
I they  may  enforce  it  by  all  means;  that 
when  they  exact  duty  of  their  children, 
jthey  may  be  imperious  and  without  limit ; 
I  that  if  they  design  a  good  end,  they  may 
'prosecute  it  by  all  instruments;  that  when 
they  give  thanks  for  blessings,  they  may 
value  the  things  as  high  as  they  list,  though 
I  their  persons  come  into  a  share  of  the 
honour;  here  the  spirit  is  willing  and  holy, 
jbut  the  flesh  creeps  too  busily,  and  insinu- 
ates into  the  substance  of  good  actions,  and 
spoils  them  by  unhandsome  circumstances ; 
and  then  the  prayer  is  spoiled  for  want  of 
prudence  or  conformity  to  God's  will,  and 
discipline  and  government  are  imbittered  by 
an  angry  spirit;  and  the  father's  authority 
I  turns  into  an  uneasy  load;  by  being  thrust 
like  an  unequal  burden  to  one  side,  without 
]  allowing  equal  measures  to  the  other  :  and 
if  we  consider  it  wisely,  we  shall  find,  that 
in  many  good  actions  the  flesh  is  the  bigger 
ingredient,  and  we  betray  our  weak  con- 
stitutions, even  when  we  do  justice,  or 
charity;  and  many  men  pray  in  the  flesh, 
when  they  pretend  they  pray  by  the  Spirit. 

3.  In  the  first  changes  and  weak  pro- 
gresses of  our  spiritual  life,  we  find  a  long 
weakness  upon  us,  because  we  are  long 

g  2 


73 


THE  FLESH  AN 


D  THE  SPIRIT. 


Serm.  X. 


before  we  begin,  and  the  flesh  was  power- 
ful, and  its  habits  strong,  and  it  will  mingle 
indirect  pretences  with  all  the  actions  of  the 
spirit;  if  we  mean  to  pray,  the  flesh  thrusts 
in  thoughts  of  the  world  ;  and  our  tongue 
speaks  one  thing,  and  our  heart  means 
another ;  and  we  are  hardly  brought  to  say 
our  prayers,  or  to  undertake  a  fasting-day, 
or  to  celebrate  a  communion  :  and  if  we 
remember  all  these  holy  actions,  and  that 
we  have  many  opportunities  of  doing  them 
all,  and  yet  do  them  very  seldom,  and  then 
very  coldly,  it  will  be  found  at  the  foot  of 
the  account,  that  our  flesh  and  our  natural 
weakness  prevail  oftener  than  our  spiritual 
strengths  :  ol  Tto'kvv  %povov  ScOevtsg,  x$v  "KvQtitv, 
ov  dwdpsvoi  fiabi&Lv,  vrtoaxsU^ovtai,'  "  they 
are  bound  long  in  chains,  feel  such  a  lame- 
ness, in  the  first  restitutions  of  their  liberty," 
VTtb  trs  TtoXvxpovlov  ?W  dsa/iiiiv  ovvrjOelas,  "  by 
reason  of  the  long-accustomed  chain  and 
pressure,"  that  they  may  stay  till  nature 
nath  set  them  free,  and  the  disease  be  taken 
off  as  well  as  the  chain  ;  and  when  the  soul 
is  got  free  from  her  actual  pressure  of  sins, 
still  the  wound  remains,  and  a  long  habi- 
tude, and  longing  after  it,  a  looking  back : 
and  upon  the  presenting  the  old  object,  the 
same  company,  or  the  remembrance  of  the 
delight,  the  fancy  strikes,  and  the  heart 
fails,  and  the  temptations  return  and  stand 
dressed  in  form  and  circumstances,  and  ten 
to  one  but  the  man  dies  again. 

4.  Some  men  are  wise  and  know  their 
weaknesses,  and  to  prevent  their  startings 
back  will  make  fierce  and  strong  resolutions, 
and  bind  up  their  gaps  with  thorns,  and 
make  a  new  hedge  about  their  spirits  ;  and 
what  then?  This  shows,  indeed,  that  "  the 
spirit  is  willing  j"  but  the  storm  arises,  and 
winds  blow,  and  rain  descends,  and  pre- 
sently the  earth  trembles,  and  the  whole  fab- 
ric falls  into  ruin  and  disorder.  A  resolution 
(such  as  we  usually  make)  is  nothing  but  a 
little  trench,  which  every  child  can  step 
over;  and  there  is  no  civil  man  that  commits 
a  willing  sin,  but  he  does  it  against  his 
resolution ;  and  what  Christian  lives,  that 
will  not  say  and  think  that  he  hath  repented 
in  some  degree;  and  yet  still  they  commit 
sin,  that  is,  they  break  all  their  holy  pur- 
poses as  readily  as  they  lose  a  dream ;  and 
so  great  is  our  weakness,  that  to  most  men 
the  strength  of  a  resolution  is  just  such  a 
restraint  as  he  suffers,  who  is  imprisoned 
in  a  curtain,  and  secured  with  doors  and 
bars  of  the  finest  linen  :  for  though  "  the 
spirit  be  strong"  to  resolve,  "  the  flesh  is 
weak"  to  keep  it. 


j  5.  But  when  they  have  felt  their  follies, 
i  and  see  the  linen  veil  rent,  some,  that  are  de- 
|  sirous  to  please  God,  back  their  resolutions 
with  vows,  and  then  the  spirit  is  fortified, 
and  the  flesh  may  tempt  and  call,  but  the 
soul  cannot  come  forth,  and  therefore  it 
triumphs,  and  acts  its  interest  easily  and  cer- 
tainly ;  and  then  the  flesh  is  mortified :  it 
may  be  so.  But  do  not  many  of  us  inquire 
after  a  vow  ?  And  if  we  consider,  it  may 
be  it  was  rash,  or  it  was  an  impossible  mat- 
ter, or  without  just  consideration  and  weigh- 
ing of  circumstances,  or  the  case  is  altered, 
and  there  is  a  new  emergent  necessity,  or  a 
vow  is  no  more  than  a  resolution  made  in 
matter  of  duty  ;  both  are  made  for  God,  and 
in  his  eye  and  witness ;  or  if  nothing  will 
do  it,  men  grow  sad  and  weary,  and  despair, 
and  are  impatient,  and  bite  the  knot  in  pieces 
with  their  teeth,  which  they  cannot  by  dis- 
puting, and  the  arts  of  the  tongue.  A  vow 
will  not  secure  our  duty,  because  it  is  not 
stronger  than  our  appetite  ;  and  the  spirit  of 
man  is  weaker  than  the  habits  and  superin- 
duced nature  of  the  flesh  :  but  by  little  and 
little  it  falls  off,  like  the  finest  thread  twisted 
upon  the  traces  of  a  chariot,  it  cannot  hold 
long. 

6.  Beyond  all  this,  some  choose  excellent 
guides,  and  stand  within  the  restraints  cf 
modesty,  and  a  severe  monitor;  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  hath  put  a  veil  upon  our  spi- 
rits ;  and  by  modesty  in  women  and  young 
persons,  by  reputation  in  the  more  aged,  and 
by  honour  in  the  more  noble,  and  by  con- 
science in  all,  hath  fortified  the  spirit  of  man, 
that  men  dare  not  prevaricate  their  duty, 
though  they  be  tempted  strongly,  and 
invited  perpetually ;  and  this  is  a  partition- 
wall,  that  separates  the  spirit  from  the  flesh, 
and  keeps  it  in  its  proper  strengths  and  re- 
tirements. But  here  the  spirit  of  man,  for 
all  that  it  is  assisted,  strongly  breaks  from 
the  enclosure,  and  runs  into  societies  of  flesh, 
and  sometimes  despises  reputation,  and  some- 
times supplies  it  with  little  arts  of  flattery 
and  self-love;  and  is  modest  as  long  as  it 
can  be  secret ;  and  when  it  is  discovered,  it 
grows  impudent ;  and  a  man  shelters  him- 
self in  crowds  and  heaps  of  sinners,  and  be- 
lieves that  it  is  no  worse  with  him  than  with 
other  mighty  criminals,  and  public  persons, 
who  bring  sin  into  credit  among  fools  and 
vicious  persons  :  or  else  men  take  false  mea  - 
sures of  fame  or  public  honesty,  and  the 
world  being  broken  into  so  many  parts  of 
disunion,  and  agreeing  in  nothing  but  in 
confederate  vice,  and  grown  so  remiss  in 
governments,  and  severe  accounts,  everv 


Serm.  X.  THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT.  79 


thing  is  left  so  loose,  that  honour  and  public 
fame,  modesty  and  shame,  are  now  so  slen- 
der guards  to  the  spirit,  that  the  flesh  breaks 
in,  and  makes  most  men  more  bold  against 
God  than  against  men,  and  against  the  laws 
of  religion  than  of  the  commonwealth. 

7.  When  the  spirit  is  made  willing  by  the 
grace  of  God,  the  flesh  interposes  in  decep- 
tions and  false  principles.  If  you  tempt 
some  man  to  a  notorious  sin,  as  to  rebellion, 
to  deceive  his  trust,  or  to  be  drunk,  he  will 
answer,  he  had  rather  die  than  do  it:  but 
put  the  sin  civilly  to  him,  and  let  it  be  dis- 
guised with  little  excuses,  such  things  which 
indeed  are  trifles,  but  yet  they  are  colours 
fair  enough  to  make  a  weak  pretence,  and 
the  spirit  yields  instantly.  Most  men  choose 
the  sin,  if  it  be  once  disputable  whether  it  be 
a  sin  or  no.  If  they  can  but  make  an  excuse, 
or  a  colour,  so  that  it  shall  not  rudely  dash 
against  the  conscience  with  an  open  profess- 
ed name  of  sin,  they  suffer  the  temptation 
to  do  its  worst.  If  you  tempt  a  man,  you 
must  tell  him  it  is  no  sin,  or  it  is  excusable; 
this  is  not  rebellion,  but  necessity,  and  self- 
defence  ;  it  is  not  against  my  allegiance,  but 
is  a  performing  of  my  trust ;  I  do  it  for  my 
friend,  not  against  my  superior;  I  do  it  for 
a  good  end,  and  for  his  advantage ;  this  is 
not  drunkenness,  but  free  mirth,  and  fair 
society ;  it  is  refreshment,  and  entertainment 
of  some  supernumerary  hours,  but  it  is  not  a 
throwing  away  my  time,  or  neglecting  a  day 
of  salvation  ;  and  if  there  be  anything  more 
to  say  for  it,  though  it  be  no  more  than 
Adam's  fig-leaves,  or  the  excuses  of  children 
and  truants,  it  shall  be  enough  to  make  the 
flesh  prevail,  and  the  spirit  not  to  be  troubled; 
for  so  great  is  our  folly,  that  the  flesh  always 
carries  the  cause,  if  the  spirit  can  be  cozened. 

8.  The  flesh  is  so  mingled  with  the  spirit, 
that  we  are  forced  to  make  distinctions  in 
our  appetite,  to  reconcile  our  affections  to 
God  and  religion,  lest  it  be  impossible  to  do 
our  duty ;  we  weep  for  our  sins,  but  we 
weep  more  for  the  death  of  our  dearest 
friends,  or  other  temporal  sadnesses  ;  we  say 
we  had  rather  die  than  lose  our  faith,  and 
yet  we  do  not  live  according  to  it;  we  lose 
our  estates,  and  are  impatient ;  we  lose  our 
virtue,  and  bear  it  well  enough ;  and  what 
virtue  is  so  great,  as  more  to  be  troubled  for 
having  sinned,  than  for  being  ashamed,  and 
beggared,  and  condemned  to  die?  Here  we 
are  forced  to  a  distinction  ;  there  is  a  valua- 
tion of  price,  and  a  valuation  of  sense ;  or 
the  spirit  hath  one  rate  of  things,  and  the 
flesh  hath  another ;  and  what  we  believe  the 


greatest  evil,  does  not  always  cause  to  us 
the  greatest  trouble  ;  which  shows  plainly, 
that  we  are  imperfect  carnal  persons,  and 
the  flesh  will  in  some  measure  prevail  over 
the  spirit ;  because  we  will  suffer  it  in  too 
many  instances,  and  cannot  help  it  in  all. 

9.  The  spirit  is  abated  and  interrupted  by 
the  flesh,  because  the  flesh  pretends  it  is 
not  able  to  do  those  ministries  which  are 
appointed  in  order  to  religion ;  we  are  not 
able  to  fast;  or,  if  we  watch,  it  breeds  gouts 
and  catarrhs  ;  or,  charity  is  a  grace  too 
expensive,  our  necessities  are  too  big  to  do 
it;  or,  we  cannot  suffer  pain;  and  sorrow 
breeds  death,  and  therefore  our  repentances 
must  be  more  gentle,  and  we  must  support 
ourselves  in  all  our  calamities  :  for  we  can- 
not bear  our  crosses  without  a  freer  re- 
freshment, and  this  freedom  passes  on  to 
license;  and  many  melancholy  persons 
drown  their  sorrows  in  sin  and  forgetful- 
ness,  as  if  sin  were  more  tolerable  than 
sorrow,  and  the  anger  of  God  an  easier  load 
than  a  temporal  care ;  here  the  flesh  betrays 
its  weakness  and  its  follies :  for  the  flesh 
complains  too  soon,  and  the  spirit  of  some 
men,  like  Adam  being  too  fond  of  his  Eve, 
attends  to  all  its  murmurs  and  temptations  ; 
and  yet  the  flesh  is  able  to  bear  far  more 
than  is  required  of  it  in  usual  duties.  Cus- 
tom of  suffering  will  make  us  endure  much, 
and  fear  will  make  us  suffer  more,  and 
necessity  makes  us  suffer  any  thing;  and 
lust  and  desire  make  us  to  endure  more 
than  God  is  willing  we  should;  and  yet  we 
are  nice,  and  tender,  and  indulgent  to  our 
i  weaknesses,  till  our  weaknesses  grow  too 
strong  for  us.  And  what  shall  we  do  to 
secure  our  duty,  and  to  be  delivered  of  our- 
selves, that  the  body  of  death,  which  we 
bear  about  us,  may  not  destroy  the  life  of 
the  spirit? 

I  have  all  this  while  complained,  and  you 
see  not  without  cause ;  I  shall  afterward  tell 
you  the  remedies  for  all  this  evil.  In  the 
mean  time,  let  us  have  but  mean  opinions 
of  ourselves ;  let  us  watch  every  thing  of 
ourselves  as  of  suspected  persons,  and 
magnify  the  grace  of  God,  and  be  humbled 
for  our  stock  and  spring  of  follies,  and  let 
|  us  look  up  to  him,  who  is  the  Fountain  of 
grace  and  spiritual  strengths: 

\Zsv  fiaoiXsv,  ta  fit  i  ioOha,  xai  sv%o/xtvoi$  xai 
avtvxtois 

j  Aftfti  SiSou*  ra  8s  Xvypa  xai  svxofisruv  drtfpv^otj" 
and  pray  that  God  would  give  us  what  we 
ask,  and  what  we  ask  not;  for  we  wan' 

^ore  helps  than  we  understand,  and  we  arc 


80  THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT.  Serm.  XI. 


nearer  to  evil  than  we  perceive,  and  we 
bear  sin  and  death  about  us,  and  are 
in  love  with  it:  and  nothing  comes  from 
us  but  false  principles,  and  silly  propo- 
sitions, and  weak  discourses,  and  startings 
from  our  holy  purposes,  and  care  of  our 
bodies  and  of  our  palates,  and  the  lust 
of  the  lower  belly ;  these  are  the  em- 
ployment of  our  lives ;  but  if  we  design  to 
live  happily,  and  in  a  better  place,  it  must 
be  otherwise  with  us ;  we  must  become 
new  creatures ;  and  have  another  definition, 
and  have  new  strengths,  which  we  can 
only  derive  from  God,  whose  "  grace  is 
sufficient  for  us,"  and  strong  enough  to 
prevail  over  all  our  follies  and  infirmities. 


SERMON  XI. 

PART  II. 

3.  If  it  be  possible  to  cure  an  evil  nature, 
we  must  inquire  after  remedies  for  all  this 
mischief.  In  order  to  which  I  shall  con- 
sider; 1.  That  since  it  is  our  flesh  and  blood 
that  is  the  principle  of  mischief,  we  must 
not  think  to  have  it  cured  by  washings  and 
light  medicaments ;  the  physician  that  went 
to  cure  the  hectic  with  quicksilver  and 
fasting-spittle,  did  his  patient  no  good,  but 
himself  became  a  proverb ;  and  he  that  by 
easy  prayers  and  a  seldom  fast,  by  the 
scattering  of  a  little  alms,  and  the  issues  of 
some  more  natural  virtue,  thinks  to  cure  his 
evil  nature,  does  fortify  his  indisposition,  as 
a  stick  is  hardened  by  a  little  fire,  which  by 
a  great  one  is  devoured.  "  Quanto  satius 
est  mentem  potius  eluere,  qua?  malis  cupidi- 
tatibus  sordidatur,  et,  uno  virtu tis  ac  fidei 
lavacro,  universa  vitia  depellere  V*  "  Better 
it  is  by  an  entire  body  of  virtue,  by  a  living 
and  active  faith,  to  cleanse  the  mind  from 
every  vice,  and  to  take  off  all  superinduced 
habits  of  sin  ;"  "  Gluod  qui  fecerit,  quam- 
libet  inquinatum  ac  sordidum  corpus  gerat, 
satis  purus  est."  If  we  take  this  course, 
although  our  body  is  foul,  and  our  affections 
unquiet,  and  our  rest  discomposed,  yet  we 
shall  be  masters  of  our  resolution,  and  clean 
from  habitual  sins,  and  so  cure  our  evil 
nature.  For  our  nature  was  not  made  evil 
but  by  ourselves  ;  but  yet  we  are  naturally 
evil,  that  is,  by  a  superinduced  nature;  just 
as  drunkards  and  intemperate  persons  have 


*  Lactantius. 


made  it  necessary  to  drink  extremely,  and 
their  nature  requires  it,  and  it  is  health  to 
them;  they  die  without  it,  because  they 
have  made  themselves  a  new  constitution, 
and  another  nature,  but  much  worse  than 
'that  which  God  made  ;  their  sin  made  this 
new  nature;  and  this  new  nature  makes 
sin  necessary  and  unavoidable :  so  it  is  in 
all  other  instances ;  our  nature  is  evil, 
because  we  have  spoiled  it;  and,  therefore, 
the  removing  the  sin  which  we  have  brought 
in,  is  the  way  to  cure  our  nature :  for  this 
evil  uature  is  not  a  thing  which  we  cannot 
avoid ;  we  made  it,  and,  therefore,  we  mu«* 
help  it;  but  as  in  the  superinducing  this 
evil  nature,  we  were  thrust  forward  by 
the  world  and  the  devil,  by  all  objects  from 
without,  and  weakness  from  within ;  so  in 
the  curing  it,  we  are  to  be  helped  by  God 
and  his  most  holy  Spirit. 
Ba^-ftar  a%oxa  8ta  typsvb$  xaprtovfiavos, 
'A^'     *ta  xsSva  fiJjxGtdvst  fiovtevfiata. — iEscH. 

We  must  have  a  new  nature  put  into  us, 
which  must  be  the  principle  of  new  counsels 
and  better  purposes,  of  holy  actions  and 
great  devotion;  and  this  nature  is  derived 
from  God,  and  is  a  grace  and  a  favour  of 
heaven.  The  same  Spirit,  that  caused  the 
holy  Jesus  to  be  born  after  a  new  and 
strange  manner,  must  also  descend  upon 
us,  and  cause  us  to  be  born  again,  and  to 
begin  a  new  life  upon  the  stock  of  a  new 
nature.  'Art  bxslvov  ^pfaro  £ra'a  xai  av$pu>7tlv7j 
ovvvtycuvsaOat  q>vai$,  w  -q  av9poTilvrt  tfi  rtpoj  to 
OeLOtepov  xoivu>vlq  yivrttai  Oila,  said   Oligen  ; 

<£  From  him  it  first  began  that  a  Divine  and 
human  nature  were  weaved  together,  that 
the  human  nature  by  communication  with 
the  celestial  may  also  become  Divine;"  ovx 
iv  [lovcp  ^9  IiqGov,  oXka  sv  rtowe.  tols  fxsta  to 
rtKTTsiW  avoJkafifidvovOL  jSt'oi/,  ov  Irfiovs  f  ckSa|f  v ; 
"not  only  in  Jesus,  but  in  all  that  first  believe 
in  him,  and  then  obey  him,  living  such  a 
life  as  Jesus  taught :"  and  this  is  the  sum 
total  of  the  whole  design  ;  as  we  have  lived 
to  the  flesh,  so  we  must  hereafter  live  to 
the  Spirit :  as  our  nature  hath  been  flesh, 
not  only  in  its  original,  but  in  habits  and 
affection;  so  our  nature  must  be  spirit  in 
habit  and  choice,  in  design  and  effectual 
prosecutions  ;  for  nothing  can  cure  our  old 
death,  but  this  new  birth :  and  this  is  the 
recovery  of  our  nature,  and  the  restitution 
of  our  hopes,  and,  therefore,  the  greatest 
joy  of  mankind. 

 rpi%op  pip  $tyyo$  rXiov  To  6t, 

Ka^oy  6b  Tlovtov  %bv/a  ibuv  fvr(vffiop, 

rij  t  f pivov  ^aMovaa  rCkovawvfj   v'Stop. — EuRIP. 


Serm.XI.          THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


SI 


"  It  is  a  fine  thing  to  see  the  light  of  the  I 
sun,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  see  the  storm 
allayed  and  turned  into  a  smooth  sea  and  a 
fresh  gale ;  our  eyes  are  pleased  to  see  the 
earth  begin  to  live,  and  to  produce  her  little 
issues  with  parti-coloured  coats  :" 
 'AM.1  ovBsv  ovtui  ?jxixrCpbv, 

Ilcu&oiv  vtoyvuv  hf  So^oi?  ihtlv  <J>aoj. 
"  Nothing  is  so  beauteous  as  to  see  a  new 
birth  in  a  childless  family and  it  is  excel- 
lent to  hear  a  man  discourse  the  hidden 
things  of  nature,  and  unriddle  the  perplex- 
ities of  human  notices  and  mistakes  ;  it  is 
comely  to  see  a  wise  man  sit  in  the  gates  of 
the  city,  and  give  right  judgment  in  diffi- 
cult causes :  but  all  this  is  nothing  to  the 
excellencies  of  a  new  birth  ;  to  see  the  old 
man  carried  forth  to  funeral  with  the  solemn 
tears  of  repentance,  and  buried  in  the  grave 
of  Jesus,  and  in  his  place  a  new  creation 
to  arise,  a  new  heart,  and  a  new  under- 
standing, and  new  affections,  and  excellent 
appetites  :  for  nothing  less  than  this  can 
cure  all  the  old  distempers. 

2.  Our  life,  and  all  our  discourses,  and 
every  observation,  and  a  state  of  reason, 
an  l  a  union  of  sober  counsels,  are  too  lit- 
tle to  cure  a  p^vish  spirit,  and  a  weak 
reasoning,  and  silly  principles,  and  accursed 
habits,  and  evil  examples,  and  perverse 
affections,  and  a  whole  body  of  sin  and 
death.    It  was  well  said  in  the  comedy: 

Nunquam  ita  quisquam  bene  subducta  ratione 

ad  vitam  fuit, 
Quin  aetas,  usus  semper  aliquid  apportet  novi, 
Aliquid  moneat ;   ut  ilia,   quae  scire  credas, 

nescias, 

Et  quae  tibi  putas  prima,  in  experiundo  repudies. 
Men  at  first  think  themselves  wise,  and  are 
always  most  confident  when  they  have  the 
least  reason  ;  and  to-morrow  they  begin  to 
perceive  yesterday's  folly,  and  yet  they  are 
not  wise  ;  but  as  the  little  embryo,  in  the 
natural  sheet  and  lap  of  its  mother,  first 
distinguishes  into  a  little  knot,  and  that  in 
time  will  be  the  heart,  and  then  into  a  big- 
ger bundle,  which  after  some  days'  abode 
grows  into  two  little  spots,  and  they,  if 
cherished  by  nature,  will  become*eyes,  and 
each  part  by  order  commences  into  weak 
principles,  and  is  preserved  with  nature's 
greatest  curiosity;  that  it  may  assist  first  to 
distinction,  then  to  order,  next  to  usefulness, 
and  from  thence  to  strength,  till  it  arrive  at 
beauty,  and  a  perfect  creature ;  so  are  the 
necessities,  and  so  are  the  discourses  of 
men;  we  first  learn  the  principles  of  rea- 
11 


son,  which  break  obscurely  through  a 
cloud,  and  bring  a  little  light,  and  then  we 
discern  a  folly,  and  by  little  and  little  leave 
it,  till  that  enlightens  the  next  corner  of  the 
soul:  and  then  there  is  a  new  discovery; 
but  the  soul  is  still  in  infancy  and  childish 
follies  ;  nnd  every  day  does  but  the  work  of 
one  day;  but  therefore  art  and  use,  experi- 
ence and  reason,  although  they  do  some- 
thing, yet  they  cannot  do  enough,  there 
must  be  something  else :  but  this  is  to  be 
wrought  by  a  new  principle,  that  is,  by  the 
Spirit  of  grace :  nature  and  reason  alone 
cannot  do  it,  and  therefore  the  proper  cure 
is  to  be  wrought  by  those  general  means  of 
inviting  and  cherishing,  of  getting  and  en- 
tertaining God's  Spirit,  which  when  we 
have  observed,  we  may  account  ourselves 
sufficiently  instructed  towards  the  repair  of 
our  breaches,  and  reformation  of  our  evil 
nature. 

1.  The  first  great  instrument  of  changing 
our  whole  nature  into  the  state  of  grace, 
flesh  into  the  spirit,  is  a  firm  belief,  and  a 
perfect  assent  to,  and  hearty  entertainment 
of,  the  promises  of  the  gospel ;  for  Holy 
Scripture  speaks  great  words  concerning 
faith.  "  It  quenches  the  fiery  darts  of  the 
devil,"  saith  St.  Paul;*  "it  overcomes  the 
world,"  saith  St.  John  ;f  it  is  the  fruit  of 
the  Spirit,  and  the  parent  of  love  ;  it  is 
obedience,  and  it  is  humility,  and  it  is  a 
shield,  and  it  is  a  breastplate,  and  a  work, 
and  a  mystery,  it  is  a  fight,  and  it  is  a  vic- 
tory, it  is  pleasing  God,  and  it  is  that 
"  whereby  the  just  do  live  ;"  by  "faith  we 
are  purified,"  and  by  "  faith  we  are  sancti- 
fied," and  by  "  faith  we  are  justified,"  and 
by  "faith  we  are  saved:"  by  this  "we 
have  access  to  the  throne  of  grace,"  and  bv 
it  our  prayers  shall  prevail  "  for  the  sick," 
by  it  we  stand,  and  by  it  we  walk,  and  by 
this  "  Christ  dwells  in  our  hearts,"  and  bv 
it  all  the  miracles  of  the  church  have  been 
done  :  it  gives  great  patience  to  suffer,  and 
great  confidence  to  hope,  and  great  strength 
to  do,  and  infallible  certainty  to  enjoy  the 
end  of  all  our  faith,  and  satisfaction  of  al! 
our  hopes,  and  the  reward  of  all  our  labours, 
even  "  the  most  mighty  prize  of  our  high 
calling:"  and  if  faith  be  such  a  magazine 
of  spiritual  excellencies,  of  such  universal 
efficacy,  nothing  can  be  a  greater  antidote 
against  the  venom  of  a  corrupted  nature. 
But  then  this  is  not  a  grace  seated  finally  in 
the  understanding,  but  the  principle  that  is 


*  Ephes.  vi.  16.    1 1  John  v.  4. 


82 


THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


Serm.  XI. 


designed  to,  and  actually  productive  of,  a 
holy  life ;  it  is  not  only  a  believing  the  pro- 
positions of  Scripture  as  we  believe  a 
proposiiion  in  the  metaphysics,  concerning 
which  a  man  is  never  the  honester  whether 
it  be  true  or  false;  but  it  is  a  belief  of 
things  ihat  concern  us  infinitely,  things  so 
great  that  if  they  be  so  true  as  great,  no 
man  that  hath  his  reason  and  can  discourse, 
that  can  think  and  choose,  that  can  desire 
and  work  towards  an  end,  can  possibly 
neglect.  The  greatest  object  of  our  faith, 
to  which  all  other  articles  do  minister,  is 
resurrection  of  our  bodies  and  souls  to 
eternal  life,  and  glories  infinite.  Now  is  it 
possible  that  a  man  that  believes  this,  and 
that  he  may  obtain  it  for  himself,  and  that 
it  was  prepared  for  him,  and  that  God 
desires  to  give  it  him, — that  he  can  neglect 
and  despise  it,  and  not  work  for  it,  and  per- 
form such  easy  conditions  upon  which  it 
may  be  obtained  ?  Are  not  most  men  of  the 
world  made  miserable  at  a  less  price  than  a 
thousand  pounds  a  year?  Do  not  all  the 
usurers  and  merchants,  all  tradesmen  and 
labourers  under  the  sun,  toil  and  care, 
labour  and  contrive,  venture  and  plot,  for 
a  little  money ;  and  no  man  gets,  and  scarce 
any  man  desires,  so  much  of  it  as  he  can 
lay  upon  three  acres  of  ground ;  not  so 
much  as  will  fill  a  great  house.  And  is 
this  sum,  that  is  such  a  trifle,  such  a  poor 
limited  heap  of  dirt,  the  reward  of  all  the 
labour,  and  the  end  of  all  the  care,  and  the 
design  of  all  the  malice,  and  the  recom- 
pence  of  all  the  wars,  of  the  world ;  and 
can  it  be  imaginable,  that  life  itself,  and  a 
long  life,  an  eternal  and  happy  life,  a  king- 
dom, a  perfect  kingdom  and  glorious,  that 
shall  never  have  ending,  nor  ever  shall  be 
abated  with  rebellion,  or  fears,  or  sorrow, 
or  care  ;  that  such  a  kingdom  should  not  be 
worth  the  praying  for,  and  quitting  of  an 
idle  company,  and  a  foolish  humour,  or  a 
little  drink,  or  a  vicious  silly  woman,  for  it? 
Surely  men  believe  no  such  thing :  they  do 
not  rely  upon  those  fine  stories  that  are 
read  in  books,  and  published  by  preachers, 
and  allowed  by  the  laws  of  all  the  world. 
If  they  did,  why  do  they  choose  intempe- 
rance and  a  fever,  lust  and  shame,  rebellion 
and  danger,  pride  and  a  fall,  sacrilege  and 
a  curse,  gain  and  passion,  before  humility 
and  safety,  religion  and  a  constant  joy, 
devotion  and  peace  of  conscience,  justice 
and  a  quiet  dwelling,  charity  and  a  bless- 
ing ;  and,  at  the  end  of  all  this,  a  kingdom 
more  glorious  than  all  the  beauties  the  sun 


did  ever  see.  "  Fides  est  velut  quoddam 
seternitatis  exemplar,  praBterita  simul  et 
prsesentia  et  futura  sinu  quodam  vastissimo 
comprehendit,  ut  nihil  ei  praetereat,  nil 
pereat,  prseeat  nihil now,  "  Faith  is  a 
certain  image  of  eternity,  all  things  are 
present  to  it,  things  past  and  things  to 
come,"  are  all  so  before  the  eyes  of  faith, 
that  he  in  whose  eye  that  candle  is  enkin- 
dled, beholds  heaven  as  present,  and  sees 
how  blessed  a  thing  it  is  to  die  in  God's 
favour,  and  to  be  chimed  to  our  grave  with 
the  music  of  a  good  conscience.  Faith 
converses  with  the  angels,  and  antedates  the 
hymns  of  glory :  every  man  that  hath  this 
grace,  is  as  certain  that  there  are  glories  for 
him,  if  he  perseveres  in  duty,  as  if  he  had 
heard  and  sung  the  thanksgiving-song  for 
the  blessed  sentence  of  doomsday.  And 
therefore  it  is  no  matter,  if  these  things  are 
separate  and  distant  objects  j  none  but  chil- 
dren and  fools  are  taken  with  the  present 
trifle,  and  neglect  a  distant  blessing,  of  which 
they  have  credible  and  believed  notices. 
Did  the  merchant  see  the  pearls  and  the 
wealth  he  designed  to  get  in  the  trade  ol 
twenty  years  ?  And  is  it  possible  that  a 
child  should,  when  he  learns  the  first  rudi- 
ments of  grammar,  know  what  excellent 
things  there  are  in  learning,  whether  he 
designs  his  labour  and  his  hopes?  We 
labour  for  that  which  is  uncertain,  and 
distant,  and  believed,  and  hoped  for  with 
many  allays,  and  seen  with  diminution,  and 
a  troubled  ray ;  and  what  excuse  can  there 
be  that  we  do  not  labour  for  that,  which  is 
told  us  by  God,  and  preached  by  his  only 
Son,  and  confirmed  by  miracles,  and  which 
Christ  himself  died  to  purchase,  and  mil- 
lions of  martyrs  died  to  witness,  and  which 
we  see  good  men  and  wise  believe  with  an 
assent  stronger  than  their  evidence,  and 
which  they  do  believe  because  they  do  love, 
and  love  because  they  do  believe?  There  is 
nothing  to  be  said,  but  that  faith  which  did 
enlighten  the  blind,  and  cleanse  the  lepers, 
and  washed  the  soul  of  the  ^Ethiopian; 
that  faith.that  cures  the  sick,  and  strength- 
ens the  paralytic,  and  baptizes  the  catechu- 
mens, and  justifies  the  faithful,  and  repairs 
the  penitent,  and  confirms  the  just,  and 
crowns  the  martyrs ;  that  faith,  if  it  be  true 
and  proper,  christian  and  alive,  active  and 
effective  in  us,  is  sufficient  to  appease  the 
storm  of  our  passions,  and  to  instruct  all 
our  ignorances,  and  to  make  us  wise  unto 
;  salvation ;  it  will,  if  we  let  it  do  its  first 
I  intention,  chastise  our  errors,  and  discover 


Serm.  XI. 


THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


S3 


our  follies  ;  it  will  make  us  ashamed  of: 
trifling  interests  and  violent  prosecutions, 
of  false  principles  and  the  evil  disguises  of 
'he  world  ;  and  then  our  nature  will  return 
to  the  innocence  and  excellency  in  which 
God  first  estated  it;  that  is,  our  flesh  will 
be  a  servant  of  the  soul,  and  the  soul  a 
servant  to  the  spirit;  and  then,  because  faith 
makes  heaven  to  be  the  end  of  our  desires, 
and  God  the  object  of  our  love  and  wor- 
shippings, and  the  Scripture  the  rule  of  our 
actions,  and  Christ  our  lord  and  master, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  ©ur  mighty  assistant 
and  our  counsellor,  all  the  little  uglinesses 
of  the  world  and  the  follies  of  the  flesh, 
will  be  uneasy  and  unsavoury,  unreason- 
able and  a  load ;  and  then  that  grace,  the 
grace  of  faith,  that  lays  hold  upon  the  holy 
Trinity,  although  it  cannot  understand  it, 
and  beholds  heaven  before  it  can  possess  it, 
shall  also  correct  our  weaknesses,  and  mas- 
ter all  our  aversations  :  and  though  we 
cannot  in  this  world  be  perfect  masters,  and 
triumphant  persons,  yet  we  be  conquerors 
and  more  ;  that  is,  conquerors  of  the  direct 
hostility,  and  sure  of  a  crown  to  be  revealed 
in  its  due  time. 

2.  The  second  great  remedy  of  our  evil 
nature,  and  of  the  loads  of  the  flesh,  is 
devotion,  or  a  state  of  prayer  and  inter- 
course with  Goc,  For  the  gift  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  which  is  the  great  antidote  of  our 
evil  natures,  is  properly  and  expressly 
promised  to  prayer  :  "  If  you,  who  are  evil, 
give  good  things  to  your  children  that  ask 
you,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father 
from  heaven  give  his  Holy  Spirit  to  them 
that  ask  it  V9  That  which  in  St.  Luke*  is 
called  ayvov  7tv£i>fia,  "  the  Holy  Spirit,"  is 
called  in  St.  Matthew,  ta  fyoAa,f  "  good 
things  :"  that  is,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  all  that 
good  that  we  shall  need  towards  our  pardon, 
and  our  sanctification,  and  our  glory,  and 
this  is  promised  to  prayer ;  to  this  purpose 
Christ  taught  us  the  Lord's  Prayer,  by 
which  we  are  sufficiently  instructed  in 
obtaining  this  magazine  of  holy  and  useful 
things.  But  prayer  is  but  one  part  of  devo- 
tion, and  though  of  admirable  efficacy 
towards  the  obtaining  this  excellent  promise, 
yet  it  is  to  be  assisted  by  the  other  parts  of 
devotion,  to  make  it  a  perfect  remedy  to  our 
great  evil.  He  that  would  secure  his  evil 
nature,  must  be  a  devout  person ;  and  he 
that  is  devout,  besides  that  he  prays  fre- 
quently, he  delights  in  it  as  it  is  a  conver- 


sation with  God  ;  he  rejoices  in  God,  and 
esteems  him  the  light  of  his  eyes,  and  the 
support  of  his  confidence,  the  object  of  his 
love,  and  the  desire  of  his  heart ;  the  man 
is  uneasy  but  when  he  does  God  service , 
and  .us  soul  is  at  peace  and  rest,  when  he 
does  what  may  be  accepted  :  and  this  is  that 
which  the  apostle  counsels  and  gives  in 
precept ;  "  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always, 
and  again  I  say,  Rejoice  ;"*  that  is,  as  the 
Levites  were  appointed  to  rejoice,  because 
God  was  their  portion  in  tithes  and  offer- 
ings, so  now  that  in  the  spiritual  sense  God 
is  our  portion,  we  should  rejoice  in  him, 
and  make  him  our  inheritance,  and  his 
service  our  employment,  and  the  peace  of 
conscience  to  be  our  rest,  and  then  it  is  im- 
possible we  should  be  any  longer  slaves  to 
sin,  and  afflicted  by  the  baser  employments 
of  the  flesh,  or  carry  burdens  for  the  devil; 
and  therefore  the  scholiast  upon  Juvenal 
observed  well,  "  Nullum  malum  gaudium 
est,"  "No  true  joy  can  be  evil ;"  and  there- 
fore it  was  improperly  said  of  Virgil,  "Mala 
gaudia  mentis,"  calling  lust  and  wild 
desires,  "  the  evil  joys  of  the  mind :" 
"  Gaudium  enim  nisi  sapienti  non  contin- 
gere,"  said  Seneca;  "  None  but  a  wise  and 
a  good  man  can  truly  rejoice ;"  the  evil 
laugh  loud,  and  sigh  deeply,  they  drink 
drunk,  and  forget  their  sorrows,  and  all  the 
joys  of  evil  men  are  only  arts  of  forgetful- 
ness,  devices  to  cover  their  sorrow,  and 
make  them  not  see  their  death,  and  its 
affrighting  circumstances ;  but  the  heart 
never  can  rejoice  and  be  secure,  be  pleased 
and  be  at  rest,  but  when  it  dwells  with  holi- 
ness :  the  joys  that  come  from  thence  are 
safe  and  great,  unchangeable  and  unabated, 
healthful  and  holy ;  and  this  is  true  joy : 
and  this  is  that  which  can  cure  all  the  little 
images  of  pleasure  and  temptation,  which 
debauch  our  nature,  and  make  it  dwell  with 
hospitals,  in  the  region  of  diseases  and  evil 
sorrows.  St.  Gregory  well  observed  the 
difference,  saying  that  "  Corporeal  plea- 
sures-, when  we  have  them  not,  enkindle  a 
flame  and  a  burning  desire  in  the  heart, 
and  make  a  man  very  miserable  before  he 
tastes  them ;  the  appetite  to  them  is  like  the 
thirst  and  desires  of  a  fever;"  the  pleasure 
of  drinking  will  not  pay  for  the  pain  of  the 
desire ;  and  "when  they  are  enjoyed,  they 
instantly  breed  satiety  and  loathing.  But 
spiritual  rejoicings  and  delights  are  loathed 
by  them  that  have  them  not,  and  despised 


*Lukexi.  13.  tMatt.vii.il. 


*  Phil.  iv.  4. 


b4 


THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


Serm.  XL 


by  them  that  never  felt  them but  when 
they  are  once  tasted,  they  increase  the  ap- 
petite and  swell  into  bigger  capacities  ;  and 
the  more  they  are  eaten,  the  more  they  are 
desired  ;  and  cannot  become  a  weariness, 
because  they  satisfy  all  the  way,  and  only 
increase  the  desire,   because  themselves 
grow  bigger  and  more  amiable.   And  there-  j 
fore  when  this  new  and  stranger  appetite, 
and  consequent  joy,  arises  in  the  heart  of 
man,  it  so  fills  the  faculties,  that  there  is  no  | 
gust,  no  desire  left  for  toads  and  vipers,  for  | 
hemlock  and  the  deadly  nightshade. 

Sirenas,  hilarem  navigantium  poenam, 
Blandasque  mortes,  gaudiumque  crudele, 
Quas  nemo  quondam  deserebat  auditas, 
Prudens  Ulysses  dicitur  reliquisse. — Mart. 

Then  a  man  can  hear  the  music  of  songs 
and  dances,  and  think  them  to  be  heathenish 
noises  ;  and  if  he  be  engaged  in  the  society 
of  a  woman-singer,  he  can  be  as  unconcern- 
ed as  a  marble  statue;  he  can  be  at  a  feast 
and  not  be  defiled,  he  can  pass  through 
theatres  as  through  a  street :  then  he  can 
look  on  money  as  his  servant,  "  nec  distant 
aera  lupinis ;"  he  can  use  it  as  the  Greeks 
did  their  sharp  coins,  to  cast  accounts  with- 
al, and  not  from  thence  take  the  accounts 
of  his  wealth  or  his  felicity.  If  you  can 
once  obtain  but  a  delight  in  prayer,  and  to 
long  for  the  day  of  a  communion,  and  to  be 
pleased  with  holy  meditation,  and  to  desire 
God's  grace  with  great  passion,  and  an  ap- 
petite keen  as  a  wolf  upon  the  void  plains 
of  the  north  ;  if  you  can  delight  in  God's 
love,  and  consider  concerning  his  provi- 
dence, and  busy  yourselves  in  the  pursuit 
of  the  affairs  of  his  kingdom,  then  you  have 
the  grace  of  devotion,  and  your  evil  nature 
shall  be  cured. 

3.  Because  this  great  cure  is  to  be  wrought 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is  a  new  nature 
in  us,  we  must  endeavour  to  abstain  from 
those  things,  which,  by  a  special  maligni- 
ty, are  directly  opposite  to  the  spirit  of  rea- 
son and  the  Spirit  of  grace ;  and  those  are 
drunkenness  and  lust.  He  that  is  full  of 
wine,  cannot  be  full  of  the  Spirit  of  God  : 
St.  Paul  noteth  the  hostility  ;  tf  Be  not  drunk 
with  wine,  but  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  :"* 
a  man  that  is  a  drunkard,  does  perire  cito, 
"  he  perishes  quickly,"  his  temptations  that 
come  to  him,  make  but  short  work  with 
him;  a  drunkard  is  aocoto?;  our  English 
well  expresses  it,  it  is  "a  soltishness,"  and 
the  man  is  aacotowroj,  a%ptu>s,  d^p^oroj,  "  a 

Ephes.  v.  18. 


useless,  senseless  person:"  sit  ov%  andv7toiv 
tcsti  to  (A&vsiv  xaxbv  peyiotov  dj/^pwjtoe<jt  xou) 
ptej.fief)u>tatoi> ;  "  Of  all  the  evils  of  the  world, 
nothing  is  worse  to  a  man's  self,  nothing  is 
more  harmful  than  this  ;"  artoatspovvt a  tavtov 
tov  typovsiv,  6  [Uycatov  r^\iiv  ovyaflbp  E%st  jy  <J>i;<jis, 

said  Crobylus;  it  deprives  a  wise  man  of  his 
counsel  and  his  understanding."  Now,  be- 
cause it  is  the  greatest  good  that  nature  hath, 
that  which  takes  it  away  must  needs  be  our 
greatest  enemy.  Nature  is  weak  enough  of 
itself,  but  drunkenness  takes  from  it  all  the 
little  strengths  that  are  left  to  it,  and  destroys 
the  Spirit ;  and  the  man  can  neither  have 
the  strengths  of  nature,  nor  the  strengths  of 
grace ;  and  how  then  can  the  man  do  wise- 
ly or  virtuously  ?  "  Spiritus  sanctus  amat 
sicca  corda,"  "The  Spirit  of  God  loves  dry 
hearts,"  said  the  Christian  proverb ;  and  Jo- 
sephus  said  of  Samson,  Arjhop  rtpo^^fvcrwr 
cw<6  "trfi  nspi  tr\v,  SioltoM  aofypoavvris,  "  It  ap- 
pears he  was  a  prophet,  or  a  man  full  of  the 
Spirit,  by  the  temperance  of  his  diet;"  and 
now  that  all  the  people  are  holy  unto  the 
Lord,  they  must  aolvovs  ayvtla$  t%tiv,  as  Plu- 
tarch said  cf  their  consecrated  persons ;  they 
must  have  "dry  and  sober  purities:"  for 
by  this  means  their  reason  is  useful,  and 
their  passions  not  violent,  and  their  dis- 
course united,  and  the  precious  things  of 
their  memory  at  hand,  and  they  can  pray 
and  read,  and  they  can  meditate  and  prac- 
tise, and  then  they  can  learn  where  their 
natural  weaknesses  are  most  urgent,  and 
how  they  can  be  tempted,  and  can  secure 
their  aids  accordingly;  bu*t  how  is  it  possi- 
ble that  such  a  man  should  cure  all  the 
evils  of  his  nature,  and  repair  the  breaches 
of  Adam's  sin,  and  stop  all  the  effect  which 
is  upon  him  from  all  the  evils  of  the  world, 
if  he  delights  in  seas  of  drink,  and  is 
pleased  with  the  follies  of  distempered  per- 
sons, and  laughs  loud  at  the  childish 
humours  and  weak  discourses  of  the  man, 
that  can  do  nothing  but  that  for  which  Di- 
onysius  slew  Antiphon,  and  Timagenes 
did  fall  from  Caesar's  friendship ;  that  is, 
play  the  fool  and  abuse  his  friend  ;  he  can- 
not give  good  counsel  or  spend  an  hour  in 
wise  sayings  ;  but  half  a  day  they  can  talk 
"  ut  foret,  unde  corona  cachinnum  tollere 
possit,"  to  make  the  crowd  laugh,  and 
consider  not. 

And  the  same  is  the  case  of  lust ;  because 
it  is  exactly  contrary  to  Christ  the  king  of 
virgins,  and  his  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the 
prince  of  purities  and  holy  thoughts;  it  is 
a  captivity  of  the  reason  and  an  enraginp 


Skrm.  XI. 


THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT. 


83 


of  the  passions,  it  wakens  every  night  and 
rages  every  day,  it  desires  passionately  and 
prosecutes  violently,  it  hinders  business  and 
d  stracts  counsel,  it  brings  jealousies  and 
enkindles  wars,  it  sins  against  the  body  and 
weakens  the  soul,  it  defiles  a  temple  and  ! 
drives  the  Holy  Spirit  forth ;  and  it  is  so 
entire  a  prosecution  of  the  follies  and  weak- 
nesses of  nature,  such  a  snare  and  a  bait  to 
weak  and  easy  fools,  that  it  prevails  infi- ! 
nitely,  and  rages  horribly,  and  rules  tyran-  j 
nically ;  it  is  a  very  fever  in  the  reason, 
and  a  calenture  in  the  passions  ;  and  there-  1 
fore  either  it  must  be  quenched,  or  it  will 
be  impossible  to  cure  our  evil  natures  :  the 
curing  of  this  is  not  the  remedy  of  a  single 
evil,  but  it  is  a  doing  violence  to  our  whole 
nature ;  and  therefore  hath  in  it  the  greatest  | 
courage  and  an  equal  conduct,  and  supposes 
spiritual  strengths  great  enough  to  contest 
against  every  enemy. 

4.  Hitherto  is  to  be  reduced,  that  we 
avoid  all  flatterers  and  evil  company ;  for 
it  was  impossible  that  Alexander  should  be 
wise  and  cure  his  pride  and  his  drunken- 
ness, so  long  as  he  entertained  Agesius  and 
Agnon,  Bagoas  and  Demetrius,  and  slew 
Parmenio  and  Phiiotas,  and  murdered  wise 
Callisthenes  ;  for  he  that  loves  to  be  flatter- 
ed, loves  not  to  change  his  pleasure;  but 
had  rather  to  hear  himself  called  wise,  than 
to  be  so.  Flattery  does  bribe  an  evil  nature, 
and  corrupt  a  good  one ;  and  make  it  love 
to  give  wrong  judgment  and  evil  sentences: 
he  that  loves  to  be  flattered,  can  never  want  I 
some  to  abuse  him,  but  he  shall  always 
want  one  to  counsel  him,  and  then  he  can 
never  be  wise. 

5.  But  I  must  put  these  advices  into  a  I 
heap :  he  therefore  that  will  cure  his  evil  I 
nature,  must  set  himself  against  his  chief- 
est  lust,  which  when  he  hath  overcome,  the 
lesser  enemies  will  come  in  of  themselves. 
He  must  endeavour  to  reduce  his  affections 
to  an  indiffeTency ;  for  all  violence  is  an 
enemy  to  reason  and  counsel,  and  is  that ! 
state  of  disease  for  which  he  is  to  inquire 
remedies. 

6.  It  is  necessary  that  in  all  actions  of  J 
choice  he  deliberate  and  consider,  that  he 
may  never  do  that  for  which  he  must  ask  a  | 
pardon,  and  he  must  suffer  shame  and  1 
smart :  and  therefore  Cato  did  well  reprove 
Aulus  Albinus  for  writing  the  Roman  story  ' 
in  the  Greek  tongue,  of  which  he  had  but ; 
imperfect  knowledge  ;  and  himself  was  put 
to  make  his  apology  for  so  doing :  Cato  ! 
told  him  that  he  was  mightily  in  love  with 


a  fault,  that  had  rather  beg  a  pardon  than 
be  innocent.  Who  forced  him  to  need  the 
pardon  ?  And  when  beforehand  we  know 
we  must  change  from  what  we  are  or  do 
worse,  it  is  a  better  compendium  not  to 
enter  in  from  whence  we  must  uneasily 
retire. 

7.  In  all  the  contingencies  of  chance  and 
variety  of  action,  remember  that  thou  art 
the  maker  of  thy  own  fortune,  and  of  thy 
own  sin ;  charge  not  God  with  it  either 
before  or  after;  the  violence  of  thy  own 
passion  is  no  superinduced  necessity  from 
him,  and  the  events  of  providence  in  all  its 
strange  variety  can  give  no  authority  or 
patronage  to  a  foul  forbidden  action,  though 
the  next  chance  of  war  or  fortune  be  pros- 
perous and  rich.  An  Egyptian  robber, 
sleeping  under  a  rotten  wall,  was  awakened 
by  Serapis,  and  sent  away  from  the  ruin ; 
but  being  quit  from  the  danger,  and  seeing 
the  wall  to  slide,  he  thought  that  the  demon 
loved  his  crime,  because  he  had  so  strange- 
ly preserved  him  from  a  sudden  and  a 
violent  death.  But  Serapis  told  him,  ©amrov 
pcy  6$.v7tov  nv  tfyiysSf  otai-pa  b'  i$9i  ^.arro^fio;, 
"  I  saved  you  from  the  wall,  to  reserve  you 
for  the  wheel ;"  from  a  short  and  private 
death,  to  a  painful  and  disgraceful ;  and  so 
it  is  very  frequently  in  the  event  of  human 
affairs  :  men  are  saved  from  one  death,  and 
reserved  for  another  ;  or  are  preserved 
here,  to  be  destroyed  hereafter;  and  they 
that  would  judge  of  actions  by  events,  must 
stay  till  all  events  are  passed,  that  is,  till  all 
their  posterity  be  dead,  and  the  sentence  is 
given  at  dooms-day :  in  the  mean  time  the 
evils  of  our  nature  are  to  be  looked  upon 
without  all  accidental  appendages  :  as  they 
are  in  themselves,  as  they  have  an  irregu- 
larity and  disorder,  an  unreasonableness 
and  a  sting ;  and  be  sure  to  rely  upon  no- 
thing, but  the  truth  of  laws  and  promises  ; 
and  take  severe  accounts  by  those  lines, 
which  God  gave  us  on  purpose  to  reprove 
our  evil  habits  and  fihhy  inclinations.  Men 
that  are  not  willing  to  be  cured,  are  glad  of 
any  thing  to  cozen  them ;  but  the  body  of 
death  cannot  be  taken  off  from  us,  unless 
we  be  honest  in  our  purposes,  and  severe  in 
our  counsels,  and  take  just  measures,  and 
glorify  God,  and  set  ourselves  against  our- 
selves, that  we  may  be  changed  into  the 
likeness  of  tfce  sons  of  God. 

8.  Avoid  all  delay  in  the  counsels  of 
religion.  Because  the  aversation  and  per- 
verseness  of  a  child's  nature  may  be  cor- 
rected easily;  but  every  day  of  indulgence 

H 


86  THE  FLESH  AND  THE  SPIRIT.  Serm.  XL 


and  excuse  increases  the  evil,  and  makes  it 
still  more  natural,  and  still  more  necessary. 

9.  Learn  to  despise  the  world  ;  or,  which 
is  a  better  compendium  in  the  duty,  learn 
but  truly  to  understand  it ;  for  it  is  a  cozen- 
age all  the  way;  the  head  of  it  is  a  rainbow, 
and  the  face  of  it  is  flattery  ;  its  words  are 
charms,  and  all  its  stories  are  false;  its 
body  is  a  shadow,  and  its  hands  do  knit 
spiders'  webs ;  it  is  an  image  and  a  noise, 
with  an  hyena's  lip  and  a  serpent's  tail ;  it 
was  given  to  serve  the  needs  of  our  nature  ; 
and  instead  of  doing  it,  it  creates  strange 
appetites,  and  nourishes  thirsts  and  fevers ; 
it  brings  care  and  debauches  our  nature,  and 
brings  shame  and  death  as  the  reward  of  all 
our  cares.  Our  nature  is  a  disease,  and  the 
world  does  nourish  it;  but  if  you  leave  to 
feed  upon  such  unwholesome  diet,  your 
nature  reverts  to  its  first  purities,  and  to  the 
entertainments  of  the  grace  of  God. 

4.  I-  am  now  to  consider,  how  far  the 
infirmities  of  the  flesh  can  be  innocent,  and 
consist  with  the  Spirit  of  grace.  For  all 
counsels  are  to  be  entertained  into  a  willing 
spirit,  and  not  only  so,  but  into  an  active ; 
and  so  long  as  the  spirit  is  only  willing,  the 
weakness  of  the  flesh  will  in  many  instances 
become  stronger  than  the  strengths  of  the 
spirit.  For  he  that  hath  a  good  will,  and 
does  not  do  good  actions,  which  are  re- 
quired of  him,  is  hindered,  but  not  by  God 
that  requires  them,  and  therefore  by  himself, 
or  his  worst  enemy.  But  the  measures  of 
this  question  are  these  : 

1.  If  the  flesh  hinders  us  of  our  duty,  it 
is  our  enemy  ;  and  then  our  misery  is  not, 
that  the  flesh  is  weak,  but  that  it  is  too 
strong;  but,  2.  when  it  abates  the  degrees 
of  duty  and  stops  its  growth,  or  its  passing 
on  to  action  and  effect,  then  it  is  weak,  but 
not  directly  nor  always  criminal.  But  to 
speak  particularly, 

1.  If  our  flesh  hinders  us  of  any  thing 
that  is  a  direct  duty,  and  prevails  upon  the 
spirit  to  make  it  do  an  evil  action,  or  con- 
tract an  evil  habit,  the  man  is  in  a  state  of 
bondage  and  sin ;  his  flesh  is  the  mother 
of  corruption  and  an  enemy  to  God.  It  is 
not  enough  to  say,  I  desire  to  serve  God, 
and  cannot  as  I  would  :  I  would  fain  love 
God  above  all  things  in  the  world,  but  the 
flesh  hath  appetites  of  its  own  that  must  be 
observed  :  I  pray  to  be  forgiven  as  I  forgive 
others ;  but  flesh  and  blood  cannot  put  up 
such  an  injury:  for  know  that  no  infirmity, 
no  unavoidable  accident,  no  necessity,  no 
poverty,  no  business,  can  hinder  us  from 


the  love  of  God,  or  forgiving  injuries,  or 
being  of  a  religious  and  a  devout  spirit: 
poverty  and  the  intrigues  of  the  world  are 
things,  that  can  no  more  hinder  the  spirit 
in  these  duties,  than  a  strong  enemy  can 
hinder  the  sun  to  shine,  or  the  clouds  to 
drop  rain.  These  things  which  God  re- 
quires of  us,  and  exacts  from  us  with  mighty 
penalties,  these  he  hath  made  us  able  to 
perform ;  for  he  knows  that  we  have  no 
strength  but  what  he  gives  us ;  and  there- 
fore, as  he  binds  burdens  upon  our  should- 
ers, so  he  gives  us  strength  to  bear  them : 
and  therefore,  he  that  says  he  cannot  forgive, 
says  only  that  his  lust  is  stonger  than  his 
religion ;  his  flesh  prevails  upon  his  spirit. 
For  what  necessity  can  a  man  have  to  curse 
him,  whom  he  calls  his  enemy  ?  or  to  sue 
him,  or  kill  him,  or  do  him  any  spite  ?  A 
man  may  serve  all  his  needs  of  nature, 
though  he  does  nothing  of  all  this  ;  and  if 
he  be  willing,  what  hinders  him  to  love,  to 
pardon,  to  wish  well,  to  desire  ?  The  will- 
ing is  the  doing  in  this  case ;  and  he  that 
says  he  is  willing  to  do  his  duty,  but  he 
cannot,  does  not  understand  what  he  says. 
For  all  the  duty  of  the  inner  man  consists 
in  the  actions  of  the  will,  and  there  they  are 
seated,  and  to  it  all  the  inferior  faculties 
obey  in  those  things  which  are  direct  ema- 
nations and  effects  of  will.  He  that  desires 
to  love  God,  does  love  him ;  indeed  men  are 
often  cozened  with  pretences,  and  in  some 
good  mood,  or  warmed  with  a  holy  passion, 
but  it  signifies  nothing ;  because  they  will 
not  quit  the  love  of  God's  enemies ;  and 
therefore,  they  do  not  desire  what  they  say 
they  do  :  but  if  the  will  and  heart  be  right, 
and  not  false  and  dissembling,  this  duty  is 
or  will  be  done  infallibly. 

2.  If  the  spirit  and  the  heart  be  willing,  it 
will  pass  on  to  outward  actions  in  all  things, 
where  it  ought,  or  can.  He  that  hath  a 
charitable  soul,  will  have  a  charitable  hand ; 
and  will  give  his  money  to  the  poor,  as  he 
hath  given  his  heart  to  God.  For  these 
things  which  are  in  our  hand,  are  under 
the  power  of  the  will,  and  therefore  are  to 
be  commanded  by  it.  He  that  says  to  the 
naked,  "  Be  warm  and  clothed,"  and  gives 
him  not  the  garment  that  lies  by  him,  or 
money  to  buy  one,  mocks  God,  and  the 
poor,  and  himself.  "Nequam  illud  verbum 
est,  6  Bene  vult,'  nisi  qui  bene  facit,"  said 
the  comedy ;  "  It  is  an  evil  saying,  '  He 
wishes  well,'  unless  he  do  well."* 

*  Trinummus. 


Serm.  XII.      OF  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL. 


87 


3.  Those  things  which  are  not  in  our 
power,  that  is,  such  things  in  which  the 
flesh  is  inculpable  weak,  or  naturally  or 
politically  disabled,  the  will  does  the  work 
of  the  outward  and  of  the  inward  man  ;  we 
cannot  clothe  Christ's  body,  he  needs  it  not, 
and  we  cannot  approach  so  sacred  and 
separate  a  presence ;  but  if  we  desire  to  do 
it,  it  is  accounted  as  if  we  had.  The  igno- 
rant man  cannot  discourse  wisely  and  pro- 
mote the  interest  of  souls,  but  he  can  love 
souls,  and  desire  their  felicity:  though  I 
cannot  build  hospitals  and  colleges,  or  pour 
great  sums  of  money  into  the  lap  of  the 
poor,  yet  if  I  encourage  others  and  exhort 
them,  if  I  commend  and  promote  the  work, 
I  have  done  the  work  of  a  holy  religion. 
For  in  these  and  the  like  cases,  the  outward 
work  is  not  always  set  in  our  power,  and 
therefore,  without  our  fault,  is  omitted,  and 
can  be  supplied  by  that  which  is  in  our 
power. 

4.  For  that  is  the  last  caution  concerning 
this  question.  No  man  is  to  be  esteemed 
of  a  willing  spirit,  but  he  that  endeavours 
to  do  the  outward  work,  or  to  make  all  the 
supplies  that  he  can  ;  not  only  by  the  for- 
wardness of  his  spirit,  but  by  the  compen- 
sation, of  some  other  charities,  or  devotion, 
or  religion.  "  Silver  and  gold  have  I  none," 
and  therefore  I  can  give  you  none :  but  I 
wish  you  well;  how  will  that  appear? 
Why  thus,  "Such  as  I  have  I  will  give 
you ;  rise  up  and  walk."  I  cannot  give 
you  gold,  but  I  can  give  you  counsel;  I 
cannot  relieve  your  need,  but  I  can  relieve 
your  sadness ;  I  cannot  cure  you,  but  I  can 
comfort  you ;  I  cannot  take  away  your 
poverty,  but  I  can  ease  your  spirit:  and 
"God  accepts  us"  (saith  the  apostle)  "ac- 
cording to  what  a  man  hath,  and  not  accord- 
ing to  what  he  hath  not."  Only  as  our  desires 
are  great,  and  our  spirits  are  willing,  so  we 
f  hall  find  ways  to  make  supply  of  our  want 
of  ability  and  expressed  liberality. 

Et  labor  ingenium  rnisero  dedit,  et  sua  quemque 
Advigilare  sibi  jussit  fortuna  premendo. 

What  the  poor  man's  need  will  make  him 
do,  that  also  the  good  man's  charity  will; 
it  will  find  out  ways  and  artifices  of  relief, 
in  kind  or  in  value;  in  comfort  or  in  pray- 
ers ;  in  doing  it  himself  or  procuring  others. 

The  necessity  of  our  fortune  and  the  wil- 
lingness of  our  spirits  will  do  all  this;  all 
that  it  can,  and  something  that  it  cannot  ; 
u  You  have  relieved  the  saints"  (saith  St. 


Paul)  "according  to  your  power,  yea, 
and  beyond  your  power;"  only  let  us  be 
careful  in  all  instances,  that  we  yield  not  to 
the  weakness  of  the  flesh,  nor  listen  to  its 
fair  pretences ;  for  the  flesh  can  do  more 
than  it  says,  we  can  do  more  than  we  think 
we  can ;  and  if  we  do  some  violence  to  the 
flesh,  to  our  affairs,  and  to  the  circum- 
stances of  our  fortune,  for  the  interest  of 
our  spirit,  we  shall  make  our  flesh  useful, 
and  the  spirit  strong ;  the  flesh  and  its 
weakness  shall  no  more  be  an  objection, 
but  shall  comply,  and  co-operate,  and  serve 
all  the  necessities  of  the  spirit. 


SERMON  XII. 

OF  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL;  OR,  SPIRITUAL 
FERVOUR. 

PART  I. 

Cursed  be  he  that  doeth  the  work  of  the  Lord  de- 
ceitfully.   Jer.  xlviii.  10.  ver.  first  part. 

Christ's  kingdom, — being  in  order  to  the 
kingdom  of  his  Father,  which  shall  be 
manifest  at  the  day  of  judgment, — must 
therefore  be  spiritual;  because  then  it  is, 
that  all  things  must  become  spiritual,  not 
only  by  way  of  eminency,  but  by  entire 
constitution  and  perfect  change  of  natures. 
Men  shall  be  like  angels,  and  angels  shall 
be  comprehended  in  the  lap  of  spiritual  and 
eternal  felicities ;  the  soul  shall  not  under- 
stand by  material  phantasms,  neither  be 
served  by  the  provisions  of  the  body,  but 
the  body  itself  shall  become  spiritual,  and 
the  eye  shall  see  intellectual  objects,  and 
the  mouth  shall  feed  upon  hymns  and 
glorifications  of  God ;  the  belly  shall  be  then 
satisfied  by  the  fulness  of  righteousness, 
and  the  tongue  shall  speak  nothing  but 
praises,  and  the  propositions  of  a  celestial 
wisdom  ;  the  motion  shall  be  the  swiftness 
of  an  angel,  and  it  shall  be  clothed  with 
white  as  with  a  garment ;  holiness  is  the 
sun  and  righteousness  is  the  moon  in  that 
region  ;  our  society  shall  be  choirs  of  sing- 
ers, and  our  conversation  wonder  ;  contem- 
plation shall  be  our  food,  and  love  shall  be 
"the  wine  of  elect  souls."  And  as  to  every 
natural  appetite  there  is  now  proportioned 
an  object  crass,  material,  unsatisfying  and 
allayed  with  sorrow  and  uneasiness;  so 
there  be  new  capacities  and  equal  objects, 
i  the  desires  shall  be  fruition,  and  the  appetite 


OP  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL.      Serm.  XII. 


shall  not  suppose  want,,  but  a  faculty  of 
delight,  and  an  immeasurable  complacency : 
the  will  and  the  understanding,  love  and 
wonder,  joys  every  day  and  the  same  for 
ever ;  this  shall  be  their  state  who  shall  be 
accounted  worthy  of  the  resurrection  to  this 
life  ;  where  the  body  shall  be  a  partner,  but 
no  servant ;  where  it  shall  have  no  work 
of  its  own,  but  it  shall  rejoice  with  the  soul; 
where  the  soul  shall  rule  without  resistance 
or  an  enemy;  and  we  shall  be  fitted  to  enjoy 
God  who  is  the  Lord  and  Father  of  spirits. 
In  this  world,  we  see  it  is  quite  contrary : 
we  long  for  perishing  meat,  and  fill  our 
stomachs  with  corruption  ;  we  look  after 
white  and  red,  and  the  weaker  beauties  of 
the  night;  we  are  passionate  after  rings  and 
seals,  and  enraged  at  the  breaking  of  a 
crystal ;  we  delight  in  the  society  of  fools 
and  weak  persons  ;  we  laugh  at  sin  and 
contrive  mischiefs ;  and  the  body  rebels 
against  the  soul,  and  carries  the  cause 
against  all  its  just  pretences;  and  our  soul 
itself  is,  above  half  of  it,  earth  and  stone,  in 
its  affections  and  distempers  ;  our  hearts  are 
hard  and  inflexible  to  the  softer  whispers 
of  mercy  and  compassion,  having  no  love 
for  any  thing  but  strange  flesh,  and  heaps 
of  money,  and  popular  noises,  for  misery 
and  folly  ;  and  therefore  we  are  a  huge  way 
off  from  the  kingdom  of  God,  whose  excel- 
lencies, whose  designs,  whose  ends,  whose 
constitution,  is  spiritual  and  holy,  and  sepa- 
rate, and  sublime,  and  perfect.  Now  be- 
tween these  two  states  of  natural  flesh  and 
heavenly  spirit,  that  is,  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness and  the  regions  of  light,  the  miseries 
of  man  and  the  perfections  of  God,  the  im- 
perfection of  nature  where  we  stand  by  our 
creation,  and  supervening  follies,  and  that 
state  of  felicities,  whither  we  are  designed 
by  the  mercies  of  God, — there  is  a  middle 
state,  "  the  kingdom  of  grace,"  wrought 
for  us  by  our  Mediator,  the  man  Christ 
Jesus,  who  came  to  perfect  the  virtue  of 
religion,  and  the  designs  of  God,  and  to 
reform  our  nature,  and  to  make  it  possible 
for  us  to  come  to  that  spiritual  state,  where 
all  felicity  does  dwell.  The  religion  that 
Christ  taught,  is  a  spiritual  religion ;  it  de- 
signs (so  far  as  the  state  can  permit)  to 
make  us  spiritual ;  that  is,  so  as  the  Spirit 
be  the  prevailing  ingredient.  God  must 
now  be  worshipped  in  spirit,  and  not  only 
so,  but  with  a  fervent  spirit ;  and  though 
God  in  all  religions  did  seize  upon  the 
spirit,  and  even  under  Moses's  law  did,  by 
the  shadow  of  the  ceremony,  require  the 


substantial  worship,  and,  by  cutting  off  the 
flesh,  intended  the  circumcision  of  the  heart; 
yet  because  they  were  to  mind  the  outward 
action,  it  took  off  much  from  the  intention 
and  activity  of  the  spirit;  man  could  not  do 
both  busily.  And  then  they  failed  also  in 
the  other  part  of  a  spiritual  religion  ;  for  the 
nature  of  a  spiritual  religion  is,  that  in  it 
we  serve  God  with  our  hearts  and  affec- 
tions ;  and  because  while  the  spirit  prevails, 
we  do  not  to  evil  purposes  of  abatement 
converse  with  flesh  and  blood,  this  service 
is  also  fervent,  intense,  active,  wise,  and 
busy,  according  to  the  nature  of  things 
spiritual.  Now  because  God  always  per- 
fectly intended  it,  yet  because  he  less  per- 
fectly required  it  in  the  law  of  Moses,  I  say 
they  fell  short  in  both. 

For,  1.  They  so  rested  in  the  outward 
action,  that  they  thought  themselves  chaste 
if  they  were  no  adulterers,  though  their 
eyes  were  wanton  as  kids,  and  their 
thoughts  polluted  as  the  springs  of  the 
wilderness,  when  a  panther  and  a  lioness 
descend  to  drink  and  lust ;  and  if  they  did 
not  rob  the  temple,  they  accounted  it  no  sin 
if  they  murmured  at  the  riches  of  religion ; 
and  Josephus  reproves  Polybius,  for  saying 
that  Antiochus  was  punished  for  having  a 
design  of  sacrilege;  and  therefore  Tertullian 
says  of  them,  they  were  "nec  plena?,  ner* 
adeo  timendae  discipline  ad  innocentise  veri- 
tatem;"  this  was  "their  righteousness,'' 
which  Christ  said  unless  we  will  "  exceed, 
we  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  where  all  spiritual  perfections  are 
in  state  and  excellency. 

2.  The  other  part  of  a  spiritual  worship 
is  a  fervour  and  a  holy  zeal  of  God's  glory, 
greatness  of  desire,  and  quickness  of  action : 
of  all  this  the  Jews  were  not  careful  at  all, 
excepting  the  zealots  amongst  them,  and 
they  were  not  only  fervent  but  inflamed ; 
and  they  had  the  earnestness  of  passion  for 
the  holy  warmth  of  religion,  and  instead  of 
an  earnest  charity  they  had  a  cruel  dis- 
cipline, and  for  fraternal  correction,  they 
did  destroy  a  sinning  Israelite  :  and  by  both 
these  evil  states  of  religion  they  did  "  the 
work  of  the  Lord  deceitfully  ;"  they  either 
gave  him  the  action  without  the  heart,  or 
zeal  without  charity,  or  religion  without 
zeal,  or  ceremony  without  religion,  or  in- 
differency  without  desires ;  and  then  God  is 
served  by  the  outward  man  and  not  the 
inward  ;  or  by  part  of  the  inward  and  not 
at  all ;  by  the  understanding  and  not  by  the 
will ;  or  by  the  will,  when  the  affections  are 


Sebm.  XII. 


OF  LUKEWARM  NESS  AND  ZEAL. 


89 


cold  and  the  body  unapt,  and  the  10  wer  facul- 
ties in  rebellion,  and  the  superior  in  disorder, 
and  the  work  of  God  is  left  imperfect,  and  our 
persons  ungracious,  and  our  ends  unacquir- 
ed, and  the  state  of  a  spiritual  kingdom  not 
at  all  set  forward  towards  any  hope  or  pos- 
sibility of  being  obtained.  All  this  Christ 
came  to  mend ;  and  by  his  laws  did  make 
provision  that  God  should  be  served  entirely, 
according  as  God  always  designed,  and 
accordingly  required  by  his  prophets,  and 
particularly  in  my  text,  that  his  work  be 
done  sincerely,  and  our  duty  with  great 
affection ;  and  by  these  two  provisions, 
both  the  intention  and  the  extension  are 
secured ;  our  duty  shall  be  entire,  and  it 
shall  be  perfect,  we  shall  be  neither  lame 
nor  cold,  without  a  limb  nor  without 
natural  heat,  and  then  "  the  work  of  the 
Lord  will  prosper  in  our  hands  ;"  but  if  we 
fail  in  either,  we  do  "the  Lord's  work 
deceitfully,"  and  then  we  are  accursed. 
For  so  saith  the  Spirit  of  God,  "Cursed  be 
he,  that  doth  the  work  of  the  Lord  deceit- 
fully." 

1.  Here  then  is  the  duty  of  us  all:  1. 
God  requires  of  us  to  serve  him  with  an 
integral,  entire,  or  a  whole  worship  and 
religion.  2.  God  requires  of  us  to  serve 
him  with  earnest  and  intense  affections  ;  the 
entire  purpose  of  both  which,  I  shall  repre- 
sent in  its  several  parts  by  so  many  proposi- 
tions. 3.  I  shall  consider  concerning  the 
measures  of  zeal  and  its  inordinations. 

1.  Fie  that  serves  God  with  the  body 
without  the  soul,  serves  God  deceitfully. 
"My  son,  give  me  thy  heart;"  and  though 
I  cannot  think  that  nature  was  so  sacramen- 
tal, as  to  point  out  the  holy  and  mysterious 
Trinity  by  the  triangle  of  the  heart,  yet  it 
is  certain  that  the  heart  of  man  is  God's 
special  portion,  and  every  angle  ought  to 
point  out  towards  him  directly ;  that  is,  the 
soul  of  man  ought  to  be  presented  to  God, 
and  given  him  as  an  oblation  to  the  interest 
of  his  service. 

1.  For,  to  worship  God  with  our  souls 
confesses  one  of  his  glorious  attributes ;  it 
declares  him  to  be  the  searcher  of  hearts, 
and  that  he  reads  the  secret  purposes,  and 
beholds  the  smallest  arrests  of  fancy,  and 
bends  in  all  the  flexures  and  intrigues, of 
crafty  people ;  and  searches  out  every  plot 
and  trifling  conspiracy  against  him,  and 
against  ourselves,  and  against  our  brethren. 

2.  It  advances  the  powers  and  concern- 
ments of  his  providence,  and  confesses  all 
the  affairs  of  men,  all  their  cabinets  and 

12 


I  their  mighty  counsels,  their  snares  and  two- 
I  edged  mischiefs,  to  be  overruled  by  him;  for 
j  what  he  sees  he  judges,  and  what  he  judges 
j  he  rules,  and  what  he  rules  must  turn  to 
his  glory ;  and  of  this  glory  he  reflects  rays 
and  influences  upon  his  servants,  and  it 
shall  also  turn  to  their  good. 

3.  This  service  distinguishes  our  duty 
towards  God  from  all  our  conversation  with 
man,  and  separates  the  Divine  command- 
ments from  the  imperfect  decrees  of  princes 
and  republics  :  for  these  are  satisfied  by  the 
outward  work,  and  cannot  take  any  other 
cognizance  of  the  heart,  and  the  will  of 
man,  but  as  himself  is  pleased  to  signify. 
He  that  wishes  the  "  fiscus  "  empty,  and 
that  all  the  revenues  of  the  croWn  were  in 
his  counting-house,  cannot  be  punished  by 
the  laws,  unless  himself  become  his  own 
traitor  and  accuser ;  and  therefore  what 
man  cannot  discern,  he  must  not  judge,  and 
must  not  require.  But  God  sees  it,  and 
judges  it,  and  requires  it,  and  therefore 
reserves  this  as  his  own  portion,  and  the 
chiefest  feudal  right  of  his  crown. 

4.  He  that  secures  the  heart,  secures  all 
the  rest;  because  this  is  the  principle  of  all 
the  moral  actions  of  the  whole  man,  and 
the  hand  obeys  this,  and  the  feet  walk  by 
its  prescriptions ;  we  eat  and  drink  by 
measures  which  the  soul  desires  and  limits; 
and  though  the  natural  actions  of  m-en  are 
not  subject  to  choice  and  rule,  yet  the  ani- 
mal actions  are  under  discipline  ;  and 
although  it  cannot  be  helped  but  we  shall 
desire,  yet  our  desires  can  receive  measures, 
and  the  laws  of  circumstances,  and  be  re- 
duced to  order,  and  nature  be  changed  into 
grace,  and  the  actions  animal  (such  as  are, 
eating,  drinking,  laughing,  weeping,  &c.) 
shall  become  actions  of  religion;  and  those 
that  are  simply  natural  (such  as,  being 
hungry  and  thirsty)  shall  be  adopted  in  the 
retinue  of  religion,  and  become  religious  by 
being  ordered,  or  chastised,  or  suffered,  or 
directed;  and  therefore  God  requires  the 
heart,  because  he  requires  all ;  and  all  can- 
not be  secured  without  the  principle  be 

j  enclosed.  But  he  that  seals  up  a  fountain, 
may  drink  up  all  the  waters  alone,  and  may 
best  appoint  the  channel  where  it  shall  run, 
and  what  grounds  it  shall  refresh. 

5.  That  1  may  sum  up  many  reasons  in 
one;  God  by  requiring  the  heart  secures 
the  perpetuity  and  perseverance  of  our  duty, 
and  its  sincerity,  and  its  integrity,  and  its 
perfection  :  for  so  also  God  takes  account 
of  little  things ;  it  being  all  one  in  the  heart 

h2 


90 


OF  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL.      Serm.  XII. 


of  man,  whether  maliciously  it  omits  a 
duty  in  a  small  instance  or  in  a  great ;  for 
although  the  expression  hath  variety  and 
degrees  in  it,  in  relation  to  those  purposes 
of  usefulness  and  charity  whither  God 
designs  it,  yet  the  obedience  and  disobedi- 
ence are  all  one,  and  shall  be  equally 
accounted  for  j  and  therefore  the  Jew  Try- 
phon  disputed  against  Justin,  that  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  gospel  were  impossible  to  be 
kept,  because  it  also  requiring  the  heart  of 
man,  did  stop  every  egression  of  disorders  : 
for  making  the  root  holy  and  healthful,  as 
the  balsam  of  Judea,  or  the  drops  of  manna 
in  the  evening  of  the  sabbath  ;  it  also 
causes  that  nothing  spring  thence  but  gums 
fit  for  incense,  and  oblations  for  the  altar  of 
proposition,  and  a  cloud  of  perfume  fit  to 
make  atonement  for  our  sins ;  and  being 
united  to  the  great  sacrifice  of  the  world,  to 
reconcile  God  and  man  together.  Upon 
these  reasons  you  see  it  is  highly  fit  that 
God  should  require  it,  and  that  we  should 
pay  the  sacrifice  of  our  hearts ;  and  not  at 
all  think  that  God  is  satisfied  with  the  work 
of  the  hands,  when  the  affections  of  the 
heart  are  absent.  He  that  prays  because 
he  would  be  quiet,  and  would  fain  be  quit 
of  it,  and  communicates  for  fear  of  the 
laws,  and  comes  to  church  to  avoid  shame, 
and  gives  alms  to  be  eased  of  an  importu- 
nate beggar,  or  relieves  his  old  parents 
because  they  will  not  die  in  their  time,  and 
provides  for  his  children  lest  he  be  compell- 
ed by  laws  and  shame,  but  yet  complains 
of  the  charge  of  God's  blessings  ;  this  man 
is  a  servant  of  the  eyes  of  men,  and  offers 
parchment  or  a  white  skin  in  sacrifice,  but 
the  flesh  and  the  inwards  he  leaves  to  be 
consumed  by  a  stranger  fire.  And  there- 
fore, this  is  a  deceit  that  robs  God  of  the 
best,  and  leaves  that  for  religion  which  men 
pare  off ;  it  is  sacrilege,  and  brings  a  double 
curse. 

2.  He  that  serves  God  with  the  soul 
without  the  body,  when  both  can  be  con- 
joined, "  doth  the  work  of  the  Lord  deceit- 
fully."— Paphnutius,  whose  knees  were  cut 
for  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  was  not  obliged 
to  worship  with  the  humble  flexures  of  the 
bending  penitents;  and  blind  Bartimeus 
could  not  read  the  holy  lines  of  the  law, 
and  therefore  that  part  of  the  work  was  not 
his  duty ;  and  God  shall  not  call  Lazarus 
to  account  for  not  giving  alms,  nor  St. 
Peter  and  St.  John  for  not  giving  silver  and 
gold  to  the  lame  man,  nor  Epaphroditus  for 
net  keeping  his  fasting-days  when  he  had 


his  sickness.  But  when  God  hath  made 
the  body  an  apt  minister  to  the  soul,  and 
hath  given  money  for  alms,  and  power  to 
protect  the  oppressed,  and  knees  to  serve  in 
prayer,  and  hands  to  serve  our  needs,  then 
the  soul  alone  is  not  to  work ;  but  as  Rachel 
gave  her  maid  to  Jacob,  and  she  bore  chil- 
dren to  her  lord  upon  her  mistress's  knees  ; 
(  and  the  children  were  reckoned  to  them 
i  both,  because  the  one  had  fruitful  desires, 
j  and  the  other  a  fruitful  womb  :  so  must  the 
body  serve  the  needs  of  the  spirit ;  that 
what  the  one  desires  the  other  may  effect, 
j  and  the  conceptions  of  the  soul  may  be  the 
productions  of  the  body,  and  the  body  must 
j  bow  when  the  soul  worships,  and  the  hand 
\  must  help  when  the  soul  pities,  and  both 
together  do  the  work  of  a  holy  religion ; 
the  body  alone  can  never  serve  Gcd  with- 
out the  conjunction  and  preceding  act  of 
the  soul ;  and  sometimes  the  soul  with- 
out the  body  is  imperfect  and  vain ;  for 
in  some  actions  there  is  a  body  and  a 
spirit,  a  material  and  a  spiritual  part  : 
and  when  the  action  hath  the  same  consti- 
tution that  a  man  hath,  without  the  -ict  of 
both,  it  is  as  imperfect  as  a  dead  man  ;  the 
soul  cannot  produce  the  body  of  some 
actions  any  more  than  the  body  can  put  life 
into  it ;  and  therefore  an  ineffective  pity  and 
a  lazy  counsel,  an  empty  blessing  and  gay 
words,  are  but  deceitful  charity. 
Quod  peto,  da,  Cal ;  non  peto  consilium.  Map.!. 
He  that  gave  his  friend  counsel  to  study 
the  law,  when  he  desired  to  borrow  twenty 
pounds,  was  not  so  friendly  in  his  counsel 
as  he  was  useless  in  his  charity ;  spiritual 
acts  can  cure  a  spiritual  malady,  but  if  my 
body  needs  relief,  because  you  cannot  feed 
me  with  diagrams,  or  clothe  me  with 
Euclid's  Elements,  you  must  minister  a 
real  supply  by  a  corporal  necessity.  This 
proposition  is  not  only  useful  in  the  doc- 
trine of  charity,  and  the  virtue  of  religion, 
but  in  the  professions  of  faith,  and  requires 
that  it  be  public,  open,  and  ingenuous.  In 
matters  of  necessary  duty  it  is  not  sufficient 
to  have  it  to  ourselves,  but  we  must  also 
have  it  to  God,  and  all  the  world;  and  as 
in  the  heart  we  believe,  so  by  the  mouth 
we  confess  unto  salvation  :  he  is  an  ill  man 
that  is  only  a  christian  in  his  heart,  and  is 
not  so  in  his  profession  and  publications  ; 
and  as  your  heart  must  not  be  wanting  in 
any  ffood  professions  and  pretences,  so 
neither  must  public  profession  be  wanting 
in  every  good  and  necessary  persuasion. 
The  faith  and  the  cause  of  God  must  be 


Serm.  XII. 


OF  LUKE  WARM  NESS  AND  ZEAL. 


91 


owned  publicly;  for  if  it  be  the  cause  of  |  may  behold  it,  and  consider  concerning 
God,  it  will  never  bring  us  to  shame.  I  do  ;  what  he  hath  parted  withal,  out  of  the 
not  say,  whatever  we  think  we  must  tell  it '  fears  and  terrors  of  religion,  and  a  neces- 
to  all  the  world,  much  less  at  all  times,  and  j  sary  unavoidable  conscience.  Do  not  many 
in  all  circumstances ;  but  we  must  never  j  men  go  from  sin  to  sin,  even  in  their  repeni- 
deny  that  which  we  believe  to  be  the  cause  ance  ?  they  go  backward  from  sin  to  sin, 
of  God,  in  such  circumstances,  in  which  we  and  change  their  crime  as  a  man  changes 
can  and  ought  to«glorify  him.  But  this  ex-  ,  his  uneasy  load,  and  shakes  it  off  from  one 
tends  also  to  other  instances.  He  that  [  shoulder  to  support  it  with  the  other.  How 
swears  a  false  oath  with  his  lips,  and  un-  many  severe  persons,  virgins  and  widows, 
swears  it  with  his  heart,  hath  deceived  one  j  are  so  pleased  with  their  chastity,  and  their 
more  than  he  thinks  for ;  himself  is  the  !  abstinence  even  from  lawful  mixtures,  that 
most  abused  person:  and  when  my  action  by  this  means  they  fall  into  a  worse  pride  ? 
is  contrary  to  men,  thev  will  reprove  me  ;  Insomuch  that  I  remember  St.  Augustine 
but  when  it  is  against  my  own  persuasion,  said,  •"•  Audeo  dicere  superbis  continentibus 
I  cannot  but  reprove  myself ;  anJ  am  wit-  expedit  cadere,"  "  They  that  are  chaste  and 
ness,  and  accuser,  and  part}',  and  guilty,  proud,  it  is  sometimes  a  remedy  for  them 
and  then  God  is  the  judge,  and  his  anger  to  fall  into  sin,"  and  by  the  shame  of  lust 
will  be  a  fierce  executioner,  because  we  do  to  cure  the  devil  of  pride,  and  by  the  sin  of 
the  Lord's  work  deceitfully.  the  body  to  cure  the  worser  evils  of  the 

3.  They  are  "  deceitful  in  the  Lord's  spirit:  and  therefore  he  adds,  that  he  did 
work,"  that  reserve  one  faculty  for  sin,  or  believe,  God  in  a  severe  mercy  did  permit 
one  sin  for  themselves;  or  one  action  to  the  barbarous  nations,  breaking  in  upon  the 
please  their  appetite,  and  many  for  religion.  Roman  empire,  to  violate  many  virgins 
— Rabbi  Kimchi  taught  his  scholars,  "  Co-  professed  in  cloisters  and  religious  families 
gitationem  pravam  Deus  non  habet  vice  to  be  as  a  mortification  of  their  pride,  lest 
facti,  nisi  concepta  fuerit  in  Dei  fidem  et  the  accidental  advantages  of  a  continent  life 
religionera ;"  "That  God  is  never  angry  should  bring  them  into  the  certain  miseries 
with  an  evil  thought,  unless  it  be  a  thought  of  a  spiritual  death,  by  taking  away  their 
of  apostasy  from  the  Jews'  religion ;"  and  humility,  which  was  more  necessary  than 
therefore,  provided  that  men  be  severe  and  their  virgin-state ;  it  is  not  a  cure  that  men 
close  in  their  sect  and  party,  they  might  may  use,  but  God  permits  it  sometimes 
roll  in  lustful  thoughts ;  and  the  torches  with  greater  safety  through  his  wise  con- 
they  light  up  in  the  temple,  might  smoke  duct  and  overruling  providence :  St.  Peter 
with  anger  at  one  end,  and  lust  at  the  other,  was  safer  by  his  fall  (as  it  fell  out  in  the 
so  they  did  not  flame  out  in  egressions  of  event  of  things)  than  by  his  former  confi- 
violence  and  injustice,  in  adulteries  and  dence.  Man  must  never  cure  a  sin  by  a 
fouler  complications  :  nay,  they  would  give  sin  ;  but  he  that  brings  good  out  of  our  evil, 
leave  to  some  degrees  of  evil  actions ;  for  he  can  when  he  please.  But  I  speak  it,  to 
R.  Moses  and  Selomoh  taught,  that  if  the  represent  how  deceitfully  many  times  we 
most  part  of  a  man's  actions  were  holy  and  do  the  work  of  the  Lord.  We  reprove  a 
just,  though  in  one  he  sinned  often,  yet  the  sinning  brother,  but  do  it  with  a  pompous 
greater  ingredient  should  prevail,  and  the  ,  spirit ;  we  separate  from  scandal,  and  do  it 
number  of  good  works  should  outweigh  the  i  with  glory,  and  a  gaudy  heart :  we  are 
lesser  account  of  evil  things  ;  and  this  charitable  to  the  poor,  but  will  not  forgive 
Pharisaical  righteousness  is  too  frequent  our  unkind  enemies ;  or,  we  pour  relief 
even  among  christians.  For  who  almost  is  into  their  bags,  but  we  please  ourselves  and 
there  that  does  not  count  fairly  concerning  ,  drink  drunk,  and  hope  to  commute  with 
himself,  if  he  reckons  many  virtues  upon  j  God,  giving  the  fruit  of  our  labours  or 
the  stock  of  his  religion,  and  but  one  vice  effluxes  of  money  for  the  sin  of  our  souls  : 
upon  the  stock  of  his  infirmity  ;  half  a  and  upon  this  account  it  is,  that  two  of  the 
dozen  to  God,  and  one  for  his  company  or  noblest  graces  of  a  christian  are  to  very 
his  friend,  his  education  or  his  appetite?  many  persons  made  a  savour  of  death, 
And  if  he  hath  parted  from  his  folly,  yet  he  though  they  were  intended  for  the  begin- 
will  remember  the  flesh-pots,  and  please  i  ning  and  the  promotion  of  an  eternal  life  ; 
himself  with  a  fantastic  sin,  and  call  it ,  and  those  are  faith  and  charity  :  some  men 
home  through  the  gates  of  his  memory,  and  |  think  if  they  have  faith,  it  is  enough  to 
place  it  at  the  door  of  fancy,  that  there  he  1  answer  all  the  accusations  of  sin,  which 


92  OP  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL.         Serm.  XII. 


our  consciences  or  the  devils  make  against 
us  ;  if  I  be  a  wanton  person,  yet  my  faith 
shall  hide  it,  and  faith  shall  cover  the  follies 
of  drunkenness,  and  I  may  all  my  life  rely 
upon  faith  at  last  to  quit  my  scores.  For 
ne  that  is  most  careful  is  not  innocent,  but 
must  be  saved  by  faith ;  and  he  that  is  least 
careful  may  have  faith,  and  that  will  save 
(lira.  But  because  these  men  mistake  con- 
cerning faith,  and  consider  not,  that  charity 
or  a  good  life  is  a  part  of  that  faith  that 
saves  us,  they  hope  to  be  saved  by  the 
word,  they  fill  their  bellies  with  the  story 
of  Trimalcion's  banquet,  and  drink  drunk 
with  the  news  of  wine ;  they  eat  shadows, 
and  when  they  are  drowning,  catch  at  the 
image  of  the  trees,  which  hang  over  the 
water,  and  are  reflected  from  the  bottom. 

But  thus  many  men  do  with  charity  ; 
"  Give  alms  and  all  things  shall  be  clean 
unto  you,"  said  our  blessed  Saviour:  and 
therefore,  many  keep  a  sin  alive,  and  make 
account  to  pay  for  it,  and  God  shall  be  put 
to  relieve  his  own  poor  at  the  price  of  the 
sin  of  another  of  his  'servants ;  charity  shall 
take  lust  or  intemperance  into  protection, 
and  men  will  not  be  kind  to  their  brethren, 
unless  they  will  be  also  at  the  same  time 
unkind  to  God.  I  have  understood  con- 
cerning divers  vicious  persons,  that  none 
have  been  so  free  in  their  donatives  and 
offerings  to  religion  and  the  priest  as  they  : 
and  the  hospitals  that  have  been  built,  and 
the  highways  mended  at  the  price  of  souls, 
are  too  many  for  Christendom  to  boast  of  in 
behalf  of  charity.  But  as  others  mistake 
concerning  faith,  so  these  do  concerning  its 
twin-sister.  The  first  had  faith  without 
charity,  and  these  have  charity  without 
hope;  "For  every  one  that  hath  this  hope," 
that  is,  the  hope  of  receiving  the  glorious 
things  of  God  promised  in  the  gospel, 
"  purifies  himself  even  as  God  is  pure :" 
faith,  and  charity  too,  must  both  suppose 
repentance ;  and  repentance  is  the  abolition 
of  the  whole  body  of  sin,  the  purification 
of  the  whole  man.  But  the  sum  of  the 
doctrine  and  case  of  conscience  in  this 
particular  is  this, 

1.  Charity  is  a  certain  cure  of  sins  that 
are  past,  not  that  are  present. — He  that 
repents  and  leaves  his  sin,  and  then  relieves 
the  poor,  and  pays  for  his  folly  by  a  dimi- 
nution of  his  own  estate,  and  the  supplies 
of  the  poor,  and  his  ministering  to  Christ's 
poor  members,  turns  all  his  former  crimes 
into  holiness ;  he  purges  the  stains  and 
makes  amends  for  his  folly,  and  commutes 


for  the  baser  pleasure  with  a  more  noble 
usage  :  so  said  Daniel  to  Nebuchadnezzar, 
et  Break  off  thy  sins  by  righteousness,  and 
thine  iniquities  by  showing  mercy  to  the 
poor:"*  first  be  just,  and  then  be  charitable  ; 
for  it  is  pity,  alms — which  is  one  of  the 
noblest  services  of  God,  and  the  greatest 
mercy  to  thy  brother — should  be  spent  upon 
sin,  and  thrown  away  upon  folly. 

2.  Faith  is  the  remedy  of  all  our  evils  ; 
but  then,  it  is  never  of  force,  but  when  we 
either  have  endeavoured  or  undertaken  to 
do  all  good ;  this  in  baptism,  that  after ; 
faith  and  repentance  at  first,  and  faith  and 
charity  at  last :  and,  because  we  fail  often  by 
infirmity  and  sometimes  by  inadvertency, 
sometimes  by  a  surprise  and  often  by  omis- 
sion ;  and  ail  this  even  in  the  midst  of  a 
sincere  endeavour  to  live  justly  and  per- 
fectly ;  therefore  the  passion  of  our  Lord 
pays  for  this,  and  faith  lays  hold  upon  that. 
But  without  a  hearty  and  sincere  intent, 
and  vigorous  prosecution  of  all  the  parts  of 
our  duty,  faith  is  but  a  word,  not  so  much 
as  a  cover  to  a  naked  bosom,  nor  a  pretence 
big  enough  to  deceive  persons,  that  are  not 
willing  to  be  cozened. 

3.  The  bigger  ingredient  of  virtue  and 
evil  actions  will  prevail,  but  it  is  only  when 
virtue  is  habitual,  and  sins  are  single,  inter- 
rupted, casual,  and  seldom,  without  choice 
and  without  affection;  that  is,  when  our 
repentance  is  so  timely,  that  it  can  work  for 
God  more  than  we  served  under  the  tyranny 
of  sin ;  so  that  if  you  will  account  the  whole 
life  of  man,  the  rule  is  good,  and  the  greater 
ingredient  shall  prevail ;  and  he  shall  cer- 
tainly be  pardoned  and  accepted,  whose  life 
is  so  reformed,  whose  repentance  is  so  active, 
whose  return  is  so  early,  that  he  hath  given 
bigger  portions  to  God,  and  to  God's  enemy. 
But  if  we  account  so,  as  to  divide  the  mea- 
sures in  present  possession,  the  bigger  part 
cannot  prevail ;  a  small  or  a  seldom  sin 
spoils  not  the  sea  of  piety;  but  when  the 
affection  is  divided,  a  little  ill  destroys  the 
whole  body  of  good;  the  cup  in  a  man's 
right  hand  must  be  azpar'oj  xtxtpai/xhos,  it 
"  must  be  pure,  although  it  be  mingled ;"  that 
is,  the  whole  aflection  must  be  for  God, 
that  must  be  pure  and  unmingled ;  if  sin 
mingles  in  seldom  and  unapproved  in- 
stances, the  drops  of  water  are  swallowed 
up  with  a  whole  vintage  of  piety,  and  the 
bigger  ingredient  is  the  prevailing;  in  all 
other  cases  it  is  not  so :  for  one  sin  that  we 


*  Dan.  iv.  27. 


Serm.  XII. 


OF  LUKE  WARMN  ESS  AND  ZEAL. 


0:: 


choose  and  love  and  delight  in,  will  not  be 
excused  by  twenty  virtues ;  and  as  one 
broken  link  dissolves  the  union  of  the  whole 
chain,  and  one  jarring,  untuned  string  spoils 
the  whole  music ;  so  is  every  sin  that  seizes 
upon  a  portion  of  our  affections;  if  we  love 
one,  that  one  destroys  the  acceptation  of  all 
the  rest :  and  as  it  is  in  faith,  so  it  is  in 
charity.  He  that  is  a  heretic  in  one  article, 
hath  no  saving  faith  in  the  whole ;  and  so 
does  every  vicious  habit,  or  unreformed 
sin,  destroy  the  excellency  of  the  grace  of 
charity;  a  wilful  error  in  one  article  is 
heresy,  and  every  vice  in  one  instance  is 
malice,  and  they  are  perfectly  contrary,  and 
a  direct  darkness  to  the  two  eyes  of  the  soul, 
faith  and  charity. 

4.  There  is  one  deceit  more  yet,  in  the 
matter  of  the  extension  of  our  duty,  destroy- 
ing the 'integrity  of  its  constitution  :  for  they 
do  the  work  of  God  deceitfully,  who  think 
God  sufficiently  served  with  abstinence  from 
evil,  and  converse  not  in  the  acquisition 
and  pursuit  of  holy  charity  and  religion. 
This  Clemens  Alexandrinus  affirms  of  the 
Pharisees ;  they  were  fista  arto^rjv  xaxuv 
Bixaiovusioi,  they  hoped  to  be  "justified  by 
abstinence  from  things  forbidden ;"  but  if 
we  will  be  dava.ixoi,  "sons  of  the  kingdom," 
we  must  ixsra  r^j  £v  -fovrotj  tstenossus  xai  tov 
7Q.r~y.0v  ayariav,  xai  sitpyttnv ;  besides  this, 
and  "  supposing  a  proportionable  perfection 
in  such  an  innocence,  we  must  love  our 
brother  and  do  good  to  him,"  and  glorify 
God  by  a  holy  religion,  in  the  communion 
of  saints,  in  faith  and  sacraments,  in  alms 
and  counsel,  in  forgivenesses  and  assistances. 
"  Flee  from  evil,  and  do  the  thing  that  is 
good,  and  dwell  for  evermore,"  said  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  the  Psalms  :  and  St.  Peter, 
"  Having  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in 
the  world  through  lust,  give  all  diligence  to 
add  to  your  faith  virtue,  to  virtue  patience, 
to  patience  godliness,  and  brotherly-kind- 
ness, and  charity  :"  many  persons  think 
themselves  fairly  assoiled,  because  they  are 
no  adulterers,  no  rebels,  no  drunkards,  not 
of  scandalous  lives;  in  the  meantime,  like 
the  Laodiceans,  they  are  "naked  and  poor;" 
they  have  no  catalogue  of  good  things  re- 
gistered in  heaven,  no  treasures  in  the  re- 
positories of  the  poor,  neither  have  the  poor 
often  prayed  concerning  them,  "  Lord,  re- 
member thy  servants  for  this  thing  at  the 
day  of  judgment."  A  negative  religion  is 
in  many  things  the  effects  of  laws,  and  the 
appendage  of  sexes,  the  product  of  educa- 
tion, the  issues  of  company  and  of  the 
public,  or  the  daughter  of  fear  and  natural 


modesty,  or  their  temper  and  constitution, 
and  civil  relations,  common  fame,  or  neces 
sary  interest.  Few  women  swear  and  do 
the  debaucheries  of  drunkards;  and  they  are 
guarded  from  adulterous  complications  by 
spies  and  shame,  by  fear  and  jealousy,  by 
the  concernment  of  families,  and  reputation 
of  their  kindred,  and  therefore  they  are  to 
account  with  God  beyond  this  civil  and 
necessary  innocence,  for  humility  and  pa- 
tience, for  religious  fancies  and  tender  con- 
sciences, for  tending  the  sick  and  dressing 
the  poor,  for  governing  their  house  and 
nursing  their  children ;  and  so  it  is  in  every 
state  of  life.  When  a  prince  or  prelate,  a 
noble  and  a  rich  person,  hath  reckoned  all 
his  immunities  and  degrees  of  innocence 
from  those  evils  that  are  incident  to  inferior 
persons,  or  the  worst  sort  of  their  own 
order,  they  do  "  the  work  of  the  Lord"  and 
their  own  too,  very  "  deceitfully,"  unless 
they  account  correspondences  of  piety  to 
all  their  powers  and  possibilities  :  they  are 
to  reckon  and  consider  concerning  what 
oppressions  they  have  relieved,  what  causes 
and  what  fatherless  they  have  defended, 
how  the  work- of  God  and  of  religion,  of 
justice  and  charity,  hath  thrived  in  their 
hands.  If  they  have  made  peace,  and  en- 
couraged religion  by  their  example  and  by 
their  laws,  by  rewards  and  collateral  en- 
couragements, if  they  have  been  zealous 
for  God  and  for  religion,  if  they  have  em- 
ployed ten  talents  to  the  improvement  of 
God's  bank,  then  they  have  done  God's 
work  faithfully ;  if  they  account  otherwise, 
and  account  only  by  ciphers  and  negatives, 
they  can  expect  only  the  rewards  of  inno- 
cent slaves;  they  shall  escape  the  "  furca" 
and  the  wheel,  the  torments  of  lustful  per- 
sons, and  the  crown  of  flames  that  is  re- 
served for  the  ambitious ;  or  they  shall  not 
be  gnawn  with  the  vipers  of  the  envious, 
or  the  shame  of  the  ungrateful;  but  they 
can  never  upon  this  account  hope  for  the 
crowns  of  martyrs,  or  the  honourable  re- 
wards of  saints,  the  coronets  of  virgins,  and 
chaplets  of  doctors  and  confessors  :  and 
though  murderers  and  lustful  persons,  the 
proud  and  the  covetous,  the  heretic  and 
schismatic,  are  to  expect  flames  and  scor- 
pions, pains  and  smart  ("  pccnam  sensus," 
the  schools  call  it) ;  yet  the  lazy  and  the 
imperfect,  the  harmless  sleeper  and  the  idle 
worker,  shall  have  iC  pcenam  damni,"  the 
loss  of  all  his  hopes,  and  the  dishonours  of 
the  loss  ;  and  in  the  sum  of  affairs  it  will  be 
no  great  difference  whether  we  have  loss  or 
pain,  because  there  can  be  no  greater  pain 


94 


OF  LUKE  WARMNESS  AND  ZEAL.      Serm.  XIII. 


imaginable  than  to  lose  the  sight  of  God  to 
eternal  ages. 

5.  Hither  are  to  be  reduced  as  deceitful 
workers,  those  that  promise  to  God,  but 
mean  not  to  pay  what  they  once  intended ; 
people  that  are  confident  in  the  day  of 
ease,  and  fail  in  the  danger;  they  that 
pray  passionately  for  a  grace,  and  if  it  be 
not  obtained  at  that  price  go  no  further,  and 
never  contend  in  action  for  what  they  seem 
to  contend  in  prayer ;  such  as  delight  in 
forms  and  outsides,  and  regard  not  the 
substance  and  design  of  every  institution; 
that  think  it  a  great  sin  to  taste  bread  before 
the  receiving  the  holy  sacrament,  and  yet 
come  to  communicate  with  an  ambitious 
and  revengeful  soul;  that  make  a  conscience 
of  eating  flesh,  but  not  of  drunkenness;  that 
keep  old  customs  and  old  sins  together ;  that 
pretend  one  duty  to  excuse  another ;  religion 
against  charity,  or  piety  to  parents  against 
duty  to  God,  private  promises  against  public 
duty,  the  keeping  of  an  oath  against  break- 
ing of  a  commandment,  honour  against 
modesty,  reputation  against  piety,  the  love 
of  the  world  in  civil  instances  to  counte- 
nance enmity  against  God ;  these  are  the 
deceitful  workers  of  God's  work ;  they  make 
a  schism  in  the  duties  of  religion,  and  a  war 
in  heaven  worse  than  that  between  Michael 
and  the  dragon ;  for  they  divide  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  distinguish  his  commandments 
into  parties  and  factions ;  by  seeking  an 
excuse,  sometimes  they  destroy  the  integrity 
and  perfect  constitution  of  duty,  or  they  do 
something  whereby  the  effect  and  useful- 
ness of  the  duty  is  hindered :  concerning  all 
which  this  only  can  be  said,  they  who 
serve  God  with  a  lame  sacrifice  and  an 
imperfect  duty,  a  duty  defective  in  its  con- 
stituent parts,  can  never  enjoy  God ;  because 
he  can  never  be  divided :  and  though  it  be 
better  to  enter  into  heaven  with  one  foot, 
and  one  eye,  than  that  both  should  be  cast 
into  hell,  because  heaven  can  make  recom- 
pence  for  this  loss ;  yet  nothing  can  repair 
his  loss,  who  for  being  lame  in  his  duty 
shall  enter  into  hell,  where  nothing  is 
perfect,  but  the  measures  and  duration  of 
torment,  and  they  both  are  next  to  infinite. 


SERMON  XIII. 

PART  II. 

2.  The  next  inquiry,  is  into  the  intention 
of  our  duty ;  and  here  it  will  not  be  amiss 


I  to  change  the  word   "  fraudulenter,"  or 
I "  dolose,"  into  that  which  some  of  the 
Latin  copies  do  use,  "Maledictus,  qui  facit 
,  opus  Dei  negligenter "  Cursed  is  he,  that 
I  doth  the  work  of  the  Lord  negligently,  or 
remissly;  and  it  implies,  that  as  our  duty 
must  be  whole,  so  it  must  be  fervent ;  for  a 
languishing  body  may  have  all  its  parts, 
and  yet  be  useless  to  many  purposes  of 
nature ;  and  you  may  reckon  all  the  joints 
of  a  dead  man,  but  the  heart  is  cold,  and 
the  joints  are  stiff  and  fit  for  nothing  but  for 
the  little  people  that  creep  in  graves :  and 
so  are  very  many  men  ;  if  you  sum  up  the 
accounts  of  their  religion,  they  can  reckon 
days  and  months  of  religion,  various  offices, 
charity  and  prayers,  reading  and  meditation, 
faith  and  knowledge,  catechism  and  sacra- 
ments, duty  to  God  and  duty  to  princes, 
paying  debts  and  provision  for  children, 
confessions  and  tears,  discipline  in  families, 
and  love  of  good  people;  and,  it  may  be, 
you  shall  not  reprove  their  numbers,  or  find 
any  lines  unfilled  in  their  tables  of  accounts  ; 
but  when  you  have  handled  all  this  and 
considered,  you  will  find  at  last  you  have 
taken  a  dead  man  by  the  hand,  there  is  not 
a  finger  wanting,  but  they  are  stiff  as 
icicles,  and  without  flexure  as  the  legs  of 
elephants  :  such  are  they  whom  St.  Bernard 
describes,  "Whose  spiritual  joy  is  allayed 
with  tediousness,  whose  compunction  for 
sins  is  short  and  seldom,  whose  thoughts 
are  animal  and  their  designs  secular,  whose 
religion  is  lukewarm ;  their  obedience  is 
without  devotion,  their  discourse  without 
profit,  their  prayer  without  intention  of 
heart,  their  reading  without  instruction, 
their  meditation  is  without  spiritual  advan- 
tages, and  is  not  the  commencement  and 
strengthening  of  holy  purposes :  and  they 
are  such  whom  modesty  will  not  restrain, 
nor  reason  bridle,  nor  discipline  correct,  nor 
the  fear  of  death  and  hell  can  keep  from 
yielding  to  the  imperiousness  of  a  foolish 
lust,  that  dishonours  a  man's  understanding, 
and  makes  his  reason,  in  which  he  most 
glories,  to  be  weaker  than  the  discourse  of  a 
girl  and  the  dreams  of  the  night.    In  every 
action  of  religion   God  expects  such  a 
warmth  and  a  holy  fire  to  go  along,  that  it 
may  be  able  to  enkindle  the  wood  upon  the 
altar,  and  consume  the  sacrifice ;  but  God 
hates  an  indifferent  spirit.  Earnestness 
and  vivacity,  quickness  and  delight,  perfect 
choice  of  the  service,  and  a  delight  in  the 
prosecution,  is  all  that  the  spirit  of  a  man  can 
yield  towards  his  religion :  the  outward  work 


Serm.  XIII. 


OF  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL. 


'J5 


is  the  effect  of  the  body  ;  but  if  a  man  does  it ' 
heartily  and  with  all  his  mind,  then  religion1 
hath  wings  and  moves  upon  wheels  of  fire; 
and  therefore,  when  our  blessed  Saviour1 
made  those  capitulars  and  canons  of  re-! 
ligion,  to  "love  God,"  and  to  "love  our  I 
neighbour;"  besides,  that  the  material  part  of  j 
the  duty,  "love,"  is  founded  in  the  spirit,  as  I 
its  natural  seat,  he  also  gives  three  words  to  | 
involve  the  spirit  in  the  action,  and  but  one 
for  the  body:  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all 
thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind ;"  and, 
lastly,  "with  all  thy  strength;"  this  brings 
in  the  body  too ;  because  it  hath  some 
strength,  and  some  significations  of  its  own ; 
but  heart  and  soul  and  mind  mean  all  the 
same  thing  in  a  stronger  and  more  earnest 
expression;  that  is,  that  we  do  it  hugely,  as ! 
much  as  we  can,  with  a  clear  choice,  withj 
a  resolute  understanding,  with  strong  affec- 
tions, with  great  diligence  :  "  Enerves  ani- 
mos  odisse  virtus  solet,"  "  Virtue  hates 
weak  and  ineffective  minds,"  and  tame  easy 
prosecutions  ;  Loripides,  people  whose  arm 
is  all  flesh,  "whose  foot  is  all  leather,"  and 
an  unsupporting  skin ;  they  creep  like 
snakes,  and  pursue  the  noblest  mysteries 
of  religion,  as  Naaman  did  the  mysteries  of 
Rimmon,  only  in  a  compliment,  or  for 
secular  regards ;  but  without  the  mind,  and 
therefore  without  zeal:  "  I  would  thou  wert 
either  hot  or  cold,"  said  the  Spirit  of  God 
to  the  angel  or  bishop  of  Laodicea.  In 
feasts  or  sacrifices  the  ancients  did  use 
"  apponere  frigidam,"  or  "calidam;"  some- 
times they  drank  hot  drink,  sometimes  they 
poured  cold  upon  their  graves  or  in  their 
wines,  but  no  services  of  tables  or  altars 
were  ever  with  lukewarm.  God  hates  it 
worse  than  stark  cold  ;  which  expression  is 
the  more  considerable,  because  in  natural 
and  superinduced  progressions,  from  ex- 
treme to  extreme,  we  must  necessarily  pass 
through  the  midst;  and  therefore  it  is  certain, 
a  lukewarm  religion  is  better  than  none  at 
all,  as  being  the  doing  some  parts  of  the 
work  designed,  and  nearer  to  perfection 
than  the  utmost  distance  could  be  ;  and  yet 
that  God  hates  it  more,  must  mean,  that 
there  is  some  appendant  evil  in  this  state 
which  is  not  in  the  other,  and  that  ac- 
cidentally it  is  much  worse :  and  so  it  is, 
if  we  rightly  understand  it;  that  is,  if  we 
consider  it,  not  as  a  being  in  or  passing 
through  the  middle  way,  but  as  a  state  and 
a  period  of  religion.  If  it  be  in  motion,  a 
lukewarm  religion  is  pleasing  to  God ;  for 


God  hates  it  not  for  its  imperfection,  and  its 
natural  measures  of  proceeding;  but  if  it 
stands  still  and  rests  there,  it  is  a  state 
against  the  designs,  and  against  the  perfec- 
tion of  God  :  and  it  hath  in  it  these  evils  : 

1.  It  is  a  state  of  the  greatest  imprudence 
in  the  world ;  for  it  makes  a  man  to  spend 
his  labour  for  that  which  profits  not,  and  to 
deny  his  appetite  for  an  unsatisfying  in- 
terest; he  puts  his  monies  in  a  napkin,  and 
he  that  does  so,  puts  them  into  a  broken 
bag;  he  loses  the  principal  for  not  increas- 
ing the  iuterest.  He  that  dwells  in  a  state 
of  life  that  is  unacceptable,  loses  the  money 
of  his  alms,  and  the  rewards  of  his  charity, 
his  hours  of  prayer,  and  his  parts  of  justice, 
he  confesses  his  sins  and  is  not  pardoned, 
he  is  patient  but  hath  no  hope,  and  he  that 
is  gone  so  far  out  of  his  country,  and  stands 
in  the  middle  way,  hath  gone  so  far  out  of 
his  way ;  he  had  better  have  stayed  under  a 
dry  roof,  in  the  house  of  banishment,  than 
to  have  left  his  Gyarus,  the  island  of  his 
sorrow,  and  to  dwell  upon  the  Adriatic ;  so 
is  he  that  begins  a  state  of  religion,  and 
does  not  finish  it;  he  abides  in  the  highway, 
and  though  he  be  nearer  the  place,  yet  is 
as  far  from  the  rest  of  his  country  as  ever ; 
and  therefore,  all  that  beginning  of  labour 
was  in  the  prejudice  of  his  rest,  but  nothing 
to  the  advantages  of  his  hopes.  He  that, 
hath  never  begun,  hath  lost  no  labour ; 
"Jactura  praeteritorum,"  "the  loss  of  all 
that  he  hath  done,"  is  the  first  evil  of  the 
negligent  and  lukewarm  Christian  ;  accord- 
ing to  the  saying  of  Solomon  :  "He  that  is 
remiss  or  idle  in  his  labour,  is  brother  to 
him  that  scattereth  his  goods."* 

2.  The  second  appendant  evil  is,  that 
lukewarmness  is  the  occasion  of  greater 
evil; — because  the  remiss  easy  Christian 
shuts  the  gate  against  the  heavenly  breath- 
ings of  God's  Holy  Spirit;  he  thinks  every 
breath,  that  is  fanned  by  the  wings  of  the 
holy  Dove,  is  not  intended  to  encourage  his 
fires,  which  burn  and  smoke,  and  peep 
through  the  cloud  already ;  it  tempts  him  to 
security;  and,  if  an  evil  life  be  a  certain 
inlet  to  a  second  death,  despair  on  one  side, 
and  security  on  the  other,  are  the  bars  and 
locks  to  that  door,  he  can  never  pass  forth 
again  while  that  state  remains ;  whoever 
slips  in  his  spiritual  walking  does  not  pre- 
sently fall ;  but  if  that  slip  does  not  awaken 
his  diligence,  and  his  caution,  then  his  ruin 
begins,  "vel  pravae  institutionis  deceptus 


Prov.  xviii.  9. 


96 


OF  LUKE WARMN 


ESS  AND  ZEAL. 


Serm.  XIII. 


exordio,  aut  per  longam  mentis  incuriam, 
et  virtute  animi  decidente,"  as  St.  Austin 
observes ;  "  either  upon  the  pursuit  of  his 
first  error,  or  by  a  careless  spirit,  or  a  de- 
caying slackened  resolution :"  all  which  are 
the  direct  effects  of  lukewarmness.  But  so 
have  I  seen  a  fair  structure  begun  with  art 
and  care,  and  raised  to  half  its  stature,  and 
then  it  stood  still  by  the  misfortune  or  neg- 
ligence of  the  owner,  and  the  rain  descended, 
and  dwelt  in  its  joints,  and  supplanted  the 
contexture  of  its  pillars,  and  having  stood 
awhile,  like  the  antiquated  temple  of  a 
deceased  oracle,  it  fell  into  a  hasty  age,  and 
sunk  upon  its  own  knees,  and  so  descended 
into  ruin :  so  is  the  imperfect,  unfinished 
spirit  of  a  man ;  it  lays  the  foundation  of  a 
holy  resolution,  and  strengthens  it  with 
vows  and  arts  of  prosecution,  it  raises  up 
the  walls,  sacraments,  and  prayers,  reading, 
and  holy  ordinances;  and  holy  actions  begin 
with  a  slow  motion,  and  the  building  stays, 
and  the  spirit  is  weary,  and  the  soul  is 
naked,  and  exposed  to  temptation,  and  in 
the  days  of  storm  take  in  every  thing  that 
can  do  it  mischief;  and  it  is  faint  and  sick, 
listless  and  tired,  and  it  stands  till  its  own 
weight  wearies  the  foundation,  and  then 
declines  to  death  and  sad  disorder,  being 
so  much  the  worse,  because  it  hath  not 
only  returned  to  its  first  follies,  but  hath 
superadded  unthankfulness  and  careless- 
ness, a  positive  neglect  and  a  despite  of 
holy  things,  a  setting  a  low  price  to  the 
things  of  God,  laziness  and  wretchlessness : 
all  which  are  evils  superadded  to  the  first 
state  of  coldness,  whither  he  is  with  all 
these  loads  and  circumstances  of  death 
easily  revolved. 

3.  A  state  of  lukewarmness  is  more  in- 
corrigible than  a  state  of  coldness;  while 
men  flatter  themselves  that .  their  state  is 
good,  that  they  are  rich  and  need  nothing, 
that  their  lamps  are  dressed,  and  full  of 
ornament.  There  are  many,  that  think 
they  are  in  their  country  as  soon  as  ever 
they  are  weary,  and  measure  not  the  end 
of  their  hopes  by  the  possession  of  them, 
but  by  their  precedent  labour  :  which  they 
overvalue,  because  they  have  easy  and  ef- 
feminate souls.  St.  Bernard  complains  of 
some  that  say,  "  Sufficit  nobis,  nolumus 
esse  meliores  quam  patres  nostri :"  "  It  is 
enough  for  us  to  be  as  our  forefathers," 
who  were  honest  and  useful  in  their  gene- 
rations, but  be  not  over-righteous.  These 
men  are  such  as  think  they  have  knowledge 
enough  to  need  no  teacher,  devotion  enough 


to  need  no  new  fires,  perfection  enough  to 
need  no  new  progress,  justice  enough  to 
need  no  repentance ;  and  then  because  the 
spirit  of  a  man  and  all  the  things  of  this 
world  are  in  perpetual  variety  and  change, 
these  men  decline  when  they  have  gone 
their  period ;  they  stand  still,  and  then 
revert ;  like  a  stone  returning  from  the 
bosom  of  a  cloud,  where  it  rested  as  long 
as  the  thought  of  a  child,  and  fell  to  its 
natural  bed  of  earth,  and  dwelt  below  for 
ever.  He  that  says,  he  will  take  care  he 
be  no  worse,  and  that  he  desires  to  be  no 
better,  stops  his  journey  into  heaven,  but 
cannot  be  secure  against  descending  into 
hell :  and  Cassian  spake  a  hard  saying  : 
"  Frequenter  vidimus  de  frigidis  et  carnalibus 
ad  spiritualem  venisse  fervorem,  de  tepidis  et 
animalibus  omnino  non  vidimus  :"  "  Many 
persons  from  vicious,  and  dead,  and  cold, 
have  passed  into  life  and  an  excellent  grace, 
and  a  spiritual  warmth,  and  holy  fires ;  but 
from  lukewarm  and  indifferent  never  any 
body  came  to  an  excellent  condition,  and 
state  of  holiness:"  "rarissime,"  St.  Bernard 
says,  "very  extremely  seldom;"  and  our 
blessed  Saviour  said  something  of  this. 
"  The  publicans  and  harlots  go  before  you 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;"  they  are 
moved  by  shame,  and  punished  by  dis- 
grace, and  remarked  by  punishments,  and 
frightened  by  the  circumstances  and  notices 
of  all  the  world,  and  separated  from  sober 
persons  by  laws  and  an  intolerable  charac- 
ter, and  the  sense  of  honour,  and  the  care 
of  their  persons,  and  their  love  of  civil 
society,  and  every  thing  in  the  world  can 
invite  them  towards  virtues.  But  the  man 
that  is  accounted  honest,  and  does  justice, 
and  some  things  of  religion,  unless  he  finds 
himself  but  upon  his  way,  and  feels  his 
wants,  and  groans  under  the  sense  of  his 
infirmities,  and  sighs  under  his  imperfec- 
tions, and  accounts  himself  ''not  to  have 
comprehended,"  but  "still  presses  towards 
the  mark  of  his  calling,"  unless  (I  say) 
he  still  increases  in  his  appetites  of  re- 
ligion, as  he  does  in  his  progression,  he 
will  think  he  needs  no  counsellor,  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  whispers  to  an  ear,  that  is 
already  filled  with  noises,  and  cannot  attend 
to  the  heavenly  calling.  The  stomach  that 
is  already  full,  is  next  to  loathing ;  and  that 
is  the  prologue  to  sickness,  and  a  rejecting 
the  first  wholesome  nutriment,  which  was 
entertained  to  relieve  the  first  natural  ne- 
cessities; "Q,ui  non  proficil,  vult  deficere," 
said  St.  Bernard:    "He  that  goes  not 


Serm.  XIII.       OF  LUKEW  ARMNESS  AND  ZEAL. 


97 


forward  in  the  love  of  God,  and  of  religion, 
does  not  stand  still,  but  goes  for  all  that;" 
but  whither  such  a  motion  will  lead  him, 
himself  without  a  timely  care  shall  feel  by 
an  intolerable  experiment. 

In  this  sense  and  for  these  reasons  it  is, 
that  although  a  lukewarm  Christian  hath 
gone  forward  some  steps  towards  a  state  of 
holiness,  and  is  advanced  beyond  him  that 
is  cold,  and  dead,  and  unconcerned ;  and 
therefore,  speaking  absolutely  and  natural- 
ly, is  nearer  the  kingdom  of  God  than  he 
that  is  not  yet  set  out ;  yet  accidentally,  and 
by  reason  of  these  ill  appendages,  he  is 
worse,  in  greater  danger,  in  a  state  equally 
unacceptable,  and  therefore  must  either  go 
forward,  and  still  do  the  work  of  God  care- 
fully and  diligently,  with  a  fervent  spirit 
and  an  active  hand,  with  a  willing  heart 
and  a  cheerful  eye,  or  it  had  been  better  he 
had  never  begun. 

2.  It  concerns  us  next  to  inquire  concern- 
ing the  duty  in  its  proper  instances,  that 
we  may  perceive  to  what  parts  and  degrees 
of  duty  it  amounts  ;  we  shall  find  it  especi- 
ally in  the  duties  of  faith,  of  prayer,  and  of 
charity. 

I.  Our  faith  must  be  strong,  vigorous, 
active,  confident,  and  patient,  reasonable, 
and  unalterable,  without  doubting,  and  fear, 
and  partiality.  For  the  faith  of  very  many 
men  seems  a  duty  so  weak  and  indifferent, 
is  so  often  untwisted  by  violence,  or  ravelled 
and  entangled  in  weak  discourses,  or  so 
false  and  fallacious  by  its  mixture  of  inter- 
est, that  though  men  usually  put  most  con- 
fidence in  the  pretences  of  faith,  yet  no 
pretences  are  more  unreasonable. 

1.  Our  faith  and  persuasion  in  religion  is 
most  commonly  imprinted  in  us  by  our 
country,  and  we  are  Christians  at  the  same 
rate  as  we  are  English  or  Spaniards,  or 
of  such  a  family  ;  our  reason  is  first  stained 
and  spotted  with  the  dye  of  our  kindred 
and  country,  and  our  education  puts  it  in 
grain,  and  whatsoever  is  against  this  we  are 
taught  to  call  a  temptation :  in  the  mean 
time,  we  call  these  accidental  anu  artificial 
persuasions  by  the  name  of  faith,  which  is 
Dnly  the  air  of  the  country,  or  an  heir-loom 
of  the  family,  or  the  daughter  of  a  present 
interest.  Whatever  it  was  that  brought  us 
in.  we  are  to  take  care,  that  when  we  are 
in,  our  faith  be  noble,  and  stand  upon  its 
most  proper  and  most  reasonable  foundation ; 
it  concerns  us  better  to  understand  that  reli- 
gion, which  we  call  faith,  and  that  faith 
wherebv  we  hope  to  be  saved. 

13 


2.  The  faith  and  the  whole  religion  of 
many  men  is  the  production  of  fear.  Men 
are  threatened  into  their  persuasions,  and 
the  iron  rod  of  a  tyrant  converts  whole 
nations  to  his  principles,  when  the  wise 
discourses  of  the  religion  seems  dull  as 
sleep,  and  unprevailing  as  the  talk  of  child- 
hood. That  is  but  a  deceitful  faith,  which 
our  timorousness  begot,  and  our  weakness 
nurses,  and  brings  up.  The  religion  of  a 
Christian  is  immortal,  and  certain,  and  per- 
suasive, arfd  infallible,  and  unalterable,  and 
therefore  needs  not  to  be  received  by  human 
and  weak  convoys,  like  worldly  and  mortal 
religions  :  that  faith  is  lukewarm,  and  easy, 
and  trifling,  which  is  only  a  belief  of  that, 
which  a  man  wants  courage  to  disbelieve. 

3.  The  faith  of  many  men  is  such,  that 
they  dare  not  trust  it :  they  will  talk  of  it. 
and  serve  vanity,  or  their  lust,  or  their  com- 
pany, or  their  interest  by  it,  but  when  the 
matter  comes  to  a  pinch,  they  dare  not  trust 
it ;  when  Antisthenes  was  initiated  into  the 
mysteries  of  Orpheus,  the  priest  told  him, 
that  all  that  were  of  that  religion,  immedi- 
ately after  death  should  be  perfectly  happy;* 
the  philosopher  asked  him,  Why  he  did  not 
die,  if  he  believed  what  he  said?  Such  a 
faith  as  that  was  fine  to  tails:  of  at  table,  or 
eating  the  sacrifices  of  the  religion,  when 
the  mystic  man  was  hSsos,  full  of  wine  and 
flesh,  of  confidence  and  religion ;  but  to  die, 
is  a  more  material  consideration,  and  to  b? 
chosen  upon  no  grounds,  but  such  a  faith, 
which  really  comes  from  God,  and  can 
secure  our  reason,  and  our  choice,  and  per- 
fect our  interest  and  designs.  And  it  hath 
been  long  observed  concerning  those  bold 
people,  that  use  their  reason  against  God 
that  gave  it,  they  have  one  persuasion  in 
their  health,  and  another  in  their  sickness 
and  fears ;  when  they  are  well,  they  blas- 
pheme ;  when  they  die,  they  are  supersti- 
tious. It  was  Bias's  case,  when  he  was 
poisoned  by  the  atheisms  of  Theodorus,  no 
man  died  more  like  a  coward  and  a  fool  : 
"  as  if  the  gods  were  to  come  and  go  as 
Bias  pleased  to  think  and  talk  :"  so  one  said 
of  his  folly.  If  God  be  to  De  feared  when 
we  die,  he  is  also  to. be  feared  in  all  our  life, 
for  he  can  for  ever  make  us  die;  he  that 
will  do  it  once,  and  that  when  he  please, 
can  always.  And  therefore,  all  those  per- 
suasions against  God,  and  against  religion, 

"His  qui  saoris  visis  abcunt  ad  inferos, 
Homines  beati  sunt,  soils  quia  vivere 
Contingit  illic  istis  ;  turba  csctera 
Omnium  malorum  generi  incidit. 
I 


98  OF  LUKE  WARMNESS  AND  ZEAL.         Serm.  XIII. 


are  only  the  production  of  vicious  passions, 
of  drink  or  fancy,  of  confidence  and  igno- 
rance, of  boldness  or  vile  appetites,  of 
vanity  or  fierceness,  of  pride  or  flatteries ; 
and  atheism  is  a  proportion  so  unnatural 
and  monstrous,  that  it  can  never  dwell  in  a 
man's  heart  as  faith  does,  in  health  and 
sickness,  in  peace  and  war,  in  company 
and  alone,  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end 
of  a  design;  but  comes  from  weak  princi- 
ples, and  leaves  shallow  and  superficial 
impressions :  but  when  men  endeavour  to 
strengthen  and  confirm  it,  they  only  strive 
to  make  themselves  worse  than  they  can. 
Naturally  a  man  cannot  be  an  atheist :  for 
he  that  is  so,  must  have  something  within 
him  that  is  worse  either  than  man  or  devil. 

4.  Some  measure  their  faith  by  shows 
and  appearances,  by  ceremonies  and  names, 
by  professions  and  little  institutions.  Dio- 
genes was  angry  at  the  silly  priest,  that 
thought  he  should  be  immortal  because  he 
was  a  priest,  and  would  not  promise  so 
concerning  Agesilaus  and  Epaminondas, 
two  noble  Greeks,  that  had  preserved  their 
country,  and  lived  virtuously.  The  faith  of 
a  Christian  hath  no  signification  at  all  but 
obedience  and  charity  ;  if  men  be  just,  and 
charitable,  and  good,  and  live  according  to 
their  faith,  then  only  they  are  Christians ; 
whatsoever  else  is  pretended  is  but  a 
shadow,  and  the  image  of  a  grace ;  for 
since  in  all  the  sects  and  institutions  of  the 
world,  the  professors  did,  in  some  reason- 
able sort,  conform  to  the  rules  of  the  profes- 
sion, (as  appears  in  all  the  schools  of 
philosophers,  and  religions  of  the  world,  and 
the  practices  of  the  Jews,  and  the  usages 
and  the  country-customs  of  the  Turks,)  it  is 
a  strange  dishonour  to  Christianity,  that  in 
it  alone  men  should  pretend  to  the  faith  of 
it,  and  do  nothing  of  what  it  persuades  and 
commands  upon  the  account  of  those  pro- 
mises, which  it  makes  us  to  believe.  He 
that  means  to  please  God  by  his  faith,  must 
have  his  faith  begotten  in  him  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  proper  arguments  of  religion ; 
he  must  profess  it  without  fear,  he  must 
dare  to  die  for  it,  and  resolve  to  live  accord- 
ing to  its  institution  ;  he  must  grow  more 
confident  and  more  holy,  have  fewer  doubt- 
ings  and  more  virtues,  he  must  be  resolute 
and  constant,  far  from  indifTerency,  and 
above  secular  regards  ;  he  must  by  it  regu- 
late his  life,  and  value  it  above  his  life  ;  he 
must  "  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith,"  by 
the  most  prevailing  arguments,  by  the  ar- 
guments of  holy  living  and  ready  dying, 


by  zeal  and  patience,  by  conformity  and 
humility,  by  reducing  words  to  actions,  fair 
discourses  to  perfect  persuasions,  by  loving 
the  article,  and  increasing  in  the  knowledge 
and  love  of  God,  and  his  Son  Jesus  Christ; 
and  then  his  faith  is  not  negligent,  deceitful, 
artificial,  and  improper ;  but  true,  and  holy, 
and  reasonable,  and  useful,  zealous  and 
sufficient ;  and  therefore  can  never  be  re- 
proved. 

2.  Our  prayers  and  devotions  must  be 
fervent  and  zealous,  not  cold,  patient,  easy, 
and  soon  rejected;  but  supported  by  a  pa- 
tient spirit,  set  forwards  by  importunity, 
continued  by  perseverance,  waited  on  by 
attention  and  a  present  mind,  carried  along 
with  holy,  but  strong  desires;  and  ballasted 
with  resignation,  and  conformity  to  the 
Divine  will ;  and  then  it  is  as  God  likes  it, 
and  does  the  work  to  God's  glory  and  our 
interest  effectively.  He  that  asks  with  a 
doubting  mind  and  a  lazy  desire,  begs  for 
nothing  but  to  be  denied ;  we  must  in  our 
prayers  be  earnest  and  fervent,  or  else  we 
shall  have  but  a  cold  answer ;  for  God 
gives  his  grace  according  as  we  can  receive 
it;  and  whatsoever  evil  returns  we  meet  in 
our  prayers,  when  we  ask  for  good  things, 
is  wholly  by  reason  of  our  wandering 
spirits  and  cold  desires  ;  we  have  reason  to 
complain  that  our  minds  wander  in  our 
prayers,  and  our  diversions  are  more  pre- 
vailing than  all  our  arts  of  application  and 
detention ;  an  we  wander  sometimes  even 
when  we  pray  against  wandering :  and  it 
is  in  some  degrees  natural  and  inevitable  : 
but  although  the  evil  is  not  wholly  to  be 
cured,  yet  the  symptoms  are  to  be  eased  ; 
and  if  our  desires  were  strong  and  fervent, 
our  minds  would  in  the  same  proportion  be 
present :  we  see  it  by  a  certain  and  regular 
experience;  what  we  love  passionately,  we 
perpetually  think  on,  and  it  returns  upon  us 
whether  we  will  or  no ;  and  in  a  great  fear, 
the  apprehension  cannot  be  shaken  off;  and 
therefore  if  our  desires  of  holy  things  were 
strong  and  earnest,  we  should  most  certain- 
ly attend  our  prayers  :  it  is  a  more  violent 
affection  to  other  things,  that  carries  us  off 
from  this ;  and  therefore,  if  we  loved  pas- 
sionately what  we  ask  for  daily,  we  should 
ask  with  hearty  desires,  and  an  earnest  ap- 
petite, and  a  present  spirit;  and  however  it 
be  very  easy  to  have  our  thoughts  wander, 
yet  it  is  our  indifTerency  and  lukewarmness 
that  make  it  so  natural ;  and  you  may 
observe  it,  that  so  long  as  the  light  shines 
bright,  and  the  fires  of  devotion  and  desires 


Serm.  XIII. 


OF  LUKE WARMNESS  AND  ZEAL. 


99 


flame  out,  so  long  the  mind  of  a  man  i 
stands  close  to  the  altar,  and  waits  upon  the 
sacrifice ;  but  as  the  fires  die,  and  desires 
decay,  so  the  mind  steals  away,  and  walks 
abroad  to  see  the  little  images  of  beauty  and 
pleasure,  which  it  beholds  in  the  falling 
stars  and  little  glow-worms  of  the  world. 

i 

The  river  that  runs  slow  and  creeps  by  the 
banks,  and  begs  leave  of  every  turf  to  let  it 
pass,  is  drawn  into  little  hollownesses,  and 
spends  itself  in  smaller  portions/and  dies 
with  diversion ;  but  when  it  runs  with ' 
vigorousness  and  a  full  stream,  and  breaks 
down  every  obstacle,  making  it  even  as  its 
town  brow,  it  stays  not  to  be  tempted  with  j 
little  avocations,  and  to  creep  into  holes,  but 
runs  into  the  sea  through  full  and  useful 
channels;  so  is  a  man's  prayer,  if  it  moves 
upon  the  feet  of  an  abated  appetite ;  it 
wanders  into  the  society  of  every  trifling 
accident,  and  stays  at  the  corners  of  the 
fancy,  and  talks  with  every  object  it  meets, 
and  cannot  arrive  at  heaven;  but  when  it 
is  carried  upon  the  wings  of  passion  and 
strong  desires,  a  swift  motion  and  a  hungry 
appetite,  it  passes  on  through  all  the  inter- 
medial regions  of  clouds,  and  stays  not  till 
it  dwells  at  the  foot  of  the  throne,  where 
mercy  sits,  and  thence  sends  holy  showers 
of  refreshment.  I  deny  not  but  some  little 
drops  will  turn  aside,  and  fall  from  the  full 
channel  by  the  weakness  of  the  banks,  and 
hollowness  of  the  passage;  but  the  main 
course  is  still  continued ;  and  although  the 
most  earnest  and  devout  persons  feel  and 
complain  of  some  looseness  of  spirit,  and 
unfixed  attentions,  yet  their  love  and  their 
desire  secure  the  main  portions,  and  make 
the  prayer  to  be  strong,  fervent,  and  effec- 
tual. Any  thing  can  be  done  by  him,  that 
earnestly  desires  what  he  ought ;  secure  but 
your  affections  and  passions,  and  then  no 
temptation  will  be  too  strong ;  "  A  wise 
man,  and  a  full  resolution,  and  an  earnest 
spirit,  can  do  any  thing  of  duty ;"  but  every 
temptation  prevails,  when  we  are  willing  to 
die ;  and  we  usually  lend  nothing  to  devo- 
tion but  the  offices  that  flatter  our  passions  ; 
we  can  desire  and  pray  for  any  thing,  that 
may  serve  our  lust,  or  promote  those  ends 
which  we  covet,  but  ought  to  fear  and  flee 
from;  but  the  same  earnestness,  if  it  were 
transplanted  into  religion  and  our  prayers, 
would  serve  all  the  needs  of  the  spirit,  but 
for  want  of  it  we  do  "the  Lord's  work  de- 
ceitfully." 

3.  Our  charity  also  must  be  fervent : 
**  Malus  est  miles  qui  ducem  suum  gemens 


sequitur ;"  "  He  that  follows  his  general 
with  a  heavy  march  and  a  heavy  heart,  is 
but  an  ill  soldier ;"  but  our  duty  to  God 
should  be  hugely  pleasing,  and  we  should 
rejoice  in  it;  it  must  pass  on  to  action,  and 
do  the- action  vigorously;  it  is  called  in 
Scripture  xdrto*  a/ya^s,  "  the  labour  "  and 
travail  "  of  love."  w  A  friend  at  a  sneeze 
and  an  alms-basket  full  of  prayers,"  a  love 
that  is  lazy,  and  a  service  that  is  useless, 
and  a  pity  without  support,  are  the  images 
and  colours  of  that  grace,  whose  very  con- 
stitution and  design  is,  beneficence  and 
well-doing.  He  that  loves  passionately, 
will  not  only  do  all  that  his  friend  needs, 
but  all  that  himself  can ;  for  although  the 
law  of  charity  is  fulfilled  by  acts  of  profit, 
and  bounty,  and  obedience,  and  labour,  yet 
it  hath  no  other  measures  but  the  propor- 
tions and  abundance  of  a  good  mind  ;  and 
according  to  this,  God  requires  that  we  be 
ns pKj?f vwres  ev  rc>  tpyo  fov  Kiptov,  "  abound- 
ing," and  that  "  always  in  the  work  of  the 
Lord ;"  if  we  love  passionately,  we  shall 
do  all  this;  for  love  endures  labour  and 
calls  it  pleasure,  it  spends  all  and  counts  it 
a  gain,  it  suffers  inconveniences  and  is 
quickly  reconciled  to  them ;  if  dishonours 
and  affronts  be  to  be  endured,  love  smiles 
and  calls  them  favours,  and  wears  them 
willinslv. 


Alii  jacuere  ligati 


Turgiter,  at  que  aliquis  de  Diis  non  tristibus  optat 
Sic  fieri  turpis,  

"  It  is  the  Lord,"  said  David,  and  "  I  will 
yet  be  more  vile,  and  it  shall  be  honour 
unto  me ;"  thus  did  the  disciples  of  our 
Lord  go  "from  tribunals,  rejoicing  that 
they  were  accounted  worthy  to  suffer  stripes 
for  that  beloved  name ;"  and  we  are  com- 
manded "  to  rejoice  in  persecutions,  to  resist 
unto  blood,  to  strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate,  not  to  be  weary  of  well-doing ;"  do  it 
hugely,  and  do  it  always.  "  Non  enim 
votis  neque  suppliciis  mulieribus  auxilia 
Deorum  parantur ;  sed  vigilando,  agendo, 
bene  consulendo,  omnia  prospere  cedunt." 
No  man  can  obtain  the  favour  of  God  by 
words  and  imperfect  resolutions,  by  lazy 
actions  and  a  remiss  piety ;  but  by  severe 
counsels  and  sober  actions,  by  watchfulness 
and  prudence,  by  doing  excellent  things 
with  holy  intentions  and  vigorous  prosecu- 
tions. "Ubi  socordiae  et  ignavise  te  tradideris, 
nequicquam  Deos  implorabis :"  if  your 
virtues  be  lazy,  your  vices  will  be  bold  and 
active  :  and  therefore  Democritus  said  well, 
that  the  painful  and  the  soft-handed  people 


100 


OF  LUKEWARM  NESS  AND  ZEAL.      Serm.  XIII. 


in  religion  differ  just  as  good  men  and  bad  : 
"  nimirum,  spe  bona,"  the  labouring  charity 
hath  "  a  good  hope,"  but  a  cool  religion 
hath  none  at  all ;  and  the  distinction  will 
have  a  sad  effect  to  eternal  ages. 

These  are  the  great  scenes  of  duty,  in 
which  we  are  to  be  fervent  and  zealous ; 
but  because  earnestness  and  zeal  are  cir- 
cumstances of  a  great  latitude,  and  the  zeal 
of  the  present  age  is  stark  cold,  if  compared 
to  the  fervours  of  the  apostles,  and  other 
holy  primitives  j  and  in  every  age  a  good 
man's  care  may  turn  into  scruple,  if  he 
sees  that  he  is  not  the  best  man,  because  he 
may  reckon  his  own  estate  to  stand  in  the 
confines  of  darkness,  because  his  spark  is 
not  so  great  as  his  neighbour's  fires,  there- 
fore it  is  fit  that  we  consider  concerning  the 
degrees  of  the  intention  and  forward  heats  ; 
for  when  we  have  found  out  the  lowest  de- 
grees of  zeal,  and  a  holy  fervour,  we  know 
that  duty  dwells  there,  and  whatsoever  is 
above  it,  is  a  degree  of  excellence;  but  all 
that  is  less  than  it,  is  lukewarmness,and  the 
state  of  an  ungracious  and  an  unaccepted 
person. 

I.  No  man  is  fervent  and  zealous  as  he 
ought,  but  he  that  prefers  religion  before 
business,  charity  before  his  own  ease,  the 
relief  of  his  brother  before  money,  heaven 
before  secular  regards,  and  God  before  his 
friend  or  interest.  Which  rule  is  not  to  be 
understood  absolutely,  and  in  particular  in- 
stances, but  always  generally  ;  and  when  it 
descends  to  particulars,  it  must  be  in  pro- 
portion to  circumstances,  and  by  their 
proper  measures  :  for, 

1.  In  the  whole  course  of  life  it  is  neces- 
sary, that  we  prefer  religion  before  any 
state  that  is  either  contrary  to  it,  or  a  lessen- 
ing of  its  duties. — He  that  hath  a  state  of 
life,  in  which  he  cannot  at  all,  in  fair  pro- 
portions, tend  to  religion,  must  quit  great 
proportions  of  that,  that  he  may  enjoy  more 
of  this ;  this  is  that  which  our  blessed  Sa- 
viour calls  "  pulling  out  the  right  eye,  if  it 
offend  thee." 

2.  In  particular  actions,  when  the  neces- 
sity is  equal,  he,  that  does  not  prefer  reli- 
gion, is  not  at  all  zealous  ; — for  although 
all  natural  necessities  are  to  be  served  before 
the  circumstances  and  order  of  religion, 
yet  our  belly  and  our  back,  our  liberty  and 
our  life,  our  health  and  a  friend,  are  to  be 
neglected  rather  than  a  duty,  when  it  stands 
in  its  proper  place,  and  is  required. 

3.  Although  the  things  of  God  are  by  a 
necessary  zeal  to  be  preferred  before  the 


things  of  the  world,  yet  we  must  take  heed 
that  we  do  not  reckon  religion,  and  orders 
of  worshipping,  only  to  be  f*  the  things  of 
God,"  and  all  other  duties  to  be  "  the 
things  of  the  world ;"  for  it  was  a  pharisai- 
cal  device  to  cry  Ccrban,  and  to  refuse  to 
relieve  their  aged  parents  :  it  is  good  to  give 
to  a  church,  but  it  is  better  to  give  to  the 
poor ;  and  though  they  must  be  both  pro- 
vided for,  yet  in  cases  of  dispute  mercy 
carries  the  cause  against  religion  and  the 
temple.  And  although  Mary  was  com- 
mended for  choosing  the  better  part,  yet 
Mary  had  done  worse,  if  she  had  been  at 
the  foot  of  her  Master  when  she  should 
have  relieved  a  perishing  brother.  Martha 
was  troubled  with  much  serving  ;  that  was 
"  more  than  need,"  and  therefore  she  was 
to  blame ;  and  sometimes  hearing  in  some 
circumstances  may  be  "  more  than  needs  ;" 
and  some  women  are  "troubled  with  over- 
much hearing,"  and  then  they  had  better 
have  been  serving  the  necessities  of  their 
house. 

4.  This  rule  is  not  to  be  extended  to  the 
relatives  of  religion ;  for  although  the  things 
of  the  Spirit  are  better  than  the  things  of 
the  world,  yet  a  spiritual  man  is  not  in  hu- 
man regards  to  be  preferred  before  princes 
and  noble  personages.  Because  a  man  is 
called  spiritual  in  several  regards,  and  for 
various  measures  and  manners  of  partaking 
of  the  Spirit  of  grace,  or  co-operating  to- 
wards the  works  of  the  Spirit.  A  king  and 
a  bishop  both  have  callings  in  order  to  god- 
liness, and  honesty,  and  spiritual  effects, 
towards  the  advancement  of  Christ's  king- 
dom, whose  representatives  severally  they 
are.  But  whether  of  these  two  works  more 
immediately,  or  more  effectively,  cannot  at 
all  times  be  known;  and  therefore  from 
hence  no  argument  can  be  drawn  concern- 
ing doing  them  civil  regards  ;  and  possibly, 
"  the  partaking  the  Spirit "  is  a  nearer  re- 
lation to  him,  than  doing  his  ministries,  and 
serving  his  ends  upon  others  ;  and  if  rela- 
tion to  God  and  God's  Spirit  could  bring  an 
obligation  of  giving  proportionable  civil 
honour,  every  holy  man  might  put  in  some 
pretence  for  dignities  above  some  kings  and 
some  bishops.  But  as  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  are  in  order  to  the  affairs  of  another 
world,  so  they  naturally  can  infer  only 
such  a  relative  dignity,  as  can  be  expressed 
in  spiritual  manners.  But  because  such 
relations  are  subjected  in  men  of  this  life, 
and  we  now  converse  especially  in  material 
and  secular  significations,  therefore  we  are 


Serm.  XIII.       OF  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL. 


101 


to  express  our  regards  to  men  of  such  re-  I 
lations  by  proportionable  expressions :  but 
because  civil  excellencies  are  the  proper 
ground  of  receiving  and  exacting  civil  ho-  j 
nours,  and  spiritual  excellencies  do  only 
claim  them  accidentally  and  indirectly ; 
therefore,,  in  titles  of  honour  and  human 
regards,  the  civil  pre-eminence  is  ihe  ap- 
pendix of  the  greatest  civil  power  and  em- 
ployment, and  is  to  descend  in  proper 
measures ;  and  for  a  spiritual  relation  to 
challenge  a  temporal  dignity,  is  as  if  the 
best  music  should  challenge  the  best  clothes,  I 
or  a  lutestring  should  contend  with  a  rose 
for  the  honour  of  the  greatest  sweetness. 
Add  to  this,  that  although  temporal  things 
are  in  order  to  spiritual,  and  therefore  are 
less  perfect,  yet  this  is  not  so  naturally; 
for  temporal  things  are  properly  in  order  to 
the  felicity  of  man  in  his  proper  and  present 
constitution ;  and  it  is  by  a  supernatural 
grace,  that  now  they  are  thrust  forward  to 
a  higher  end  of  grace  and  glory  ;  and  there- 
fore temporal  things,  and  persons,  and  call-  ' 
ings,  have  properly  the  chiefest  temporal 
regard ;  and  Christ  took  nothing  of  this 
away  from  them,  but  put  them  higher,  by  I 
sanctifying  and  ennobling  them.  But  then 
the  higher  calling  can  no  more  suppose  the 
higher  man,  than  the  richest  trade  can 
suppose  the  richest  man.  From  callings  to 
men,  the  argument  is  fallacious ;  and  a  i 
smith  is  a  more  useful  man  than  he  that ! 
teaches  logic,  but  not  always  to  be  more 
esteemed,  and  called  to  stand  at  the  chairs  ' 
of  princes  and  nobles.  Holy  persons  and 
holy  things,  and  all  great  relations,  are  to 
be  valued  by  general  proportions  to  their 
correlatives ;  but  if  we  descend  to  make 
minute  and  exact  proportions,  and  propor- 
tion an  inch  of  temporal  to  a  minute  of 
spiritual,  we  must  needs  be  hugely  de- 
ceived,  unless  we  could  measure  the  mo- 1 
tion  of  an  angel  by  a  string,  or  the  progres- 
sions of  the  Spirit  by  weight  and  measure 
of  the  staple.  And  yet  if  these  measures 
were  taken,  it  would  be  unreasonable  that 
the  lower  of  the  higher  kind  should  be  pre- 
ferred before  the  most  perfect  and  excellent 
in  a  lower  order  of  things.  A  man  gene- 
rally is  to  be  esteemed  above  a  woman,  but 
not  the  meanest  of  her  subjects  before  the 
most  excellent  queen  ;  not  always  this  man 
before  this  woman.  Now  kings  and  princes 
are  the  best  in  all  temporal  dignities ;  and  i 
therefore  if  they  had  in  them  no  spiritual 
relations  and  consequent  excellencies,  (as 
they  have  very  many,)  yet  are  not  to  be , 


undervalued  to  spiritual  relations,  which  in 
this  world  are  very  imperfect,  weak,  partial ; 
and  must  stay  till  the  next  world  before  they 
are  in  a  state  of  excellency,  propriety,  and 
perfection;  and  then  also  all  shall  have 
them,  according  to  the  worth  of  their  per- 
sons, not  of  their  calling. 

But,  lastly,  what  men  may  not  challenge, 
is  not  their  just  and  proper  due ;  but  spiritual 
persons  and  the  nearest  relatives  to  God 
stand  by  him  but  so  long  as  they  dwell  low 
and  safe  in  humility,  and  rise  high  in  no- 
thing but  in  labours,  and  zeal  of  souls,  and 
devotion.  In  proportion  to  this  rule,  a 
church  may  be  pulled  down  to  save  a  town, 
and  the  vessels  of  the  church  may  be  sold 
to  redeem  captives,  when  there  is  a  great 
calamity  imminent,  and  prepared  for  relief, 
and  no  other  way  to  succour  it. 

But  in  the  whole,  the  duty  of  zeal  re- 
quires, that  we  neglect  an  ordinary  visit 
rather  than  an  ordinary  prayer,  and  a  great 
profit  rather  than  omit  a  required  duty.  No 
excuse  can  legitimate  a  sin;  and  he  that 
goes  about  to  distinguish  between  his  duty 
and  his  profit,  and  if  he  cannot  reconcile 
them,  will  yet  tie  them  together  like  a 
hyaena  and  a  dog,  this  man  pretends  to 
religion  but  secures  the  world,  and  is  in- 
different and  lukewarm  towards  that,  so  he 
may  be  warm  and  safe  in  the  possession  of 
this. 

2.  To  that  fervour  and  zeal  that  is  neces- 
sary and  a  duty,  it  is  required  that  we  be 
constant  and  persevering.  "  Esto  fidelis  ad 
mortem,"  said  the  Spirit  of  God  to  the  angel 
of  the  church  of  Smyrna,  "  Be  faithful  unto 
death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life." 
For  he  that  is  warm  to-day  and  cold  to- 
morrow, zealous  in  his  resolution  and  weary 
in  his  practices,  fierce  in  the  beginning  and 
slack  and  easy  in  his  progress,  hath  not  yet 
well  chosen  what  side  he  will  be  of;  he 
sees  not  reason  enough  for  religion,  and  he 
hath  not  confidence  enough  for  its  contrary ; 
and  therefore  he  is  "  duplicis  animi,"  as  St. 
James  calls  him;  "of  a  doubtful  mind." 
For  religion  is  worth  as  much  to-day  as  it 
was  yesterday,  and  that  cannot  change 
though  we  do ;  and  if  we  do,  we  have  left 
God,  and  whither  he  can  go  that  goes  from 
God,  his  own  sorrows  will  soon  enough 
instruct  him.  This  fire  must  never  go  out, 
but  it  must  be  like  the  fire  of  heaven, 
it  must  shine  like  the  stars,  though  some- 
times covered  with  a  cloud,  or  obscured 
by  a  greater  light ;  yet  they  dwell  for  ever 
in  their  orbs,  and  walk  in  their  circles,  and 
i2 


102 


OF  LUKE  WA  RMN  ESS  AND  ZEAL.       Serm.  XIII. 


observe  their  circumstances,  but  go  not  out 
by  day  nor  night,  and  set  not  when  kings 
die,  nor  are  extinguished  when  nations 
change  their  government :  so  must  the  zeal 
of  a  Christian  be,  a  constant  incentive  of  his 
duty;  and  though  sometimes  his  hand  is 
drawn  back  by  violence  or  need,  and  his 
prayers  shortened  by  the  importunity  of 
business,  and  some  parts  omitted  by  ne- 
cessities and  just  compliances,  yet  still  the 
fire  is  kept  alive ;  it  burns  within  when  the 
light  breaks  not  forth,  and  is  eternal  as  the 
orb  of  fire,  or  the  embers  of  the  altar  of 
incense. 

3.  No  man  is  zealous  as  he  ought,  but  he 
that  delights  in  the  service  of  God  : — with- 
out this  no  man  can  persevere,  but  must 
faint  under  the  continual  pressure  of  an 
uneasy  load.  If  a  man  goes  to  his  prayers 
as  children  go  to  school,  or  give  alms  as 
those  that  pay  contribution,  and  meditate 
with  the  same  willingness  with  which 
young  men  die,  this  man  does  "  personam 
sustinere,"  "  he  acts  a  part"  which  he 
cannot  long  personate,  but  will  find  so 
many  excuses  and  silly  devices  to  omit  his 
duty,  such  tricks  to  run  from  that  which 
will  make  him  happy;  he  will  so  watch  the 
eyes  of  men,  and  be  so  sure  to  do  nothing 
in  private ;  he  will  so  often  distinguish  and 
mince  the  duty  into  minutes  and  little  par- 
ticles, he  will  so  tie  himself  to  the  letter  of 
the  law,  and  be  so  careless  of  the  intention 
and  spiritual  design,  he  will  be  punctual  in 
the  ceremony  and  trifling  in  the  secret,  and  he 
will  be  so  well  pleased  when  he  is  hindered 
by  an  accident  not  of  his  own  procuring, 
and  will  have  so  many  devices  to  defeat  his 
duty,  and  to  cozen  himself,  that  he  will 
certainly  manifest,  that  he  is  afraid  of  re- 
ligion, and  secretly  hates  iij  he  counts  it  a 
burden,  and  an  objection,  and  then  the  man 
is  sure  to  leave  it,  when  his  circumstances 
are  so  fitted.  But  if  we  delight  in  it,  we 
enter  into  a  portion  of  the  reward,  as  soon 
as  we  begin  the  work,  and  the  very  grace 
shall  be  stronger  than  the  temptation  in  its 
very  pretence  of  pleasure ;  and  therefore  it 
must  needs  be  pleasing  to  God,  because  it 
confesses  God  to  be  the  best  master,  religion 
the  best  work,  and  it  serves  God  with 
choice  and  will,  and  reconciles  our  nature 
to  it,  and  entertains  our  appetite  ;  and  then 
there  is  no  "  ansa"  or  <f  handle"  left,  where- 
by we  can  easily  be  drawn  from  duty,  when 
all  parties  are  pleased  with  the  employment. 
But  this  delight  is  not  to  be  understood  as  if 
it  were  always  required  that  we  should  feel 


an  actual  cheerfulness  and  sensible  joy ; 
such  as  was  that  of  Jonathan,  when  he  had 
newly  tasted  honey,  and  the  light  came  into 
his  eyes,  and  he  was  refreshed  and  pleasant. 
This  happens  sometimes,  when  God  pleases 
to  entice,  or  reward  a  man's  spirit,  with 
little  antepasts  of  heaven;  but  such  a  de- 
light only  is  necessary,  and  a  duty,  that 
we  always  choose  our  duty  regularly,  and 
undervalue  the  pleasures  of  temptation,  and 
proceed  in  the  work  of  grace  with  a  firm 
choice  and  unabated  election;  our  joy  must 
be  a  joy  of  hope,  a  joy  at  the  least  of  con- 
fident sufferers,  the  joys  of  faith  and  ex- 
pectation; "rejoicing  in  hope,"  so  the 
apostle  calls  it ;  that  is,  a  going  forward 
upon  such  a  persuasion  as  sees  the  joys  of 
God  laid  up  for  the  children  of  men  :  and 
so  the  sun  may  shine  under  a  cloud  ;  and  a 
man  may  rejoice  in  persecution,  and  delight 
in  losses;  that  is,  though  his  outward  man 
groans,  and  faints,  and  dies,  yet  his  spirit, 
6  ha  avflpwrtoj,  "  the  inner  man,"  is  con- 
fident and  industrious,  and  hath  a  hope 
by  which  it  lives  and  works  unto  the  end  : 
it  was  the  case  of  our  blessed  Saviour  in 
his  agony ;  his  "  soul  was  exceeding  sor- 
rowful unto  death,"  and  the  load  of  his 
Father's  anger  crushed  his  shoulder,  and 
bowed  his  knees  to  the  ground  ;  and  yet  he 
chose  it,  and  still  went  forward,  and  re- 
solved to  die,  and  did  so ;  and  what  we 
choose  we  delight  in ;  and  we  think  it  to  be 
eligible,  and  therefore  amiable,  and  fit  by 
its  proper  excellencies  and  appendages  to 
be  delighted  in;  it  is  not  pleasant  to  the 
flesh  at  all  times,  for  its  dignity  is  spiritual 
and  heavenly ;  but  therefore  it  is  propor- 
tioned to  the  spirit,  which  is  as  heavenly  as 
the  reward,  and  therefore  can  feel  the  joys 
of  it,  when  the  body  hangs  the  head,  and  is 
uneasy  and  troubled. 

These  are  the  necessary  parts  of  zeal ; 
of  which  if  any  man  fails,  he  is  in  a  state 
of  lukewarmness  :  and  that  is  a  spiritual 
death.  As  a  banished  man  or  a  condemned 
person  is  dead  civilly  ;  he  is  "  diminutus 
capite,"  he  is  not  reckoned  in  the  "  census," 
nor  partakes  of  the  privileges,  nor  goes  for 
a  person,  but  is  reckoned  among  things  in 
the  possession  of  others  :  so  is  a  lukewarm 
person;  he  is  "corde  diminutus,"  he  is 
spiritually  dead,  his  heart  is  estranged  from 
God,  his  affections  are  lessened,  his  hope 
diminished,  and  his  title  cancelled ;  and  he 
remains  so,  unless,  1.  He  prefers  religion 
before  the  world,  and,  2.  Spiritually  re- 
joices in  doing  his  duty,  and,  3.  Does  it 


Serm.  XIV.       OF  LUKEWARM  NESS  AND  ZEAL. 


103 


flattered  by  all  mean,  and  base,  and  un- 
diligent  persons,  which  are  the  greatest  part 
of  mankind  ;  but  few  men  dare  reprove  a 
potent  sinner;  he  shall  every  day  be  flattered 
and  seldom  counselled  :  and  his  great  re- 
flections and  opinions  of  his  condition  make 
him  impatient  of  reproof,  and  so  he  cannot 
be  restrained  with  modesty  :  and  therefore 
as  the  needs  of  the  poor  man,  his  rent-day, 
and  the  cries  of  his  children,  and  the  op- 
pression he  groans  under,  and  his  8vaxo\o- 
xoitosuipipva,  his  uneasy,  "ill-sleeping  care," 
will  make  him  run  to  his  prayers,  that  in 
heaven  a  new  decree  may  be  passed  every 
day  for  the  provisions  of  his  daily  bread  : 
so  the  greater  needs  of  the  rich,  their  temp- 
earnestness  and  vehemence,  which  are  pro-  tations,  and  their  dangers,  the  flattery  and 
gressions  towards  the  state  of  perfection,  the  vanity,  the  power  and  the  pride,  their 
which  everv  man  ought  to  design  and  desire  business  and  evil  estate  of  the  whole  world 
to  be  added  to  his  portion :  of  this  sort  I  upon  them,  call  upon  them  to  be  zealous  in 
reckon  frequency  in  prayer,  and  alms  above  j  this  instance,  that  they  "  pray  often,"  that 
our  estate.    Concerning  which  two  instan-lthey  "pray  without  ceasing;"  for  there  is 
ces,  I  have  these  two  cautions  to  insert.        great  reason  they  should  do  so,  and  great 
1.  Concerning  frequency  in  prayer,  it  is 'security  and  advantage,  if  they  do:  for  he 
an  act  of  zeal  so  ready  and  prepared  for  the  that  prays  well  and  prays  often,  must  needs 
spirit  of  a  man,  so  easy  and  useful,  so  with- 1  be  a  good  and  a  blessed  man  ;  and  truly  he 
out  objection,  and  so  fitted  for  every  man's  that  does  not,  deserves  no   pity  for  his 
affairs,  his  necessities  and  possibilities,  that  misery.    For  when  all  the  troubles  and 
he  that  prays  but  seldom  cannot  in  any  j  dangers  of  his  condition  may  turn  into  his 
sense  pretend  to  be  a  religious  person.    For  good,  if  he  will  but  desire  they  should ; 
in  Scripture  there  is  no  other  rule  for  the  j  when  upon  such  easy  terms  he  may  be 
frequency  of  prayer  given  us,  but  by  such  happy,  for  there  is  no  more  trouble  in  it 
words  which  signify  we  should  do  it  "  al-  than  this,  "Ask  and  ye  shall  receive;"  that 
ways,"  "pray  continually;"  and,  "  men  is  all  that  is  required;  no  more  turnings 
ought  always  to  pray  and  not  to  faint."  ; and  variety  in  their  road:  when  (I  say)  at 
And  then  men  have  so  many  necessities,  that !  so  cheap  a  rate,  a  poor  man  maybe  pro- 
if  we  should  esteem  our  needs  to  be  the  cir- '  vided  for,  and  a  rich  man  may  escape  dam- 
cumstances  and  positive  determination  of  nation,  he  that  refuses  to  apply  himself  to 
our  times  of  prayer,  we  should  be  very  far  this  remedy,  quickly,  earnestly,  zealously, 
from  admitting  limitation  of  the  former, and  constantly,  deserves  the  smart  of  his 
words,  but  they  must  mean,  that  we  ought '  poverty,  and  the  care  of  it,  and  the  scorn, 
to  pray  frequently  every  day.    For  in  dan-  if  he  be  poor;  and  if  he  be  rich,  it  is  fit  he 
ger  and  trouble,  natural  religion  teaches  us '  should  (because  he  desires  it)  die  by  the 
to  pray  ;  in  a  festival  fortune,  our  prudence  1  evils  of  his  proper  danger.    It  was  observed 
and  our  needs  enforce  us  equally.    For  j  by  Cassian,  "  Orationibus  maxime  insidian- 
though  we  feel  not  a  present  smart,  yet  we  tur  daeniones ;"  "  The  devil  is  more  busy  to 
are  certain  then  is  our  biggest  danger :  and  disturb  our  prayers,  than  to  hinder  any 
if  we  observe  how  the  world  treats  her  thing  else."    For  else  it  cannot  be  im- 
darlings,  men  of  riches  and  honour,  of  pros-  agined,  why  we  should  be  brought  to  pray 
perity  and  great  success,  we  cannot  but  so  seldom;  and  to  be  so  listless  to  them,  and 
confess  them  to  be  the  most  miserable  of  all  so  trifling  at  them.    No,  the  devil  knows 
men,  as  being  in  the  greatest  danger  of  upon  what  hard  terms  he  stands  with  the 
losing  their  biggest  interest.    For  they  are  praying  man;  he  also  knows,  that  it  is  a 
bigger  than  the  iron  hand  of  law,  and  they  mighty  emanation  of  God's  infinite  goodness 
cannot  be  restrained  with  fear :  the  hand  and  a  strange  desire  of  saving  mankind, 
grasps  a  power  of  doing  all  that  which  their  that  he  hath  to  so  easy  a  duty  promised 
evil  heart  can  desire,  and  they  cannot  be  such  mighty  blessings.    For  God  knowing, 
restrained  with  disability  to  sin  :  they  are  that  upon  hard  terms  we  would  not  accept 


constantly,  and  with  perseverance,  inese 
are  the  heats  and  warmth  of  life ;  whatso- 
ever is  less  than  this,  is  a  disease,  and  leads 
to  the  coldness  and  dishonours  of  the  grave. 


SERMON  XIV. 

PART  III. 

3.  So  long  as  our  zeal  and  forwardness  in 
religion  hath  only  these  constituent  parts,  it 
hath  no  more  than  can  keep  the  duty  alive : 
but  beyond  this,  there  are  many  degrees  of 


104 


OF  LUKE  W  ARMNESS  AND  ZEAL.      Serm.  XIV. 


of  heaven  itself,  and  yet  hell  was  so  in- 
tolerable a  state,  that  God  who  loved  us, 
would  affix  heaven  to  a  state  of  prayer  and 
devotion  ;  this,  because  the  devil  knows  to 
be  one  of  the  greatest  arts  of  the  Divine 
mercy,  he  labours  infinitely  to  supplant ; 
and  if  he  can  but  make  men  unwilling  to 
pray,  or  to  pray  coldly,  or  to  pray  seldom, 
he  secures  his  interest,  and  destroys  the 
man's;  and  it  is  infinitely  strange,  that  he 
can  and  doth  prevail  so  much  in  this  so 
unreasonable  temptation.  *  Opposuisti  nu- 
bem,  ne  transiret  oratio,"  the  mourning 
prophet  complained/  "  there  was  a  cloud 
passed  between  heaven  and  the  prayer  of 
Judah;"  a  little  thing  God  knows;  it  was 
a  wall,  which  might  have  been  blown  down 
with  a  few  hearty  sighs  and  a  few  peniten- 
tial tears;  or  if  the  prayers  had  ascended 
in  a  full  and  numerous  body,  themselves 
would  have  broken  through  that  little  parti- 
tion ;  but  so  the  devil  prevails  often  "  op- 
ponit  nubem,"  "he  claps  a  cloud  between :" 
some  little  objection;  "  a  stranger  is  come;" 
or,  "my  head  aches;"  or,  "the  church  is 
too  cold  ;  or,  "  I  have  letters  to  write ;"  or, 
"I  am  not  disposed;"  or,  "it  is  not  yet 
time;"  or,  "the  time  is  past:"  these,  and 
such  as  these,  are  the  clouds  the  devil  claps 
between  heaven  and  us  ;  but  these  are  such 
impotent  objections,  that  they  were  as  soon 
confuted  as  pretended,  by  all  men  that  are 
not  fools,  or  professed  enemies  of  religion, 
but  that  they  are  clouds,  which  sometimes 
look  like  lions  and  bears,  castles  and  walls 
of  fire,  armies  and  horses ;  and  indeed  are 
any  thing  that  a  man  will  fancy ;  and  the 
smallest  article  of  objection  managed  and 
conducted  by  the  devil's  arts,  and  meeting 
with  a  wretchless,  careless,  undevout  spirit, 
is  a  lion  in  the  way,  and  a  deep  river;  it  is 
impassable,  and  it  is  impregnable.  Ylvovtai 
TiuvB"  6,  tt  av  fiovhovtai  vttyi'hxxi'  'kvxoo  eav 
%lixu>va  ticihuKSi,  ilxxtyoi  tfcp  KXsoivvfiui  ;f  as  the 
sophister  said  in  the  Greek  comedy,  "Clouds 
become  any  thing  as  they  are  represented ; 
wolves  to  Simon,  harts  to  Cleonymus ;" 
for  the  devil  fits  us  with  clouds,  according 
as  we  can  be  abused;  and  if  we  love  the 
affairs  of  the  world,  he  can  contrive  its 
circumstances  so,  that  they  shall  cross  our 
prayers ;  and  so  it  is  in  every  instance  :  and 
the  best  way  to  cure  this  evil  is  prayer; 
pray  often,  and  pray  zealously,  and  the  Sun 
of  righteousness  will  scatter  these  clouds 
and  warm  our  hearts  with  his  holy  fires :  but 


•  Lam.  iii.  44. 


it  is  in  this  as  in  all  acquired  habits;  the 
habit  makes  the  action  easy  and  pleasant; 
but  this  habit  cannot  be  gotten  without 
frequent  actions  :  habits  are  the  daughters 
of  action  ;  but  then  they  nurse  their  mother, 
and  produce  daughters  after  her  image,  but 
far  more  beautiful  and  prosperous.  For  in 
frequent  prayer  there  is  so  much  rest  and 
pleasure,  that  as  soon  as  ever  it  is  per- 
ceived, the  contrary  temptation  appears  un- 
reasonable ;  none  are  so  unwilling  to  pray, 
as  they  that  pray  seldom;  for  they  that  do 
pray  often,  and  with  zeal,  and  passion,  and 
desire,  feel  no  trouble  so  great,  as  when 
they  are  forced  to  omit  their  holy  offices 
and  hours  of  prayers.  It  concerns  the 
devil's  interest  to  keep  us  from  all  the  ex- 
perience of  the  rewards  of  a  frequent  and 
holy  prayer ;  and  so  long  as  you  will  not 
try  and  "  taste  how  good  and  gracious  the 
Lord  is"  to  the  praying  man,  so  long  you 
cannot  see  the  evil  of  your  coldness  and 
lukewarm  state;  but  if  you  would  but  try, 
though  it  be  but  for  curiosity's  sake,  and 
inform  yourselves  in  the  vanity  of  things, 
and  the  truth  of  pretences,  and  the  certainty 
of  theological  propositions,  you  should  find 
yourselves  taken  in  a  golden  snare,  which 
will  tie  you  to  nothing  but  felicity,  and 
safety,  and  holiness,  and  pleasure.  But 
then  the  caution,  which  I  intended  to  insert, 
is  this ;  that  frequency  in  prayers,  and  that 
part  of  zeal  which  relates  to  it,  is  to  be  upon 
no  account  but  of  a  holy  spirit,  a  wise  heart, 
and  reasonable  persuasion;  for  if  it  begin 
upon  passion  or  fear,  in  imitation  of  others, 
or  desires  of  reputation,  honour,  and  fan- 
tastic principles,  it  will  be  unblessed  and 
weary,  unprosperous,  and  without  return 
of  satisfaction ;  therefore  if  it  happen  to 
begin  upon  a  weak  principle,  be  very 
curious  to  change  the  motive,  and  with  all 
speed  let  it  be  turned  into  religion  and  the 
love  of  holy  things :  then,  let  it  be  as  fre- 
quent as  it  can  prudently,  it  cannot  be 
amiss. 

When  you  are  entered  into  a  state  of 
zealous  prayer,  and  a  regular  devotion, 
whatever  interruption  you  can  meet  with, 
observe  their  causes,  and  be  sure  to  make 
them  irregular,  seldom,  and  contingent,  that 
yotfr  omissions  may  be  seldom  and  casual;, 
as  a  bare  accident;  for  which  no  provisions 
can  be  made  :  for  if  ever  it  come,  that  you 
take  any  thing  habitually  and  constantly 
from  your  prayers,  or  that  you  distract  from 
them  very  frequently,  it  cannot  be  but  you 
t Arist.  Ntpfruu.         !  will  become  troublesome  to  yourself;  your 


Serm.  XIV 


OF  LUKEWAR  MNESS  AND  ZEAL. 


105 


prayers  will  be  uneasy,  they  will  seem  hin-  and  in  the  way  meets  an  indigent  person 
derances  to  your  more  necessary  affairs  of  that  needs  it  all,  may  not  give  it  to  him,  un- 


passion  and  interest,  and  the  things  of  the 
world  :  and  it  will  not  stand  still,  till  it 
comes  to  apostasy,  and  a  direct  dispute  and 


less  he  knows  by  other  means  to  pay  the 
debt ;  but  if  he  can  do  both,  he  hath  his 
liberty  to  lay  out  his  money  for  a  crown. 


contempt  of  holy  things.  For  it  was  an  But  then  in  the  case  of  provision  for  chil- 
oid  rule,  and  of  a  sad  experience,  "  Tepidi-  dren,  our  restraint  is  not  so  easy,  or  discerni- 
tas,  si  callum  obduxerit,  fiet  apostasia :"  ble ;  1.  Because  we  are  not  bound  to 
"  If  your  lukewarmness  be  habitual  and  a  provide  for  them  in  a  certain  portion,  but 
state  of  life,  if  it  once  be  hardened  by  the  may  do  it  by  the  analogies  and  measures  of 
usages  of  many  days,  it  changes  the  whole  |  prudence,  in  which  there  is  a  great  latitude, 
state  of  the  man,  it  makes  him  an  apostate!  2.  Because  our  zeal  of  charity  is  a  good 
to  devotion."  Therefore  be  infinitely  care-  j  portion  for  them,  and  lays  up  a  blessing  for 
ful  in  this  particular,  always  remembering  inheritance.  3.  Because  the  fairest  portions 
the  saying  of  St.  Chrysostom  ;  "  Docendi,  of  charity  are  usually  short  of  such  sums, 
praedicandiofficiaet  alia  cessantsuo  tempore,  which  can  be  considerable  in  the  duty  of 
precandi  autem  nunquam ;"  u  There  are  provision  for  our  children.  4.  If  we  for 
reasons  for  teaching,  and  preaching,  and  them  could  be  content  to  take  any  measure 
other  outward  offices ;  but  prayer  is  the  ;  less  than  all,  any  thing  under  every  thing 
duty  of  all  times,  and  of  all  persons,  and  in  that  we  can,  we  should  find  the  portions  of 
all  contingencies  :  from  other  things,  in  i  the  poor  made  ready  to  our  hands  sufficient- 
many  cases,  we  may  be  excused,  but  from ;  ly  to  minister  to  zeal,  and  yet  not  to  intrench 
prayer  never."    In  this,  therefore,  xahbv  upon  this  case  of  conscience ;  but  the  truth 


^OLff^at,  "  it  is  good  to  be  zealous." 

2.  Concerning  the  second  instance  I 
named,  viz.  To  give  alms  above  our  estate, 
it  is  an  excellent  act  of  zeal,  and  needs  no 


is,  we  are  so  careless,  so  unskilled,  so  un 
studied,  in  religion, — that  we  are  only  glad 
to  make  an  excuse,  and  to  defeat  our  souls 
of  the  reward  of  the  noblest  grace :  we  are 


other  caution  to  make  it  secure  from  illusion ;  contented,  if  we  can  but  make  a  pretence  ; 
and  danger,  but  that  our  egressions  of!  for  we  are  highly  pleased  if  our  conscience 
charity  do  not  prejudice  justice.    See  that !  be  quiet,  and  care  not  so  much  that  our 


your  alms  do  not  other  men  wrong;  and 
let  them  do  what  they  can  to  thyself,  they 
will  never  prejudice  thee  by  their  abun- 
dance ;  but  then  be  also  careful,  that  the 


duty  be  performed,  much  less  that  our  eter- 
nal interest  be  advanced  in  bigger  portions. 
We  care  not,  we  strive  not,  we  think  not, 
of  getting  the  greater  rewards  of  heaven  ; 


pretences  of  justice  do  not  cozen  thyself  of  j  and  he  whose  desires  are  so  indifferent  for 


thy  charity,  and  the  poor  of  thine  alms, 
and  thy  soul  of  the  reward.  He  that  is  in 
debt,  is  not  excused  from  giving  alms  till 
his  debts  are  paid ;  but  only  from  giving 
away  such  portions  which  should  and 
would  pay  them,  and  such  which  he  intend- 
ed should  do  it :  there  are  "  lacernae  divitia- 
rum,"  and  crumbs  from  the  table,  and  the 
gleanings  of  the  harvest,  and  the  scatterings 
of  the  vintage,  which  in  all  estates  are  the 


the  greater,  will  not  take  pains  to  secure  the 
smallest  portion  ;  and  it  is  observable,  that 
£%dzia?os  iv  t§  /3owtet'a,  "  the  least  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,"*  is  as  much  as  otSa$, 
"  as  good  as  none ;"  if  a  man  will  be  con- 
tent with  his  hopes  of  the  lowest  place 
there,  and  will  not  labour  for  something 
beyond  it,  he  does  not  value  it  at  all ;  and  it 
is  ten  to  one,  but  he  will  lose  that  for  which 
he  takes  so  little  pains,  and  is  content  with 
portions  of  the  poor,  which  being  collected  so  easy  a  security.  He, — that  does  bis 
by  the  hand  of  Providence,  and  united  ■  alms,  and  resolves  that  in  no  case  he  will 
wisely,  may  become  considerable  to  the  j  suffer  inconvenience  for  his  brother,  whose 


poor,  and  are  the  necessary  duties  of  chari- 
ty ;  but  beyond  this  also,  every  considerable 
relief  to  the  poor  is  not  a  considerable  di- 
minution to  the  estate;  and  yet  if  it  be,  it  is 


case  it  may  be  is  intolerable, — should  do 
well  to  remember,  that  God,  in  some  cases, 
requires  a  greater  charity;  and  it  may  be, 
we  shall  be  called  to  die  for  the  good  of  our 


not  always  considerable  in  the  accounts  of  i  brother;  and  that  although  it  always  sup- 


justice  ;  for  nothing  ought  to  be  pretended 
against  the  zeal  of  alms,  but  the  certain 
omissions,  or  the  very  probable  retarding 
the  doing  that,  to  which  we  are  otherwise 
obliged.    He  that  is  going  to  pay  a  debt, 

14 


poses  a  zeal,  and  a  holy  fervour,  yet  some- 
times it  is  also  a  duty,  and  we  lose  our  lives 
if  we  go  to  save  them ;  and  so  we  do  with 

*  Matt.  v.  16. 


106 


OF  LUKEWARMN 


ESS  AND  ZEAL.      Serm.  XIV. 


our  estates,  when  we  are  such  good  hus- 
bands in  our  religion,  that  we  will  serve  all 
our  own  conveniences  before  the  great 
needs  of  a  hungry  and  afflicted  brother, 
God  oftentimes  takes  from  us  that  which 
with  so  much  curiosity  we  would  preserve, 
and  then  we  lose  our  money  and  our  reward 
too. 

3.  Hither  is  to  be  reduced  the  accepting 
and  choosing  the  counsels  evangelical :  the 
virgin  or  widow  estate  in  order  to  religion  : 
selling  all,  and  giving  it  to  the  poor :  making 
ourselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  :  offering  ourselves  to  death  volun- 
tarily, in  exchange  or  redemption  of  the 
life  of  a  most  useful  person,  as  "  Aquila 
and  Priscilla,  who  ventured  their  lives  for 
St.  Paul:"  the  zeal  of  souls:  St.  Paul's 
preaching  to  the  Corinthian  church  without 
wages  :  remitting  of  r  ights  and  forgiving  of 
debts,  when  the  obliged  person  could  pay, 
but  not  without  much  trouble  :  protection 
of  calamitous  persons  with  hazard  of  our 
own  interest  and  a  certain  trouble  ;  concern- 
ing which  and  all  other  acts  of  zeal,  we  are 
to  observe  the  following  measures,  by  which 
our  zeal  will  become  safe  and  holy,  and  by 
them  also  we  shall  perceive  the  excesses  of 
zeal,  and  its  inordinations  :  which  is  the 
next  thing  I  am  to  consider. 

1 .  The  first  measure,  by  which  our  zeal 
may  comply  with  our  duty,  and  its  actions 
become  laudable,  is  charity  to  our  neigh- 
bour. For  since  God  receives  all  that  glori- 
fication of  himself,  whereby  we  can  serve 
and  minister  to  his  glory,  reflected  upon  the 
foundation  of  his  own  goodness,  and  bounty, 
and  mercy,  and  all  the  hallelujahs  that  are 
or  ever  shall  be  sung  in  heaven,  are  praises 
and  thanksgivings ;  and  that  God  himself 
does  not  receive  glory  from  the  acts  of  his 
justice,  but  then  when  his  creatures  will 
not  rejoice  in  his  goodness  and  mercy  ;  it 
follows  that  we  imitate  this  original  excel- 
lency, and  pursue  God's  own  method  ;  that 
is,  glorify  him  "  in  via  misericordite,"  "  in 
the  way  of  mercy"  and  bounty,  charity  and 
forgiveness,  love  and  fair  compliances : 
there  is  no  greater  charity  in  the  world 
than  to  save  a  soul,  nothing  that  pleases 
God  better,  nothing  that  can  be  in  our 
hands  greater  or  more  noble,  nothing  that 
can  be  a  more  lasting  and  delightful  honour, 
than  that  a  perishing  soul, — snatched  from 
the  flames  of  an  intolerable  hell,  and  borne 
to  heaven  upon  the  wings  of  piety  and 
mercy  by  the  ministry  of  angels,  and  the 
graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit, — shall  to  eternal 


ages  bless  God  and  bless  thee ;  Him,  for 
the  author  and  finisher  of  salvation,  and 
thee  for  the  minister  and  charitable  instru- 
ment :  that  bright  star  must  needs  look 
pleasantly  upon  thy  face  for  ever,  which  was 
by  thy  hand  placed  there,  and,  had  it  not  been 
for  thy  ministry,  might  have  been  a  sooty 
coal  in  the  regions  of  sorrow.  Now,  in 
order  to  this,  God  hath  given  us  all  some 
powers  and  ministries,  by  which  we  may 
by  our  charity  promote  this  religion,  and 
the  great  interest  of  souls  :  counsels  and 
prayers,  preaching  and  writing,  passionate 
desires  and  fair  examples,  going  before 
others  in  the  way  of  godliness,  and  bearing 
the  torch  before  them,  that  they  may  see 
the  way  and  walk  in  it.  This  is  a  charity, 
that  is  prepared  more  or  less  for  every  one  ; 
and,  by  the  way,  we  should  do  well  to  con- 
sider, what  we  have  done  towards  it.  For 
as  it  will  be  a  strange  arrest  at  the  day  of 
judgment  to  Dives,  that  he  fed  high  and 
suffered  Lazarus  to  starve,  and  every  gar- 
ment,— that  lies  by  thee  and  perishes, 
while  thy  naked  brother  does  so  too  for 
want  of  it, — shall  be  a  bill  of  indictment 
against  thy  unmerciful  soul;  so  it  will  be 
in  every  instance  :  in  what  thou  couldst 
profit  thy  brother  and  didst  not,  thou  art  ac- 
countable ;  and  then  tell  over  the  times,  in 
which  thou  hast  prayed  for  the  conversion 
of  thy  sinning  brother ;  and  compare  the 
times  together,  and  observe,  whether  thou 
hast  not  tempted  him  or  betrayed  him  to 
sin,  or  encouraged  him  in  it,  or  didst  not 
hinder  him,  when  thou  mightest,  more  fre- 
quently than  thou  hast,  humbly,  and  pas- 
sionately, and  charitably,  and  zealously, 
bowed  thy  head,  and  thy  heart,  and  knees, 
to  God  to  redeem  that  poor  soul  from  hell, 
whither  thou  seest  him  descending  with  as 
much  indifferency  as  a  stone  into  the  bot- 
tom of  the  well.  In  this  thing  xofoov  fy%ovo$at, 
"  it  is  a  good  thing  to  be  zealous,"  and  put 
forth  all  your  strength,  for  you  can  never 
go  too  far.  But  then  be  careful,  that  this 
zeal  of  thy  neighbour's  amendment  be  only 
expressed  in  ways  of  charity,  not  of  cruelty, 
or  importune  justice.  "  He  that  strikes  the 
prince  for  justice,"  as  Solomon's  expression 
is,  "  is  a  companion  of  murderers  ;"  and  he 
that,  out  of  zeal  of  religion,  shall  go  to 
convert  nations  to  his  opinion  by  destroying 
Christians,  whose  faith  is  entire  and  sum- 
med up  by  the  apostles,  this  man  breaks 
the  ground  with  a  sword,  and  sows  tares, 
and  waters  the  ground  with  blood,  and 
ministers  to  envy  and  cruelty,  to  errors  and 


Serm.XIV.      of  lukewarmness  AND  ZEAL.  107 


mistake,  and  there  comes  up  nothing  but 
poppies  to  please  the  eye  and  fancy,  dis- 
putes and  hypocrisy,  new  summaries  of 
religion  estimated  by  measures  of  anger, 
and  accursed  principles ;  and  so  much  of 
religion  as  is  necessary  to  salvation,  is  laid 
aside,  and  that  brought  forth  that  serves  an 
interest,  not  holiness ;  that  fills  the  schools 
of  a  proud  man,  but  not  that  which  will  fill 
heaven.  Any  zeal  is  proper  for  religion, 
but  the  zeal  of  the  sword  and  the  zeal  of 
anger ;  this  is  ttixpia  ^tj^ou,  "  the  bitterness 
of  zeal  ;"*  and  it  is  a  certain  temptation  to 
every  man  against  his  duty :  for  if  the 
sword  turns  preacher,  and  dictates  proposi- 
tions by  empire  instead  of  arguments,  and 
engraves  them  in  men's  hearts  with  a  poni- 
ard, that  it  shall  be  death  to  believe  what  I 
innocently  and  ignorantly  am  persuaded  of, 
it  must  needs  be  unsafe  to  "  try  the  spirits, 
to  try  all  things,"  to  make  inquiry ;  and  yet 
without  this  liberty,  no  man  can  justify 
himself  before  God  and  man,  nor  confidently 
say  that  his  religion  is  best:  since  he  cannot 
without  a  final  danger  make  himself  able  to 
give  a  right  sentence,  and  to  follow  that 
which  he  finds  to  be  the  best ;  this  may  ruin 
souls  by  making  hypocrites,  or  careless  and 
complian.  against  conscience  or  without  it: 
but  it  does  not  save  souls,  though  perad- 
venture  it  s'nould  force  them  to  a  good 
opinion  :  this  is  inordination  of  zeal ;  for 
Christ, — by  reproving  St.  Peter,  drawing 
his  sword,  even  in  the  cause  of  Christ,  for 
his  sacred, and  yet  injured  person,  dtSdixat,  firj 
^prsbou  juofcowpa  xav  tov  0f6v  hoxd  tl$  ixbixnv, 
(saith  Theophylact,) — "teaches  us  not  to 
use  the  sword  though  in  the  cause  of  God, 
or  for  God  himself ;"  because  he  will  secure 
his  own  interest,  only  let  him  be  served  as 
himself  is  pleased  to  command  :  and  it  is 
like  Moses'  passion,  it  throws  the  tables  of 
the  law  out  of  our  hands,  and  breaks  them 
in  pieces  out  of  indignation  to  see  them 
broken.  This  is  zeal  that  is  now  in  fashion, 
and  hath  almost  spoiled  religion ;  men, 
like  the  zealots  of  the  Jews,  cry  up  their 
sect,  and  in  it  their  interest:  fyhovai  /t«x^raj, 
xcu  /ua^cu'pas  aiuavpovtaa ;  "  they  affect  disciples 
and  fight  against  the  opponents;"  and  we 
shall  find  in  Scripture,  that  when  the 
apostles  began  to  preach  the  meekness  of 
the  Christian  institution,  salvations  and 
promises,  charity  and  humility,  there  was  a 
zeal  set  up  against  them;  the  apostles  were 
zealous  for  the  gospel,  the  Jews  were  zeal- 

*  James  iii.  14. 


ous  for  the  law  :  and  see  what  different 
effects  these  two  zeals  did  produce;  the  zeal 
of  the  law  came  to  this,  t^opv3ow  ftp  7t6ut>, 
and  tS(,wljai>  /xtzpi  ^avarov,  and  diawpovrat,  and 
ox^oTioLr^avtti,  "  they  stirred  up  the  city,  they 
made  tumults,  they  persecuted  this  way 
unto  the  death,  they  got  letters  from  the  high 
priest,  they  kept  Damascus  with  a  gar- 
rison," they  sent  parties  of  soldiers,  to 
silence  and  to  imprison  the  preachers,  and 
thought  they  did  God  service,  when  they 
put  the  apostles  to  death,  and  they  swore 
"neither  to  eat  nor  to  drink,  till  they  had 
killed  Paul."  It  was  an  old  trick  of  the 
Jewish  zeal, 

Non  monstrare  vias,  eadem  nisi  sacra  colenti : 
Quaositum  ad  fontem  solos  deducere  verpos.  Juv. 

They  would  not  show  the  way  to  a  Samari- 
tan, nor  give  a  cup  of  cold  water  but  to  a 
circumcised  brother;  that  was  their  zeal- 
But  the  zeal  of  the  apostles  was  this,  they 
preached  publicly  and  privately,  they  prayed 
for  all  men,  they  wept  to  God  for  the  hard- 
ness of  men's  hearts,  they  "became  all  things 
to  all  men,  that  they  might  gain  some," 
they  travelled  through  deeps  and  deserts, 
they  endured  the  heat  of  the  Sirian  star,  and 
the  violence  of  Euroclydon,  winds  and 
tempests,  seas  and  prisons,  mockings  and 
scourgings,  fastings  and  poverty,  labour 
and  watching,  they  endured  every  man  and 
wronged  no  man,  they  would  do  any  good 
thing  and  suffer  any  evil,  if  they  had  but 
hopes  to  prevail  upon  a  soul;  they  per- 
suaded men  meekly,  they  entreated  them 
humbly,  they  convinced  them  powerfully, 
they  watched  fo-r  their  good,  but  meddled 
not  with  their  interest ;  and  this  is  the 
Christian  zeal,  the  zeal  of  meekness,  the 
j  zeal  of  charity,  the  zeal  of  patience,  iv 
tovtois  xaiJov  ^Xot-ff^at,  "In  these  it  is  good 
to  be  zealous,"  for  you  can  never  go  far 
enough. 

2.  The  next  measure  of  zeal  is  prudence. 
For,  as  charity  is  the  matter  of  zeal ;  so  is 

|  discretion  the  manner.  It  must  always  be 
for  good  to  our  neighbour,  and  there  need 

;  no  rules  for  the  conducting  of  that,  pro- 
vided the  end  be  consonant  to  the  design, 

|  that  is,  that  charity  be  intended,  and  charity 
be  done.  But  there  is  a  zeal  also  of  re- 
ligion or  worshipping,  and  this  hath  more 
need  of  measures  and  proper  cautions. 
For  religion  can  turn  into  a  snare;  it  may 
be  abused  into  superstition,  it  may  become 
weariness  in  the  spirit,  and  tempt  to  tedious- 
ness,  to  hatred,  and  despair :  and  many- 
persons,  through  their  indiscreet  conduct, 


108 


OF  LUKEWARMN 


ESS  AND  ZEAL. 


Serm.  XIV. 


and  furious  marches,  and  great  loads  taken 
upon  tender  shoulders  and  inexperienced, 
have  come  to  be  perfect  haters  of  their  joy, 
and  despisers  of  all  their  hopes ;  being  like 
dark  lanterns,  in  which  a  candle  burns 
bright,  but  the  body  is  encompassed  with 
a  crust  and  a  dark  cloud  of  iron  ;  and  these 
men  keep  the  fires  and  light  of  holy  pro- 
positions within  them,  but  the  darkness  of 
hell,  the  hardness  of  a  vexed  heart,  hath 
shaded  all  the  light,  and  makes  it  neither 
apt  to  warm  nor  to  enlighten  others,  but  it 
turns  to  fire  within,  a  fever  and  a  distemper 
dwell  there,  and  religion  is  become  their 
torment. 

1.  Therefore  our  zeal  must  never  carry 
us  beyond  that  which  is  profitable.  There 
are  many  institutions,  customs,  and  usages, 
introduced  into  religion  upon  very  fair 
motives,  and  adapted  to  great  necessities ; 
but  to  imitate  those  things,  when  they  are 
disrobed  of  their  proper  ends,  is  an  impor- 
tune zeal,  and  signifies  nothing  but  a  fro- 
ward  mind,  and  an  easy  heart,  and  an  im- 
prudent head ;  unless  these  actions  can  be 
invested  with  other  ends  and  useful  pur- 
poses. The  primitive  church  were  strangely 
inspired  with  a  zeal  of  virginity,  in  order  to 
the  necessities  of  preaching  and  travelling, 
and  easing  the  troubles  and  temptations  of 
persecution ;  but  when  the  necessity  went 
on,  and  drove  the  holy  men  into  deserts, 
that  made  colleges  of  religious,  and  their 
manner  of  life  was  such,  so  united,  so  poor, 
so  dressed,  that  they  must  love  ft  more  non 
seculari,"  "after  the  manner  of  men  di- 
vorced from  the  usual  intercourses  of  the 
world  still  their  desire  of  single  life  in- 
creased, because  the  old  necessity  lasted, 
and  a  new  one  did  supervene.  Afterwards 
the  case  was  altered,  and  then  the  single 
life  was  not  to  be  chosen  for  itself,  nor  yet 
in  imitation  of  the  first  precedents;  for  it 
could  not  be  taken  out  from  their  circum- 
stances and  be  used  alone.  He  therefore 
that  thinks  he  is  a  more  holy  person  for 
being  a  virgin  or  a  widower,  or  that  he  is 
bound  to  be  so  because  they  were  so ;  or 
that  he  cannot  be  a  religious  person  because 
he  is  not  so :  hath  zeal  indeed,  but  not 
according  to  knowledge.  But  now  if  the 
single  state  can  be  taken  out  and  put  to 
new  appendages,  and  fitted  to  the  end  of 
another  grace  or  essential  duty  of  religion, 
it  will  well  become  a  Christian  zeal  to 
choose  it  so  long,  as  it  can  serve  the  end 
with  advantage  and  security.  Thus  also  a 
zealous  person  is  to  choose  his  fastings, 


while  they  are  necessary  to  him,  and  are 
acts  of  proper  mortification,  while  he  is 
tempted,  or  while  he  is  under  discipline, 
while  he  repents,  or  while  he  obeys;  but 
some  persons  fast  in  zeal,  but  for  nothing 
else ;  fast  when  they  have  no  need,  when 
there  is  need  they  should  not;  but  call  it 
religion  to  be  miserable  or  sick ;  here  their 
zeal  is  folly,  for  it  is  neither  an  act  of  re- 
ligion nor  of  prudence,  to  fast  when  fasting 
probably  serves  no  end  of  the  spirit;  and 
therefore  in  the  fasting-days  of  the  church, 
although  it  is  warrant  enough  to  us  to  fast, 
if  we  had  no  end  to  serve  in  it  but  the  mere 
obedience,  yet  it  is  necessary  that  the  su- 
periors should  not  think  the  law  obeyed, 
unless  the  end  of  the  first  institution  be 
observed :  a  fasting-day  is  a  day  of  humilia- 
tion and  prayer ;  and  fasting  being  nothing 
itself,  but  wholly  the  handmaid  of  a  fur- 
ther grace,  ought  not  to  be  divested  of  its 
holiness  and  sanctification,  and  left  like  the 
walls  of  a  ruinous  church  where  there  is  no 
duty  performed  to  God,  but  there  remains 
something  of  that,  which  used  to  minister 
to  religion.  The  want  of  this  consideration 
hath  caused  so  much  scandal  and  dispute, 
so  many  snares  and  schisms,  concerning 
ecclesiastical  fasts.  For  when  it  was  un- 
dressed and  stripped  of  all  the  ornaments 
and  useful  appendages,  when  from  a  solemn 
day  it  grew  to  be  common ;  from  thence  to 
be  less  devout  by  being  less  seldom  and  less 
useful ;  and  then  it  passed  from  a  day  of 
religion  to  be  a  day  of  order,  and  from  fast- 
ing till  night  to  fasting  till  evening-song, 
and  evening-song  to  be  sung  about  twelve 
o'clock  ;  and  from  fasting  it  was  changed  to 
a  choice  of  food,  from  eating  .nothing  to 
eating  fish,  and  that  the  latter  began  to  be 
stood  upon,  and  no  usefulness  remained  but 
what  every  one  of  his  own  piety  should  put 
into  it,  but  nothing  was  enjoined  by  the 
law,  nothing  of  that  exacted  by  the  supe- 
riors, then  the  law  fell  into  disgrace,  and 
the  design  became  suspected,  and  men  were 
first  insnared  and  then  scandalized,  and  then 
began  to  complain  without  remedy,  and  at 
last  took  remedy  themselves  without  au- 
thority ;  the  whole  affair  fell  into  a  disorder 
and  mischief;  and  zeal  was  busy  on  both 
sides,  and  on  both  sides  was  mistaken, 
because  they  fell  not  upon  the  proper  re- 
medy, which  was  to  reduce  the  law  to  the 
usefulness  and  advantages  of  its  first  in- 
tention. But  this  I  intended  not  to  have 
spoken. 

2.  Our  zeal  must  never  carry  us  beyond 


8mm.  XIV.       OF  LUKEWARMNESS  AND  ZEAL.  109 


that  which  is  safe.  Some  there  are,  who 
in  their  first  attempts  and  entries  upon  re- 
ligion, while  the  passion,  that  brought 
them  in,  remains,  undertake  things  as 
great  as  their  highest  thoughts;  no  repent- 
ance is  sharp  enough,  no  charities  expen- 
sive enough,  no  fastings  afflictive  enough, 
then  "  totis  quinquatribus  orant ;"  and  find- 
ing some  deliciousness  at  the  first  contest, 
and  in  that  activity  of  their  passion,  they 
make  vows  to  bind  themselves  for  ever  to 
this  state  of  delicacies.  The  onset  is  fair : 
but  the  event  is  this.  The  age  of  a  passion 
is  not  long,  and  the  flatulent  spirit  being 
breathed  out,  the  man  begins  to  abate  of  his 
first  heats,  and  is  ashamed  :  but  then  he 
considers  that  all  that  was  not  necessary, 
and  therefore  he  will  abate  something  more ; 
and  from  something  to  something,  at  last  it 
will  come  to  just  nothing,  and  the  proper 
effect  of  this  is,  indignation,  and  hatred  of 
holy  things,  an  impudent  spirit,  careless- 
ness or  despair.  Zeal  sometimes  carries  a 
man  into  temptation ;  and  he  that  never 
thinks  he  loves  God  dutifully  or  acceptably, 
because  he  is  not  imprisoned  for  him  or  un- 
done, or  designed  to  martyrdom,  may  desire 
a  trial  that  will  undo  him.  It  is  like  fight- 
ing of  a  duel  to  show  our  valour.  Stay  till 
the  king  commands  you  to  fight  and  die, 
and  then  let  zeal  do  its  noblest  offices. 
This  irregularity  and  mistake  was  too  fre- 
quent in  the  primitive  church,  when  men 
and  women  would  strive  for  death,  and  be 
ambitious  to  feel  the  hangman's  sword ; 
some  miscarried  in  the  attempt,  and  became 
sad  examples  of  the  unequal  yoking  a  frail 
spirit  with  a  zealous  driver. 

3.  Let  zeal  never  transport  us  to  attempt 
any  thing  but  what  is  possible.  M.  Teresa 
made  a  vow,  that  she  would  do  always  that, 
which  was  absolutely  the  best.  But  neither 
could  her  understanding  always  tell  her 
which  was  so,  nor  her  will  always  have 
the  same  fervours  ;  and  it  must  often  breed 
scruples,  and  sometimes  tediousness,  and 
wishes  that  the  vow  were  unmade.  He  that 
vows  never  to  have  an  ill  thought,  never  to 
commit  an  error,  hath  taken  a  course,  that 
his  little  infirmities  shall  become  crimes, 
and  certainly  be  imputed  by  changing  his 
unavoidable  infirmity  into  vow-breach. 
Zeal  is  a  violence  to  a  man's  spirit,  and 
unless  the  spirit  be  secured  by  the  proper 
nature  of  the  duty,  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  action,  and  the  possibilities  of  the 
man  ;  it  is  like  a  great  fortune  in  the  mean- 
est person,  it  bears  him  beyond  his  limit, 


and  breaks  him  into  dangers  and  passions, 
transportations  and  all  the  furies  of  disorder, 

jthat  can  happen  to  an  abused  person. 

4.  Zeal  is  not  safe,  unless  it  be  "  in  re 
probabili "  too,  it  must  be  "  in  a  likely  mat- 
ter." For  we  that  find  so  many  excuses  to 
untie  all  our  just  obligations,  and  distinguish 
our  duty  into  so  much  fineness,  that  it  be- 
comes like  leaf-gold,  apt  to  be  gone  at  every 
breath ;  it  cannot  be  prudent  that  we  zeal- 
ously undertake  what  is  not  probable  to  be 
effected  :  if  we  do,  the  event  can  be  no- 
thing but  portions  of  the  former  evil, 
scruple  and  snares,  shameful  retreats  and 

I  new  fantastic  principles.  In  all  our  under- 
takings Ave  must  consider  what  is  our  state 
of  life,  what  our  natural  inclinations,  what 
is  our  society,  and  what  are  our  dependen- 

,  cies ;  by  what  necessities  we  are  borne 
down,  by  what  hopes  we  are  biassed;  and 

>  by  these  let  us  measure  our  heats  and  their 
proper  business.    A  zealous  man  runs  up  a 

j  sandy  hill ;  the  violence  of  motion  is  his 

greatest  hinderance  :  and  a  passion  in  reli- 

1  gion  destrovs  as  much  of  our  evenness  of 
•  •  • 

spirit,  as  it  sets  forward  any  outward  work  ; 
land  therefore,  although  it  be  a  good  circum- 
stance and  degree  of  a  spiritual  duty,  so 
:long  as  it  is  within,  and  relative  to  God 
'and  ourselves,  so  long  it  is  a  holy  flame; 
jbut  if  it  be  in  an  outward  duty,  or  relative 
i  to  our  neighbours,  or  in  an  instance  not 
|  necessary,  it  sometimes  spoils  the  action, 
and  always  endangers  it.    But  I  must  re- 
member, we  live  in  an  age  in  which  men 
have  more  need  of  new  fires  to  be  kindled 
I  within  them  and  round  about  them,  than  of 
I  any  thing  to  allay  their  forwardness  :  there 
i  is  little  or  no  zeal  now  but  the  zeal  of  envy, 
land  killing  as  many  as  they  can,  and  damn- 
i  ing  more  than  they  can ;  rtvpcous  and  xartvbs 
s  ,Ti;pu>5£cos,     smoke  and  lurking  fires,"  do 
corrode  and  secretly  consume:  therefore 
jthis  discourse  is  less  necessary.    A  physi- 
cian would  have  but  small  emplovmenl 
near  the  Riphaean  mountains,  if  he  could 
cure  nothing  but  calentures ;  catarrhs,  and 
dead  palsies,  colds  and  consumptions,  are 
their  evils,  and  so  is  lukewarmness  and  dead- 
ness  of  spirit  the  proper  maladies  of  our 
age  :  for  though  some  are  hot  when  they 
are  mistaken,  yet  men  are  cold  in  a  righte- 
ous cause ;  and  the  nature  of  this  evil  is  to 
be  insensible ;  and  the  men  are  farther  from 
a  cure,  because  they  neither  feel  their  evil 
nor  perceive  their  danger.    But  of  this  I 
have  already  given  account;  and  to  it  I 
shall  only  add  what  an  old  spiritual  person 
K 


110  THE  HOUSE  OP  FEASTING.  Serm.  XV. 


told  a  novice  in  religion,  asking  him  the  I 
cause  why  he  so  frequently  suffered  tedi- 
ousness  in  his  religious  offices  ;  "  Nondum 
vidisti  requiem  quam  speramus,  nec  tor- 
menta  quce  timemus  — "  Young  man, 
thou  hast  not  seen  the  glories  which  are 
laid  up  for  the  zealous  and  devout,  nor  yet 
beheld  the  flames  which  are  prepared  for 
the  lukewarm,  and  the  haters  of  strict  de- 
votion." But  the  Jews  tell,  that  Adam 
having  seen  the  beauties  and  tasted  the  deli- 
cacies of  paradise,  repented  and  mourned 
upon  the  Indian  mountains  for  three  hun- 
dred years  together :  and  we  who  have  a 
great  share  in  the  cause  of  his  sorrows,  can 
by  nothing  be  invited  to  a  persevering,  a 
great,  a  passionate  religion,  more  than  by 
remembering  what  he  lost,  and  what  is  laid 
up  for  them  whose  hearts  are  burning 
lamps,  and  are  all  on  fire  with  Divine  love, 
whose  flames  are  fanned  with  the  wings  of 
the  Holy  Dove,  and  whose  spirits  shine 
and  burn  with  that  fire  which  the  Holy 
Jesus  came  to  enkindle  upon  the  earth. 


SERMON  XV. 

THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING;  OR,  THE 
EPICURE'S  MEASURES. 

PART  I. 

Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die. — 
1  Cor.  xv.  32.  last  part. 

This  is  the  epicure's  proverb,  begun  upon 
a  weak  mistake,  started  by  chance  from  the 
discourses  of  drink,  and  thought  witty  by 
the  undiscerning  company,  and  prevailed 
infinitely,  because  it  struck  their  fancy 
luckily,  and  maintained  the  merry  meeting ; 
but  as  it  happens  commonly  to  such  dis- 
courses, so  this  also,  when  it  comes  to  be 
examined  by  the  consultations  of  the  morn- 
ing, and  the  sober  hours  of  the  day,  it  seems 
the  most  witless  and  the  most  unreasonable 
in  the  world.  When  Seneca  describes  the 
spare  diet  of  Epicurus  and  Metrodorus,  he 
uses  this  expression:  "  Liberaliora  sunt 
alimenta  carceris :  sepositos  ad  capitale 
supplicium,  non  tarn  anguste,  qui  occisurus 
est,  pascit:"  "The  prison  keeps  a  better 
table  ;  and  he  that  is  to  kill  the  criminal  to- 
morrow-morning, gives  him  a  better  supper 
overnight."  By  this  he  intended  to  repre- 
sent his  meal  to  be  very  short ;  for  as  dying 
persons  have  but  little  stomach  to  feast 
high,  so  thev  that  mean  to  cut  their  throat, 


will  think  it  a  vain  expense  to  please  it  with 
delicacies,  which,  after  the  first  alteration, 
must  be  poured  upon  the  ground,  and 
looked  upon  as  the  worst  part  of  the  ac- 
cursed thing.  And  there  is  also  the  same 
proportion  of  unreasonableness,  that  be- 
cause men  shall  "  die  to-morrow,"  and  by 
the  sentence  and  unalterable  decree  of  God 
they  are  now  descending  to  their  graves, 
that  therefore  they  should  first  destroy  their 
reason,  and  then  force  dull  times  to  run 
faster,  that  they  may  die  sottish  as  beasts, 
and  speedily  as  a  fly:  but  they  thought 
there  was  no  life  after  this;  or  if  there 
were,  it  was  without  pleasure,  and  every 
soul  thrust  into  a  hole,  and  a  dorter  of  a 
span's  length  allowed  for  his  rest  and  for 
his  walk;  and  in  the  shades  below  no  num- 
bering of  healths  by  the  numeral  letters  of 
Philenium's  name,  no  fat  mullets,  no 
oysters  of  Lucrinus,  no  Lesbian  or  Chian 
Wines.  Tovt'o  cra^wj,  dvflpcortf,  fia9uv  t-vfypaive 
nsavtov.  Therefore  now  enjoy  the  delicacies 
of  nature,  and  feel  the  descending  wines  dis- 
tilling through  the  limbeck  of  thy  tongue 
and  larynx,  and  suck  the  delicious  juice  of 
fishes,  the  marrow  of  the  laborious  ox,  and 
the  tender  lard  of  Apulian  swine,  and  the 
condited  bellies  of  the  scarus ;  but  lose  no 
time,  for  the  sun  drives  hard,  and  the 
shadow  is  long,  and  "  the  days  of  mourning 
are  at  hand,"  but  the  number  of  the  days 
of  darkness  and  the  grave  cannot  be  told. 

Thus  they  thought  they  discoursed  wisely, 
and  their  wisdom  was  turned  into  folly;  for 
all  their  arts  of  providence,  and  witty  secu- 
rities of  pleasure,  were  nothing  but  unman- 
ly prologues  to  death,  fear  and  folly,  sensu- 
ality and  beastly  pleasures.  But  they  are 
to  be  excused  rather  than  we.  They  placed 
themselves  in  the  order  of  beasts  and  birds, 
and  esteemed  their  bodies  nothing  but 
receptacles  of  flesh  and  wine,  larders  and 
pantries;  and  their  soul  the  fine  instrument 
of  pleasure  and  brisk  perception  of  relishes 
and  gusts,  reflections  and  duplications  of 
delight;  and  therefore  they  treated  them- 
selves accordingly.  But  then,  why  we 
should  do  the  same  things,  who  are  led  by 
other  principles,  and  a  more  severe  institu- 
tion, and  better  notices  of  immortality,  who 
understand  what  shall  happen  to  a  soul 
hereafter,  and  know  that  this  time  is  but  a 
passage  to  eternity,  this  body  but  a  servant 
to  the  soul,  this  soul  a  minister  to  the  Spirit, 
and  the  whole  man  in  order  to  God  and  to 
felicity ;  this,  I  say,  is  more  unreasonable 
than  to  eat  aconita  to  preserve  our  health, 


Serm.  XV. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


Ill 


and  to  enter  into  the  flood  that  we  may  die 
a  dry  death ;  this  is  a  perfect  contradiction 
to  the  state  of  good  things,,  whither  we  are 
designed,  and  to  all  the  principles  of  a  wise 
philosophy,  whereby  we  are  instructed  that 
we  may  become  "wise  unto  salvation." 
That  I  may  therefore  do  some  assistances 
towards  the  curing  the  miseries  of  mankind, 
and  reprove  the  follies  and  improper  mo- 
tions towards  felicity,  I  shall  endeavour  to 
represent  to  you — 

1.  That  plenty  and  the  pleasures  of  the 
world  are  no  proper  instruments  of  felicity. 

2.  That  intemperance  is  a  certain  enemy 
to  it;  making  life  unpleasant,  and  death 
troublesome  and  intolerable. 

3.  I  shall  add  the  rules  and  measures  of 
temperance  in  eating  and  drinking,  that 
nature  and  grace  may  join  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  man's  felicity. 

L  Plenty  and  the  pleasures  of  the  world 
are  no  proper  instruments  of  felicity.  It  is 
necessary  that  a  man  have  some  violence 
done  to  himself,  before  he  can  receive  them ; 
for  nature's  bounds  are,  <fnon  esurire,  non 
sitire,  non  algere,"  "  to  be  quit  from  hunger, 
and  thirst,  and  cold,"  that  is,  to  have  no- 
thing upon  us  that  puts  us  to  pain  ;  against 
which  she  hath  made  provisions  by  the 
fleece  of  the  sheep,  and  the  skins  of  the 
beasts,  by  the  waters  of  the  fountain,  and 
the  herbs  of  the  field,  and  of  these  no  good 
man  is  destitute,  for  that  share  that  he  can 
need  to  fill  those  appetites  and  necessities, 
he  cannot  otherwise  avoid ;  tw  apxovvtw 
ov8d$  rtivris  stitil.  For  it  is  unimaginable 
that  nature  should  be  a  mother,  natural  and 
indulgent  to  the  beasts  of  the  forest,  and 
the  spawn  of  fishes,  to  every  plant  and 
fungus,  to  cats  and  owls,  to  moles  and  bats, 
making  her  storehouses  always  to  stand 
open  to  them ;  and  that,  for  the  Lord  of  all 
these,  even  to  the  noblest  of  her  produc- 
tions, she  should  have  made  no  provisions, 
and  only  produced  in  us  appetites  sharp  as 
the  stomach  of  wolves,  troublesome  as  the 
tiger's  hunger,  and  then  run  away,  leaving 
art  and  chance,  violence  and  study  to  feed 
us  and  to  clothe  us.  This  is  so  far  from 
truth,  that  we  are  certainly  more  provided 
for  by  nature  than  all  the  world  besides ; 
for  every  thing  can  minister  to  us ;  and  we 
can  pass  into  none  of  nature's  cabinets,  but 
we  can  find  our  table  spread ;  so  that  what 
David  said  to  God,  "  Whither  shall  I  go 
from  thy  presence?  If  I  go  to  heaven, 
thou  art  there ;  if  I  descend  to  the  deep, 
thou  art  there  also ;  if  I  take  the  wings  of 


the  morning,  and  flee  into  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  wilderness,  even  there  thou 
wilt  find  me  out,  and  thy  right  hand  shall 
uphold  me,"  we  may  say  it  concerning  our 
table,  and  our  wardrobe ;  if  we  go  into  the 
fields,  we  find  them  tilled  by  the  mercies  of 
heaven,  and  watered  with  showers  from 
God  to  feed  us,  and  to  clothe  us  ;  if  we  go 
down  into  the  deep,  there  God  hath  multi- 
plied our  stores,  and  filled  a  magazine 
which  no  hunger  can  exhaust;  the  air 
drops  down  delicacies,  and  the  wilderness 
can  sustain  us,  and  all  that  is  in  nature, 
that  which  feeds  lions,  and  that  which  the 
ox  eats,  that  which  the  fishes  live  upon, 
and  that  which  is  the  provision  for  the 
birds,  all  that  can  keep  us  alive ;  and  if  we 
consider  that  of  the  beasts  and  birds,  for 
whom  nature  hath  provided  but  one  dish, 
it  may  be  flesh  or  fish,  or  herbs  or  flies,  and 
these  also  we  secure  with  guards  from 
them,  and  drive  away  birds  and  beasts  from 
that  provision  which  nature  made  for  them, 
yet  seldom  can  we  find  that  any  of  these 
perish  with  hunger  ;  much  rather  shall  we 
find  that  we  are  secured  by  the  securities 
proper  for  the  more  noble  creatures  by  that 
Providence  that  disposes  all  things,  by  that 
mercy  that  gives  us  all  things,  which  to 
other  creatures  are  ministered  singly ;  by 
that  labour,  that  can  procure  what  we  need ; 
by  that  wisdom,  that  can  consider  concern- 
ing future  necessities ;  by  that  power,  that 
can  force  it  from  inferior  creatures;  and 
by  that  temperance,  which  can  fit  our  meat 
to  our  necessities.  For  if  we  go  beyond 
what  is  needful,  as  we  find  sometimes  more 
than  was  promised,  and  very  often  more 
than  we  need,  so  we  disorder  the  certainty 
of  our  felicity,  by  putting  that  to  hazard 
which  nature  hath  secured.  For  it  is  not 
certain,  that  if  we  desire  to  have  the  wealth 
of  Susa,  or  garments  stained  with  the  blood 
of  the  Tyrian  fish,  that  if  we  desire  to  feed 
like  Philoxenus,  or  to  have  tables  loaden 
like  the  boards  of  Vitellius,  that  we  shall 
never  want.  It  is  not  nature  that  desires 
these  things,  but  lust  and  violence ;  and  by 
a  disease  we  entered  into  the  passion  and 
the  necessity,  and  in  that  state  of  trouble  it 
is  likely  we  may  dwell  for  ever,  unless  we 
reduce  our  appetites  to  nature's  measures. 

Si  ventri  bene,  si  lateri  est  pedibusque  tuis,  nil 
Divitiae  poterunt  regales  addere  majus. — Horace. 

And  therefore  it  is,  that  plenty  and  pleasures 
are  not  the  proper  instruments  of  felicity. 
Because  felicity  is  not  a  jewel  that  can  be 


112  THE  HOUSE  O 


F  FEASTING. 


Serm.  XV. 


locked  in  one  man's  cabinet.  God  intended 
that  all  men  should  be  made  happy,  and  he, 
that  gave  to  all  men  the  same  natural 
desires,  and  to  all  men  provision  of  satis- 
factions by  the  same  meats  and  drinks,  in- 
tended, that  it  should  not  go  beyond  that 
measure  of  good  things,  which  corresponds 
to  those  desires  which  all  men  naturally 
have. 

He  that  cannot  be  satisfied  with  common 
provision,  hath  a  bigger  need  than  he  that 
can ;  it  is  harder,  and  more  contingent,  and 
more  difficult,  and  more  troublesome  for 
him  to  be  satisfied ;  j3pi>a£o  ^9  xata,  to  cjco/w-a- 
tiov  7j8sl,  v8artv  xol  aptfcp  xpui/xsvos,  7tpo67ttvu> 
tcu$  ix  rto'hvtstelas  jySovouj,  said  Epicurus ; 
"I  feed  sweetly  upon  bread  and  water, 
those  sweet  and  easy  provisions  of  the  body, 
and  I  defy  the  pleasures  of  costly  provi- 
sions ;"  and  the  man  was  so  confident  that 
he  had  the  advantage  over  wealthy  tables, 
that  he  thought  himself  happy  as  the  im- 
mortal gods,  itotfio^  fp^fiv  ^9  Att  vrtsp 
ev8ai{iovlae  Siaryuvl^eadai,  [xd^av  e%u>v  xai  vdcop  : 
for  these  provisions  are  easy,  they  are 
to  be  gotten  without  amazing  cares ; 
no  man  needs  to  flatter  if  he  can  live 
as  nature  did  intend :  "  Magna  pars  li- 
bertatis  est  bene  moratus  venter :  "  *  he 
need  not  swell  his  accounts,  and  intri- 
cate his  spirit  with  arts  of  subtilty  and  con- 
trivance ;  he  can  be  free  from  fears,  and  the 
chances  of  the  world  cannot  concern  him. 
And  this  is  true,  not  only  in  those  severe 
and  anchoretical  and  philosophical  persons, 
who  lived  meanly  as  a  sheep,  and  without 
variety  as  the  Baptist,  but  in  the  same  pro- 
portion it  is  also  true  in  every  man  that  can 
be  contented  with  that  which  is  honestly 
sufficient.  Maximus  Tyrius  considers  con- 
cerning the  felicity  of  Diogenes,  a  poor 
Sinopean,  having  not  so  much  nobility  as 
to  be  born  in  the  better  parts  of  Greece : 
but  he  saw  that  he  was  compelled  by  no 
tyrant  to  speak  or  do  ignobly ;  he  had  no 
fields  to  till,  and  therefore  took  no  care  to 
buy  cattle  and  to  hire  servants  ;  he  was  not 
distracted  when  a  rent-day  came,  and  feared 
not  when  the  wise  Greeks  played  the  fool 
and  fought  who  should  be  lord  of  that  field 
that  lay  between  Thebes  and  Athens  :  he 
laughed  to  see  men  scramble  for  dirty  silver, 
and  spend  ten  thousand  Attick  talents  for 
the  getting  the  revenues  of  two  hundred 
philippicks ;  he  went  with  his  staff  and 
bag  into  the  camp  of  Phocenses,  and  the 


*  Sencc. 


soldiers  reverenced  his  person  and  despised 
his  poverty,  and  it  was  truce  with  him 
whosoever  had  wars ;  and  the  diadem  of 
kings  and  the  purple  of  the  emperors,  the 
mitre  of  high  priests  and  the  divining  staff 
of  soothsayers,  were  things  of  envy  and 
ambition,  the  purchase  of  danger,  and  the 
rewards  of  a  mighty  passion;  and  men 
entered  into  them  by  trouble  and  extreme 
difficulty,  and  dwelt  under  them  as  a  man 
under  a  falling  roof,  or  as  Damocles  under 
the  tyrant's  sword, 

Nunc  lateri  incumbens — mox  deinde  supinus, 
Nunc  cubat  infaciem,  nunc  recto  pectore  surgens, 

sleeping  like  a  condemned  man ;  and  let 
there  be  what  pleasure  men  can  dream  of 
in  such  broken  slumbers,  yet  the  fear  of 
waking  from  this  illusion,  and  parting  from 
this  fantastic  pleasure,  is  a  pain  and  torment 
which  the  imaginary  felicity  cannot  pay  for. 
"  Cui  cum  paupertate  bene  convenit,  dives 
est :  non  qui  parum  habet,  sed  qui  plus 
cupit,  pauper  est."  All  our  trouble  is 
from  within  us  ;  and  if  a  dish  of  lettuce 
and  a  clear  fountain  can  cool  all  mv  heats, 
so  that  I  shall  have  neither  thirst  nor  pride, 
lust  nor  revenge,  envy  nor  ambition,  I  am 
lodged  in  the  bosom  of  felicity ;  and,  indeed, 
no  men  sleep  so  soundly,  as  they  that  lay 
their  head  upon  nature's  lap.  For  a  single 
dish,  and  a  clean  chalice  lifted  from  the 
springs,  can  cure  my  hunger  and  thirst : 
but  the  meat  of  Ahasuerus's  feast  cannot 
satisfy  my  ambition  and  my  pride.  "  Nulla 
re  egere,  Dei  proprium ;  quam  paucissimis 
autem,  Deo  proximum,"  said  Socrates. 
He,  therefore,  that  hath  the  fewest  desires 
and  the  most  quiet  passions,  whose  wants 
are  soon  provided  for,  and  whose  posses- 
sions cannot  be  disturbed  with  violent  fears, 
he  that  dwells  next  door  to  satisfaction,  and 
can  carry  his  needs  and  lay  them  down 
where  he  please, — this  man  is  the  happy 
man  ;  and  this  is  not  to  be  done  in  great 
designs  and  swelling  fortunes.  "  Dives 
jam  factus  desiit  gaudere  lente  ;  carios  edit 
et  bibit,  et  laetatur  dives,  quam  pauper,  qui 
in  quolibet,  in  parato,  inempto  gaudet,  et 
facile  epulari  potest;  dives  nunquam." 
For  as  it  is  in  plants  which  nature  thrusts 
forth  from  her  navel,  she  makes  regular 
provisions,  and  dresses  them  with  strength 
and  ornament,  with  easiness  and  full 
stature;  but  if  you  thrust  a  jessamine  there 
where  she  would  have  had  a  daisy  grow,  or 
bring  the  tall  fir  from  dwelling  in  his  own 
country,  and  transport  the  orange  or  the 
'  almond-tree  near  the  fringes  of  the  north- 


Serm.  XV. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


113 


star,  nature  is  displeased,  and  becomes  un- 
natural, and  starves  her  sucklings,  and  ren- 
ders you  a  return  less  than  your  charge  and 
expectation  :  so  it  is  in  all  our  appetites ; 
when  they  are  natural  and  proper,  nature 
feeds  them  and  makes  them  healthful  and 
lusty,  as  the  coarse  issue  of  the  Scythian 
clown;  she  feeds  them  and  makes  them 
easy  without  cares  and  costly  passion ;  but 
if  you  thrust  an  appetite  into  her,  which 
she  intended  not,  she  gives  you  sickly  and 
uneasy  banquets,  you  must  struggle  with 
her  for  every  drop»of  milk  she  gives  beyond 
her  own  needs  ;  you  may  get  gold  from  her 
entrails,  and  at  a  great  charge  provide  orna- 
ments for  your  queens  and  princely  women  : 
but  our  lives  are  spent  in  the  purchase ; 
and  when  you  have  got  them,  you  must 
have  more  :  for  these  cannot  content,  nor 
nourish  the  spirit.  "  Ad  supervacua  suda- 
tur ;"  "  A  man  must  labour  infinitely  to  get 
more  than  he  needs;"  but  to  drive  away 
tnirst  and  hunger,  a  man  needs  not  sit  in 
the  fields  of  the  oppressed  poor,  nor  lead 
armies,  nor  break  his  sleep,  "  et  contume- 
iiosarn  humanitatem  pari,"  "  and  to  suffer 
shame,''  and  danger,  and  envy,  and  affront, 
and  all  the  retinue  of  infelicity. 


•Quis  non  Epicurum 


•Suspicit,  exigui  laeturn  plantaribus  horti  ? — Jew 
If  men  did  but  know  what  felicity  dwells 
in  the  cottage  of  a  virtuous  poor  man,  how 
sound  his  sleeps,  how  quiet  his  breast,  how 
composed  his  mind,  how  free  from  care, 
how  easy  his  provision,  how  healthful  his 
morning,  how  sober  his  night,  how  moist 
his  mouth,  how  joyful  his  heart,  they  Avould 
never  admire  the  noises  and  the  diseases, 
the  throng  of  passions,  and  the  violence  of 
unnatural  appetites,  that  fill  the  houses  of 
the  luxurious  and  the  heart  of  the  ambitious. 

Nam  ncque  divitibus  contingunt  gaudia  solis. 

Hok. 

These  which  you  call  pleasures,  are  but  the 
imagery  and  fantastic  appearances,  and  such 
appearances  even  poor  men  may  have.  It 
is  like  felicity,  that  the  king  of  Persia  should 
come  to  Babylon,  in  the  winter,  and  to  Susa 
n  the  summer;  and  be  attended  with  all 
the  servants  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  provinces,  and  with  all  the  princes 
of  Asia.  It  is  like  this,  that  Diogenes  went 
to  Corinth  in  the  time  of  vintage,  and  to 
Athens  when  winter  came  ;  and  instead  of 
courts,  visited  the  temples  and  the  schools, 
and  was  pleased  in  the  society  of  scholars 
and  learned  men,  and  conversed  with  the 
students  of  all  Asia  and  Europe.  If  a  man 
15 


loves  privacy,  the  poor  fortune  can  have 
that  when  princes  cannot;  if  he  loves  noises, 
he  can  go  to  markets  and  to  courts,  and  may 
glut' himself  with  strange  faces,  and  strange 
voices,  and  stranger  manners,  and  the  wild 
designs  of  all  the  wrorld  :  and  when  that 
day  comes  in  which  we  shall  die,  nothing 
of  the  eating  and  drinking  remains,  nothing 
of  the  pomp  and  luxury,  but  the  sorrow  to 
part  with  it,  and  shame  to  have  dwelt  there 
where  wisdom  and  virtue  seldom  come, 
unless  it  be  to  call  men  to  sober  counsels, 
to  a  plain,  and  a  severe,  and  a  more  natural 
way  of  living  ;  and  when  Lucian  derides 
the  dead  princes  and  generals,  and  says  that 
in  hell  they  go  up  and  down  selling  salt 
meats  and  crying  muscles,  or  begging;  and 
he  brings  in  Philip  of  Macedon,  iv  ywrtSJ^ 
ttvi  fxiadov  axovixtvov  ra  oaOpa  td>i>  vrlo^ad-tutv, 
"mending  of  shoes  in  a  little  stall:"  he  in- 
tended to  represent,  that  in  the  shades  below, 
and  in  the  stale  of  the  grave,  the  princes  and 
voluptuous  have  a  being  different  from  their 
present  plenty  ;  but  that  their  condition  is 
made  contemptible  and  miserable  by  its  oiv 
proportion  to  their  lost  and  perishing  volup- 
tuousness. The  result  is  this,  that  Tiresiut 
told  the  ghost  of  Menippus,  inquiring  what 
state  of  life  was  nearest  to  felicity,  'O  tu» 
iSiutujv  apiato$  fiioss,  xai  G^poviottpoq,  "  The 
private  life,  that  which  is  freest  from  tumult 
and  vanity,"  noise  and  luxury,  business 
and  ambition,  nearest  to  nature  and  a  just 
entertainment  to  our  necessities;  that  life  is 
nearest  to  felicity.  Toiaijta  jnjpoi»  jj^ara/»f voy, 
tovto  fjLovov  f  |  artavtos  Oyjpda1^,  6rta>?,  ro  7fapoj/  tv 
^ti/xs vos,  rtapa^pau*^  yt^wv  ta  rtoM.a  xcu  rti-pt  f.ir-8iv 
ia7tov8axu>s,  therefore  despise  the  swellings  and 
the  diseases  of  a  disordered  life  and  a  proud 
vanity  ;  be  troubled  for  no  outward  thing 
beyond  its  merit,  enjoy  the  present  tem- 
perately, and  you  cannot  choose  but  be 
pleased  to  see  that  you  have  so  little  share 
in  the  follies  and  miseries  of  the  intemperate 
world. 

2.  Intemperance  in  eating  and  drinking- 
is  the  most  contrary  course  to  the  epicure** 
design  in  the  world  ;  and  the  voluptuous 
man  hath  the  least  of  pleasure ;  and  upon, 
this  proposition,  the  consideration  is  more- 
material  and  more  immediately  reducible  to. 
practice,  because  in  eating  and  drinking,, 
men  please  themselves  so  much,  and  have 
the  necessities  of  nature  to  usher  in  the  in- 
ordination  of  gluttony  and  drunkenness^ 
and  our  need  leads  in  vice  by  the  hand,  that 
we  know  not  how  to  distinguish  our  friend 
from  our  enemv ;  and  St.  Austin  is  sad 
k2 


114 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


Serm.  XV. 


upon  this  point;  "Thou,  O  Lord,  hast 
taught  me  that  I  should  take  my  meat  as  I 
take  my  physic ;  but  while  I  pass  from  the 
trouble  of  hunger  to  the  quietness  of  satis- 
faction, in  the  very  passage  I  am  insnared 
by  the  cords  of  my  own  concupiscence. 
Necessity  bids  me  pass,  but  I  have  no  way 
to  pass  from  hunger  to  fulness,  but  over 
the  bridge  of  pleasure ;  and  although  health 
and  life  be  the  cause  of  eating  and  drinking, 
yet  pleasure,  a  dangerous  pleasure,  thrusts 
herself  into  attendance,  and  sometimes  en- 
deavours to  be  the  principal;  and  I  do  that 
for  pleasure's  sake  which  I  would  only  do 
for  health  ;  and  yet  they  have  distinct  mea- 
sures, whereby  they  can  be  separated,  and 
that  which  is  enough  lor  health  is  too  little 
for  delight,  and  that  which  is  for  my  delight 
destroys  my  health,  and  still  it  is  uncertain 
for  what  end  I  do  indeed  desire ;  and  the 
worst  of  the  evil  is  this,  that  the  soul  is  glad 
because  it  is  uncertain,  and  that  an  excuse 
is  ready,  that  under  the  pretence  of  health, 
'obumbret  negotium  voluptatis,'  'the  design 
of  pleasure  may  be  advanced  and  pro- 
tected.' "  How  far  the  ends  of  natural 
pleasure  may  lawfully  be  enjoyed,  I  shall 
afterwards  consider :  in  the  mean  time,  if 
we  remember  that  the  epicure's  design  is 
pleasure  principally,  we  may  the  better  re- 
prove his  folly  by  considering,  that  intem- 
perance is  a  plain  destruction  to  all  that 
which  can  give  real  and  true  pleasure. 

1.  It  is  an  enemy  to  health,  without 
which  it  is  impossible  to  feel  any  thing  of 
corporal  pleasure.  2.  A  constant  full  table 
hath  in  it  less  pleasure  than  the  temperate 
provisions  of  the  hermit,  or  the  philosophi- 
cal table  of  scholars,  and  the  just  pleasures 
of  the  virtuous.  3.  Intemperance  is  an 
impure  fountain  of  vice,  and  a  direct  nurse 
of  uncleanness.  4.  It  is  a  destruction  of 
wisdom.  5.  It  is  a  dishonour  md  disrepu- 
tation to  the  person  and  the  ^iture  of  the 
man. 

1.  It  is  an  enemy  to  health  ;  which  is,  as 
one  calls  it,  "  ansa  voluptatum  et  condimen- 
tum  vitac;"  it  is  "that  handle  by  which  we 
can  apprehend,  and  perceive  pleasures,  and 
that  sauoe  that  only  makes  life  delicate;" 
for  what  content  can  a  full  table  administer 
to  a  man  in  a  fever?  And  he  that  hath  a 
sickly  stomach,  admires  at  his  happiness, 
that  can  feast  with  cheese  and  garlic,  unc- 
tuous beverages,  and  the  low-tasted  spi- 
nach :  health  is  the  opportunity  of  wisdom, 
tae  fairest  scene  of  religion,  the  advantages 


i  of  the  glorifications  of  God,  the  charitable 
|  ministries  to  men  ;  it  is  a  state  of  joy  and 
thanksgiving,  and  in  every  of  its  periods 
I  feels  a  pleasure  from  the  blessed  emanations 
|  of  a  merciful  Providence.  The  world  does 
not  minister,  does  not  feel,  a  greater  plea- 
sure, than  to  be  newly  delivered  from  the 
racks  of  the  gratings  of  the  stone,  and  the 
torments  and  convulsions  of  a  sharp  colic: 
and  no  organs,  no  harp,  no  lute,  can  sound 
out  the  praises  of  the  Almighty  Father  so 
spritefully,  as  the  man  that  rises  from  his 
bed  of  sorrows,  and  considers  what  an  ex- 
cellent difference  he  feels  from  the  groans 
and  intolerable  accents  of  yesterday.  Health 
carries  us  to  church,  and  makes  us  rejoice 
in  the  communion  of  saints  :  and  an  intem- 
perate table  makes  us  to  lose  all  this.  For 
this  is  one  of  those  sins,  which  St.  Paul 
affirms  to  be  jtp68r%oi,  rtpodyovoai,  fij  xpiW, 
"  manifest,  leading  before  unto  judgment." 
It  bears  part  of  its  punishment  in  this  life, 
and  hath  this  appendage,  like  the  sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  that  it  is  not  remitted  in  this 
world,  nor  in  the  world  to  come :  that  is, 
if  it  be  not  repented  of,  it  is  punished  here 
and  hereafter,  which  the  Scripture  does  not 
affirm  concerning  all  sins,  and  all  cases. 

But  in  this  the  sinner  gives  sentence  with 
his  mouth,  and  brings  it  to  execution  with 
his  hands  ; 

Poena  tamen  praesens,  cum  tu  deponis  amictum 
Turgidus,  et  crudum  pavonem  in  balnea  portas. 

Jtjv. 

The  old  gluttons  among  the  Romans,  He- 
liogabalus,  Tigellius,  Crispus,  Montanus, 
"nota;que  per  oppida  buccae,"*  famous 
epicures,  mingled  their  meats  with  vomit- 
ings; so  did  Vitellius,  and  entered  into  their 
baths  to  digest  their  pheasants,  that  they 
might  speedily  return  to  the  mullet  and  the 
eels  of  Syene,  and  then  they  went  home 
and  drew  their  breath  short  till  the  morning, 
and  it  may  be  not  at  all  before  night: 
Hinc  subitre  mortes,  atque  intestatasenectus.  Juv. 
Their  age  is  surprised  at  a  feast,  and  give<> 
them  not  time  to  make  their  will,  but  either 
they  are  choked  with  a  large  morsel,  and 
there  is  no  room  for  the  breath  of  the  lungs, 
and  the  motions  of  the  heart;  or  a  fever 
burns  their  eyes  out,  or  a  quinsey  punishes 
that  intemperate  throat  that  had  no  religion, 
but  the  eating  of  the  fat  sacrifices,  the  por- 
tions of  the  poor  and  of  the  priest;  or  else 
they  are  condemned  to  a  lethargy  if  their 

*  Juvenal. 


Sum.  XV 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


115 


constitutions  be  dull ;  and,  if  active,  it  may 
be  they  are  wild  w  ith  watching. 

Plurimus  liinc  asger  moritur  vigilando  :  sed  ilium 
Languorem  peperu  cibus  impertectue,  et  haerens 
Ardenti  stoniaeho  Juv. 

So  that  the  epicure's  genial  proverb  may  be 
a  little  altered,  and  say,  "  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  by  this  means  to-morrow  we  shall 
die  f*  but  that  is  not  all,  for  these  men  live  a 
healthless  life  ;  that  is,  are  long,  are  every  day 
dying,  and  at  last  die  with  torment.  Men- 
ander  was  too  short  in  his  expression,  ^toi-oj 
ovroj  $a.ifTcu  li&imafwg ]  that  it  is  indeed 
death,  but  gluttony  is  u  a  pleasant  death." 

Kou.  ,uo>.i5-  fta&MMto,  xojl  ro  nvti  u  IZoiTa  rtav  at  to, 
E-j^.Oi  ra  xau.  XeyWfttg  Hrtnou  irco  rrj  tyfaqff. 
For  this  is  the  glutton's  pleasure,  "To  breathe 
short  and  difficultly,  scarce  to  be  able  to 
speak,  and  when  he  does,  he  cries  out,  I  die 
and  rot  with  pleasure.'''  But  the  folly  is  as 
much  to  be  derided  as  the  men  to  be  pitied, 
that  we  daily  see  men  afraid  of  death  with 
a  most  intolerable  apprehension,  and  yet  in- 
crease the  evil  of  it.  the  pain,  and  the  trouble, 
and  the  suddenness  of  its  coming,  and  the 
appendage  of  an  insufferable  eternity. 

Rem  struere  exoptant  caeso  bove.  Mercuriumque 
Arcessunt  ribra  Peks. 

They  pray  for  herds  of  cattle,  and  spend  the 
breeders  upon  feasts  and  sacrifices.  For 
why  do  men  go  to  temples  and  churches, 
and  make  vows  to  God  and  daily  prayers, 
that  God  would  give  them  a  healthful  body, 
and  take  away  their  gout  and  their  palsies, 
their  fevers  and  apoplexies,  the  pains  of  the 
head  and  the  gripings  of  the  belly,  and  arise 
from  their  prayers,  and  pour  in  loads  of  flesh 
and  seas  of  wine,  lest  there  should  not  be 
matter  enough  for  a  lusty  disease  ? 
Poseis  opem  nervis,  corpusque  fidele  senectae  : 
Esto  age  :  sed  grandes  patinae  fruncetaque  crassa 
Annuere  his  superos  vetuere,  Jovemque  moran- 
tur.— Pers. 

But  this  is  enough  that  the  rich  glutton  shall 
have  his  dead  body  conditedand  embalmed  ; 
he  may  le  allowed  to  stink  and  suffer  cor- 
ruption while  he  is  alive  :  these  men  are  for 
the  present  living  sinners  and  walking  rot- 
tenness, and  hereafter  will  be  dying  peni- 
le its  and  perfumed  carcasses,  and  their 
whole  felicity  is  lost  in  the  confusions  of 
tiieir  unnatural  disorder.  When  Cyrus  had 
espied  Astyages  and  his  fellows  coming 
drunk  from  a  banquet  loaden  with  variety  of 
follies  and  filthiness,  their  legs  failing  them, 
their  eyes  red  and  staring,  cozened  with  a 
moist  cloud  and  abused  by  a  doubled  object. 


I  their  tongues  full  of  sponges,  and  their  heads 
no  wiser,  he  thought  they  were  poisoned, 
and  he  had  reason:  for  what  malignant 

j  quality  can  be  more  venomous  and  hurtful 
to  a  man  than  the  effect  of  an  intemperate 
goblet^and  a  full  stomach?    It  poisons  both 

!  the  soul  and  the  body.  All  poisons  do  not 
kill  presently,  and  this  will  in  process  of 
time,  and  hath  formidable  effects  at  present. 
But  therefore  methinks  the  temptations, 

!  which  men  meet  withal  from  without,  are 
in  themselves  most  unreasonable  and  soon- 

I  est  confuted  by  us.  He  that  tempts  me  to 
drink  beyond  my  measure,  civilly  invites  me 
to  a  fever;  and  to  lay  aside  n.y  reason  as 
the  Persian  women  did  their  garments  and 
their  modesty  at  the  end  of  the  feasts  :  and 
all  the  question  then  will  be,  Which  is  the 
worse  evil,  to  refuse  your  uncivil  kindness, 
or  to  suffer  a  violent  head  ach,  or  to  lay  up 
heaps  big  enough  for  an  English  surfeit? 
Creon  in  the  tragedy  said  well ; 

H  ucOuxxmbiib'  wftOfm  fuya  ortvttv,  Eurip. 
"  It  is  better  for  me  to  grieve  thee,  O  stran- 
ger, or  to  be  affronted  by  thee,  than  to  be 
tormented  by  thy  kindness  the  next  day  and 
the  morrow  after and  the  freedman  of 
Domitius,  the  father  of  Nero,  suffered  him- 
self to  be  killed  by  his  lord :  and  the  son  of 
Praxaspes  by  Cambyses,  rather  than  they 
would  exceed  their  own  measures  up  to  a 
full  intemperance,  and  a  certain  sickness 
and  dishonour.  For,  as  Plutarch  said  well, 
to  avoid  the  opinion  of  an  uncivil  man,  or 
being  clownish,  to  run  into  a  pain  of  thy 
sides  or  belly,  into  madness  or  a  head-ach. 
is  the  part  of  a  fool  and  a  coward,  and  oi 
one  that  knows  not  how  to  converse  with 
men,  M  citra  pocula  et  nidorem,"  in  anything 
but  in  the  famelic  smells  of  meat  and  virti 
ginous  drinkings. 

Ebrius  et  petulans,  qui  nullum  forte  cecidit, 
Dat  poenas,  noctem  patitur.  lu^entis  amicurn, 
Pelidae  Jrv. 

"  A  drunkard  and  a  glutton  feels  the  tor- 
ments of  a  restless  night,  although  he  hath 
not  killed  a  man  ;vthat  is, just  like  murderers. 
I  and  persons  of  an  affrighted  conscience  ;  so 
'wakes  the  glutton,  so  broken,  and  sick,  and 
disorderly  are  the  slumbers  of  the  drunkard. 
Now  let  the  epicure  boast  his  pleasures,  and 
tell  how  he  hath  swallowed  the  price  of  pro- 
vinces, and  gobbets  of  delicious  flesh,  pur- 
chased with  the  reward  of  souls  ;  let  him 
brag  "furorem  ilium  conviviorum,  et  faedis- 
simum  patrimoniorum  exilium  culinam," 


116 


THE  HOUSE 


OF   FEASTING  .        ?mm.  XV. 


"of  the:  madness  of  delicious  feasts,  and 
that  his  kitchen  hath  destroyed  his  patri- 
mony j"  let  him  tell  that  he  takes  in  every 
day,* 

Quantum  Sauseia  bibebat. 

As  much  wine  as  would  refresh  the  sorrows 

of  forty  languishing  prisoners;  or  let  him 

set  up  his  vain-glorious  triumph, 

Ut  quod  'multi  Damalin  meri 

'Bassum  Threicia'  vicit  'amystide'  ;  Hor. 

That  he  hath  knocked  down  Damalis  with 
the  twenty-fifth  bottle,  and  hath  outfeasted 
Antony  or  Cleopatra's  luxury  ;  it  is  a  good- 
ly pleasure,  and  himself  shall  bear  the 
honour. 

 -Rarum  et  memorabile  magni 

Guttuns  exemplum,  conducen  dusque  magister. 

,  Juv. 

But  for  the  honour  of  his  banquet  he  hath 
some  ministers  attending  that  he  did  not 
dream  of,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  loud  laugh- 
ter, the  gripes  of  the  belly,  and  the  fevers  of 
the  brain,  "  Pallor  et  gense  penduke,  oculo- 
rum  ulcera,  tremulae  manus,  furiales  somni, 
inquies  nocturna,"  as  Pliny  reckons  them, 
'*  paleness  and  hanging  cheeks,  ulcers  of 
the  eyes,  and  trembling  hands,  dead  or  dis- 
tracted sleeps/'  these  speak  aloud,  that  to- 
day y  ou  "  eat  and  drink,  that  to-morrow  you 
die,"  and  die  forever. 

It  is  reported  concerning  Socrates,  that 
when  Athens  was  destroyed  by  the  plague, 
he  in  the  midst  of  all  the  danger  escaped 
untouched  by  sickness,  because  by  a  spare 
and  severe  diet,  he  had  within  him  no  tumult 
of  disorderly  humours,  no  factions  in  his 
blood,  no  loads  of  moisture  prepared  for 
charnel-houses,  or  the  sickly  hospitals';  but 
a  vigorous  heat,  and  a  well-proportioned 
radical  moisture ;  he  had  enough  for  health 
and  study,  philosophy  and  religion,  for  the 
temples  and  the  academy,  but  no  superflui- 
ties to  be  spent  in  groans  and  sickly  nights  ; 
and  all  the  world  of  gluttons  is  hugely  con- 
vinced of  the  excellency  of  temperance  in 
order  to  out  temporal  felicity  and  health,  be- 
cause when  themselves  have  left  virtue,  and 
sober  diet,  and  counsels,  and  first  lost  their 
temperance,  and  then  lost  their  health, 
they  are  forced  to  run  to  temperance  and 
abstinence  for  their  cure.  "Vilis  enimtenu- 
isque  mensa  (ut  loquuntur  pueri)  sanitatis 
mater  est,"f  then  a  thin  diet  and  an  humble 
body,  fasting  and  emptiness,  and  arts  of  scat- 
tering their  sin  and  sickness,  is  in  season  ; 
but  by  the  same  moans  they  might  preserve 


*Juvenal.  tChrysost. 


their  health,  by  which  hiey  clu  re.-toie  it; 
but  when  they  are  \.'-;.,  il"  i..<-k  rKurn  to 
their  full  tables  and  oppressing  meals,  "heir 
sickness  was  but  like  VileHius'  vomiting,  ihat 
they  might  eal  again  ;  but  so  th<jv  may  en- 
tail a  fit  of  sickness  upon  every  full  moon, (ill 
both  their  virtue  and  themselves  decrease  into 
the  corruptions  and  rottenness  of  the  grave. 
But  if  they  delight  in  sharp  fevers  and  horrid 
potions,  in  sour  palates  and  that  heaps  of 
which  must  be  carried  forth,  they  may  reckon 
their  wealthy  pleasures  to  be  very  great  and 
many,  if  they  will  but  tell  them  one  by  one 
with  their  sicknesses,  and  the  multitude  of 
those  evils  they  shall  certainly  feel,  before 
they  have  thrown  their  sorrows  forth. 
"These  men  (as  St.  Paul's  expression  is) 
heap  up  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath, 
and  the  revelation  of  the  day  of  God's  most 
righteous  judgments."  Strange  therefore  it 
is,  that  for  the  stomach,  which  is  scarce  a 
span  long,  there  should  be  provided  so  many 
furnaces  and  ovens,  huge  fires,  and  an  army 
of  cooks,  cellars  swimming  with  wine,  and 
granaries  sweating  with  corn  ;  and  that  into 
one  belly  should  enter  the  vintage  of  many 
nations,  the  spoils  of  distant  provinces,  and 
the  shell-fishes  of  several  seas.  When  the 
heathens  feasted  their  gods,  they  gave  noth- 
ing but  a  fat  ox,  a  ram,  or  a  kid  ;  they  poured 
a  little  wine  upon  the  altar,  and  burned  a 
handful  of  gum:  but  when  they  feasted 
themselves,  they  had  many  vessels  filled 
with  Campanian  wine,  turtles  of  Liguria, 
Sicilian  beeves,  and  wheat  from  Egypt, 
wild  boars  from  Illyrium,  and  Grecian  sheep, 
variety,  and  load,  and  cost,  and  curiosity  : 
and  so  do  we.  It  is  so  little  we  spend  in 
religion,  and  so  very  much  upon  ourselves, 
so  little  to  the  poor,  and  so  without  measure 
to  make  ourselves  sick,  that  we  seem  to  be 
in  love  with  our  own  mischief,  and  so  pas- 
sionate for  necessity  and  want,  that  we 
strive  all  the  ways  we  can  to  make  ourselves 
need  more  than  nature  intended.  I  end  this 
consideration  with  the  saying  of  the  cynic  ■ 
It  is  to  be  wondered  at,  that  men  eat  so 
much  for  pleasure's  sake;  and  yet  for  the  same 
pleasure  should  not  give  overeating,  and  be- 
take themselves  to  the  delights  of  temperance, 
since  to  be  healthful  and  holy  is  so  great  a 
pleasure.  However,  certain  it  is,  that  no 
man  ever  repented,  that  he  arose  from  the 
table  sober,  healthful,  and  with  his  wits 
about  him;  but  very  many  have  repented, 
that  they  sat  so  long,  till  their  bellies  swelled 
and  their  health,  and  their  virtue,  and  thei: 
God,  is  departed  from  them. 


Serm.  XVI. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


117 


SERMON  XVI. 

PART  EI. 

2.  A  constant  full  table  is  less  pleasant 
than  the  temperate  provisions  ofthe  virtuous, 
or  the  natural  banquets  of  the  poor.  Xapij 
rrj  uaxafi'a  fiost,  on  ra  dia-yxcua  titOUfOtv 
fV7top:oTa,  ra  6f  ov7?t6ptora  ovx  amyxoua,  said 
Epieurus  ;  "  Thanks  be  to  the  God  of  nature 
that  he  hath  made  that  which  is  necessary  j 
to  be  ready  at  hand,  and  easy  to  be  had  ; 
and  that  which  cannot  easily  be  obtained,  is 
not  necessary  it  should  be  at  all  j"  which  in 
effect  is  to  say.  It  cannot  be  constantly  plea- 
sant :  for  necessity  and  want  makes  the  appe- 
tite, and  the  appetite  makes  the  pleasure; 
and  men  are  infinitely  mistaken  when  they 
despise  the  poor  man's  table,  and  wonder 
how  he  can  endure  that  life,  that  is  maintain- 
ed without  the  exercise  of  pleasure,  and  that 
he  can  suffer  his  day's  labour,  and  recom- 
pense it  with  unsavoury  herbs,  and  potent 
garlic,  with  water- cresses,  and  bread  colour- 
ed like  the  ashes  that  gave  it  hardness :  he : 
hath  a  hunger  that  gives  it  deliciousness  ; 
and  we  may  as  well  wonder  that  a  lion  eats 
raw  flesh,  or  that  a  wolf  feeds  upon  the  i 
turf;  they  have  an  appetite  proportionable 
to  this  meat;  and  their  necessity,  and  their 
hunger,  and  their  use  and  their  nature, 
are  the  cooks  that  dress  their  provisions, 
and  make  them  delicate :  and  yet  if  wa- 
ter and  pulse,  natural  provision,  and  the 
simple  dipt,  were  not  pleasant,  as  indeed 
they  are  not  to  them  who  have  been  nursed 
up  and  accustomed  to  the  more  delicious, ! 
irtsira  lOmrtim  ovx  t$'  ro^rat  foxwv,  yet  it  is 
a  very  great  pleasure  to  reduce  our  appe-  j 
tites  to  nature,  and  to  make  our  reason  rule 
ear  stomach,  and  our  desires  comply  with  j 
our  fortunes,  and  our  fortunes  be  propor- 
tionable to  our  persons.  M  Non  est  volup-  : 
u»s  aqua  et  polenta  (said  a  philosopher); 
sed  summa  voluptas  est,  posse  ex  his  capere 
voluptatem,"  "  It  is  an  excellent  pleasure 
to  be  able  to  take  pleasure  in  worts  and 
water,"  in  bread  and  onions  ;  for  then  a 
man  can  never  want  pleasure  when  it  is  so 
ready  for  him,  that  nature  hath  spread  it 
over  all  its  provisions.  Fortune  and  art 
give  delicacies ;  nature  gives  meat  and 
drink;  and  what  nature  gives,  fortune  can- 
not take  away  ;  but  every  change  can  take 
away  what  only  is  given  by  the  bounty  of 
a  full  fortune ;  and  if  in  satisfaction  and 
freedom  from  care,  and  security  and  pro- 
portions to  our  own  natural  appetite,  there 
'an  be  pleasure,  then  we  may  know  how  . 


to  value  the  sober  and  natural  tables  of  the 
virtuous  and  wise,  before  that  state  of  feast- 
ings  which  a  war  can  lessen,  and  a  tyrant 
can  take  away,  or  the  pirates  may  intercept, 
or  a  blast  may  spoil,  and  is  always  contin- 
gent, and  is  so  far  from  satisfying,  that 
either  it  destroys  the  appetite,  and  capacity 
of  pleasure,  or  increases  it  beyond  all  the 
measures  of  good  things. 

He  that  feasts  every  day,  feasts  no  day ; 
ct^i^risv  <Z?T£  ixrt  not.vv  rpt4>ar  ^pdiw.  And 
however  you  treat  yourselves,  sometimes 
you  will  need  to  be  refreshed  beyond  it; 
but  what  will  you  have  for  a  festival,  if  you 
wear  crowns  every  day  ?  even  a  perpetual 
fulness  will  make  you  glad  to  beg  pleasure 
from  emptiness,  and  variety  from  poverty 
or  an  humble  table. 

Plerumque  gratae  principibus  vices. 

Mundaeque  parvo  sub  lare  pauperum 

Coenae,  sine  auleeis,  et  ostro, 

Sollicitam  explicuere  trontem.  Hor. 

But,  however,  of  ail  things  in  the  world  a 
man  may  best  and  most  easily  want  plea- 
sure, which  if  you  have  enjoyed,  it  passes 
away  at  the  present,  and  leaves  nothing  at 
all  behind  it,  but  sorrow  and  sour  remem- 
brances. No  man  felt  a  greater  pleasure  in 
a  goblet  of  wine  than  Lysimachus,  when 
he  fought  against  the  Getae,  and  himself 
and  his  whole  army  were  compelled  by 
thirst  to  yield  themselves  to  bondage  ;  but 
when  the  wine  wras  sunk  as  far  as  his 
navel,  the  pleasure  was  gone,  and  so  was 
his  kingdom  and  his  liberty  :  for  though  the 
sorrow  dwells  with  a  man  pertinaciouslv, 
yet  the  pleasure  is  swift  as  lightning,  and 
more  pernicious  ;  but  the  pleasures  of  a 
sober  and  temperate  table  are  pleasures  till 
the  next  day,  xai  xtq  vsrfpcua  rSiwj  yuotra*. 
as  Timotheus  said  of  Plato's  scholars  ;  they 
converse  sweetly,  and  "  are  of  perfect  tem- 
per and  delicacy  of  spirit  even  the  next 
morning :"  wThereas  the  intemperate  man  is 
forced  to  lie  long  in  bed,  and  forget  that 
there  is  a  sun  in  the  sky ;  he  must  not  be 
called  till  he  hath  concocted,  and  slept  his 
surfeit  into  a  truce  and  a  quiet  respite  ; 
but  whatsoever  this  man  haih  suffered,  cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  poor  man's  head  did  not 
ache,  neither  did  he  need  the  juice  of  pop- 
pies, or  costly  cordials,  physicians  or  nurses, 
to  bring  him  to  his  right  shape  again,  like 
Apuleius's  ass,  with  eating  roses  :  and  let 
him  turn  his  hour  glass,  he  will  find  his 
head  aches  longer  than  his  throat  was 
pleased  ;  and,  which  is  worst,  his  glass 
runs  out  with  joggings  and  violence,  and 
every  such  concussion  with  a  surfeit  makes 


118 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING.  Skrm.  XVI. 


his  life  look  nearer  its  end,  and  ten  to  one 
but  it  will,  before  its  natural  period,  be 
broken  in  pieces.  If  these  be  the  pleasures 
of  an  epicure's  table,  I  shall  pray  that  my 
friends  may  never  feel  them ;  but  he  that 
sinneth  against  his  Maker,  shall  fall  into  the 
calamities  of  intemperance. 

3.  Intemperance  is  the  nurse  of  vice ; 
'A<j>po&Vj;s  yd-ka,  "  Venus-milk,"  so  Aristo- 
phanes calls  wine;  itdrtutv  hnvZiV  ^rporto/uj, 
"  the  mother  of  all  grievous  things  so 
Pontianus.  For  by  the  experience  of  all 
the  world,  it  is  the  bawd  to  lust:  and  no 
man  must  ever  dare  to  pray  to  God  for  a 
pure  soul  in  a  chaste  body,  if  himself  does 
not  live  temperately,  if  himself  "  make 
provisions  for  the  flesh,  to  fulfil  the  lusts  of 
it;"  for  in  this  case  he  shall  find  "that 
which  enters  into  him,  shall  defile  him" 
more  than  he  can  be  cleansed  by  those  vain 
prayers,  that  come  from  his  tongue,  and 
not  from  his  heart.  Intemperance  makes 
i age  and  choler,  pride  and  fantastic  princi- 
ples ;  it  makes  the  body  a  sea  of  humours, 
and  those  humours  the  seat  of  violence  :  by 
faring  deliciously  every  day,  men  become 
senseless  of  the  evils  of  mankind,  inappre- 
hensive  of  the  troubles  of  their  brethren, 
unconcerned  in  the  changes  of  the  world, 
and  the  cries  of  the  pooi,  the  hunger  of  the 
fatherless,  and  the  thirst  of  widows  :  ovx  tx 
rH>v  [xa%o<pdyw  olivpavoi,  dw.  ix  fwv  tpvfyiAjxt  - 
vu>v,  said  Diogenes ;  "Tyrants  never  come 
from  the  cottages  of  them  that  eat  pulse 
and  coarse  fare,  but  from  the  delicious  beds 
and  banquets  of  the  effeminate  and  rich 
feeders."  For,  to  maintain  plenty  and 
luxury,  sometimes  wars  are  necessary,  and 
oppressions  and  violence  :  but  no  landlord 
did  ever  grind  the  face  of  his  tenants,  no 
prince  ever  sucked  blood  from  his  subjects 
for  the  maintenance  of  a  sober  and  a  mo- 
derate proportion  of  good  things.  And  this 
was  intimated  by  St.  James,  "  Do  not  rich 
men  oppress  you,  and  draw  you  before  the 
judgment-seat?"*  For  all  men  are  pas- 
sionate to  live  according  lo  that  state  in 
which  they  were  born,  or  to  which  they 
are  devolved,  or  which  they  have  framed  to 
themselves ;  those  therefore  that  love  to 
live  high  and  deliciously, 

Et  quibus  in  solo  vivendi  causa  palato.  Juv. 
who  live  not  to  God  but  to  their  belly,  not 
to  sober  counsels  but  to  an  intemperate 
table,  have  framed  to  themselves  a  manner 


*  James  ii.  6. 


of  living,  which  oftentimes  cannot  be  main- 
tained but  by  injustice  and  violence,  which 
coming  from  a  man  whose  passions  are 
made  big  with  sensuality  and  an  habitual 
folly,  by  pride  and  forgetfulness  of  the  con- 
dition and  miseries  of  mankind,  are  always 
unreasonable  and  sometimes  intolerable. 

I  regustatem  digito  terebrare  salinum 

j  Contentus  perages,  si  vivere  cum  Jove  tendis. 

Peks, 

Formidable  is  the  state  of  an  intemperate 
man,  whose  sin  begins  with  sensuality,  and 
grows  up  in  folly  and  weak  discourses,  and 
is  fed  by  violence,  and  applauded  by  fools 
and  parasites,  full  bellies  and  empty  heads, 
servants  and  flatterers,  whose  hands  are  full 
of  flesh  and  flood,  and  their  hearts  empty 
of  pity  and  natural  compassion  ;  where  re- 
ligion cannot  inhabit,  and  the  love  of  God 
must  needs  be  a  stranger;  whose  talk  is 
loud  and  trifling,  injurious  and  impertinent; 
and  whose  employment  is  the  same  with 
the  work  of  the  sheep  or  the  calf,  always 
to  eat ;  their  loves  are  the  lusts  of  the  lower 
belly ;  and  their  portion  is  in  the  lower 
regions  to  eternal  ages,  where  their  thirst, 
and  their  hunger,  and  their  torment,  shall 
be  infinite. 

4.  Intemperance  is  a  perfect  destruction 
of  wisdom.  IIa;£Ha  yaatrtp  %.t7t?6v  ov  tixtiu 
voov,  "  A  full-gorged  belly  never  produced  a 
sprightly  mind  :"  and  therefore  these  kind 
of  men  are  called  yantip^  dpyot,  "slow  bel- 
lies," so  St.  Paul  concerning  the  intemper- 
ate Cretans  out  of  their  own  poet :  they  are 
like  the  tigers  of  Brazil,  which  when  they 
are  empty,  are  bold  and  swift,  and  full  of 
sagacity  ;  but  being  full,  sneak  away  from 
the  barking  of  a  village  dog.  So' are  these 
men,  wise  in  the  morning,  quick  and  fit  for 
business  ;  but  when  the  sun  gives  the  sign 
to  spread  the  tables,  and  intemperance 
brings  in  the  messes,  and  drunkenness  fills 
the  bowls,  then  the  man  falls  away,  and 
leaves  a  beast  in  his  room ;  nay,  worse, 
ttxvaj  ^fcjai^jj/as,  they  are  dead  all  but  their 
throat  and  belly,  so  Aristophanes  hath  fitted 
them  with  a  character,  "Carcasses  above 
half  way."  Plotinus  descends  one  step 
lower  yet ;  affirming  such  persons,  anobtv- 
6>w0>7kh,  "  to  be  made  trees,"  whose  whole 
employment  and  life  is  nothing  but  to  feed 
and  suck  juices  from  the  bowels  of  their 
nurse  and  mother;  and  indeed  commonly 
they  talk  as  trees  in  a  wind  and  tempest, 
the  noise  is  great  and  querulous,  but  it  sig. 
nifies  nothing  but  trouble  and  disturbance. 


Serm.  XVI 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


119 


A  full  meal  is  like  Sisera's  banquet,  at  the  ,xd$v8po<;  rcuj  ix  tov  ouou  c&aBv/xuiosii  xai 
end  of  which  there  is  a  nail  struck  into  a  ; m <j>ifcu$  8ixrjv  mi/mni  7totovfitvrr  ''And  there 
man's  head  :  Z>s  ovyxoM.Cjaa  xcu  dov  xoBr^Jovao.  cannot  be  any  thing  said  worse,  reason 
fy,,  ^vx^v  rtpo$  tip  tov  awjuaros  artoXavow,  so  turns  into  folly,  wine  and  flesh  into  a  knot 
Porphyry;  "  it  knocks  a  man  down,  and  of  clouds,  the  soul  itself  into  a  body,"  and 
nails  his  soul  to  the  sensual  mixtures  of  the  the  spirit  into  corrupted  meat ;  there  is  no- 
body." For  what  wisdom  can  be  expected  thing  left  but  the  rewards  and  portions  of  a 
from  them,  whose  soul  dwells  in  clouds  of  '  fool  to  be  reaped  and  enjoyed  there,  where 
meat,  and  floats  up  and  down  in  wine,  like  flesh  and  corruption  shall  dwell  to  eternal 
the  spilled  cups  which  fell  from  their  hands,  ages  ;  and  therefore  in  Scripture  such  men 
when  they  could  lift  them  to  their  heads  no  ,  are  called  0opvxap6wt,. 
longer  ?  Tioxxaxtj  yap  iv  dvov  xv/xaai  nj  vawayft :  i  mum  quoque  prasgravant 
it  is  a  perfect  shipwreck  of  a  man,  the  pilot  |  are  gross,  their  souls  are  emerged  in  matter, 
is  drunk,  and  the  helm  dashed  in  pieces,  j  and  drowned  in  the  moistures  of  an  un- 
wholesome cloud  ;  they  are  dull  of  hearing, 
slow  in  apprehension,  and  to  action  they 
are  as  unable  as  the  hands  of  a  child,  who 
too  hastily  haih  broken  the  enclosures  of  his 
first  dwelling. 

But  temperance  is  reason's  girdle  and 


Hesternis  vitiis  ani- 
•"    Their  head: 


and  the  ship  first  reels,  and  by  swallowing 
too  much  is  itself  swallowed  up  at  last. 
And  therefore  the  Navis  Agrigeutina,  the 
madness  of  the  young  fellows  of  Agrigen- 
tum,  who  being  drunk,  fancied  themselves 
in  a  storm,  and  the  house  the  ship,  was 
more  than  the  wild  fancy  of  their  cups;  it! passion's  bridle;  06a.  ^po^tj,  so  Homer  in 
was  really  so,  they  were  all  cast  away,  they  ;Stobceus  ;  that  is  a^poavv^  ;  "  prudence  is 
were  broken  in  pieces  by  the  foul  disorder ;  safe  "  while  the  man  is  temperate  ;  and 


of  the  storm. 

Hinc  Vini  atque  somni  degener  socordia, 
Libido  sordens,  inverecundus  lepos, 
Variaeque  pestes  languidorum  sensuum. 
Hinc  et  Irequenti  marcida  oblectaniine 
Scintilla  mentis  intorpescit  nobilis, 
Animusque  pigris  stertit  in  praecordiis. 

Pbudent.  hym.  de  Jejun. 

"The  senses  languish,  the  spark  of  Di- 
vinity that  dwells  within  is  quenched;  and 
the  mind  snorts,  dead  with  sleep  and  fulness 
in  the  fouler  regions  of  the  belly." 

So  have  I  seen  the  eye  of  the  world 
looking  upon  a  fenny  bottom,  and  drinking 
up  too  free  draughts  of  moisture,  gathered 
ihem  into  a  cloud,  and  that  cloud  crept 
about  his  face,  and  made  him  first  look  red, 
and  then  covered  him  with  darkness  and  an 
artificial  night :  so  is  our  reason  at  a  feast, 

Putrem  resudans  crapulam 
Obstrangulatae  mentis  ingenium  premit. 

The  clouds  gather  about  the  head,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  method  and  period  of  the 


'.therefore  outypov  is  opposed  v$  ^aju^pwi,  M A 
j  temperate  man  is  no  fool;"  for  temperance 
is  the  oiofypoi'iatrfiLov,  such  as  Plato  appointed 
to  night-walkers,  a  prison  to  restrain  their 
inordinations  ;  it  is  ^wio?  4*>.?>;?,  as  Pythago- 
ras calls  it;  xjMptftj  opff^s,  so  Socrates;  xos/ms 
oya0u>v  rtcuruy,  SO  Plato  ;  dofyateia  rZ>v  seoAJtttf- 
tun>  «|fwv,  so  Jamblichus  ;  it  is  "  the  strength 
of  the  soul,  the  foundation  of  virtue,  the 
ornament  of  all  good  things,  and  the  cor- 
roborative of  all  excellent  habits." 

5.  After  all  this,  I  shall  the  less  need  to 
add,  that  intemperance  is  a  dishonour,  and 
disreputation  to  the  nature,  and  the  person, 
and  the  manners  of  a  man.  But  naturally 
men  are  ashamed  of  it,  and  the  needs  of 
nature  shall  be  the  veil  for  their  gluttony, 
and  the  night  shall  cover  their  drunkenness  ; 
tiyys  rtvivpova  ouo,  to  yap  asrpov  .if putt&Xf  rac.f 
which  the  apostle  rightly  renders,  "  They 
that  are  drunk,  are  drunk  in  the  night but 
the  priests  of  Heliopolis  never  did  sacrifice 
to  the  sun  with  wine;  meaning,  that  this  is 
so  great  a  dishonour,  that  the  sun  ought  not 


children,  and  productions  of  darkness,  it  |  to  see  it;  and  they  that  think  there  is  no 
first  grows  red,  and  that  redness  turns  into! other  eye  but  the  sun  that  sees  them,  may 
an  obscurity,  and  a  thick  mist,  and  reason! cover  their  shame  by  choosing  their  time; 
is  lost  to  all  use  and  profitableness  of  wise  j  just  as  children  do  their  danger  by  winking 
and  sober  discourses  ;  amBmiant  Jkr/uoSfsWpa  i  hard,  and  not  looking  on.  2xi£i£f»\  xai 
ovoa  irtisxotei  rrj  4<wfcij,*  "  a  cloud  of  folly  £'upoT£poi>  rtuiv,  xai  Sfwwj  tyvytlv,  "To  drink 
and  distraction  darkens  the  soul,"  and  makes  sweet  drinks  and  hot,  to  quaff  great  draughts, 
it  crass  and  material,  polluted  and  heavy,  and  to  eat  greedily;"  Theophrastus  makes 
clogged   and  laden   like  the  body  :  them  characters  of  a  clown.J 


'Clem.  A'.exand. 


tAlcaeus. 


t  Cap.  4. 


120 


THE  HOUSE  O 


F  FEASTING. 


Serm.  XVI. 


3.  And  now  that  I  have  told  you  the 
foulness  of  the  epicure's  feasts  and  princi- 
ples, it  will  be  fit  that  1  describe  the  mea- 
sures of  our  eating  and  drinking,  that  the 
needs  of  nature  may  neither  become  the 
cover  to  an  intemperate  dish,  nor  the  freer 
refreshment  of  our  persons  be  changed  into 
scruples,  that  neither  our  virtue  nor  our 
conscience  fall  into  an  evil  snare. 

1.  The  first  measure  of  our  eating  and 
drinking,  is  our  "natural  needs,"  /x^ts  a%- 
ydv  xatd  ffw^a,  /xr^te  tapdrteo&u  xatd  ; 
these  are  the  measures  of  nature,  "  that  the 
body  be  free  from  pain,  and  the  soul  from 
violence."  Hunger,  and  thirst,  and  cold, 
are  the  natural  diseases  of  the  tody ;  and 
food  and  raiment  are  their  remedies,  and 
therefore  are  the  measures. 

In  quantum  sitis  atque  fames  et  iiigora  poscunt, 
Quantum.  Epicure,  tibi  parvis  suffecit  in  bonis. 

Juvenal. 

But  in  this  there  are  two  cautions.  1. 
Hunger  and  thirst  are  only  to  be  extin- 
guished while  they  are  violent  and  trouble- 
some, and  are  not  to  be  provided  for  to  the  I 
utmost  extent  and  possibilities  of  nature; 
i  man  is  not  hungry  so  long  till  he  can  eat 
no  more,  but  till  its  sharpness  and  trouble 
is  over,  and  he  that  does  not  leave  some 
reserves  for  temperance,  gives  all  that  he 
can  to  nature,  and  nothing  at  all  to  grace ; 
for  God  hath  given  a  latitude  in  desires  and 
degrees  of  appetite;  and  when  he  hath  done, 
he  laid  restraint  upon  it  in  some  whole  in- 
stances, and  of  some  parts  in  every  instance; 
that  man  might  have  something  to  serve 
God  of  his  own,  and  something  to  distin- 
guish him  from  a  beast  in  the  use  of  their 
common  faculties.  Beasts  cannot  refrain, 
but  fill  all  the  capacity  when  they  can ;  and 
if  a  man  does  so,  he  does  what  becomes  a 
beast,  and  not  a  man.  And  therefore  there 
are  some  little  symptoms  of  this  inordina- 
tion,  by  which  a  man  may  perceive  himself 
to  have  transgressed  his  measures  ;  "  ruc- 
tation,  uneasy  loads,  singing,  looser  prat- 
ings,  importune  drowsiness,  provocation  of 
others  to  equal  and  full  chalices;"  and 
though  in  every  accident  of  this  significa- 
tion it  is  hard  for  another  to  pronounce  that 
(he  man  hath  sinned,  yet  by  these  he  may 
suspect  himself,  and  learn  the  next  time  to 
hold  the  bridle  harder. 

2.  "  This  hunger  must  be  natural,"  not 
artificial  and  provoked;  for  many  men  make 
necessities  to  themselves,  and  then  think 
they  are  bound  to  provide  for  them.  It  is 
necessarv  to  some  men  to  have  garments 


made  of  the  Calabrian  fleece,  stained  with 
the  blood  of  the  murex,  and  to  get  money 
to  buy  pearls  round  and  orient;  scelerata 
hoc  fecit  culpa;"  but  it  is  the  man's  luxury 
that  made  it  so;  and  by  the  same  principle 
it  is,  that  in  meats,  what  is  abundant  to  na- 
ture is  defective  and  beggarly  to  art;  and 
when  nature  willingly  rises  from  table, 
when  the  first  course  of  flesh  plain  and 
natural  is  done,  then  art,  and  sophistry, 
and  adulterate  dishes,  invite  him  to  taste 
and  die,  pexpi  tivo$  ia/xh  adpxes,  fiix?^  twos  trji 
yrj  xvrcto^is v  f  well  may  a  sober  man  wonder 
that  men  should  be  so  much  in  love  with 
earth  and  corruption,  the  parent  of  rotten- 
ness and  a  disease,  that  even  then,  when  by 
all  laws,  witches  and  enchanters,  murderers 
and  man-stealers,  are  chastised  and  restrained 
with  the  iron  hands  of  death  ;  yet  that  men 
should  at  great  charges  give  pensions  to  an 
order  of  men,  whose  trade  it  is  to  rob  them 
of  their  temperance,  and  wittily  to  destroy 
their  health ;  xarufyspns  xai  xa.nai£rpjov$  xai 
tobi  ix  tr^  yrti  x£vo%oyovto$,  the  Greek  fathers 
call  such  persons  ; 

 curvas  in  terris  animae  et  coelestium  inanes ; 

people  bowed  down  to  the  earth  j  "  lovers 
of  pleasures  more  than  lovers  of  God  :" 
"  Arentinas  mentes,"  so  Antidamus  calls 
them,  men  framed  in  the  furnaces  of  Etruria, 
"  Aretine  spirits, "j"  beginning  and  ending 
in  the  flesh  and  filthiness;  dirt  and  clay  all 
over.  But  go  to  the  crib,  thou  glutton,  and 
there  it  will  be  found  that  when  the  charger 
is  clean,  yet  nature's  rules  were  not  prevari- 
cated ;  the  beast  eats  up  all  his  provisions 
because  they  are  natural  and  simple ;  or  if 
he  leaves  any,  it  is  because  he  desires  no 
more  than  till  his  needs  be  served;  and 
neither  can  a  man  (unless  he  be  diseased  in 
body  or  in  spirit,  in  affection  or  in  habit)  eat 
more  of  natural  and  simple  food  than  to  the 
satisfaction  of  his  natural  necessities.  He 
that  drinks  a  draught  or  two  of  water  and 
cools  his  thirst,  drinks  no  more  till  his  thirst 
returns ;  but  he  that  drinks  wine,  drinks  again 
longer  than  it  is  needful,  even  so  long  as  it 
is  pleasant.  Nature  best  provides  for  herself 
when  she  spreads  her  own  table ;  but  when 
men  have  gotten  superinduced  habits,  and 
new  necessities,  artthatbrought  them  in  must 
maintain  them,  but  "wantonness  and  folly 
wait  at  the  table,  and  sickness  and  death  take 
away." 

*  Chrysost. 

t  Viz.  ab  Areto,  unde  sicul  ex  aliis  Etruriae  figo- 
linis,  testacca  vasa  Romam  dcferebant. 


Serm.  XVI. 


THE   HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


121 


2.  Reason  is  the  second  measure,  or  rather ' 
the  Rile  whereby  we  judge  of  intemperance ; 
for  whatsoever  loads  of  meat  and  drink  make 
the  reason  useless  or  troubled,  are  effects  of 
this  deformity  ;  not  that  reason  is  the  ade- 
quate measure;  for  a  man  may  be  intemper- 
ate upon  other  causes,  though  he  do  not 
force  his  understanding,  and  trouble  his  head. 
Some  are  s;rong  to  drink,  and  can  eat  like  a 
wolf,  and  love  to  do  so,  as  fire  to  destroy  the 
stubble ;  such  were  those  harlots  in  the 
comedy,  "Quae  cum  amatore  suo  cum  cce- 
nant  liguriunt;"*  these  persons  are  to  take 
their  accounts  from  the  measures  of  religion, 
and  the  Spirit:  though  they  can  talk  still  or 
trans;uH  the  affairs  of  the  world,  yet  if  they 
be  not  fitted  lor  the  things  of  the  spirit,  they 
are  too  lull  of  flesh  or  wine,  and  cannot,  or 
care  not,  to  attend  to  the  things  of  God.  But  I 
reason  is  the  limit,  beyond  which  temper- 
ance never  wanders  ;  and  in  every  degree  in 
which  our  discourse  is  troubled,  and  our 
soul  is  lifted  from  its  wheels,  in  the  same 
degree  the  sin  prevails.  "  Dum  sumus  in 
quadam  delinquendi  libidine,  nebulis  quibus- 
iam  insipientiec  mens  obducitur,"  saith  St. 
Ambrose:  when  the  flesh-pots  reek,  and  the 
uncovered  dishes  send  forth  a  nidor  and 
hungry  smells,  that  cloud  hides  the  face,  and 
puts  out  the  eye  of  reason  ;  and  then  tell 
them,  Mors  in  olla,"  that  "  Death  is  in  the 
pot,"  and  folly  is  in  the  chalice;  that  those 
smells  are  fumes  of  brimstone,  and  vapours 
of  Egypt ;  that  they  will  make  their  hearts 
easy,  and  their  head  sottish,  their  colour 
pale,  and  their  hands  trembling,  and  their 
feet  tormented. 

Mullorum.  leporumque  et  suminis  exiius  hie  esr, 
Sulphmeusque  color,  earnifieesque  pedes.  Mart. 

For  tli at  is  the  end  of  delicacies,  8veu>&a, 

artupos,  as  Dio  Chrysostom,  "  paleness  and 
effeminacy,  and  laziness,  and  folly;"  yet 
under  the  dominion  of  the  pleasures  of  sen- 
suality, men  are  so  stripped  of  the  use  of 
reason,  thai  they  are  not  only  useless  in 
wise  counsels  and  assistances,  but  they  have 
not  reason  enough  to  avoid  the  evils  of  their 
own  throat  and  belly  ;  when  once  their  rea- 
son fails-,  we  must  know,  that  their  temper- 
ance and  their  religion  went  before. 

3.  Though  reason  be  so  strictly  to  be  pre- 
served at  our  tables  as  well  as  at  our  prayers, 
and  we  can  never  have  leave  to  do  any 
violence  to  it ;  yet  the  measures  of  nature 
may  be  enlarged  bevond  the  bounds  of  prime 

*  Eunuch.  5.  4.  14. 
16 


and  common  necessity.  For  besides  hungei 
and  thirst,  there  are  so.ne  labours  of  the 
body,  and  others  of  the  mind,  and  there  are 
sorrows  and  loads  upon  the  spirit  by  its 
communications  with  the  indispositions  of 
the  body  ;  and  as  the  labouring  man  may  be 
supplied  with  bigger  quantities,  so  the  stu- 
dent and  contemplative  man  with  more 
delicious  and  sprightful  nutriment  :  for  as 
the  tender  and  more  delicate  easily-digested 
meats  will  not  help  to  carry  burdens  upon 
the  neck,  and  hold  the  plough  in  society  and 
yokes  of  the  laborious  oxen  ;  so  neither  will 
the  pulse  and  the  leeks,  Lavinian  sausages, 
and  the  Cisalpine  suckets  or  gobbets  of  con- 
dited  bull's-flesh,  minister  such  delicate 
spirits  to  the  thinking  man  ;  but  his  notion 
will  be  flat  as  the  noise  of  the  Arcadian 
porter,  and  thick  as  the  first  juice  of  his 
country  lard,  unless  he  makes  his  body  a  fit 
servant  to  the  soul,  and  both  fitted  for  the 
employment. 

But  in  these  cases  necessity,  and  prudence, 
and  experience,  are  to  make  the  measures 
and  the  rule;  and  so  long  as  the  just  end  is 
fairly  designed,  and  aptly  ministered  to,  there 
ought  to  be  no  scruple  concerning  the 
quantity  or  quality  of  the  provision  :  and  he 
that  would  stint  a  swain  by  the  commons  of 
a  student,  and  give  Philotas  the  Candian  the 
leavings  of  Plato,  does  but  ill  serve  the  ends 
of  temperance,  but  worse  of  prudence  and 
necessity. 

4.  Sorrow  and  a  wounded  spirit  may  as 
well  be  provided  for  in  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  meat  and  drink,  as  any  other  dis- 
ease ;  and  this  disease  by  this  remedy  as 
well  as  by  any  other.  For,  great  sorrow 
and  importune  melancholy  may  be  as  great 
a  sin  as  great  anger ;  and  if  it  be  a  sin  in  its 
nature,  it  is  more  malignant  and  dangerous 
in  its  quality  ;  as  naturally  tending  to  mur- 
mur and  despair,  weariness  of  religion  and 
hatred  of  God,  timorousness  and  jealousies, 
fantastic  images  of  things,  and  superstition  ; 
and  therefore,  as  it  is  necessary  to  restrain 
the  fevers  of  anger,  so  also  to  warm  the 
freezings  and  dullness  of  melancholy  by- 
prudent  and  temperate,  but  proper  and  ap- 
portioned diets;  and  if  some  meats  and 
drinks  make  men  lustful,  or  sleepy,  or  dull, 
or  lazy,  or  sprightly,  or  merry  ;  so  far  as 
meats  and  drinks  can  minister  to  the  passion, 
and  the  passion  ministers  to  virtue,  so  far  by 
this  means  they  may  be  provided  for.  "  Give 
strong  drink  to  him  that  is  ready  to  perish, 
jand  wine  to  those  that  be  of  heavy  hearts  ; 
'let  him  drink  and  forget  his  poverty,  and 


122 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


Serm.  XVI. 


remember  his  misery  no  more,"*  said  King 
Lemuel's  mother.  But  this  is  not  intended 
to  be  an  habitual  cure,  but  single  and  occa- 
sional; for  he  that  hath  a  pertinacious  sor- 
row, is  beyond  the  cure  of  meat  and  drink, 
and  if  this  becomes  every  day's  physic,  it 
will  quickly  become  every  day's  sin.  Then, 
it  must  always  keep  within  the  bounds  of 
reason,  and  never  seize  upon  any  portions 
of  affection  :  the  Germans  used  to  mingle 
music  with  their  bowls,  and  drink  by  the 
measures  of  the  six  notes  of  music  ; 

Ut  rclevet  imserum  latum,  solitosque  \dhores. 

But  they  sing  so  long  that  they  forget  not 
iheir  sorrow  only,  but  their  virtue  also,  and 
their  religion;  and  there  are  some  men  that 
fall  into  drunkenness,  because  they  would 
forget  a  lighter  calamity,  running  into  the 
fiie  to  cure  a  calenture,  and  beating  their 
brains  out  to  be  quit  of  the  aching  of  their 
heads.  A  man's  heaviness  is  refreshed  long 
before  he  comes  to  drunkenness  ;  for  when 
he  arrives  thither,  he  hath  but  changed  his 
heaviness,  and  taken  a  crime  to  boot. 

5.  Even  when  a  man  hath  no  necessity 
upon  him,  no  pungent  sorrow,  or  natural  or 
artificial  necessity,  it  is  lawful  in  some  cases 
of  eating  and  drinking  to  receive  pleasure 
and  intend  it.  For  whatsoever  is  natural 
and  necessary,  is  therefore  not  criminal,  be- 
cause it  is  of  God's  procuring;  and  since 
we  eat  for  need,  and  the  satisfaction  of  our 
need  is  a  removing  of  a  pain,  and  that  in 
nature  is  the  greatest  pleasure,  it  is  impos- 
sible that  in  its  own  nature  it  should  be  a 
sin.  But  in  this  case  of  conscience  these 
cautions  are  to  be  observed  : 

1 .  So  long  as  nature  ministers  the  pleasure 
and  not  art,  it  is  materially  innocent.  "  Si 
tuo  veniat  jure,  luxuria  est:"f  but  it  is  safe 
while  it  enters  upon  nature's  stock  ;  for  it  is 
impossible  that  the  proper  effect  of  health, 
and  temperance,  and  prudent  abstinence, 
should  be  vicious ;  and  yet  these  are  the 
parents  of  the  greatest  pleasure  in  eating 
and  drinking.  *'  Malum  panem  expecta, 
bonus  fiet;  eliam  ilium  tenerum  tibi  et  sili- 
gineum  fames  reddet :"  "  If  you  abstain  and 
be  hungry,  you  shall  turn  the  meanest  pro- 
vision into  delicate  and  desirable. " 

2.  Let  all  the  pleasure  of  meat  and  drink 
be  such  as  can  minister  to  health,  and  be 
within  the  former  bounds.  For  since  plea- 
sure in  eating  and  drinking  is  its  natural  ap- 
pendage, and  like  a  shadow  follows  the  sub- 


*  Proy.  xxxi.  6.  t  Seneca. 


stance,  as  the  meat  is  to  be  accounted,  so 
is  the  pleasure;  and  if  these  be  observed, 
there  is  no  difference  whether  nature  or  art 
be  the  cook.  For  some  constitutions,  and 
some  men's  customs,  and  some  men's  edu- 
cations, and  necessities,  and  weaknesses, 
are  such,  that  their  appetite  is  to  be  invited, 
and  their  digestion  helped,  but  all  this  while 
we  are  within  the  bounds  of  nature  and 
need. 

3.  It  is  lawful  when  a  man  needs  meat 
to  choose  the  pleasanter,  even  merely  for 
their  pleasures;  that  is,  because  they  are 
pleasant,  besides  that  they  are  useful ;  this 
is  as  lawful  as  the  smell  of  a  rose,  or  to  lie 
in  feathers,  or  change  the  posture  of  our 
body  in  bed  for  ease,  or  to  hear  music,  or  to 
walk  in  gardens  rather  than  the  highways; 
and  God  has  given  us  leave  to  be  delighted 
in  those  things,  which  he  made  to  that  pur- 
pose, that  we  may  also  be  delighted  in  him 
that  gives  them.  For  so  as  the  more  pleas- 
ant may  better  serve  for  health,  and  di- 
rectly to  refreshment,  so  collaterally  to  reli- 
gion ;  always  provided,  that  it  be  in  its 
degree  moderate,  and  we  temperate  in  our 
desires,  without  transportation  and  vio- 
lence, without  unhandsome  usages  of  our- 
selves, or  taking  from  God  and  from  reli- 
gion any  minutes  and  portions  of  our 
affections.  When  Eicadastes,  the  epicure, 
saw  a  goodly  dish  of  hot  meat  served  up, 
he  sung  the  verse  of  Homer, 

Toy  §'  iyw  avftoj  tl/xi,  xai  tv  rtvpi  2£tpa$  tocxf, 

and  swallowed  some  of  it  greedily,  till  by 
its  hands  of  fire  it  curled  his  stomach,  like 
parchment  in  the  flame,  and  he  was  carried 
from  his  banquet  to  his  grave. 

Non  poterat  letho  nobiliore  mori :  Mart. 

It  was  fit  he  should  die  such  a  death,  but 
that  death  bids  us  beware  of  that  folly. 

4.  Let  the  pleasure,  as  it  came  with 
meat,  so  also  pass  away  with  it.  Philoxe- 
nus  was  a  beast ;  yv^ato  Ttote  tr\v  yfpdw/ov 
av^f'va  hzew,  "  he  wished  his  throat  as  long 
as  a  crane's, "  that  he  might  be  long  in 
swallowing  his  pleasant  morsels  ;  "  Moeret 
quod  magna  pars  felicitatis  exclusa  esset 
corporis  angustiis  ;"  "  he  mourned  because 
the  pleasure  of  eating  was  not  spread  over 
all  his  body,"  that  he  might  have  been  an 
epicure  in  his  hands;  and  indeed,  if  we 
consider  it  rightly,  great  eating  and  drink- 
ing is  not  the  greatest  pleasure  of  the  taste, 
but  of  the  touch;  and  Philoxenus  might 


Serm.  XVI. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


123 


feel  the  unctuous  juice  slide  softly  down 
his  throat,  but  he  could  not  taste  it  in  the 
middle  of  the  long  neck ;  and  we  see  that 
they  who  mean  to  feast  exactly,  or  delight 
the  palate,  do  "libare,"  or  "  pitissare," 
take  up  little  proportions  and  spread  them 
upon  the  tongue  or  palate  ;  but  full  mor- 
sels and  great  draughts  are  easy  and  soft  to 
the  touch;  but  so  is  the  feeling  of  silk,  or 
handling  of  a  melon,  or  a  mole's  skin,  and 
as  delicious  too  as  eating  when  it  goes 
beyond  the  appetites  of  nature,  and  the 
proper  pleasures  of  taste,  which  cannot  be 
perceived  but  by  a  temperate  man.  And 
therefore  let  not  the  pleasure  be  intended 
beyond  the  taste ;  that  is,  beyond  those 
little  natural  .  measures  in  which  God 
intended  that  pleasure  should  accompany 
your  tables.  Do  not  run  to  it  beforehand, 
nor  chew  the  cud  when  the  meal  is  done  ; 
delight  not  in  fancies,  and  expectations, 
and  remembrances  of  a  pleasant  meal ;  but 
let  it  descend  "  in  latrinam,"  together  with 
the  meals  whose  attendant  pleasure  is. 

5.  Let  pleasure  be  the  less  principal,  and 
used  as  a  servant;  it  may  be  modest  and 
prudent  to  strew  the  dish  with  sugar,  or  to 
dip  thy  bread  in  vinegar;  but  to  make  thy 
meal  of  sauces,  and  to  make  the  accessory 
become  the  principal,  and  pleasure  to  rule 
the  table,  and  all  the  regions  of  thy  soul,  is 
to  make  a  man  less  and  lower  than  an 
oglio,  of  a. cheaper  value  than  a  turbot ;  a 
servant  and  a  worshipper  of  sauces,  and 
cooks,  and  pleasure,  and  folly. 

6.  Let  pleasure,  as  it  is  used  in  the  re- 
gions and  limits  of  nature  and  prudence, 
so  also  be  changed  into  religion  and  thank- 
fulness. "  Turtures  cum  bibunt,  non  resu- 
pinant  colla,"  say  naturalists;  "Turtles 
when  they  drink,  lift  not  up  their  bills;" 
and  if  we  swallow  our  pleasures  without 
returning  the  honour  and  the  acknow- 
ledgment to  God  that  gave  them,  we  may 
H  large  bibere,  jumentorum  modo,"  "  drink 
draughts  as  large  as  an  ox,"  but  we  shall 
die  like  an  ox,  and  change  our  meats  and 
drinks  into  eternal  rottenness.  In  all  reli- 
gions it  hath  been  permitted  to  enlarge  our 
tables  in  the  days  of  sacrifices  and  religious 
festivity. 

Qui  Veientanum  festis  potare  dicbus 
Campana  solitus  trulla,  vappamque  profestis. 

Hor. 

For  then  the  body  may  rejoice  in  fellow- 
ship with  the  soul,  and  then  a  pleasant 
meal  is  religious,  if  it  be  not  inordinate. 


But  if  our  festival-days,  like  the  gentile 
sacrifices,  end  in  drunkenness,'*  and  our 
joys  in  religion  pass  into  sensuality  and 
beastly  crimes,  we  change  the  holyday  into 
a  day  of  death,  and  ourselves  become  a 
sacrifice  as  in  the  day  of  slaughter. 

To  sum  up  this  particular ;  there  are,  as 
you  perceive,  many  cautions  to  make  our 
pleasure  safe,  but  any  thing  can  make  it 
inordinate,  and  then  scarce  any  thing  can 
keep  it  from  becoming  dangerous. 

Habet  omnis  hoc  voluptas  : 
Stimulis  aiiit  furentes. 
Apiumque  par  volantum, 
Ubi  grata  mella  fudit, 
Fugit.  et  nimis  tenaci 
Ferit  icta  corda  morsu. 

Boetius,  1.  3.  Metr.  7. 

And  the  pleasure  of  the  honey  will  not  pay 
for  the  smart  of  the  sting.  "  Amores  enim 
et  delicia?  mature  et  celeriter  deflorescunt, 
et  in  omnibus  rebus,  voluptatibus  maximis 
fasiidium  finitimum  est :"  "  Nothing  is  so 
soon  ripe  and  rotten  as  pleasure  ;  and  upon 
all  possessions  and  states  of  things,  loath 
ing  looks  as  being  not  far  off;  but  it  sits 
upon  the  skirts  of  pleasure." 

'O  hi  rpartt^a? 
Ertopffa^uf ro?  /x&ixpuv  sOiytv, 
H  /Utya  x%avG8L  rtixpav  ftfptoa, 

"  He  that  greedily  puts  his  hand  to  a  deli- 
cious table,  shall  weep  bitterly  when  he 
suffers  the  convulsions  and  violence  by  the 
divided  interests  of  such  contrary  juices 

OS?  yap  2#wi,as  QtGixo$  ayayxaj 

"  For  this  is  the  law  of  our  nature  and  fatal 
necessity  ;  life  is  always  poured  forth  from 
two  goblets." 

And  now,  and  after  all  this,  I  pray  con- 
sider, what  a  strange  madness  and  prodi- 
gious folly  possess  many  men,  that  they 
love  to  swallow  death  and  diseases  and  dis- 
honour, with  an  appetite  which  no  reason 
can  restrain.  We  expect  our  servants 
should  not  dare  to  touch  what  we  have  for- 
bidden to  them;  we  are  watchful  that  our 
children  should  not  swallow  poisons,  and 
filthiness,  and  unwholesome  nourishment ; 
we  take  care  that  they  should  be  well-man- 
nered, and  civil,  and  of  fair  demeanour ; 
and  we  ourselves  desire  to  be,  or  at  least  to 
be  accounted,  wise,  and  would  infinitely 

*M«9yt'v,  fxtrx  T9  $6w. 


124 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FEASTING. 


Serm.  XVI. 


scorn  to  be  called  fools  ;  and  we  are  so  great 
lovers  of  health,  that  we  will  buy  it  at  any 
rate  of  money  or  observance ;  and  then  for 
honour,  it  is  that  which  the  children  of  men 
pursue  with  passion,  it  is  one  of  the  noblest 
rewards  of  virtue,  and  the  proper  ornament 
of  the  wise  and  valiant;  and  yet  all  these 
things  are  not  valued  or  considered,  when 
a  merry  meeting,  or  a  looser  feast,  calls 
upon  the  man  to  act  a  scene  of  folly  and 
madness,  and  healthlessness  and  dishonour. 
"We  do  to  God  what  we  severely  punish 
in  our  servants;  we  correct  our  children 
for  their  meddling  with  dangers,  which 
themselves  prefer  before  immortality  ;  and 
though  no  man  think  himself  fit  to  be 
despised,  yet  he  is  willing  to  make  himself 
a  beast,  a  sot,  and  a  ridiculous  monkey, 
with  the  follies  and  vapours  of  wine  ;  and 
when  he  is  high  in  drink  or  fancy,  proud 
as  a  Grecian  orator  in  the  midst  of  his 
popular  noises,  at  the  same  time  he  shall 
talk  such  dirty  language,  such  mean  low 
things,  as  may  well  become  a  changeling 
and  a  fool,  for  whom  the  stocks  are  pre- 
pared by  the  laws,  and  the  just  scorn  of 
men.  Every  drunkard  clothes  his  head 
with  a  mighty  scorn ;  and  makes  himself 
lower  at  that  time  than  the  meanest  of  his 
servants ;  the  boys  can  laugh  at  him  when 
he  is  led  like  a  cripple,  directed  like  a  blind 
man,  and  speaks  like  an  infant  imperfect 
noises,  lisping  with  a  full  and  spongy 
tongue,  and  an  empty  head,  and  a  vain  and 
foolish  heart :  so  che-aply  does  he  part  with 
his  honour  for  drink  or  loads  of  meat;  for 
which  honour  he  is  ready  to  die,  rather 
than  hear  it  to  be  disparaged  by  another  : 
when  himself  destroys  it,  as  bubbles  perish 
with  the  breath  of  children.  Do  not  the 
laws  of  all  wise  nations  mark  the  drunkard 
for  a  fool,  with  the  meanest  and  most 
scornful  punishment?  and  is  there  any 
thing  in  the  world  so  foolish  as  a  man  that 
is  drunk  ?  But,  good  God  !  what  an  intole- 
rable sorrow  hath  seized  upon  great  por- 
tions of  mankind,  that  this  folly  and  mad- 
ness should  possess  the  greatest  spirits,  and 
the  wittiest  men,  the  best  company,  the 
most  sensible  of  the  word  honour,  and  the 
most  jealous  of  losing  the  shadow,  and 
the  most  careless  of  the  thing !  Is  it  not  a 
horrid  thing,  that  a  wise  or  a  crafty,  a 
learned  or  a  noble  person,  should  disho- 
nour himself  as  a  fool,  destroy  his  body  as 
a  murderer,  lessen  his  estate  as  a  prodigal, 
disgrace  every  good  cause  that  he  can  pre- 


tend to  by  his  relation,  and  become  an 
appellative  of  scorn,  a  scene  of  laughter  or 
derision,  and  all  for  the  reward  of  forgetful- 
ness  and  madness  7  for  there  are  in  immo- 
derate drinking  no  other  pleasures. 

Why  do  valiant  men  and  brave  person- 
ages fight  and  die  rather  than  break  the 
laws  of  men,  or  start  from  their  duty  to 
their  prince,  and  will  suffer  themselves  to 
be  cut  in  pieces  rather  than  deserve  the 
name  of  a  traitor,  or  perjured?  and  yet 
these  very  men,  to  avoid  the  hated  name 
of  glutton  or  drunkard,  and  to  preserve 
their  temperance,  shall  not  deny  themselves 
one  luscious  morsel,  or  pour  a  cup  of  wine 
on  the  ground,  when  they  are  invited  to 
drink  by  the  laws  of  the  circle  or  wilder 
company. 

Methinks  it  were  but  reason,  that  if  to 
give  life  to  uphold  a  cause  be  not  too  much, 
they  should  not  think  it  too  much  to  be 
hungry  and  suffer  thirst  for  the  reputation 
of  that  cause;  and,  therefore,  much  rather 
that  they  would  think  it  but  duty  to  be  tem- 
perate for  its  honour,  and  eat  and  drink  in 
civil  and  fair  measures,  that  themselves 
might  not  lose  the  reward  of  so  much  suf- 
fering, and  of  so  good  a  relation,  nor  that 
which  they  value  most  be  destroyed  by 
drink. 

There  are  in  the  world  a  generation  of 
men  that  are  engaged  in  a  cause  which 
they  glory  in,  and  pride  themselves  in  its 
relation  and  appellative  :  but  yet  for  that 
cause  they  will  do  nothing  but  talk  and 
drink  ;  they  are  valiant  in  wine,  and  witty 
in  healths,  and  full  of  stratagem  to  promote 
debauchery  ;  but  such  persons  are  not  con- 
siderable in  wise  accounts  ;  that  which  I 
deplore  is,  that  some  men  prefer  a  cause 
before  their  life,  and  yet  prefer  wine  before 
that  cause,  and  by  one  drunken  meeting  set 
it  more  backward  in  its  hopes  and  bless- 
ings, than  it  can  be  set  forward  by  the 
counsels  and  arms  of  a  whole  year.  God 
hath  ways  enough  to  reward  a  truth  with- 
out crowning  it  with  success  in  the  hands 
of  such  men.  In  the  mean  time  they  dis- 
honour religion,  and  make  truth  be  evil 
spoken  of,  and  innocent  persons  to  suffer 
by  their  very  relation,  and  the  cause  of  God 
to  be  reproached  in  the  sentences  of  erring 
and  abusing  people  ;  and  themselves  lose 
their  health  and  their  reason,  their  honour 
and  their  peace,  the  rewards  of  sober  coun- 
sels, and  the  wholesome  effects  of  wis- 
dom. 


Serm.  XVII. 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


125 


Arcanum  neque  tu  scrutaberis  illius  unquam; 
Commissumque  teges,  et  vino  tortus  et  ira. 

Hor. 

Wine  discovers  more  than  the  rack,  and  he 
that  will  be  drunk  is  not  a  person  fit  to  be 
trusted  :  and  though  it  cannot  be  expected 
men  should  be  kinder  to  their  friend,  or 
their  prince,  or  their  honour,  than  to  God, 
and  to  their  own  souls,  and  to  their  own 
bodies  ;  yet  when  men  are  not  moved  by 
what  is  sensible  and  material,  by  that 
which  smarts  and  shames  presently,  they 
are  beyond  the  cure  of  religion,  and  the 
hopes  of  reason  ;  and  therefore  they  must 
•*  lie  in  hell  like  sheep,  death  gnawing  upon 
them,  and  the  righteous  shall  have  domi- 
nion over  them  in  the  morning"  of  the 
resurrection. 

Seras  tutior  ibis  ad  lucernas  : 

Haec  hora  est  tua,  cum  furit  Lyaeus, 

Cum  regnant  rosce,  cum  madent  capilli. 

Mart. 

Much  safer  it  is  to  go  to  the  severities  of 
a  watchful  and  a  sober  life  ;  for  all  that  time 
of  life  is  lost,  when  wine,  and  rage,  and 
pleasure,  and  folly,  steal  away  the  heart  of 
a  man,  and  make  him  go  singing  to  his 
grave. 

I  end  with  the  saying  of  a  wise  man  : 
He  is  fit  to  sit  at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and 
to  feast  with  saints,  who  moderately  uses 
the  creatures  which  God  hath  given  him: 
but  he  that  despises  even  lawful  pleasures, 

ov  fjLoiov  nvu.7X.6tr^  tojv  Scum  aJJja  xai  ovrdp%u>v, 
•■  shall  not  only  sit  and  feast  with  God,  but 
reign  together  with  him,"  and  partake  of 
his  glorious  kingdom. 


nature,  but  by  a  superadded  forwa.dness, 
(God  himself  inspiring  the  desire,)  the 
world  was  most  desirous  of  children,  impa- 
tient of  barrenness,  accounting  single  life  a 
!  curse,  and  a  childless  person  hated  by  God.* 
;  The  world  was  rich  and  empty,  and  able  to 
i  provide  for  a  more  numerous  posterity  than 
it  had. 


-"E|fij,  Novurn? ,  rexva, 


SERMON  XVII. 

THE  MARRIAGE  RING  ;  OR,  THE  MYSTERIOVS- 
NESS  AND  DUTIES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


Thi*  is  a  great  mystery:  but  I  speak  concerning 
Christ  and  the  church.  Nevertheless  let  every 
one  of  you  in  particular  so  love  his  wife  even  as 
himself;  and  the  wife  see  that  she  reverence  her 
husband.— Ephes.  v"  32,  33. 

The  first  blessing  God  gave  to  man  was 
society  :  and  that  society  was  a  marriage, 
and  that  marriage  was  confederate  by  God 
himself,  and  hallowed  by  a  blessing:  and 
at  the  same  time,  and  for  very  many  de- 
scending ages,  not  only  by  the  instinct  of 


Brcnck. 

You  that  are  rich,  Numenius,  you  may 
,  multiply  your  family  ;  poor  men  are  not  so 
1  fond  of  children,  but  when  a  family  could 
drive  their  herds,  and  set  their  children 
upon  camels,  and  lead  them  till  they  saw  a 
i  fat  soil  watered  with  rivers,  and  there  sit 
!  down  without  paying  rent,  they  thought  of 
nothing  but  to  have  great  families,  that 
their  own  relations  might  swell  up  to  a  pa- 
triarchate, and  their  children  be  enough  to 
possess  all  the  regions  that  they  saw,  and 
|  their  grandchildren   become   princes,  and 
themselves  build  cities,  and  call  them  by 
the  name  of  a  child,  and  become  the  fouu- 
!  tain  of  a  nation.    This  was  the  consequent 
,  of  -the  first  blessing,  "increase  and  multi- 
ply."   The  next  blessing  was,  "  the  pro- 
|  mise  of  the  Messias,"  and  that  also  in- 
creased in  men  and  women  a  wonderful 
desire  of  marriage :  for  as  soon  as  God  had 
chosen  the  family  of  Abraham  to  be  the 
:  blessed  line,  from  whence  the  world's  Re- 
deemer should  descend  according  to  the 
flesh,  every  of  his  daughters  hoped  to  have 
the  honour  to  be  his  mother,  or  his  grand 
mother,  or  something  of  his  kindred  :  and 
i  to  be  childless  in  Israel  was  a  sorrow  to  the 
Hebrew  women  great  as  the  slavery  of 
Egypt,  or  their  dishonours  in  the  land  of 
'  their  captivity. f 

But  when  the  Messias  was  come,  and 
the  doctrine  was  published,  and  his  minis- 
ters but  few,  and  his  disciples  were  to  suffer 
persecution,  and  to  be  of  an  unsettled  dwell- 
ing, and  the  nation  of  the  Jews,  in  the  bosom 
and  society  of  which  the  church  especially 
did  dwell,  were  to  be  scattered  and  broken 

*  Quemlibet  hominem  cui  non  est  uxor,  mini- 
mo  esse  hominem  ;  cum  etiam  in  scriptura  dicatur, 
''Masculum  et  fceminam  creavit  eos,  et  vocavit 
nomen  eorum  Adam  seu  hominem."  R.  Eliezer 
dixit  in  Gen  Bab.  Quicunque  negligit  prasceptum 
de  multiplications  humani  generis,  habendum  esse 
velut  homicidam. 

t  Christiani  et  apud  Athenas,  t*c  toZ  *y*uiou 

;  x*i  iiptyxuUv  cfixatf,  refert  Julius  Pollux  1.  3.  Trtpt 
dy'ifxmr.     Idem  etiam  Lacedaemone  et  Roma?. 

!  Vide  Festum  verb.  Uxorium  atque  ibi  Jos.  Seal 

l2 


126 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


Serm.  XVII. 


in  pieces  with  fierce  calamities,  and  the 
world  was  apt  to  calumniate  and  suspect 
and  dishonour  Christians  upon  pretences 
and  unreasonable  jealousies,  and  that  to  all 
these  purposes  the  state  of  marriage  brought 
many  inconveniences:  it  pleased  God  in 
this  new  creation  to  inspire  into  the  hearts 
of  his  servants  a  disposition  and  strong  de- 
sires to  live  a  single  life,  lest  the  state  of 
marriage  should  in  that  conjunction  of 
things  become  an  accidental  impediment  to 
the  dissemination  of  the  gospel,  which 
called  men  from  a  confinement  in  their 
domestic  charges,  to  travel,  and  flight,  and 
poverty,  and  difficulty,  and  martyrdom : 
upon  this  necessity  the  apostles  and  apos- 
tolical men  published  doctrines,  declaring 
the  advantages  of  single  life,  not  by  any 
commandment  of  the  Lord,  but  by  the  spi- 
rit of  prudence,  Sia  trjv  eveatusaw  avdyx^v, 
for  the  present  and  then  incumbent  ne- 
cessities, "  and  in  order  to  the  advantages 
which  did  accrue  to  the  public  ministries 
and  private  piety.*  "  There  are  some  (said  j 
our  blessed  Lord)  who  make  themselves1 
eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  that 
is,  for  the  advantages  and  the  ministry  of 
the  Gospel,  "non  ad  vitae  bonae  meritum" 
(as  St.  Austin  in  the  like  case) ;  not  that  it 
is  a  better  service  of  God  in  itself,f  but 
that  it  is  useful  to  the  first  circumstances 
of  the  gospel  and  the  infancy  of  the  king- 
dom, because  the  unmarried  person  does 
utpi/jLvav  ta  tov  xvplov,  "  is  apt  to  spiritual 
and  ecclesiastical  employments;"  first  aywj, 
and  then  dyia^o^voj,  "  holy  in  his  own  per- 
son, and  then  sanctified  to  public  minis- 
tries;" and  it  was  also  of  ease  to  the  Chris- 
tians themselves,  because,  as  then  it  was, 
when  they  were  to  flee,  and  to  flee  for 
aught  they  knew  in  winter,  and  they  were 
persecuted  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven ; 
and  the  nurses  and  the  women  with  child 
were  to  suffer  a  heavier  load  of  sorrow  be- 
cause of  the  imminent  persecutions;  and 
above  all,  because  of  the  great  fatality  of 
ruin  upon  the  whole  nation  of  the  Jews, 
well  it  might  be  said  by  St.  Paul,  ^utyv 
(jopjet  'i%ovrjw  ol  tctovtoi,  *'  such  shall  have 

*  Etiam  Judaei,  qui  praeceptum  esse  viris  ttai- 
ftiroiiliv  aiunt,  uno  ore  concedunt,  tamen  dispen- 
satum  esse  cum  iis  qui  assiduo  legis  studio  vacare 
volunt,  alias  etiam  immunibus  ab  acriori  carnis 
stimulo. — Maimon.  15.  Halach.  Ishoth. 

t  Ov  xpcyo)  6i  rov;  \oittov;  piaKapto'^,  on  yapots  npooa)- 
p0M|W  W  ipvfiozriv  dprc  cvx^fiai  yhp  (i^tog  Oeov  evpcOeis 
wp6f  ro?f  \\vcaiv  avrw  cijpt^tfuai  iv  Tt)  (iaaCkt'la  a*  *A/?pa-  ' 
ir/j,  koI  'Ivaaic,  nal  rIa*w/?,  w;  Iwot)</>,  ksu  "leaaiov  Kal  rwi/ ) 
a\Xu)v  ■nporpT)T>T)v,  «y  Hirpov  Kal  ]~lav\ov,  Kai  rwr  uXVx'v 

imrr6\<avt  &c. — Epist.  ad  Philadelph. 


trouble  in  the  flesh,"  that  is,  they  that  are 
married  shall,  and  so  at  that  time  they  had  : 
and  therefore  it  was  an  act  of  charity  to  the 
Christians  to  give  that  counsel,  iyu  8e  v/mv 
4>ft'6o/wat,  "  I  do  this  to  spare  you,"  and 
ifids  a/jLtplfivovt  tlvox  :  for  when  the  case  was 
altered,  and  that  storm  was  over,  and  the 
first  necessities  of  the  gospel  served,  and 
"  the  sound  was  gone  out  into  all  na- 
tions;" in  very  many  persons  it  was  wholly 
changed,  and  not  the  married  but  the  un- 
married had  Sfkl^iv  h  aapxi,  "  trouble  in  thp 
flesh ;"  and  the  state  of  marriage  returned 
to  its  first  blessing,  **  et  non  erat  bonum 
homini  esse  solitarium,"  "  and  it  was  not 
good  for  man  to  be  alone." 

But  in  this  first  interval,  the  public  ne- 
cessity and  the  private  zeal  mingling  to- 
gether did  sometimes  overact  their  love  of 
single  life,  even  to  the  disparagement  of 
marriage,  and  to  the  scandal  of  religion ; 
which  was  increased  by  the  occasion  of 
some  pious  persons  renouncing  their  con- 
tract of  marriage,  not  consummate,  with 
believers.  For  when  Flavia  Domitilla,  being 
converted  by  Nereus  and  Achilleus  the  eu- 
nuchs, refused  to  marry  Aurelianus,  to 
whom  she  was  contracted  ;  if  there  were 
not  some  little  envy  and  too  sharp  hostility 
in  the  eunuchs  to  a  marriage  state,  yet  Au- 
relianus thought  himself  an  injured  person, 
and  caused  St.  Clemens,  who  veiled  her, 
and  his  spouse  both,  to  die  in  the  quarrel. 
St.  Thecla  being  converted  by  St.  Paul, 
grew  so  in  love  with  virginity,  that  she 
leaped  back  from  the  marriage  of  Tamyris, 
where  she  was  lately  engaged.  St.  Iphi- 
genia  denied  to  marry  king  Hyrtacus,  and 
it  is  said  to  be  done  by  the  advice  of  St. 
Matthew.  And  Susanna,  the  niece  of 
Dioclesian,  refused  the  love  of  Maximianus 
the  emperor;  and  these  all  had  been  be- 
trothed ;  and  so  did  St.  Agnes,  and  St. 
Felicula,  and  divers  other  then  and  after- 
ward:  insomuch,  that  it  was  reported 
among  the  gentiles,  that  the  Christians  did 
not  only  hate  all  that  were  not  of  their  per- 
suasion, but  were  enemies  of  the  chaste 
laws  of  marriage;  and  indeed  some  that 
were  called  Christians  were  so;  "forbid- 
ding to  marry,  and  commanding  to  abstain 
from  meats."  Upon  this  occasion  it  grew 
necessary  for  the  apostle  to  state  the  ques- 
tion right,  and  to  do  honour  to  the  holy  rite 
of  marriage,  and  to  snatch  the  mystery 
from  the  hands  of  zeal  and  folly,  and  to 
place  it  in  Christ's  right  hand,  that  all  its 
beauties  might  appear,  and  a  present  con- 


Serm.  XVII. 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


venience  might  not  bring  in  a  false  doctrine, 1 
and  a  perpetual  sin,  and  an  intolerable  mis- 
chief. The  apostle,  therefore,  who  himself* 
had  been  a  married  man,  but  was  now  a 
widower,  does  explicate  the  mysteriousness 
of  it,  and  describes  its  honours,  and  adorns 
it  with  rules  and  provisions  of  religion,  that, 
as  it  begins  with  honour,  so  it  may  proceed 
with  piety,  and  end  with  glory. 

For  although  single  life  hath  in  it  privacy 
and  simplicity  of  affairs,  such  solitariness 
and  sorrow,  such  leisure  and  inactive  cir- 
cumstances of  living,  that  there  are  more 
spaces  for  religion  if  men  would  use  them 
to  these  purposes  :  and  because  it  may  have 
m  it  much  religion  and  prayers,  and  must 
have  in  it  a  perfect  mortification  of  our 
strongest  appetites,  it  is  therefore  a  state  of 
great  excellency  ;  yet  concerning  the  state 
of  marriage,  we  are  taught  from  Scripture 
and  the  sayings  of  wise  men,  great  things 
and  honourable.  M  Marriage  is  honourable 
in  all  men;"  so  is  not  single  life;  for  in 
some  it  is  a  snare  and  a  rtvpusis,  "  a  trouble 
in  the  flesh,"  a  prison  of  unruly  desires, 
which  is  attempted  daily  to  be  broken.  Ce 
libate  or  single  life  is  never  commanded  ; 
but  in  some  cases  marriage  is ;  and  he  that 
burns,  sins  often  if  he  marries  not ;  he  that 
cannot  contain  must  marry,  and  he  that  can 
contain  is  not  tied  to  a«single  life,  but  may 
marry  and  not  sin.  Marriage  was  ordained 
b/  God,  instituted  in  Paradise,  was  the  re- 
lief of  a  natural  necessity,  and  the  first 
blessing  from  the  Lord  ;  he  gave  to  man 
not  a  friend,  but  a  wife,  that  is,  a  friend  and 
a  wife  too  (for  a  good  woman  is  in  her  soul 
the  same  that  a  man  is,  and  she  is  a  woman 
only  in  her  body  ;  that  she  may  have  the 
excellency  of  the  one,  and  the  usefulness 
of  the  other,  and  become  amiable  in  both): 
it  is  the  seminary  of  the  church,  and  daily 
brings  forth  sons  and  daughters  unto  God  : 
it  was  ministered  to  by  angels,  and  Raphael 
waited  upon  a  young  man  that  he  might 
have  a  blessed  marriage,  and  that  that  mar- 
riage might  repair  two  sad  families,  and 
bless  all  their  relatives.  Our  blessed  Lord, 
though  he  was  born  of  a  maiden,  yet  she 
was  veiled  under  the  cover  of  marriage, 
and  she  was  married  to  a  widower ;  for  Jo- 
seph the  supposed  father  of  our  Lord  had 


*  Ylhpov  Kal  Ylav\nv  Kal  ruv  'ArrooroXwf  twi'  yd/iO({ 
rpoaOjn\r)aavTto'j  ovk  tnrd  npo&i'iiia;  rik  repl  to  irpayfta, 
dXX'  £7r'  iwola;  larnw  rov  ytvevg  ea\ov  bccivovs.  Ignatius 
epistol.  ad  Philadelph.  Et  Clemens  idem  ait  apud 
Eusehium  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  3.  sed  tamen  earn 
non  circumduxit  sicui  Petrus  :  probat  autem  ex 
Philip.  4. 


children  by  a  former  wife.  The  first  mira- 
cle that  ever  Jesus  did,  was  to  do  honour 
to  a  wedding;  marriage  was  in  the  world 
before  sin,  and  is  in  all  ages  of  the  world 
the  greatest  and  most  effectual  antidote 
against  sin,  in  which  all  the  world  Ivad 
perished,  if  God  had  not  made  a  remedy  : 
and  although  sin  hath  soured  marriage,  and 
stuck  the  man's  head  with  cares,  and  the 
woman's  bed  with  sorrows  in  the  produc- 
tion of  children  ;  yet  these  are  but  throes 
of  life  and  glory,  and  "  she  shall  be  saved 
in  child-bearing,  if  she  be  found  in  faith 
and  righteousness."  Marriage  is  a  school 
and  exercise  of  virtue;  and  though  marriage 
hath  cares,  yet  the  single  life  hath  desires, 
which  are  more  troublesome  and  more  dan- 
gerous, and  often  end  in  sin,  while  the  cares 
are  but  instances  of  duty  and  exercises  of 
piety  :  and  therefore,  if  single  life  hath 
more  privacy  of  devotion,  yet  marriage 
hath  more  necessities  and  more  variety  of 
it,  and  is  an  exercise  of  more  graces.  In 
two  virtues,  celibate  or  single  life  may  have 
the  advantage  of  degrees  ordinarily  and 
commonly, — that  is,  in  chastity  and  devo- 
tion :  but  as  in  some  persons  this  may  fail, 
and  it  does  in  very  many,  and  a  married 
man  may  spend  as  much  time  in  devotion 
as  any  virgins  or  widows  do ;  yet  as  in 
marriage  even  those  virtues  of  chastity  and 
devotion  are  exercised :  so  in  other  in- 
stances, this  state  hath  proper  exercises  and 
trials  for  those  graces,  for  which  single  life 
can  never  be  crowned ;  here  is  the  proper 
scene  of  piety  and  patience,  of  the  duty  of 
parents  and  the  charity  of  relatives  ;*  here 
kindness  is  spread  abroad,  and  love  is 
united  and  made  firm  as  a  centre:  marriage 
is  the  nursery  of  heaven  ;  the  virgin  sends 
prayers  to  God,  but  she  carries  but  one 
soul  to  him  ;  but  the  state  of  marriage  fills 
up  the  numbers  of  the  elect,  and  hath  in  it 
the  labour  of  love,  and  the  delicacies  of 
friendship,  the  blessing  of  society,  and  the 
union  of  hands  and  hearts;  it  hath  in  it 
less  of  beauty,  but  more  of  safety,  than 
the  single  life;  it  hath  more  care,  hut  less 
danger ;  it  is  more  merry,  and  more  sad  ; 
is  fuller  of  sorrows,  and  fuller  of  joys ;  it 
lies  under  more  burdens,  but  is  supported 
by  all  the  strengths  of  love  and  charity, 

t  Xeti  T«C  dttytvw  $Crtai(  dv7t%fT$Stt  TW  Ta?cfatc 

7TAlSm   KAret>M7T0VTI  dtl  T<0  $t<0   im^ATAt  dvQ  AjTOU 

iraLpASifivM. — P  LATO. 

Adde  quod  Funuchus  nulla  pietate  movetur, 
Nec  generi  natisve  cavet :  dementia  cunctis 
In  similes,  animosque  ligaat  consortia  damni. 

Claudiaw. 


128  THE   MARRIAGE   RING.  Serm.  XVII. 


and  those  burdens  are  delightful.  Marriage 
is  the  mother  of  the  world,*  and  preserves 
kingdoms,  and  fills  cities,  and  churches,  and 
heaven  itself.  Celibate,  like  the  fly  in  the 
heart  of  an  apple,  dwells  in  a  perpetual 
sweetness,  but  sits  alone,  and  is  confined 
and  di^s  in  singularity  ;  but  marriage,  like  the 
useful  bee,  builds  a  house  and  gathers  sweet- 
ness from  every  flower,  and  labours  and 
unites  into  societies  and  republics,  and  sends 
out  colonies,  and  feeds  the  world  with  deli- 
cacies, and  obeys  their  king,  and  keeps  or- 
der, and  exercises  many  virtues,  and  pro- 
motes the  interest  of  mankind,  and  is  that 
state  of  good  things  to  which  God  hath 
designed  the  present  constitution  of  the 
world. 

Vovvsxev  h'ds6/xu>$  o,?jo%ov  TmBs,  xai  twa  xotuc) 

Brtjx. 

Single  life  makes  men  in  one  instance  to 
be  like  angels,  but  marriage  in  very  many 
things  makes  the  chaste  pair  to  be  like  to 
Christ.  "This  is  a  great  mystery,"  but  it 
is  the  symbolical  and  sacramental  represen- 
tation of  the  greatest  mysteries  of  our  reli- 
gion. Christ  descended  from  his  father's 
bosom,  and  contracted  his  divinity  with  flesh 
and  blood,  and  married  our  nature,  and  we 
became  a  church,  the  spouse  of  the  Bride- 
groom, which  he  cleansed  with  his  blood, 
and  gave  her  his  Holy  Spirit  for  a  dowry, 
and  heaven  for  a  jointure  ;  begetting  child- 
ren unto  God  by  the  gospel.  This  spouse 
he  hath  joined  to  himself  by  an  excellent 
•harity,  he  feeds  her  at  his  own  table,  and 
lodges  her  nigh  his  own  heart,  provides  for 
all  her  necessities,  relieves  her  sorrows,  de- 
termines her  doubts,  guides  her  wanderings, 
he  is  become  her  head,  and  she  is  a  signet 
upon  his  right  hand,  he  first  indeed  was 
betrothed  to  the  synagogue,  and  had  many 
children  by  her,  but  she  forsbok  her  love,  and 
then  he  married  the  church  of  the  gentiles, 
and  by  her  as  by  a  second  venter  had  a  more 
numerous  issue,  "  atque  unadomus  est  om- 
nium filiorum  ejus,"  ».?  all  the  children  dwell 
in  the  same  house,"  and  are  heirs  of  the 
same  promises,  entitled  to  the  same  in- 
heritance. Here  is  the  eternal  conjunction, 
the  indissoluble  knot,  the  exceeding  love  of 
Christ,  the  obedience  of  the  spouse,  the 

*  VLaika  Tfi  7r&f&triii(  kuchma'  Tct^biiin  cfi 
Tcy  8icv  '"htTti  av  7t5ti  <t>UASLrTctu'iv».. — BrtjNCK. 
Siquis  patrtam  majorem  parenteral  exiinguit,  in  eo 
culpa  est,  quod  facit  pro  sua  parte  qui  se  eunuchat 
aut  aliqua  liheros  producit,  i.  e.  diffbrt  eorum  pro- 
creationem.  Varro  in  "lege  Ma;nie." 


communicating  of  goods,  the  uniting  of  in- 
terests, the  fruit  of  marriage,  a  celestial  gene- 
ration, a  new  creature  :  "  Sacramentum  hoc 
magnum  est;"  "This  is  the  sacramental 
mystery,"  represented  by  the  holy  rite  of 
marriage ;  so  that  marriage  is  divine  in  its 
institution,  sacred  in  its  union,  holy  in  the 
mystery,  sacramental  in  its  signification, 
honourable  in  its  appellative,  religious  in  its 
employments  :  it  is  advantage  to  the  socie- 
ties of  men,  and  it  is  "holiness  to  the  Lord." 
"  Dico  autem  in  Christo  et  ecclesia,"  "  It 
must  be  in  Christ  and  the  church  " 

If  this  be  not  observed,  marriage  loses  its 
mysteriousness  :  but  because  it  is  to  effect 
much  of  that  which  it  signifies,  it  concerns 
all  that  enter  into  those  golden  fetters  to  see 
that  Christ  and  his  church  be  in  at  every 
of  its  periods,  and  that  it  be  entirely  con- 
ducted and  overruled  by  religion;  for  so  the 
apostle  passes  from  the  sacramental  rite  to 
the  real  duty;  "Nevertheless,"  that  is,  al- 
though the  former  discourse  were  wholly  to 
explicate  the  conjunction  of  Christ  and  his 
church  by  this  similitude,  yet  it  hath  in  it 
this  real  duty,  "  that  the  man  love  his  wife, 
and  the  wife  reverence  her  husband  ;"  and 
this  is  the  use  we  shall  now  make  of  it,  the 
particulars  of  which  precept  I  shall  thus  dis- 
pose : 

1.  I  shall  propoynd  the  duty  as  it  gene- 
rally relates  to  man  and  wife  in  conjunction. 
2.  The  duty  and  power  of  the  man.  3.  The 
rights  and  privileges  and  the  duty  of  the 
wife. 

1.  "In  Christo  et  ecclesia;"  that  begins 
all,  and  there  is  great  need  it  should  be  so : 
for  they  that  enter  into  the  state  of  marriage, 
cast  a  die  of  the  greatest  contingency,  and 
yet  of  the  greatest  interest  in  the  world,  next 
to  the  last  throw  for  eternity. 
Nuv  yap  brj  7i6.vt£66tv  irii  %vpov  latatai  ax/xiri, 

iLtAD. 

Life  or  death,  felicity  or  a  lasting  sorrow, 
are  in  the  power  of  marriage.  A  woman  in- 
deed ventures  most,  for  she  hath  no  sanctu- 
ary to  retire  to  from  an  evil  husband ;  she 
must  dwell  upon  her  sorrow,  and  hatch  the 
eggs  which  her  own  folly  or  infelicity  hath 
produced ;  and  she  is  more  under  it,  be- 
cause her  tormentor  hath  a  warrant  of  pre- 
rogative, and  the  woman  may  complain  to 
God  as  subjects  do  of  tyrant  princes,  but 
otherwise  she  hath  no  appeal  in  the  cause 
of  unkindness.  And  though  the  man  can 
run  from  many  hours  of  his  sadness,  yet  he 
must  return  to  it  again,  and  when  he  sita 


Serm.  XVII. 


THE   MARRIAGE  RING 


129 


among  his  neighbours,  he  remembers  the  ob-  band  of  affections  to  tie  two  hearts  together 


jection  that  lies  in  his  bosom-  and  he  sighs 
deeply. 

Ah  turn  te  miserum.  malique  fati, 
Quern,  attractis  pedibus,  patente  porta, 
Percurrent  mugilesque  raphanique.*  Catull. 

The  boys,  and  the  pedlers,  and  the  fruit- 
erers, shall  tell  of  this  man,  when  he  is 
carried  to  his  grave,  that  he  lived  and  died 
a  poor  wretched  person.  The  stags  in  the 
Cireek  epigram,  whose  knees  were  clogged 
with  frozen  snow  upon  the  mountains,  came 


by  a  tittle  thread  of  red  and  white. 

Ovfifjtuar  (9^511'  rt  rpaytjiSta) 
%Qvr;a£  xaWtoj  as  rtoatr  lumopov. 

And  they  can  love  no  longer  but  until  the 
next  ague  comes  j  and  they  are  fond  of  each 
other  but  at  the  chance  of  fancy,  or  the 
small-pox,  or  childbearing,  or  care,  or  time, 
or  any  thing  that  can  destroy  a  pretty  flower/ 
But  it  is  the  basest  of  all,  when  lust  is  the 


down  to  the  brooks  of  the  valleys,  gfegitu  paranymph,  and  solicits  the  suit,  and  makes 
wrf pots  vdpwsiv  &XV  yow,  "  hoping  to  thaw  the  contract,  and  joins  the  hands ;  for  this  is 
their  joints  with  the  waters  of  the  stream  ;"*  ' 
but  there  the  frost  overtook  them  and  bound 
them  fast  in  ice,  till  the  young  herdsmen  took 
them  in  their  stranger  snare.  It  is  the  unhap- 
py chance  of  many  men,  finding  many  incon- 
veniencies  upon  the  mountains  of  single  life, 
they  descend  into  the  valleys  off  marriage  to 
refresh  their  troubles,  and  there  they  enter 
into  fetters,  and  are  bound  to  sorrow  by  the 
cords  of  a  man's  or  woman's  peevishness  : 
and  the  worst  of  the  evil  is,  they  are  to 
thank  their  own  follies  5  for  they  fell  into  the  j 
snare  by  eUering  an  improper  way  :  Christ 
and  the  church  were  no  ingredients  in  their 
choice  :  but  as  the  Indian  women  enter  into  So  Eubulus  wittily  reprehended  such  un- 


commonly the  effect  of  the  former,  according 
to  the  Greek  proverb : 

*AXk  rjot  7tpu>rt5T<x  teav  ytvtt  tyvyEMCOfe 
Avrap  Llf  tra  Spdxwr,  r  ,ta'p6a?.t£.  rtbt  jttiyaj  51$. 

Odys. 

At  first  for  his  fair  cheeks  and  comely  beard, 
"  the  beast  is  taken  for  a  lion,  but  at  last  he 
is  turned  to  a  dragon,  or  a  leopard,  or  a 
swine."  That  which  is  at  first  beauty  on 
the  face,  may  prove  lust  in  the  manners. 

AvT'otj  Be  rots  foot 51  try  xipzw  rpvry 
Kat  /wrpov,  wsrtfp  jtato'fpasrai  j,  ^vsts . 


follv  for  the  price  of  an  elephant,  and  think 
their  crime  warrantable;  so  do  men  and 
women  change  their  liberty  for  a  rich  for- 
tune, (like  Eriphyle  the  Argive,  "H  zpv  ibv  jOan 
drfipos iUio.ro  tiursvta,  "she  preferred  gold  be- 


pure  contracts  :  they  offer  in  their  marital 
sacrifices  nothing  but  the  thigh,  and  that 
which  the  priests  cut  from  the  goats,  when 
they  were  laid  to  bleed  upon  the  altars- 
'Ecu-  sic  xaMjog  ffwuaroj  ,3?i4>?  *£&  (0  ?.dyoj  frit.) 


fore  a  good  man,")  and  show  themselves  to  xai  avro  r  capf  flrat  xat  ijtiOvfmam  Sof^  xa?.r. 
be  less  than  money,  by  overvaluing  that  to  all  j  capxixus  ti&v,  xai  §qmpt*pcus  81  ov  tsOavuaxs. 
the  content  and  wise  felicity  of  their  lives ;  xptvaroa,  said  St.  Clement :  "  He  or  she  that 
and  when  they  have  counted  the  money  and  t  looks  too  curiously  upon  the  beauty  of  the 
their  sorrows  together,  how  willingly  would  j  body,  looks  too  low,  and  hath  flesh  and 
theyf  buy,  with  the  loss  of  all  that  money,  1  corruption  in  his  heart,  and  is  judged  sen- 
modesty,  or  sweet  nature,  to  their  relative!  jsual  and  earthly  in  his  affections  and  de- 
the  odd  thousand  pounds  would  gladly  be  sires."  Begin  therefore  with  God;  Christ 
allowed  in  good  nature  and  fair  manners,  is  the  president  of  marriage,  and  the  Holy 
As  very  a  fool  is  he  that  chooses  for  beauty§  Ghost  is  the  fountain  of  purities  and  chaste 
principally;  "  cui  sunt  eruditi  oculi,  et  stul-  loves,  and  he  joins  the  hearts;  and  there- 
ta  mens,"  (as  one  said,)  "  whose  eyes  are! fore  let  our  first  suit  be  in  the  court  of 


witty,  and  their  souls  sensual ;"  it  is  an  ill 
*  Brunei.  An.  2.  135. 

t  *A%m:  ay  «c  aryetuoc.  tscj/uwii,  Travrtt  $c,ku  C"ci 

'Ev  tcS        ilvAi  TcrysL^-a  twv  d}*3-(3y. 
E/9'  orav  uoh&f  ysuxvrrt,  ?rd>-iv  tifrv  J'cKti  an 

'Ev  Tu  £gi  iivsu  criivrst  mtK'lv  va  x&xa. 
'Axxa  '/ji'Ai  tixym,  Sec. 

t  Non  ego  illam  mini  dotem  duco  esse,  quae  dos 
dicitur ; 

Sed  pudicitiam,  et  pudorem,  et  sedatum,  cupi- 
dinem, 

Deum  metum,  parenlum  amorem,  et  cogna- 
turn  concordiam. 

Plaut.  in  Amphit.  2.  2.  209. 
$  Facies,  non  uxor  amatur. 

17 


heaven,  and  with  designs  of  piety,  or  safety, 
or  charity ;  let  no  impure  spirit  defile  the 
virgin  purities  and  "castifications  of  the 
soul 99  (as  St.  Peter's  phrase  is)  ;  let  all  such 
contracts  begin  with  religious  affections. 

Conjugium  petimus.  partumque  uxoris  ;  at  illis 
Notum,  que  pueri,  qualisve  futura  sit  uxor.  Juv. 

"  We  sometimes  beg  of  God  for  a  wife  or  a 

*  Tres  rugae  subeant,  et  se  cutis  arida  laxet, 
Fiant  obscuri  dentes,  oculique  minores, 
"  Collige  sarcinulas  (dicet  libertus)  et  exi," 

Juven.  Sat.  6. 


130 


THE   MARRIAGE  RING. 


Serm.  XVII. 


child;  and  he  alone  knows  what  the  wife 
shall  prove,  and  by  what  dispositions  and 
manners,  and  into  what  fortune  that  child 
shall  enter:"  bat  we  shall  not  need  to  fear 
concerning  the  event  of  it,  if  religion,  and 
fair  intentions,  and  prudence,  manage  and 
conduct  it  all  the  way.  The  preservation  of 
a  family,  the  production  of  children,  the 
avoiding  fornications,  the  refreshment  of  our 
sorrows  by  the  comforts  of  society  ;  all  these 
are  fair  ends  of  marriage,  and  hallow  the  en- 
trance; but  in  these  there  is  a  special  order; 
society  was  the  first  designed,  "  It  is  not  good 
for  man  to  be  alone — children  was  the  next, 
"  Increase  and  multiply ;" — but  the  avoiding 
fornication  came  in  by  the  superfoetation  of 
the  evil  accidents  of  the  world.  The  first 
makes  marriage  delectable,  and  the  second 
necessary  to  the  public,  and  the  third  neces- 
sary to  the  particular ;  this  is  for  safety,  for 
life,  and  heaven  itself ; 

Nam  simulac  venas  inflavit  tetra  libido, 

Hue  juvenes  eequum  est  descendere ;  Hor. 

The  other  have  in  them  joy  and  a  portion  of 
immortality :  the  first  makes  the  man's  heart 
glad ;  the  second  is  the  friend  of  kingdoms, 
and  cities,  and  families ;  and  the  third  is  the 
enemy  to  hell,  and  an  antidote  of  the  chief- 
est  inlet  to  damnation ;  but  of  all  these  the 
noblest  end  is  the  multiplying  children. 
"  Mundus  cum  patet,  Deorum  tristium  atque 
inferum  quasi  patet  janua ;  propterea  uxo- 
rem,  liberorum  quaerendorum  causa,  ducere 
religiosum  est,"  said  Varro  ;  "  it  is  religion 
to  marry  for  children  f  and  duintilian  put 
it  into  the  definition  of  a  wife,  "  est  enim 
uxor  quam  jungit,  quam  diducit  utilitas ; 
cujus  haec  reverentia  est,  quod  videtor  in- 
venta  in  causa  liberorum ;"  and  therefore 
St.  Ignatius,  when  he  had  spoken  of  Elias, 
and  Titus,  and  Clement,  with  an  honourable 
mention  of  their  virgin-state,  lest  he  might 
seem  to  have  lessened  the  married  apostles, 
at  whose  feet  in  Christ's  kingdom  he  thought 
himself  unworthy  to  sit,  he  gives  this  testi- 
mony,— they  were  tol$  ydfioi$  Tt^oao^CkYisavtE^ 
ov%  vrtb  rtpodvfilas  irfi  rtfpt  to  rtpay^a,  a?JK  vrl 
twolas  tavtutv  tov  yhov$  etf^ov  ixHvovf,  "that  they 
might  not  be  disparaged  in  their  great  names 
of  holiness  and  severity,  they  were  secured 
by  not  marrying  to  satisfy  their  lower  appe- 
tites, but  out  of  desire  of  children."!  Other 
considerations,  if  they  be  incident  and  by 
way  of  appendage,  are  also  considerable  in 
the  accounts  of  prudence:  but  when  they 

*  Macrobius  ex  Varrone. 
t  Epist.  ad  Philadelph. 


become  principles,  they  defile  the  mystery, 
and  make  the  blessing  doubtful:  "Amabit 
sapiens,  cupient  coeteri,"  said  Afranius ; 
"  Love  is  a  fair  inducement,  but  desire  and 
appetite  are  rude,  and  the  characterisms  of 
a  sensual  person:" — "Amare  justi  et  boni 
est,  cupere  impotentis  ;"  "  To  love  belongs 
to  a  just  and  a  good  man :  but  to  lust,  or 
furiously  or  passionately  to  desire,  is  the 
sign  of  impotency  and  an  unruly  mind." 

2.  Man  and  wife  are  equally  concerned 
to  avoid  all  offences  of  each  other  in  the 
beginning  of  their  conversation :  every  lit- 
tle thing  can  blast  an  infant  blossom ;  and  the 
breath  of  the  south  can  shake  the  little 
rings  of  the  vine,  when  first  they  begin  to 
curl  like  the  locks  of  a  new-weaned  boy ; 
but  when  by  age  and  consolidation  they 
stiffen  into  the  hardness  of  a  stem,  and 
have,  by  the  warm  embraces  of  the  sun 
and  the  kisses  of  heaven,  brought  forth 
their  clusters,  they  can  endure  the  storms 
of  the  north,  and  the  loud  noises  of  a  tem- 
pest, and  yet  never  be  broken  :  so  are  the 
early  unions  of  an  unfixed  marriage  ;  watch- 
ful and  observant,  jealous  and  busy,  inqui- 
sitive and  careful,  and  apt  to  take  alarm  at 
every  unkind  word.  For  infirmities  do  not 
manifest  themselves  in  the  first  scenes,  but 
in  the  succession  of  a  long  society  j  and  it 
is  not  chance  or  weakness  when  it  appears 
at  first,  but  it  is  want  of  love  or  prudence, 
or  it  will  be  so  expounded ;  and  that  which 
appears  ill  at  first,  usually  affrights  the  in- 
experienced man  or  woman,  who  makes 
unequal  conjectures,  and  fancies  mighty 
sorrows  by  the  proportions  of  the  new  and 
early  unkindness.  It  is  a  very  great  pas- 
sion, or  a  huge  folly,  or  a  certain  want  of 
love,  that  cannot  preserve  the  colours  and 
beauties  of  kindness,  so  long  as  public 
honesty  requires  a  man  to  wear  their  sor- 
rows for  the  death  of  a  friend.  Plutarch 
compares  a  new  marriage  to  a  vessel  before 
the  hoops  are  on ;  peta  apxas  vnb  trji 
Tfvxovdr]?  /'aouoj  StatfrtatfcH  7tpo$a<?fcoj,  "  every 
thing  dissolves  their  tender  compagina- 
tions ;   ZP°VQ  apfiCjv  GviiTtrfeiv  hafiQvtcov, 

f*6yi$  V7ib  rtupoj  xai  Gihtyov  Sux'kvt'tai,  tf but 
when  the  joints  are  stiffened  and  are  tied 
by  a  firm  compliance  and  proportioned 
binding,  scarcely  can  it  be  dissolved  with- 
out fire  or  the  violence  of  iron."  After  the 
hearts  of  the  man  and  the  wife  are  endeared 
and  hardened  by  a  mutual  confidence,  and 
experience  longer  than  artifice  and  pretence 
can  last,  there  are  a  great  many  remem- 
brances, and  some  things  present,  that  dash 


Serm.  XVII. 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


131 


all  little  unkindnesses  in  pieces.  The  little' 
boy  in  the  Greek  epigram.*  that  was  creep- 
in?  down  a  precipice,  was  invited  to  his, 
safetv  bv  the  sight  of  his  mother's  pap. 
when  nothing  else  could  entice  him  to 
return  :  and  the  bond  of  common  children, 
and  the  sight  of  her  that  nurses  what  is 
most  dear  to  him,  and  the  endearments  of 
each  other  in  the  course  of  a  long  society, 
and  the  same  relation,  is  an  excellent  se- 
curity to  redintegrate  and  to  call  that  love 
back,  which  folly  and  trifling  accidents 
would  disturb. 

Tormentum  ingens  nubemibus  haeret. 


Quae  nequeunt  parere.  et  partu  reunere  mantes- 

JrT-  i 

"\\  hen  it  is  come  thus  far,  it  is  hard  un-j 
twisting  the  knot:  but  be  careful  in  its  first 
coalition,  that  there  be  no  rudeness  done: 
for,  if  there  be,  it  will  for  ever  after  be  apt 
to  start  and  to  be  diseased. 

3.  Let  man  and  wife  be  careful  to  stifle 
little  things.f  that,  as  fast  as  they  spring, 
thev  be  cut  down  and  trod  upon  :  for  if  they 
be  suffered  to  grow  by  numbers,  they  make 
the  spirit  peevish,  and  the  society  trouble- 
some, and  the  affections  loose  and  easy  • 
by  an  habitual  aversation.  Some  men  are 
more  vexed  with  a  fly  than  with  a  wound ; 
and  when  the  gnats  disturb  our  sleep,  and 
the  reason  is  disquieted  but  not  perfectly 
awakened,  it  is  often  seen  that  he  is  fuller 
of  trouble  than  if,  in  the  daylight  of  his  rea- ! 
son,  he  were  to  contest  with  a  potent 
enemy.  In  the  frequent  little  accidents  of! 
a  family,  a  man's  reason  cannot  always  be 
awake;  and  when  his  discourses  are  imper- 
fect, and  a  trifling  trouble  makes  him  yet 
more  restless,  he  is  soon  betrayed  to  the 
violence  of  passion.  It  is  certain  that  the 
man  or  woman  are  in  a  state  of  weakness 
and  folly  then,  when  they  can  be  troubled 
with  a  trifling  accident ;  and  therefore,  it  is 
not  good  to  tempt  their  affections,  when 
they  are  in  that  state  of  danger.  In  this, 
case  the  caution  is,  to  subtract  fuel  from  the1 
sudden  flame ;  for  stubble,  though  it  be 
quickly  kindled,  yet  it  is  as  soon  extin- 
guished, if  it  be  not  blown  by  a  pertinacious 
breath,  or  fed  with  new  materials.  Add  no 
new  provocations  to  the  accident,  and  do 
not  inflame  this,  and  peace  will  soon  return, ' 
and  the  discontent  will  pass  away  soon,  as 
the  sparks  from  the  collision  of  a  flint :  ever 

*  Mi':t  tzZ  >.uuo-j  >.Cr::x  x*i  3'*7aT». — Bru.VCK.  ! 

t  Quaedam  parva  quidem,  sed  non  toleranda| 
man  us. — Jcv.  I 


remembering,  that  discontents  proceeding 
from  daily  little  things,  do  breed  a  secret 
undiscernible  disease,  which  is  more  dan- 
gerous than  a  fever  proceeding  from  a  dis- 
cerned notorious  surfeit 

4-  Let  them  be  sure  to  abstain  from  all 
those  things,  which  by  experience  and 
observation  they  find  to  be  contrary  to  each 
other.  They  that  govern  elephants  never 
appear  before  them  in  white  ;  and  the  mas- 
ters of  bulls  keep  from  them  all  garments 
of  blood  and  scarlet,  as  knowing  that  they 
will  be  impatient  of  civil  usages  and  dis- 
cipline, when  their  natures  are  provoked  by 
their  proper  antipathies.  The  ancients  in 
their  marital  hieroglyphics  used  to  depict 
Mercury  standing  by  Venus,  to  signify,  that 
by  fair  language  and  sweet  entreaties,  the 
minds  of  each  other  should  be  united  ;  and 
hard  by  them,  "  Suadam  et  Gratias  descrip- 
serunt,"  they  would  have  all  deliciousness 
of  manners,  compliance,  and  mutual  ob- 
servance to  abide.* 

5.  Let  the  husband  and  wife  infinitely 
avoid  a  curious  distinction  of  mine  and 
thine;  for  this  hath  caused  all  the  laws, 
and  all  the  suits,  and  all  the  wars,  in  the 
world  :  let  them,  who  have  but  one  person, 
have  also  but  one  interest.  The  husband 
and  wile  are  heirs  to  each  other  (as  Dionv- 
sius  Halicarnasseus  relates  from  Romulus) 
if  they  die  without  children ;  but  if  there 
be  children,  the  wife  is  rue  recur::  i-ouo^c:, 
a  partner  in  the  inheritance.'*  But  during 
their  life,  the  use  and  employment  is  com- 
mon to  both  their  necessities,  and  in  this 
there  is  no  other  difference  of  right,  but  that 
the  man  hath  the  dispensation  of  all,  and 
may  keep  it  from  his  wife,  just  as  the 
governor  of  a  town  may  keep  it  from  the 
right  owner;  he  hath  the  power,  but  no 
right  to  do  so.  And  when  either  of  them 
begins  to  impropriate,  it  is  like  a  tumour 
in  the  flesh,  it  draws  more  than  its  share ; 
but  what  it  feeds  on,  turns  to  a  bile;  and 
therefore,  the  Romans  forbade  any  dona- 
tions to  be  made  between  man  and  wife, 
because  neither  of  them  could  transfer  a 
new  right  of  those  things,  which  already 
they  had  in  common :  but  this  is  to  be  un- 
derstood only  concerning  the  uses  of  ne- 
cessity and  personal  conveniences  ;  for  so 
all  may  be  the  woman's,  and  all  may 
be  the  man's,  in  several  regards.  Corvinus 
dwells  in  a  farm  and  receives  all  its  profits, 

*_  Hujus  enim  rari  summique  voluptas 

Nulla  boui.  queues  ammo  corrupia  superbo 
Flus  aloes  quam  mellishabet —  Jttylx.  Sa:.  6. 


132 


THE  MARRI 


AGE  RING. 


Serm.  XVIII. 


and  reaps  and  sows  as  he  please,  and  eats 
of  the  corn  and  drinks  of  the  wine — it  is  his 
own  ;  but  all  that  also  is  his  lord's,  and  for  it 
Corvinus  pays  acknowledgment ;  and  his 
patron  hath  such  powers  and  uses  of  it  as 
are  proper  to  the  lords  ;  and  yet  for  all  this, 
it  may  be  the  king's  too,  to  all  the  pur- 
poses that  he  can  need,  and  is  all  to  be 
accounted  in  the  census  and  for  certain  ser- 
vices and  times  of  danger  :  so  are  the  riches 
of  a  family ;  they  are  a  woman's  as  well  as 
a  man's ;  they  are  hers  for  need,  and  hers 
for  ornament,  and  hers  for  modest  delight, 
and  for  the  uses  of  religion  and  prudent 
charity  ;  but  the  disposing  them  into  por- 
tions of  inheritance,  the  assignation  of 
charges  and  governments,  stipends  and 
rewards,  annuities  and  greater  donatives, 
are  the  reserves  of  the  superior  right,  and 
not  to  be  invaded  by  the  under-possessors. 
But  in  those  things,  where  they  ought  to  be 
common,  if  the  spleen  of  the  belly  swells 
and  draws  into  its  capacity  much  of  that 
which  should  be  spent  upon  those  parts, 
which  have  an  equal  right  to  be  main- 
tained,— it  is  a  dropsy  or  a  consumption  of 
the  whole,  something  that  is  evil  because 
it  is  unnatural  and  monstrous.  Macarius, 
in  his  thirty-second  Homily,  speaks  fully  in 
this  particular ;  a  woman  betrothed  to  a 
man  bears  all  her  portion,  and  with  a 
mighty  love  pours  it  into  the  hands  of  her 
husband,  and  says,  ipbv  oi8h  t%u,  "  I  have 
nothing  of  my  own ;"  my  goods,  my  por- 
tion, my  body,  and  my  mind,  are  yours. 
Nojbup  yap  ariwta  yiyvt  tcu  -toy  yeya^xoto^, 
tbv  7t'kov'tov,  ti]v  hb%ow,  t'ovj  £rtcu,vov$,  "All 
that  a  woman  hath,  is  reckoned  to  the  right 
of  her  husband ;  not  her  wealth  and  her 
person  only,  but  her  reputation  and  her 
praise  ;"  so  Lucian.*  But  as  the  earth,  the 
mother  of  all  creatures  here  below,  sends 
up  all  its  vapours  and  proper  emissions  at 
the  command  of  the  sun,  and  yet  requires 
them  again  to  refresh  her  own  needs,  and 
they  are  deposited  between  them  both  in 
the  bosom  of  a  cloud,  as  a  common  recepta- 
cle, that  they  may  cool  his  flames,  and  yet 
descend  to  make  her  fruitful;  so  are  the 
proprieties  of  a  wife  to  be  disposed  of  by  her 
lord ;  and  yet  all  are  for  her  provisions,  it 
being  a  part  of  his  need  to  refresh  and  sup- 
ply hers,  and  it  serves  the  interest  of  both 
while  it  serves  the  necessities  of  either. 

These  are  the  duties  of  them  both,  which 
have  common  regards  and  equal  necessities 


and  obligations ;  and,  indeed,  there  is  scarce 
any  matter  of  duty,  but  it  concerns  them 
both  alike,  and  is  only  distinguished  by 
names,  and  hath  its  variety  by  circum- 
stances and  little  accidents :  and  what  in 
one  is  called  "  love,"  in  the  other  is  called 
"reverence;"  and  what  in  the  wife  is 
"  obedience,"  the  same  in  the  man  is 
"duty."  He  provides,  and  she  dispenses; 
he  gives  commandments,  and  she  rules  by 
them ;  he  rules  by  authority,  and  she  rules 
him  by  love;  she  ought  by  all  means  to 
please  him,  and  he  must  by  no  means  dis- 
please her.  For  as  the  heart  is  set  in  the 
midst  of  the  body,  and  though  it  strikes  to 
one  side  by  the  prerogative  of  nature,  yel 
those  throbs  and  constant  motions  are  felt 
on  the  other  side  also,  and  the  influence  is 
equal  to  both:  so  it  is  in  conjugal  duties  ; 
some  motions  are  to  the  one  side  more  than 
to  the  other,  but  the  interest  is  on  both,  and 
the  duty  is  equal  in  the  several  instances. 
If  it  be  otherwise,  the  man  enjoys  a  wife  as 
Periander  did  his  dead  Melissa,  by  an  unna- 
tural union,  neither  pleasing  nor  wholly  use- 
less to  all  the  purposes  of  society,  and  dead 
to  content. 


SERMON  XVIII. 

PART  II. 

The  next  inquiry  is  more  particular,  and 
considers  the  power  and  duty  of  the  man  ; 
-f  Let  every  one  of  you  so  love  his  wife  even 
as  himself ;"  she  is  as  himself,  the  man 
hath  power  over  her  as  over  himself,  and 
must  love  her  equally.  A  husband's  power 
over  his  wife  is  paternal  and  friendly,  not 
magisterial  and  despotic.  The  wife  is  in 
"  perpetuatutela,"  under  conduct  and  coun- 
sel ;  for  the  power  a  man  hath,  is  founded 
in  the  understanding,  not  in  the  will  or 
force ;  it  is  not  a  power  of  coercion,  but  a 
power  of  advice,  and  that  government  that 
wise  men  have  over  those,  who  are  fit  to  be 
conducted  by  them  :  "  Et  vos  in  manu  et 
in  tutela  non  in  servitio  debetis  habere  eas; 
et  malle  patres  vos,  et  viros,  quam  dominos 
deci,"  said  Valerius  in  Livy  ;  "husbands 
should  rather  be  fathers  than  lords."  Ho- 
mer adds  more  soft  appellatives  to  the  cha- 
racter of  a  husband's  duty ;  rtatrjp  /luv  yap 
ed-ti  avtij  xai  rtotvia  fiy-trip,  rfih  xaaiyvrjto^, 
"  Thou  art  to  be  a  father  and  a  mother  to 
her,  and  a  brother  :"  and  great  reason,  un- 
less the  state  of  marriage  should  be  no  bet- 
ter than  the  condition  of  an  orphan.  For 


Serm.  XVIII. 


THE   MARRIAGE  RING. 


133 


she  that  is  bound  to  leave  father,  and  mother, 
and  brother  for  thee,  either  is  miserable 
like  a  poor  fatherless  child,  or  else  ought  to 
find  all  these,  and  more,  in  thee.  Medea  in 
Euripides  had  cause  to  complain  when  she 
found  it  otherwise. 

Tldvtozv  8',  ocr'  Xn-t  t^v^a,  xai  yv^urjv 
TvvaLxi^  to/uiv  a^>.iiora/rot>  fyvtbv. 
*A$  Ttputfa  uiv  8n  xp^udtcov  r7tfp,3o># 
Ylouv  Ttpta/jSxu,  8i67i6?r(v  ts  ouifjiatos 
Aa3nv.  Med. 

Which  St.  Ambrose  *  well  translates  :  "  It 
is  sad,  when  virgins  are  with  their  own 
money  sold  to  slavery  ;  and  that  services  are 
in  better  state  than  marriages ;  for  they  re- 
ceive wages,  but  these  buy  their  fetters,  and 
pay  dear  for  their  loss  of  liberty  ;"  and  there- 
fore the  Romans  expressed  the  man's  power 
over  his  wife  but  by  a  gentle  word:  "Nec 
vero  mulieribus  prcefectus  reponatur,  qui 
apud  Groecos  creari  solet,  sed  sit  censor  qui 
viros  doceat  moderari  uxoribus said  Cice- 
ro ;  (S  Let  there  be  no  governor  of  the  woman 
appointed,  but  a  censor  of  manners,  one  to 
leach  the  men  to  moderate  their  wives,"  that 
is,  fairly  to  induce  them  to  the  measures  of 
their  own  proportions.  It  was  rarely  observ- 
ed of  Philo,  Ei  to  urj  $arat,  ^  yvvr]  rv  Z8u>xa$ 
fjuot,  aXtJi,  flit  tfiov'  ov  yap  e/xoi  tbj  xtr^a  trv 
alaSritv  t'Scoxa?,  aM.a  xai  avtr;v  atyr.xa^  avttbv 
xai  itev&pov'  "  When  Adam  made  that  fond 
excuse  for  his  folly  in  eating  the  forbidden 
fruit,  he  said,  '  The  woman  thou  gavest  to 
be  with  me,  she  gave  me.'  He  says  not, 
'  The  woman  which  thou  gavest  to  me,' 
no  such  thing ;  she  is  none  of  his  goods, 
none  of  his  possessions,  not  to  be  reckon- 
ed amongst  his  servants ;  God  did  not 
give  her  to  him  so ;  but  'The  woman  thou 
gavest  to  be  with  me,'  that  is,  to  be  my 
partner,  the  companion  of  my  joys  and  sor- 
rows, thou  gavest  her  for  use,  not  for  do- 
minion." The  dominion  of  a  man  over  his 
wife  is  no  other  than  as  the  soul  rules  the 
body ;  for  which  it  takes  a  mighty  care,  and 
uses  it  with  a  delicate  tenderness,  and  cares 
for  it  in  all  contingencies,  and  watches  to 
keep  it  from  all  evils,  and  studies  to  make 
for  it  fair  provisions,  and  very  often  is  led 
by  its  inclinations  and  desires,  and  does 
never  contradict  its  appetites,  but  when  they 
are  evil,  and  then  also  not  without  some 
trouble  and  sorrow ;  and  its  government 
comes  only  to  this,  it  furnishes  the  body 
with  light  and  understanding,  and  the  body 
furnishes  the  soul  with  hands  and  feet ;  the 


soul  governs,  because  the  body  cannc  t  else 
be  happy,  but  the  government  is  no  other 
than  provision ;  as  a  nurse  governs  a  child, 
whpn  she  causes  him  to  eat,  and  to  be  warm, 
and  dry,  and  quiet :  and  yet  even  the  veiy 
government  itself  is  divided ;  for  man  and 
wife  in-lhe  family,  are  as  the  sun  and  moon 
in  the  firmament  of  heaven  ;  he  rules  by 
day,  and  she  by  night,  that  is,  in  the  lesser 
and  more  proper  circles  of  her  affairs,  in  the 
conduct  of  domestic  provisions  and  neces- 
sary offices,  and  shines  only  by  his  light, 
and  rules  by  his  authority  ;  and  as  the  moon 
in  opposition  to  the  sun  shines  brightest, 
that  is,  then,  when  she  is  in  her  own  circles 
and  separate  regions  ;  so  is  the  authority  of 
the  wife  then  most  conspicuous  when  she 
is  separate  and  in  her  proper  sphere ;  in 
"gynaeceo,"  in  the  nursery  and  offices  of 
domestic  employment :  but  when  she  is  in 
conjunction  with  the  sun  her  brother,  that 
is,  iri  that  place  and  employment  in  which 
his  care  and  proper  offices  are  employed,  her 
light  is  not  seen,  her  authority  hath  no 
proper  business  ;  but  else  there  is  no  differ- 
ence :  for  they  were  barbarous  people,  among 
whom  wives  were  instead  of  servants,  said 
Spartianus  in  Caracalla ;  and  it  is  a  sign  of 
impotency  and  weakness,  to  force  the  camels 
to  kneel  for  their  load,  because  thou  hast 
not  spirit  and  strength  enough  to  climb ;  to 
make  the  affections  and  evenness  of  a  wife 
bend  by  the  flexures  of  a  servant,  is  a  sign 
the  man  is  not  wise  enough  to  govern  wThen 
another  stands  by.  So  many  differences  as 
can  be  in  the  appellatives  of  "  dominus  "  and 
"domina,"  governor  and  governess,  lord 
and  lady,  master  and  mistress,  the  same 
difference  there  is  in  the  authority  of  man 
and  woman,  and  no  more ;  "  Si  tu  Caius, 
ego'  Caia,"  was  publicly  proclaimed  upon 
the  threshold  of  the  young  man's  house 
when  the  bride  entered  into  his  hands  and 
power  ;  and  the  title  of  "  domina"  in  the 
sense  of  the  civil  law  was  among  the  Ro- 
mans given  to  wives. 

Hi  Dominam  Ditis  thalamo  deducere  adorti, 

said  Virgil  :*  where,  though  Servius  says  it 
was  spoken  after  the  manner  of  the  Greeks, 
who  called  the  wife  ^ioTtowav,  "  lady,"  or 
"mistress,"  ye*  it  was  so  amongst  both  the 
nations. 

"  Ac  domus  Dominam  voca."  says  Catullus  ;t 
"  Haercbit  Domina?  vir  comes  ipse  suae,"  so  Mar- 
tial ; 

and  therefore,  although  there  is  just  measure 


*  Exhor.  ad  virg. 


*  .Eneid.  6.  t  Epithal.  Julia?. 

M 


134  THE   MARRIAGE   RING.  Serm.  XVIII. 


of  subjection  and  obedience  due  from  the 
wife  to  the  husband  (as  I  shall  after  explain,) 
yet  nothing  of  this  expressed  is  in  the  man's 
character,  or  in  his  duty ;  he  is  not  com- 
manded to  rule,  nor  instructed  how,  nor 
bidden  to  exact  obedience,  or  to  defend  his 
privilege;  all  his  duty  is  signified  by  love, 
"  by  nourishing  and  cherishing,"*  by  being 
joined  with  her  in  all  the  unions  of  charity, 
by  "not  being  bitter  to  her,"f  by  "  dwelling 
with  her  according  to  knowledge,  giving 
honour  to  her:"J  so  that  it  seems  to  be  with 
husbands,  as  it  is  with  bishops  and  priests, 
to  whom  much  honour  is  due,  but  yet 
so  that  if  they  stand  upon  it,  and  challenge 
it,  they  become  less  honourable:  and  as 
amongst  men  and  women  humility  is  the 
way  to  be  preferred ;  so  it  is  in  husbands, 
they  shall  prevail  by  cession,  by  sweetness 
and  counsel,  and  charity  and  compliance. 
»So  that  we  cannot  discourse  of  the  man's 
right,  without  describing  the  measures  of  his 
duty  ;  that  therefore  follows  next. 

"  Let  him  love  his  wife  even  as  himself :" 
— that  is  his  duty,  and  the  measure  of  it  too; 
which  is  so  plain,  that  if  he  understands  how 
he  treats  himself,  there  needs  nothing  be 
added  concerning  his  demeanour  towards 
her,  save  only  that  we  add  the  particulars, 
in  which  Holy  Scripture  instances  this  gene- 
ral commandment. 

Mj)  7iixpalv£t£.  That  is  the  first.  "  Be  not 
bitter  against  her:"  and  this  is  the  least  in- 
dex and  signification  of  love;  a  civil  man  is 
never  bitter  against  a  friend  or  a  stranger, 
much  less  to  him  that  enters  under  his  roof, 
and  is  secured  by  the  laws  of  hospitality. 
But  a  wife  does  all  that  and  more ;  she  quits 
all  her  interest  for  his  love,  she  gives  him  all 
that  she  can  give,  she  is  as  much  the  same 
person  as  another  can  be  the  same,  who  is 
conjoined  by  love,  and  mystery,  and  religion, 
and  all  that  is  sacred  and  profane. 

Non  equidem  hoc  dubites,  amborum  foedere  certo 
Consentire  dies,  et  ab  uno  sidere  duci. — Pers. 

They  have  the  same  fortune,  the  same 
family,  the  same  children,  the  same  reli- 
gion, the  same  interest,  "  the  same  flesh," 
"enint  duo  in  carnem  unam;"  and  there- 
fore this  the  apostle  urges  for  his  fi^7tLXfmvst£f 
"iioman  hateth  his  own  flesh,  but  nourisheth 
and  cherisheth  it;"  and  he  certainly  is 
strangely  sacrilegious  and  a  violator  of  the 
rights  of  hospitality  and  sanctuary,  who  uses 
her  rudely,  who  is  fled  for  protection,  not 
only  to  his  house,  but  also  to  his  heart  and 

*  Bphes.  v.  25.       t  Col.  iii.  19.       t  Pet.  iii.  7.  ' 


bosom.  A  wise  man  will  not  wrangle  with 
any  one,  much  less  with  his  dearest  relative  ; 
and  if  it  is  accounted  indecent  to  embrace  in 
public,  it  is  extremely  shameful  to  brawl  in 
public  :  for  the  other  is  in  itself  lawful ;  but 
this  never,  though  it  were  assisted  with  the 
best  circumstances  of  which  it  is  capable. 
Marcus  Aurelius  said,  that  "a  wise  man 
ought  often  to  admonish  his  wife,  to  reprove 
her  seldom,  but  never  to  lay  his  hands  upon 
her  :"*  "  neque  verberibus  neque  maledictis 
exasperandam  uxorem,"  said  the  doctors  of 
the  Jews;  and  Homer  brings  in  Jupiter 
sometimes  speaking  sharply  to  Juno,  (ac- 
cording to  the  Greek  liberty  and  empire,) 
but  made  a  pause  at  striking  her, 

Ov  fxav  old',  si  able  xaxofipatyirjs  aXsyeiv/rs 
Hpuitrj  triavprjat,  xai  as  rttyyrjaw  i/xdaau,. 

Iliad.  O'. 

And  the  ancients  used  to  sacrifice  to  Juno 
yapj&xoj,  or  "  the  president  of  marriage," 
without  gall ;  and  St.  Basil  observes  and 
urges  it,  by  way  of  upbraiding  quarrelling 
husbands  ;  "  Etiam  vipera  virus  ob  nuptia- 
rum  veneralionem  evomit,"  "  The  viper  casts 
all  his  poison  when  he  marries  his  female ; 
"  Tu  duritiam  animi,  tu  feritatem,  tu  crudeli- 
tatem  ob  unionis  reverentiam  non  deponis  ?"f 
He  is  worse  than  a  viper,  who  for  the  reve- 
rence of  this  sacred  union  will  not  abstain 
from  such  a  poisonous  bitterness  ;  and  how 
shall  he  embrace  that  person  whom  he  hath 
smitten  reproachfully ;  for  those  kindnesses 
are  indecent  which  the  fighting-man  pays 
unto  his  wife.  St.  Chrysostom  preaching 
earnestly  against  this  barbarous  inhumanity 
of  striking  the  wife,  or  reviling  her  with 
evil  language,  says,  it  is  as  if  a  king  should 
beat  his  viceroy  and  use  him  like  a  dog ; 
from  whom  most  of  that  reverence  and 
majesty  must  needs  depart,  which  he  first 
put  upon  him,  and  the  subjects  shall  pay 
him  less  duty,  how  much  his  prince  hath 
treated  him  with  less  civility ;  but  the  loss 
redounds  to  himself;  and  the  government 
of  the  whole  family  shall  be  disordered,  if 
blows  be  laid  upon  that  shoulder  which  to- 
gether with  the  other  ought  to  bear  nothing 
but  the  cares  and  the  issues  of  a  prudent 
government.    And  it  is  observable,  that  no 

*  Ah  lapis  est  ferrumque.  suam  quicunque  puel- 
lam 

Verberat :  e  coelo  deripit  ille  Deos. 
Sit  satis  e  membris  tenuem  piacscindere  vestem  : 

Sit  satis  ornatus  dissoluisse  coma; : 
Sit  lacrymas  movisse  satis  ;  quater  ille  beatus, 

Quo  tenera  irato  Here  puella  potest. 
Sed  manibus  qui  sajvus  erit,  scutumque  sudcmque 

Is  gerat,  et  miti  sit  procul  a  Venerc. — TlBtTLL. 

t  Homil.  7  Ilexaiu. 


Sum.  XVIII. 


THE   MARRIAGE  RING. 


135 


man  ever  did  this  rudeness  for  a  virtuous 
end  ;  it  is  an  incompetent  instrument,  and 
may  proceed  from  wrath  and  folly,  but  can 
never  end  in  virtue  and  the  unions  of  a  pru- 
dent and  fair  society.  "  Q,uod  si  verberave- 
ris,  exasperabis  morbum  "  (saith  St.  Chry- 
sostom):  "  asperitas  enim  mansuetudine, 
non  alia»asperitate,  dissolvitur ;w  "If  you 
strike,  you  exasperate  the  wound,"  and  (like 
Cato  at  Utica  in  his  despair)  tear  the  wounds 
in  pieces;  and  yet  he  that  did  so  ill  to  him- 
self whom  he  loved  well,  he  loved  not  wo- 
men tenderly,  and  yet  would  never  strike; 
and  if  the  man  cannot  endure  her  talking, 
aow  can  she  endure  his  striking?  But  this 
caution  contains  a  duty  in  it  which  none 
prevaricates,  but  the  meanest  of  the  people, 
fools  and  bedlams,  whose  kindness  is  a  curse, 
whose  government  is  by  chance  and  violence, 
and  their  families  are  herds  of  talking  cattle. 

Sic  alternos  reficit  cursus 
Alternos  Amor,  sic  astrigeris 
Bellum  discors  exulat  oris. 
Haec  concordia  temperat  aequis 
Eleraenta  modis,  ut  pugnantia 
Vicibus  cedant  humida  siccis, 
Jungantque  fidem  frigora  flammis. 

The  marital  love  is  infinitely  removed 
from  all  possibility  of  such  rudenesses :  it  is  a 
thing  pure  as  light,  sacred  as  a  temple,  last- 
ing as  the  world  ;  "  Amicitia,  quae  desinere 
potuit,  nunquam  vera  fuit,"  said  one ; 
"  That  love,  that  can  cease,  was  never  true :" 
it  is  opsua,  so  Moses  called  it ;  it  is  evmn,  so 
St  Paul;  it  is  fOvttfi,  so  Homer;  it  is 
fi>flfrportuwy3  so  Plutarch  ;  that  is,  it  contains 
in  it  all  "sweetness,"  and  all  "society," 
and  "felicity,"  and  all  "  prudence,"  and  all 
"  wisdom."  For  there  is  nothing  can  please 
a  man  without  love ;  and  if  a  man  be  weary 
of  the  wise  discourses  of  the  apostles,  and  of 
the  innocency  of  an  even  and  a  private  for- 
tune, or  hates  peace  or  a  fruitful  year,  he 
hath  reaped  thorns  and  thistles  from  the 
choicest  flowers  of  paradise  ;  "  for  nothing 
can  sweeten  felicity  itself,  but  love;*  but 
when  a  man  dwells  in  love,  then  the  breasts 
of  his  wife  are  pleasant  as  the  droppings 
upon  the  hill  of  Hermon,  her  eyes  are  fair 
as  the  light  of  heaven,  she  is  a  fountain  seal- 
ed, and  he  can  quench  his  thirst,  and  ease 
his  cares,  and  lay  his  sorrow  down  upon  her 
lap,  and  can  retire  home  as  to  his  sanctuary 
and  refectory,  and  his  gardens  of  sweetness 
and  chaste  refreshments.    No  man  can  tell 

*  Felices  ter  et  amplius. 

Quo*  irrupta  tenet  copula,  nec  malis 
Divulsos  querimoniis. 

Suprema  citius  solve:  amor  die. — Horat.  Od. 


but  he  that  loves  his  children,  how  many 
delicious  accents  make  a  man's  heart  dance 
in  the  pretty  conversation  of  those  dear 
pledges ;  their  childishness,  their  stammer- 
ing, their  little  angers,  their  innocence,  their 
imperfections,  their  necessities,  are  so  many 
little  emanations  of  joy  and  comfort  to  him 
that  delights  in  their  persons  and  society  ; 
but  he  that  loves  not  his  wife  and  children, 
feeds  a  lioness  at  home,  and  broods  a  nest 
of  sorrows  ;  and  blessing  itself  cannot  make 
him  happy  ;  so  that  all  the  commandments 
of  God  enjoining  a  man  to  "love  his  wife," 
are  nothing  but  so  many  necessities  and  ca- 
pacities of  joy.  "  She  that  is  loved  is  safe, 
and  he  that  loves  is  joyful."  Love  is  a 
union  of  all  things  excellent;  it  contains  in 
it  proportion  and  satisfaction,  and  rest  and 
confidence ;  and  I  wish  that  this  were  so 
much  proceeded  in,  that  the  heathens  them- 
selves could  not  go  beyond  us  in  this  virtue, 
and  its  proper  and  its  appendant  happiness. 
Tiberius  Gracchus  chose  to  die  for  the  safety 
of  his  wife;  and  yet  methinks  for  a  Chris- 
tian to  do  so  should  be  no  hard  thing ;  for 
many  servants  will  die  for  their  masters,  and 
many  gentlemen  will  die  for  their  friend  ; 
but  the  examples  are  not  so  many  of  those 
that  are  ready  to  do  it  for  their  dearest  rela- 
tives, and  yet  some  there  have  been.  Bap- 
tista  Fregosa  tells  of  a  Neapolitan,  that  gave 
himself  a  slave  to  the  -Moors  that  he  might 
follow  his  wife ;  and  Dominicus  Catalusius. 
the  prince  of  Lesbos,  kept  company  with  his 
lady  when  she  was  a  leper :  and  these  are 
greater  things  than  to  die. 

But  the  cases  in  which  this  can  be  re- 
quired are  so  rare  and  contingent,  that  Holy 
Scripture  instances  not  the  duty  in  this  par- 
ticular ;  but  it  contains  in  it,  that  the  hus- 
band should  nourish  and  cherish  her,  that 
he  should  refresh  her  sorrows  and  entice 
her  fears  into  confidence  and  pretty  arts  of 
rest;  for  even  the  fig  trees  that  grew  in 
paradise  had  sharp-pointed  leaves,  and 
harshnesses  fit  to  mortify  the  too-forward 
lusting  after  the  sweetness  of  the  fruit. 
But  it  will  concern  the  prudence  of  the 
husband's  love  to  make  the  cares  and  evils 
as  simple  and  easy  as  he  can,  by  doubling 
the  joys  and  acts  of  a  careful  friendship, 
by  tolerating  her  infirmities,*  (because  by 
so  doing,  he  either  cures  her,  or  makes 
himself  better,)  by  fairly  expounding  ail 

*  Uxoris  vitium  tollas  opus  est.  aut  fern*  : 

Qui  tollit  vitium,  uxorem  commodiusculam  sibi 
prcestat ; 

Qui  fert,  sese  meliorem  fach. — Yarro. 


136 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


Serm.  XVIII. 


the  little  traverses  of  society  and  communi- ;  This  is  a  grace  that  is  shut  up  and  secured 
cation,,  u  by  taking  every  thing  by  the  right  by  all  arts  of  heaven,  and  the  defence  of 
handle/'  as  Plutarch-s  expression  is;  for 'laws,  the  locks  and  bars  of  modesty,  by 
there  is  nothing  but  may  be  misinterpreted,  j  honour  and  reputation,  by  fear  and  shame, 
and  yet  if  it  be  capable  of  a  fair  construe- [by  interest  and  high  regards  ;  and  that  con- 
tion,  it  is  the  office  of  love  to  make  it. 


-Ev  Uysiv 


A  ,  or'  av  n  te^yj,  %pr:  Soxsiv,  xav  fxr]  fciyfl. 
 Kaxxovtiv, 

°Av  to  %vvovti  Ttpoj  ^aptv  (xb."Krj  TJysiv.  Eurip. 


tract  that  is  intended  to  be  for  ever,  is  yet 
dissolved,  and  broken  by  the  violation  of 
this;  nothing  but  death  can  do  s%  much 
evil  to  the  holy  rites  of  marriage,  as  un- 
chastity  and  breach  of  faith  can.  The 
shepherd  Gratis  falling  in  love  with  a  she- 
goat,  had  his  brains  beaten  out  with  a  buck 


Love  will  account  that  to  be  well  said, 
which,  it  may  be,  was  not  so  intended;  and  I  as  he  lay  asleep ;  and  by  the  laws  of  the 
then  it  may  cause  it  to  be  so  another  time.  Romans,  a  man  might  kill  his  daughter  or 
Hither  also  is  to  be  referred  that  he  his  wife,  if  he  surprised  her  in  the  breach 
sWure  the  interest  of  her  virtue  and  felicity  of  her  holy  vows,  which  are  as  sacred  as 
by  a  fair  example ;  for  a  wife  to  a  husband  the  threads  of  life,  secret  as  the  privacies  of 


is  a  line  or  superficies,  it  hath  dimensions 
of  its  own,  but  no  motion  or  proper  affec- 
tions ;  but  commonly  puts  on  such  images 


the  sanctuary,  and  holy  as  the  society  of 
angels.  "  Nulloe  sunt  inimicitiae  nisi  amoris 
acerbae      and  God  that  commanded  us  to 


of  virtues  or  vices  as  are  presented  to  her  forgive  our  enemies,  left  it  in  our  choice, 


by  her  husband's  idea;  and  if  thou  beest 
vicious,  complain  not  that  she  is  infected 
that  lies  in  thy  bosom ;  the  interest  of  whose 
loves  ties  her  to  transcribe  thy  copy,  and 
write  after  the  characters  of  thy  manners. 
Paris  was  a  man  of  pleasure,  and  Helena 
was  an  adulteress,  and  she  added  covetous- 


and  hath  not  commanded  us  to  forgive  an 
adulterous  husband  or  a  wife;  but  the  of- 
fended party's  displeasure  may  pass  into  an 
eternal  separation  of  society  and  friendship. 
Now  in  this  grace  it  is  fit  that  the  wisdom 
and  severity  of  the  man  should  hold  forth  a 
pure  taper,  that  his  wife  may,  by  seeing  the 


ness  upon  her  own  account.  But  Ulysses  beauties  and  transparency  of  that  crystal, 
was  a  prudent  man,  and  a  wary  counsellor,  dress  her  mind  and  her  body  by  the  light  of 
sober  and  severe ;  and  he  efformed  his  wife  i  so  pure  reflections ;  it  is  certain  he  will  ex- 
into  such  imagery  as  he  desired;  and  she  pect  from  the  modesty  and  retirement,  from 
was  chaste  as  the  snows  upon  the  moun-  the  passive  nature  and  colder  temper,  from 


tains,  diligent  as  the  fatal  sisters,  always 
busy,  and  always  faithful;  ykuisav  fiiv  apyjjv, 
£«pa  61  tlx**  ipyurr-v,  "she  had  a  lazy  tongue, 
and  a  busy  hand." 


the  humility  and  fear,  from  the  honour  and 
love,  of  his  wife,  that  she  be  pure  as  the 
eye  of  heaven  :  and  therefore  it  is  but  rea- 
son that  the  wisdom  and  nobleness,  the  love 


4.  Above  all  the  instances  of  love  let  him  and  confidence,  the  strength  and  severity, 
preserve  towards  her  an  inviolate  faith,  and  of  the  man,  should  be  as  holy  and  certain 
an  unspotted  chastity;*  for  this  is  the  mar- j  in  this  grace,  as  he  is  a  severe  exacter  of 
riage  ring,  it  ties  two  hearts  by  an  eternal  jit  at  her  hands,  who  can  more  easily  be 
band ;  it  is  like  the  cherubim's  flaming  tempted  by  another,  and  less  by  herself, 
sword,  set  for  the  guard  of  paradise;  he |  These  are  the  little  lines  of  a  man's  duty, 
that  passes  into  that  garden,  now  that  it  is '  which,  like  threads  of  light  from  the  body 
immured  by  Christ  and  the  church,  enters  |  of  the  sun,  do  clearly  describe  all  the  re- 
into  the  shades  of  death.  No  man  must' gions  of  his  proper  obligations.  Now  con- 
touch  the  forbidden  tree,  that  in  the  midst  j  cerning  the  woman's  duty,  although  it 
of  the  garden,  which  is  the  tree  of  know- j  consists  in  doing  whatsoever  her  husband 
ledge  and  life.  Chastity  is  the  security  of  j  commands,  and  so  receives  measures  from 
love,  and  preserves  all  the  mysteriousness  i  the  rules  of  his  government,  yet  there  are 
like  the  secrets  of  a  temple.  Under  this  also  some  lines  of  life  depicted  upon  her 
lock  is  deposited  security  of  families,  the  j  hands,  by  which  she  may  read  and  know 


union  of  affections,  the  repairer  of  acci- 
dental breaches. 


-Kcu       axpera  vtlxio.  avW 


Etj  tvvrp  (xviioxut.  ouuiOrvai  tyO&tr^i.     Iliad.  % 


how  to  proportion  out  her  duty  to  her  hus- 
band. 

1.  The  first  is  obedience  ;  which,  because 
it  is  no  where  enjoined  that  the  man  should 
exact  of  her,  but  often  commanded  to  her 
to  pay,  gives  demonstration  that  it  is  a  vo- 


StlRM.  XVIII. 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


137 


luntary  cession  lhat  is  required ;  such  a  i 
cession  as  must  be  without  coercion  and  I 
violence  on  his  part,  but  upon  fair  induce- 
ments, and  reasonableness  in  the  thing,  and  1 
out  of  love  and  honour  on  her  part.   When  j 
God  commands  us  to  love  him,  he  means 
we  should  obey  him  ;    w  This  is  love,  that 
ye  keep  my  commandments  f  and  M  if  ye  i 
love  me  99  (saith  our  Lord)  :e  keep  my  com-  : 
mandments :"  now  as  Christ  is  to  the 
church,  so  is  man  to  the  wife :  and  there- 
fore obedience  is  the  best  instance  of  her  : 
love ;  for  it  proclaims  her  submission,  her  1 
humility,  her  opinion  of  his  wisdom,  his 
pre-eminence  in  the  family,  the  right  of  his 
privilege,  and  the  injunction  imposed  by 
God  upon  her,  sex,  that  although  in  sorrow 
she  bring  forth  children,  yet  with  love  and 
choice  she  should  obey.    The  man's  au- 
thority is  love,  and  the  woman's  love  is 
obedience ;  and  it  was  not  rightly  observed 
of  him  that  said,  when  the  woman  fell, 
iC  God  made  her  timorous,  that  she  might 
be  ruled,"  apt  and  easy  to  obey;  for  this 
obedience  is  no  way  founded  in  fear,  but  in 
love  and  reverence.    "  Receptae  reverentiae  j 
est,  si  mulier  viro  subsit,"  said  the  law  ;*  j 
unless  also  that  we  will  add,  that  it  is  an 
effect  of  that  modesty  which  like  rubies 
adorns  the  necks  and  cheeks  of  women. 
"  Pudicitia  est,  pater,  eos  magnificare,  qui 
nos  socias  sumpserunt   sibi,"f  said  the 
maiden  in  the  comedy :  "  it  is  modesty  to 
advance  and  highly  to  honour  them,  who 
have  honoured  us  by  making  us  to  be  the 
companions  "  of  their  dearest  excellencies ; 
for  the  woman,  that  went  before  the  man 
in  the  way  of  death,  is  commanded  to  follow 
him  in  the  way  of  love ;  and  that  makes  the 
society  to  be  perfect,  and  the  union  profit- 
able, and  the  harmony  complete. 

Inferior  matrona  suo  sit,  Sexte,  marito  ; 
Non  aliter  fuerint  fcemina  virque  pares. 

Mart. 

For  then  the  soul  and  body  make  a  perfect 
man,  when  the  soul  commands  wisely,  or 
rules  lovingly,  and  cares  profitably,  and  pro- 
vides plentifully,  and  conducts  charitably  lhat 
body  which  is  its  partner,  and  yet  the  inferior. 
But  if  the  body  shall  give  laws,  and,  by  the 
violence  of  the  appetite,  first  abuse  the  un- 
derstanding, and  then  possess  the  superior 
portion  of  the  will  and  choice,  the  body  and 
soul  are  not  apt  company,  and  the  man  is  a 
fool,  and  miserable.   If  the  soul  rules  not,  it 

*  C.  alia  D.  se.  lut.  Matrim. 
t  Plautus  in  Sticho. 

18 


cannot  be  a  companion;  either  it  must  govern, 
or  be  a  slave ;  never  was  king  deposed  and 
suffered  to  live  in  the  state  of  peerage  and 
equal  honour,  but  made  a  prisoner,  or  put 
to  death  ;  and  those  women,  that  had  rather 
lead  the  blind  than  follow  prudent  guides, 
rule  fools  and  easy  men  than  obey  the 
powerful  and  wise,  never  made  a  good  so- 
ciety in  a  house :  a  wife  never  can  become 
equal  but  by  obeying;  but  so  her  power, 
while  it  is  in  minority,  makes  up  the  au- 
thority of  the  man  integral,  and  becomes 
one  government,  as  themselves  are  one  man. 
"  Male  and  female  created  he  them,  and 
called  their  name  Adam,"  saith  the  Holy 
Scripture  ;*  they  are  but  one :  and  there- 
fore, the  several  parts  of  this  one  man  must 
stand  in  the  place  where  God  appointed, 
that  the  lower  parts  may  do  their  office  in 
their  own  station,  and  promote  the  common 
interest  of  the  whole.  A  ruling  woman  is 
intolerable. 

 Faciunt  graviora  coactae 

Imperio  sexus.  Juvenal. 

But  that  is  not  all ;  for  she  is  miserable  too : 
for, 

Ta  fevttptia,  trjv  yuvatxa  8el  "k&ytiv, 
Tjjv  8'  viytuovlav  tZ>v  oTuov  tbv  av8p  t^Jtv. 

Stob. 

It  is  a  sad  calamity  for  a  woman  to  be 
joined  to  a  fool  or  a  weak  person ;  it  is  like 
a  guard  of  geese  to  keep  the  capitol ;  or  as 
if  a  flock  of  sheep  should  read  grave  lec- 
tures to  their  shepherd,  and  give  him  orders 
where  he  shall  conduct  them  to  pasture. 
"O  vere  Phrygian,  neque  enim  Phryges:" 
it  is  a  curse  that  God  threatened  sinning 
persons;  "Devoratum  est  robur  eorum, 
facti  sunt  quasi  mulieres.  Effoeminati  do- 
minabuntur  eis  ;"f  "  to  be  ruled  by  weaker 
people  ;"  doixov  ysvso^o-i  rtapafypovovvtos  8sGrt6 
*ov3%  "to  have  a  fool  to  one's  master,"  is 
the  fate  of  miserable  and  unblessed  people : 
and  the  wife  can  be  no  ways  happy,  unless 
she  be  governed  by  a  prudent  lord,  whose 
commands  are  sober  counsels,  whose  au- 
thority is  paternal,  whose  orders  are  provi- 
sions, and  whose  sentences  are  charity. 

But  now  concerning  the  measures  and 
limits  of  this  obedience,  we  can  best  take 
accounts  from  Scripture  :  fa  rtavti,  saith  the 
apostle,  "  in  all  things  ;"§  "ut  Domino," 
as  to  the  Lord  ;"  and  that  is  large  enough  ; 
"  as  unto  a  lord,"  "  ut  ancilla  domino  •" 


*  Gen.  v.  2. 
X  Arist.  Plut. 

M  2 


t  Isa.  iii.  4. 
§  Ephes.  v.  24. 


138 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


Serm.  XVIII. 


so  St.  Jerome  understands  it,  who  neither 
was  a  friend  to  the  sex,  nor  to  marriage  ; 
but  his  mistake  is  soon  confuted  by  the  text; 
it  is  not  "utdominis,"  be  subject  to  your 
husbands  "  as  unto  lords,"  but  t§  Kvpi'9, 
that  is,  "  in  all  religion,"  in  reverence  and 
in  love,  in  duty  and  zeal,  in  faith  and  know- 
ledge ;  or  else  coj  ^9  Kvpua  may  signify, 
"  wives  be  subject  to  your  husbands  ;  but  yet 
so,  that  at  the  same  time  ye  be  subject  to  the 
Lord."  For  that  is  the  measure  of  iv  7to.vti, 
"  in  all  things  ;"  and  it  is  more  plain  in  the 
parallel  place,  dvrxsv  iv  Kvpta,  "  as  it  is 
fit  in  the  Lord  :"*  religion  must  be  the 
measure  of  your  obedience  and  subjection  : 
4f  intra  limites  disciplines :"  so  Tertullian 
expresses  it.  Hdvra  pen  ro  dvopi  7tsC$o(xtvrt, 
of  uir&v,  dxovro$  ixslvov,  rtpaljcu  rtoth,  rO.rv  600. 
ft$  apjr^f  xai  ootyiav  Sia^'pEiv  po/Ufr£Wou>'  so  Cle- 
mens Alex.f  "  In  all  things  let  the  wife  be 
subject  to  the  husband,  so  as  to  do  nothing 
against  his  will ;  those  only  things  excepted, 
in  which  he  is  impious  or  refractory  in 
things  pertaining  to  wisdom  and  piety." 

But  in  this  also  there  is  some  peculiar 
caution.  For  although  in  those  things 
which  are  of  the  necessary  parts  of  faith 
and  holy  life,  the  woman  is  only  subject  to 
Christ,  who  only  is  and  can  be  Lord  of  con- 
sciences, and  commands  alone  where  the 
conscience  is  instructed  and  convinced  :  yet 
as  it  is  part  of  the  man's  office  to  be  a 
teacher,  and  a  prophet,  and  a  guide,  and  a 
master ;  so  also  it  will  relate  very  much  to 
the  demonstration  of  their  affections  to  obey 
his  counsels,  to  imitate  his  virtues,  to  be 
directed  by  his  wisdom,  to  have  her  persua- 
sion measured  by  the  lines  of  his  excellent 
religion:  ovx  ^ttov  8s  asfivbv  dxovaai  yapttrjs' 
?.£yov(jr$,  dvyp  ov  fioi  hsi  xa^yr^tr^  xai  $i?JOGcfyo$  \ 
xai  &iSd'jxa%o$  tW  xaXiiaiw  xai  ^siotdr'cov. 
"It  were  hugely  decent,"  saith  Plutarch,] 
"  that  the  wife  should  acknowledge  her 
husband  for  her  teacher  and  her  guide ;" 
for  then  when  she  is  what  he  please  to 
efform  her,  he  hath  no  cause  to  complain 
if  she  be  no  better  :  td  8's  touwta  /xa^fiata 
rtpwrov  atJJiVf^tft  tZiv  dt07tu>v  td$  yvvoXxa.$;  "  his 
precept  and  wise  counsels  can  draw  her  off 
from  vanities;"  and,  as  he  said  of  geometry, 
that,  if  she  be  skilled  in  that,  she  will  not 
easily  be  a  gamester  or  a  dancer,  may  per- 
fectly be  said  of  religion.  If  she  suffers 
herself  to  be  guided  by  his  counsel,  and 
efformed  by  his  religion;  either  he  is  an  ill 
master  in  his  re  ligion,  or  he  may  secure  in 


Col.  iii.  18. 


t  Stromat. 


j  her  and  for  his  advantage  an  excellent  vir- 
1  tue.  And  although  in  matters  of  religion 
the  husband  hath  no  empire  and  command, 
yet  if  there  be  a  place  left  to  persuade,  and 
entreat,  and  induce  by  arguments,  there  is 
not  in  a  family  a  greater  endearment  of 
affections  than  the  unity  of  religion:  and 
anciently  "  it  was  not  permitted  to  a  wo- 
j  man  to  have  a  religion  by  herself :"  "  Eos- 
|dem  quos  maritus,  n6sse  Deos  et  colere 
I  solos  uxor  debet,"  said  Plutarch.  And  the 
rites  which  a  woman  performs  severally 
from  her  husband,  are  not  pleasing  to  God; 
and  therefore  Pomponia  Gracina,  because 
she  entertained  a  stranger  religion,  was  per- 
mitted to  the  judgment  of  her  husband 
Plantius  :  and  this  whole  affair  is  no 
stranger  to  Christianity,  for  trie  Christian 
j  woman  was  not  suffered  to  marry  an  un- 
believing man ;  and  although  this  is  not  to 
be  extended  to  different  opinions  within  the 
limits  of  the  common  faith :  yet  thus  much 
advantage  is  won  or  lost  by  it;  that  the 
compliance  of  the  wife,  and  submission  of 
her  understanding  to  the  better  rule  of  her 
husband  in  matters  of  religion,  will  help 
very  much  to  warrant  her,  though  she 
should  be  mispersuaded  in  a  matter  *ess 
necessary;  yet  nothing  can  warrant  her  in 
her  separate  rites  and  manners  of  worship- 
pings, but  an  invincible  necessity  of  con- 
science, and  a  curious  infallible  truth :  and 
if  she  be  deceived  alone,  she  hath  no  ex- 
cuse; if  with  him,  she  hath  much  pity,  and 
some  degrees  of  warranty  under  the  protec- 
tion of  humility,  and  duty,  and  dear  affec- 
tions ;  and  she  will  find  that  is  part  of  her 
privilege  and  right  to  partake  of  the  myste- 
ries and  blessings  of  her  husband's  religion, 
rvtutaea  yaustrtv  fistd  vo/xovs  Ispovs  ffW£X0oiffa# 
av8pi  xoivcovbv  aTtavtuv  tlvai,  xpr^uututv  t's  xai 
is pwv,  said  Romulus  :  "  A  woman  by  the  holy 
laws  hath  right  to  partake  of  her  husband's 
goods,  and  her  husband's  sacrifices,  and 
holy  things."  Where  there  is  a  schism  in 
one  bed,  there  is  nursery  of  temptations, 
and  love  is  persecuted  and  in  perpetual 
danger  to  be  destroyed;  there  dwell  jea- 
lousies, and  divided  interests,  and  differing 
opinions,  and  continual  disputes,*  and  we 
cannot  love  them  so  well,  whom  we  believe 
to  be  less  beloved  of  God ;  and  it  is  dl 
uniting  with  a  person,  concerning  whom 

-Quis  deditus  autcm 


Usque  adeo  est  ut  non  illani,  quam  laudibus 
eflert, 

Horreat,  inque  diem  septenis  oderit  horis? — 

Juv.  Sat.  6. 


Serm.  XVIII. 


THE  MARRIAGE  RING. 


139 


my  persuasion  tells  me,  that  he  is  like  to 
live  in  hell  to  eternal  ages. 

2.  The  next  line  of  the  woman's  duty  is 
compliance,  which  St.  Peter  calls  "  the  hid- 
den man  of  the  heart,  the  ornament  of  a 
meek  and  quiet  spirit,"*  and  to  it  he  op- 
poses "  the  outward  and  pompous  orna- 
ment of  the  body  ;"  concerning  which,  as 
there  can  be  no  particular  measure  set  down 
to  all  persons,  but  the  proportions  were  to 
be  measured  by  the  customs  of  wise  peo- 
ple, the  quality  of  the  woman,  and  the 
desires  of  the  man;  yet  it  is  to  be  limited  by 
Christian  modesty,  and  the  usages  of  the 
more  excellent  and  severe  matrons.  Menan- 
der  in  the  comedy  brings  in  a  man  turn- 
ing his  wife  from  his  house,  because  she 
stained  her  hair  yellow,  which  was  then 
the  beauty. 

~Svv  5'  f'prt'  art'  olxu>v  tW§£'  trjv  yvvcuxa  yap 
Trjv  aw^pov'  ov  8tl  r'aj  T'pt'^aj  %avOa$  Ttomv. 

Cleric. 

A  wise  woman  should  not  paint.  A  stu- 
dious gallantry  in  clothes  cannot  make  a 
wise  man  love  his  wife  the  better  .f  Etj  tovs 
rpoyuiSouj  #p?;tftu',  ovx  a*  ^ov  i^'-oi',  said  the 
comedy;  "Such  gaieties  are  fit  for  trage- 
dies, but  not  for  the  uses  of  life  :"  "  Decor 
occultus,  et  tecta  venustas,"  that  is  the 
Christian  woman's  fineness  :  "  the  hidden 
man  of  the  heart,"  sweetness  of  manners, 
humble  comportment,  fair  interpretation 
of  all  addresses,  ready  compliances,  high 
opinion  of  him  and  mean  of  herself.^ 

'Ef  xoivc>  %VTtris  q8ov*js  tJ  e%£iv  utpo?,  "  To 
partake  secretly,  and  in  her  heart,  of  all  his 
joys  and  sorrows,"  to  believe  him  comely 
and  fair,§  though  the  sun  hath  drawn  a 
cypress  over  him ;  for  as  marriages  are  not 
to  be  contracted  by  the  hands  and  eyes,  but 
with  reason  and  the  hearts ;  so  are  these  judg- 
ments to  be  made  by  the  mind,  not  by  the 
sight :  and  diamonds  cannot  make  the  wo- 
man virtuous,  nor  him  to  value  her  who 
sees  her  put  them  off  then,  when  charity 
and  modesty  are  her  brightest  ornaments. 

*  1  Pet.  iii.  4. 

t  Quid  juvat  ornato  procedere,  vitta,  capillo, 

Teque  peregrinis  vendcre  muneribus, 
Naturae  decus,  mercato  perdere  cultu, 
Nec  sinere  in  propriis  membra  nitere  bonis  ? 

Propert.  1.  1.  el.  1. 
X  Malo  Venusinam,  quam  te,  Cornelia  mater 
Gracchorum,  si  cum  magnis  virtutibus  affers 
Grande  supercilium,  etnumerasin  dote  triumphos. 

Juven.  Sat.  6. 
§  YTpw-rst  u'iv  yt  Toifl'  virapyw'  *S»  d'/ucwoc  » 
7rocn{,  yjYi  Soxuv  tj/utcp^ov  uvtti  rrj  ytvovv  MxmfAtvy 
d)  yap  cfd-uXfAoc  to  Kp'mtv  sctt/v  dk\a  voZt. 


Ov  xotfuos,  ovx,  C*  tVrmov,  aM.'  dxotfp'a 
^atVof-T''  ai>  thai  tfwv  (lapyapitr^  typtvuv,  &,C. 

And,  indeed,  those  husbands  that  are  pleased 
with  indecent  gaieties  of  their  wives,  are 
like  fishes  taken  with  ointments  and  intoxi- 
cating "baits,  apt  and  easy  for  sport  and 
mockery,  but  useless  for  food  ;  and  when 
Circe  had  turned  Ulysses'  companions  into 
hogs  and  monkeys,  by  pleasures  and  the 
enchantments  of  her  bravery  and  luxury, 
they  were  no  longer  useful  to  her,  she  knew 
not  what  to  do  with  them ;  but  on  wise 
Ulysses  she  was  continually  enamoured. 
Indeed,  the  outward  ornament  is  fit  to  take 
fools,  but  they  are  not  worth  the  taking ; 
but  she  that  hath  a  wise  husband,  must 
entice  him  to  an  eternal  dearness  by  the  veil 
of  modesty  and  the  grave  robes  of  chastity, 
the  ornament  of  meekness  and  the  jewels  of 
faith  and  charity;  she  must  have  no  fucus 
but  blush ings,  her  brightness  must  be 
purity,  and  she  must  shine  round  about 
with  sweetnesses  and  friendship,  and  she 
shall  be  pleasant  while  she  lives,  and  de- 
sired when  she  dies.    If  not, 

 KoLT'^avoicra  8e  xclaaai, 

Ov8e       fxvr^ioGvva  6t6tv  taettai, 
Ov  yap  TtfSt'^stj  {j66tov  ?wv  ix  Jlvspur^' 

Her  grave  shall  be  full  of  rottenness  and 
dishonour,  and  her  memory  shall  be  worse 
after  she  is  dead  :  "  after  she  is  dead  ;"  for 
that  will  be  the  end  of  all  merry  meetings ; 
and  I  choose  this  to  be  the  last  advice  to 
both. 

3.  f<  Remember  the  days  of  darkness,  for 
they  are  many;"  the  joys  of  the  bridal 
chambers  are  quickly  passed,  and  the  re- 
maining portion  of  the  state  is  a  dull  pro- 
gress, without  variety  of  joys,  but  not 
without  the  change  of  sorrows  ;  but  that 
portion  that  shall  enter  into  the  grave,  must 
be  eternal.  It  is  fit  that  I  should  infuse  a 
bunch  of  myrrh  into  the  festival  goblet,  and, 
after  the  Egyptian  manner,  serve  up  a  dead 
man's  bones  at  a  feast ;  I  will  only  show  it, 
and  take  it  away  again ;  it.  will  make  the 
wine  bitter,  but  wholesome.  But  those  mar- 
ried pairs  that  live,  as  remembering  that 
they  must  part  again,  and  give  an  account 
how  they  treat  themselves  and  each  other, 
shall,  at  that  day  of  their  death,  be  admitted 
to  glorious  espousals ;  and  when  they  shall 
live  again,  be  married  to  their  Lord,  and 
partake  of  his  glories,  with  Abraham  and 
Joseph,  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  all  the 
married  saints. 


140 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


Serm.  XIX. 


'Hv  8a  /xYj,  aM,'  itfitls  avta  7iapsp%6/jLi9a. 

Bruncz. 

"All  those  things  that  now  please  us 
shall  pass  from  us,  or  we  from  them;  but 
those  things  that  concern  the  other  life,  are 
permanent  as  the  numbers  of  eternity ;  and 
although  at  the  resurrection  there  shall  be  no 
relation  of  husband  and  wife,  and  no  mar- 
riage shall  be  celebrated  but  the  marriage 
of  the  Lamb ;  yet  then  shall  be  remembered 
how  men  and  women  passed  through  this 
state  which  is  a  type  of  that,  and  from 
this  sacramental  union  all  holy  pairs  shall 
pass  to  the  spiritual  and  eternal,  where  love 
shall  be  their  portion,  and  joys  shall  crown 
their  heads,  and  they  shall  lie  in  the  bosom 
of  Jesus,  and  in  the  heart  of  God  to  eternal 
ages.  Amen. 


SERMON  XIX. 

APPLES  OF  SODOM;  OR,  THE  FRUITS  OF  SIN. 
PART.  I. 

What  fruit  had  ye  then  in  those  things  whereof  ye 
are  now  ashamed  ?  For  the  end  of  those  things 
is  death. — Romans  vi.  21. 

The  son  of  Sirach  did  prudently  advise 
concerning  making  judgments  of  the  felicity 
or  infelicity  of  men  ;  "  Judge  none  blessed 
before  his  death ;  for  a  man  shall  be  known 
in  his  children."*  Some  men  raise  their 
fortunes  from  a  cottage  to  the  chairs  of 
princes,  from  a  sheepcote  to  a  throne,  and 
dwell  in  the  circles  of  the  sun,  and  in  the 
lap  of  prosperity  ;  their  wishes  and  success 
dwell  under  the  same  roof,  and  Providence 
brings  all  events  into  their  design,  and  ties 
both  ends  together  with  prosperous  suc- 
cesses ;  and  even  the  little  conspersions  and 
intertextures  of  evil  accidents  in  their  lives, 
are  but  like  a  feigned  note  of  music,  by  an 
artificial  discord  making  the  ear  covetous, 
and  then  pleased  with  the  harmony  into 
which  the  appetite  was  enticed  by  passion, 
and  a  pretty  restraint ;  and  variety  does  but 
adorn  prosperity,  and  make  it  of  a  sweeter 
relish,  and  of  more  advantages;  and  some 
of  these  men  descend  into  their  graves  with- 
out a  change  of  fortune. 

Eripitur  persona,  manet  res. 


*  Ecclus.  xi.  28. 


Indeed,  they  cannot  longer  dwell  upon  the 
estate,  but  that  remains  unrifled,  and  de- 
scends upon  their  heir,  and  all  is  well  till 
the  next  generation ;  but  if  the  evil  of  his 
death,  and  the  change  of  his  present  pros- 
perity, for  an  intolerable  danger  of  an  un- 
certain eternity,  does  not  sour  his  full  cha- 
lice; yet  if  his  children  prove  vicious  or 
degenerous,  cursed  or  unprosperous,  we 
account  the  man  miserable,  and  his  grave 
to  be  strewed  with  sorrows  and  dishonours. 
The  wise  and  valiant  Chabrias  grew  misera- 
ble by  the  folly  of  his  son  Ctesippus ;  and 
the  reputation  of  brave  Germanicus  began 
to  be  ashamed,  when  the  base  Caligula 
entered  upon  his  scene  of  dishonourable 
crime.  Commodus,  the  wanton  and  femi- 
nine son  of  wise  Antoninus,  gave  a  check 
to  the  great  name  of  his  father;  and  when 
the  son  of  Hortensius  Corbio  was  prosti- 
tute, and  the  heir  of  Q,.  Fabius  Maximus 
was  disinherited  by  the  sentence  of  the  city 
prastor,  as  being  unworthy  to  enter  into  the 
fields  of  his  glorious  father,  and  young  Sci- 
pio,  the  son  of  Africanus,  was  a  fool  and  a 
prodigal ;  posterity  did  weep  afresh  over 
the  monuments  of  their  brave  progenitors, 
and  found  that  infelicity  can  pursue  a  man, 
and  overtake  him  in  his  grave. 

This  is  a  great  calamity  when  it  falls 
upon  innocent  persons  ;  and  that  Moses  died 
upon  mount  Nebo,  in  the  sight  of  Canaan, 
was  not  so  great  an  evil,  as  that  his  sons 
Eliezer  and  Gerson  were  unworthy  to  suc- 
ceed him  ;  but  that  priesthood  was  devolved 
to  his  brother,  and  the  principality  to  his 
servant;  and  to  Samuel,  that  his  sons  proved 
corrupt,  and  were  exauthorated  for  their  un- 
worthiness,  was  an  allay  to  his  honour  and 
his  joys,  and  such  as  proclaims  to  all  the 
world,  that  the  measures  of  our  felicity  are 
not  to  be  taken  by  the  lines  of  our  own  per- 
son, but  of  our  relations  too;  and  he  that  is 
cursed  in  his  children,  cannot  be  reckoned 
among  the  fortunate. 

This  which  I  have  discoursed  concerning 
families  in  general,  is  most  remarkable  in 
the  retinue  and  family  of  sin ;  for  it  keeps 
a  good  house  and  is  full  of  company  and 
servants,  it  is  served  by  the  possessions  of 
the  world,  it  is  courted  by  the  unhappy, 
flattered  by  fools,  taken  into  the  bosom  by 
the  effeminate,  made  the  end  of  human  de- 
signs, and  feasted  all  the  way  of  its  pro- 
gress :  wars  are  made  for  its  interest,  and 
men  give  or  venture  their  lives  that  their 
sin  may  be  prosperous;  all  the  outward 
senses  are  its  handmaids,  and  the  inward 


Serm.  XIX. 


APPLES  O 


F  SODOM. 


HI 


senses  are  of  its  privy  chamber ;  the  under- 
standing is  its  counsellor,  the  will  its  friend, 
riches  are  its  ministers,  nature  holds  up  its 
train,  and  art  is  its  emissary  to  promote  its 
interest  and  affairs  abroad :  and,  upon  this 
account,  all  the  world  is  enrolled  in  its  tax- 
ing-tables, and  are  subjects  or  friends  of  its 
kingdom,  or  are  so  kind  to  it  as  to  make  too 
often  visits,  and  to  lodge  in  its  borders ;  be- 
cause all  men  stare  upon  its  pleasures,  and 
are  enticed  to  taste  of  its  wanton  delicacies. 
But  then  if  we  look  what  are  the  children 
of  this  splendid  family,  and  see  what  issue 
sin  produces,  iati  yap  tixva  xal  *g&e, — it  may 
help  to  untie  the  charm.  Sin  and  concupis- 
cence marry  together,  and  riot  and  feast  it 
high,  but  their  fruits,  the  children  and  pro- 
duction of  their  filthy  union,  are  ugly  and 
deformed,  foolish  and  ill-natured  ;  and  the 
apostle  calls  them  by  their  name,  "shame" 
and  "  death."  These  are  the  fruits  of  sin, 
"  the  apples  of  Sodom,"  fair  outsides,  but 
if  you  touch  them,  they  turn  to  ashes  and 
a  stink ;  and  if  you  will  nurse  these  child- 
ren, and  give  them  whatsoever  is  dear  to 
you,  then  you  may  be  admitted  into  the 
house  of  feasting  and  chambers  of  riot, 
where  sin  dwells ;  but  if  you  will  have  the 
mother,  you  must  have  the  daughters ;  the 
tree  and  the  fruits  go  together  ;  and  there  is 
none  of  you  all  that  ever  entered  into  this 
house  of  pleasure,  but  he  left  the  skirts  of 
his  garment  in  the  hands  of  shame,  and  had 
his  name  rolled  in  the  chambers  of  death. 
"  What  fruit  had  ye  then  ?"  That  is  the 
question. 

In  answer  to  which  question  we  are  to 
consider,  1.  What  is  the  sum  total  of  the 
pleasure  of  sin?  2.  W^hat  fruits  and  re- 
lishes it  leaves  behind  by  its  natural  effi- 
ciency ?  3.  What  are  its  consequents  by 
its  demerit,  and  the  infliction  of  the  super- 
added wrath  of  God,  which  it  hath  deserved? 
( Of  the  first  St.  Paul  gives  no  account ;  but 
by  way  of  upbraiding  asks,  "what  they 
had  ?"  that  is,  nothing  that  they  dare  own, 
nothing  that  remains:  and  where  is  it? 
show  it:  what  is  become  of  it?  Of  the 
second  he  gives  the  sum  total :  all  its  natural 
effects  are  "  shame  "  and  its  appendages. 
The  third,  or  the  superinduced  evils  by  the 
just  wrath  of  God,  he  calls  u  death,"  the 
worst  name  in  itself,  and  the  greatest  of  evils 
that  can  happen. 

1.  Let  us  consider  what  pleasures  there  are 
in  sin;  most  of  them  are  very  punishments. 
I  will  not  reckon  or  consider  concerning 


envy,  which  one  in  Stobaeus*  calls  xaxiottov 
xai  Stxaiotatov  §sov,  "  the  basest  spirit,  and 
yet  very  just;"  because  it  punishes  the  de- 
linquent in  the  very  act  of  sin,  doing  as 
^Elian  says  of  the  polypus,  sfotj  avta  yhvytai 
djfypta,  tZjv  tavtov  7fkoxd^,u>v  TtapfVpayf ,  "  when 
he  wants  his  prey,  he  devours  his  own 
arms;"  and  the  leanness,  and  the  secret 
pangs,  and  the  perpetual  restlessness  of  an 
envious  man,  feed  upon  his  own  heart,  and 
drink  down  his  spirits,  unless  he  can  ruin 
or  observe  the  fall  of  the  fairest  fortunes  of 
his  neighbour.  The  fruits  of  this  tree  are 
mingled  and  sour,  and  not  to  be  endured  in 
the  very  eating.  Neither  will  I  reckon  the 
horrid  affrightments  and  amazements  of 
murder,  nor  the  uneasiness  of  impatience, 
which  doubles  every  evil  that  it  feels,  and 
makes  it  a  sin,  and  makes  it  intolerable  ;  nor 
the  secret  grievings,  and  continual  troubles 
of  peevishness,  which  makes  a  man  incapa- 
ble of  receiving  good,  or  delighting  in  beau- 
ties and  fair  entreaties,  in  the  mercies  of  God 
and  charities  of  men. 

It  were  easy  to  make  a  catalogue  of  sins, 
every  one  of  which  is  a  disease,  a  trouble 
in  its  very  constitution  and  its  nature  :  such 
are  loathing  of  spiritual  things,  bitterness 
of  spirit,  rage,  greediness,  confusion  of 
mind,  and  irresolution,  cruelty  and  despite, 
slothfulness  and  distrust,  unquietness  and 
anger,  effeminacy  and  niceness,  prating  and 
sloth,  ignorance  and  inconstancy,  incogi- 
tancy'and  cursing,  malignity  and  fear,  for- 
getfulness  and  rashness,  pusillanimity  and 
despair,  rancour  and  superstition  :  if  a  man 
were  to  curse  his  enemy,  he  could  not  wish 
him  a  greater  evil  than  these :  and  yet  these 
are  several  kinds  of  sin  which  men  choose, 
and  give  all  their  hopes  of  heaven  in  ex- 
change for  one  of  these  diseases.  Is  it  not 
a  fearful  consideration,  that  a  man  should 
rather  choose  eternally  to  perish  than  to  say 
his  prayers  heartily  and  affectionately? 
but  so  it  is  with  very  many  men  ;  they  are 
driven  to  their  devotions  by  custom,  and 
shame,  and  reputation,  and  civil  compli- 
ances; they  sigh  and  look  sour  when  they 
are  called  to  it,  and  abide  there  as  a  man 
under  the  chirurgeon's  hands,  smarting  and 
fretting  all  the  while ;  or  else  he  passes  the 
time  with  incogitancy,  and  hates  the  em- 
ployment, and  suffers  the  torment  of  prayers 
which  he  loves  not;  and  all  this,  although 
for  so  doing  it  is  certain  he  may  perish  : 


*  Florileg. 


142  APPLES  OF  SODOM.  Serm.  XIX. 


what  fruit,  what  deliciousness,  can  he  fancy- 
in  being  weary  of  his  prayers  ?  there  is  no 
pretence  or  colour  for  these  things.  Can 
any  man  imagine  a  greater  evil  to  the  body 
and  soul  of  a  man  than  madness,  and  furi- 
ous eyes,  and  a  distracted  look,  paleness 
with  passion,  and  trembling  hands  and 
knees,  and  furious ness,  and  folly  in  the 
heart  and  head  ?  and  yet  this  is  the  pleas- 
ure of  anger,  and  for  this  pleasure  men 
choose  damnation.  But  it  is  a  great  truth, 
that  there  are  but  very  few  sins  that  pre- 
tend to  pleasure  :  although  a  man  be  weak 
'  and  soon  deceived,  and  the  devil  is  crafty, 
and  sin  is  false  and  impudent,  and  pretences 
are  too  many, — yet  most  kinds  of  sin  are 
real  and  prime  troubles  to  the  very  body, 
without  all  manner  of  deliciousness,  even 
to  the  sensual,  natural,  and  carnal  part; 
and  a  man  must  put  on  something  of  a 
devil  before  he  can  choose  such  sins,  and 
he  must  love  mischief  because  it  is  a  sin ; 
for  in  most  instances  there  is  no  other  rea- 
son in  the  world.  Nothing  pretends  to 
pleasure  but  the  lust  of  the  lower  belly, 
ambition,  and  revenge;  and  although  the 
catalogue  of  sins  is  numerous  as  the  pro- 
duction of  fishes,  yet  these  three  only  can 
be  apt  to  cozen  us  with  a  fair  outside;  and 
yet  upon  the  survey  of  what  fruits  they 
bring,  and  what  taste  they  have  in  the  man- 
ducation,  besides  the  filthy  relish  they  leave 
behind,  we  shall  see  how  miserably  they 
are  abused  and  fooled,  that  expend  any 
thing  upon  such  purchases. 

2.  For  a  man  cannot  take  pleasure  in 
lusts  of  the  flesh,  in  gluttony,  or  drunken- 
ness, unless  he  be  helped  forward  with  in- 
consideration  and  folly.  For  we  see  it 
evidently  that  grave  and  wise  persons,  men 
of  experience  and  consideration,  are  ex- 
tremely less  affected  with  lust  and  loves 
than  the  hare-brained  boy  ;  the  young  gen- 
tleman that  thinks  nothing  in  the  world 
greater  than  to  be  free  from  a  tutor,  he  in- 
deed courts  his  folly,  and  enters  into  the 
possession  of  lust  without  abatement ;  con- 
sideration dwells  not  there:  but  when  a 
sober  man  meets  with  a  temptation,  and  is 
helped  by  his  natural  temper,  or  invited  by 
his  course  of  life;  if  he  can  consider,  he 
hath  so  many  objections  and  fears,  so  many 
difficulties  and  impediments,  such  sharp 
reasonings  and  sharper  jealousies  concern- 
ing its  event,  that  if  he  does  at  all  enter  into 
folly,  it  pleases  him  so  little,  that  he  is 
forced  to  do  it  in  despite  of  himself;  and 
the  pleasure  is  so  allayed,  that  he  knows 


not  whether  it  be  wine  or  vinegar ;  his  very 
apprehension  and  instruments  of  relish  are 
filled  with  fear  and  contradicting  principles, 
and  the  deliciousness  does  but  "  afFricare 
cutem,"  it  went  "  but  to  the  skin  ;"  but  the 
allay  went  farther  ;  it  kept  a  guard  within, 
and  suffered  the  pleasure  to  pass  no  farther. 
A  man  must  resolve  to  be  a  fool,  a  rash  in- 
considerate person,  or  he  will  feel  but  little 
satisfaction  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  sin  : 
indeed,  he  that  stops  his  nose,  may  drink 
down  such  corrupted  waters;  and  he  under- 
stood it  well  who  chose  rather  to  be  a  fool, 

'  Dum  mea  delectent  mala  me,  vel  denique  fallant, 
Quam  sapere  et  ringi. — Hor. 

"  so  that  his  sins  might  delight  him,  or  de- 
ceive him,  than  to  be  wise  and  without 
pleasure  in  the  enjoyment."  So  that  in 
effect  a  man  must  lose  his  discerning  fa- 
culties before  he  discerns  the  little  fantastic 
joys  of  his  concupiscence;  which  demon- 
strates how  vain,  how  empty  of  pleasure 
that  is,  that  is  beholden  to  folly  and  illusion, 
to  a  juggling  and  plain  cozenage,  before  it 
can  be  fancied  to  be  pleasant.  For  it  is  a 
strange  beauty,  that  he  that  hath  the  best 
eyes  cannot  perceive,  and  none  but  the  blind 
or  blear-eyed  people  can  see ;  and  such  is 
the  pleasure  of  lust,  which,  by  every  degree 
of  wisdom  that  a  man  hath,  is  lessened  and 
undervalued. 

3.  For  the  pleasures  of  intemperance, 
they  are  nothing  but  the  relics  and  images 
of  pleasure,  after  that  nature  hath  been 
feasted ;  for  so  long  as  she  needs,  that  is, 
so  long  as  temperance  waits,  so  long  pleas- 
ure also  stands  there ;  but  as  temperance 
begins  to  go  away,  having  done  the  minis- 
tries of  nature,  every  morsel,  and  every 
new  goblet,  is  still  less  delicious,,  and  can- 
not be  endured  but  as  men  force  nature  by 
violence  to  stay  longer  than  she  would  : 
how  have  some  men  rejoiced  when  they 
have  escaped  a  cup !  and  when  they  can- 
not escape,  they  pour  it  in,  and  receive  it 
with  as  much  pleasure  as  the  old  women 
have  in  the  Lapland  dances;  they  dance 
the  round,  but  there  is  horror  and  a  harsh- 
ness in  the  music  ;  and  they  call  it  pleasure, 
because  men  bid  them  do  so  :  but  there  is  a 
devil  in  the  company,  and  such  as  is  his 
pleasure,  such  is  theirs :  he  rejoices  in  the 
thriving  sin,  and  the  swelling  fortune  of  his 
darling  drunkenness,  but  his  joys  are  the 
joys  of  him  that  knows  and  always  re- 
members, that  he  shall  infallibly  have  the 
biggest  damnation ;  and  then  let  it  be  con- 


Serm.  XIX. 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


143 


sidered  how  forced  a  joy  that  is,  that  is  at 
the  end  of  an  intemperate  feast. 

Nec  bene  mendaci  risus  componitur  ore, 
Nec  bene  sollicitis  ebria  verba  sonanl. 

TlBULLUS. 

Certain  it  is,  intemperance  takes  but  nature's 
leavings ;  when  the  belly  is  full,  and  nature 
calls  to  take  away,  the  pleasure  that  comes 
in  afterwards  is  next  to  loathing :  it  is  like 
the  relish  and  taste  of  meats  at  the  end  of 
the  third  course,  or  sweetness  of  honey  to 
him  that  hath  eaten  till  he  can  endure  to 
take  no  more ;  and  in  this  there  is  no  other 
difference  of  these  men  from  them  that  die 
upon  another  cause,  than  was  observed 
among  the  Phalangia  of  old,  ta  fxkv  jtoul 
ythuiraj  o.nohir'jxiiv ,  ta  8k  xlaiovtas,  <e  some 
of  these  serpents  make  men  die  laughing, 
and  some  to  die  weeping  :"  so  does  the  in- 
temperate, and  so  does  his  brother  that 
languishes  of  a  consumption ;  this  man 
dies  weeping,  and  the  other  dies  laughing; 
but  they  both  die  infallibly,  and  all  his  pleas- 
ure is  nothing  but  the  sting  of  a  serpent, 
"  immixto  liventia  mella  veneno,"  it  wounds 
the  heart,  and  he  dies  with  a  tarantula, 
dancing  and  singing  till  he  bows  his  neck, 
and  kisses  his  bosom  with  the  fatal  nod- 
dings  and  declensions  of  death. 

4.  In  these  pretenders  to  pleasure,  (which 
you  see  are  but  few,  and  they  not  very 
prosperous  in  their  pretences,)  there  is 
mingled  so  much  trouble  to  bring  them  to 
act  an  enjoyment,  that  the  appetite  is  above 
half  tired  before  it  comes ;  it  is  necessary  a 
man  should  be  hugely  patient  that  is  ambi- 
tious, "  ambulare  per  Britannos,  Scythicas 
pati  pruinas:"  no  man  buys  death  and 
damnation  at  so  dear  a  rate  as  he  that  fights 
for  it,  and  endures  cold  and  hunger, — "Pa- 
tiens  liminis  et  solis,"  "  the  heat  of  the  sun, 
and  the  cold  of  the  threshold  ;"  the  dangers 
of  war,  and  the  snares  of  a  crafty  enemy  : 
he  lies  upon  the  ground  with  a  severity 
greater  than  the  penances  of  a  hermit,  and 
fasts  beyond  the  austerity  of  a  rare  penitent ; 
with  this  only  difference,  that  the  one  does 
it  for  heaven,  and  the  other  for  an  uncertain 
honour,  and  an  eternity  of  flames.  But, 
however,  by  this  time  that  he  has  won  some- 
thing, he  hath  spent  some  years,  and  he 
hath  not  much  time  left  him  to  rest  in  his 
new  purchase,  and  he  hath  worn  out  his 
body,  and  lessened  his  capacity  of  feeling  it ; 
and  although  it  is  ten  to  one  he  cannot 
escape  all  the  dangers  he  must  venture  at, 
that  he  may  come  near  his  trifle,  yet,  when 


he  is  arrived  thither,  he  can  neither  long  en- 
joy, nor  well  perceive  or  taste  it ;  and  there- 
fore, there  are  more  sorrows  at  the  gate,  than 
there  can  dwell  comforts  in  all  the  rooms. of 
the  houses  of  pride  and  great  designs.  And 
thus  it  is  in  revenge,  which  is  pleasant  only 
to  a  devil,  or  a  man  of  the  same  cursed  tem- 
per. He  does  a  thing  which  ought  to 
trouble  him,  and  will  move  him  to  pity  what 
his  own  vile  hands  have  acted  ;  but  if  he  does 
not  pity,  that  is,  be  troubled  with  himself, 
and  wish  the  things  undone,  he  hath  those 
affections  by  which  the  devil  doth  rejoice  in 
destroying  souls ;  which  affections  a  man 
cannot  have,  unless  he  be  perfectly  misera- 
ble, by  being  contrary  to  God,  to  mercy, 
and  to  felicity ;  and,  after  all,  the  pleasure 
is  false,  fantastic,  and  violent,  it  can  do  him 
no  good,  it  can  do  him  hurt,  it  is  odds  but 
it  will,  and  on  him  that  takes  revenge,  re- 
venge shall  be  taken,  and  by  a  real  evil  he 
shall  dearly  pay  for  the  goods  that  are  but 
airy  and  fantastical ;  it  is  like  a  rolling  stone, 
which,  when  a  man  hath  forced  up  a  hill, 
will  return  upon  him  with  a  greater  violence, 
and  break  those  bones  whose  sinews  gave 
it  motion.  The  pleasure  of  revenge  is  like 
the  pleasure  of  eating  chalk  and  coals ;  a 
foolish  disease  made  the  appetite,  and  it  is 
entertained  with  an  evil  reward :  ]t  is  like 
the  feeding  of  a  cancer  or  a  wolf;  the  man 
is  restless  until  it  be  done,  and  when  it  is, 
eyery  man  sees  how  infinitely  he  is  removed 
from  satisfaction  or  felicity. 

5.  These  sins,  when  they  are  entertained 
with  the  greatest  fondness  from  without,  it 
must  have  an  extreme  little  pleasure,  be- 
cause there  is  a  strong  faction,  and  the  bet- 
ter party  against  them;  something  that  is 
within  contests  against  the  entertainment, 
and  they  sit  uneasily,  upon  the  spirit  when 
the  man  is  vexed,  that  they  are  not  lawful. 
The  Persian  king  gave  Themistocles  a  good- 
ly pension,  assigning  Magnesia,  with  the 
revenue  of  fifty  talents  for  his  bread,  Lamp- 
sacum  for  his  wine,  and  Myos  for  his  meat; 
but  all  the  while  he  fed  high  and  drunk 
deep,  he  was  infinitely  afflicted  that  every 
thing  went  cross  to  his  undertaking,  and  he 
could  not  bring  his  ends  about  to  betray  his 
country  :  and  at  last  he  mingled  poison  with 
his  wine  and  drank  it  off,  having  first  entreat- 
ed his  friends  to  steal  for  him  a  private  grave 
in  his  own  country.  Such  are  the  pleasures 
of  the  most  pompous  and  flattering  sins  : 
their  meat  and  drink  are  good  and  pleasant 
at  first,  and  it  is  plenteous  and  criminal ;  but 


144 


APPLES    OF  SODOM. 


Serm.  XIX. 


its  employment  is  base,  it  is  so  against  a 
man;s  interest,  and  against  what  is,  and 
ought  to  be,  dearest  to  him,  that  he  cannot  per- 
suade his  better  parts  to  consent,  but  must 
fight  against  them  and  all  their  arguments. 
These  things  are  against  a  man's  conscience, 
that  is,  against  his  reason  and  his  rest :  and 
something  within  makes  his  pleasure  sit  un- 
easily. But  so  do  violent  perfumes  make 
the  head  ache,  and  therefore  wise  persons 
reject  them ;  and  the  eye  refuses  to  stare 
upon  the  beauties  of  the  sun,  because  it 
makes  it  weep  itself  blind  ;  and  if  a  luscious 
dish  please  my  palate,  and  turns  to  loathing 
in  the  stomach,  I  will  lay  aside  that  evil,  and 
consider  the  danger  and  the  bigger  pain,  not 
that  little  pleasure.  So  it  is  in  sin  ;  it  pleases 
the  senses,  but  diseases  the  spirit,  and 
wounds  that :  and  that  it  is  apt  to  smart  the 
skin,  and  is  as  considerable  in  the  provisions 
of  pleasure  and  pain  respectively  ;  and  the 
pleasures  of  sin  to  a  contradicting  reason, 
are  like  the  joys  of  wine  to  a  condemned  man, 


Difficile  est  imitari  gaudia  falsa  ; 


Difficile  est  tristi  fingere  mente  jocum. — Tibull. 

It  will  be  very  hard  to  delight  freely  in  that 
which  so  vexes  the  more  tender  and  most 
sensible  part ;  so  that,  what  Pliny  said  of  the 
poppies  growing  in  the  river  Caicus. 
dirt  zapTtov  "kiBov,  ee  it  brings  a  stone  instead 
of  a  flower  or  fruit :"  so  are  the  pleasures  of 
these  pretending  sins  ;  the  flower  at  the  best 
is  stinking,  but  there  is  a  stone  in  the  bot- 
tom; it  is  gravel  in  the  teeth,  and  a  man 
must  drink  the  blood  of  his  own  gums  when 
he  manducates  such  unwholesome,  such 
unpleasant  fruit. 

 Vitiorum  gaudia  vulnus  habent. 

They  make  a  wound,  and  therefore  are  not 
very  pleasant.  To  yap  £fjv  w  xa%u>$,  /uiyaj 
rfovos,  4 '  It  is  a  great  labour  and  travail,  to 
live  a  vicious  life. 

6.  The  pleasure  in  the  acts  of  these  few 
sins  that  do  pretend  to  it,  is  a  little  limited 
nothing,  confined  to  a  single  faculty,  to  one 
sense,  having  nothing  but  the  skin  for  its 
organ  or  instrument,  an  artery,  or  something 
not  more  considerable  than  a  lutestring  ;  and 
at  the  best,  it  is  but  the  satisfaction  of  an  ap- 
petite which  reason  can  cure,  which  time 
can  appease,  which  every  diversion  can 
take  off;  such  as  is  not  perfective  of  his  na- 
ture, nor  of  advantage  to  his  person ;  it  is  a 
desire  to  no  purpose,  and  as  it  comes  with 
no  just  cause,  so  can  be  satisfied  with 


no  Just  measures  ;  it  is  satisfied  before  it 
comes  to  a  vice,  and  when  it  is  come  thither, 
all  the  world  cannot  satisfy  it :  a  little  thing 
will  weary  it,  but  nothing  can  content  it. 
For  ail  these  sensual  desires  are  nothing  but 
an  impatience  of  being  well  and  wise,  of 
being  in  health,  and  being  in  our  wits ; 
which  two  things  if  a  man  could  endure, 
(and  it  is  but  reasonable,  a  man  would  think, 
that  we  should,)  he  would  never  lust  to 
drown  his  heart  in  seas  of  wine,  or  oppress 
his  belly  with  loads  of  undigested  meat,  or 
make  himself  base  by  the  mixtures  of  a  har- 
lot, by  breaking  the  sweetest  limits  and  holy 
festivities  of  marriage.  "  Malum  impatien- 
|  tia  est  boni,"  said  Tertullian,  it  is  nothing 
else  ;  to  please  the  sense  is  but  to  do  a  man's 
self  mischief;  and  all  those  lusts  tend  to 
some  direct  dissolution  of  a  man's  health  or 
his  felicity,  his  reason  or  his  religion;  it 
is  an  enemy  that  a  man  carries  about  him  : 
I  and  as  the  Spirit  of  God  said  concerning 
|  Babylon,  "  Quantum  in  deliciis  fuit,  tantum 
j  date  illi  tormentum  et  luctum,"  "Let  her 
I  have  torment  and  sorrow  according  to  the 
j  measure  of  her  delights,"  is  most  eminently 
i  true  in  the  pleasing  of  our  senses  ;  the  lust 
!  and  desire  is  a  torment,  the  remembrance 
'  and  the  absence  is  a  torment,  and  the  en- 
|  joyment  does  not  satisfy,  but  disables  the  in- 
strument, and  tires  the  faculty  ;  and  when  a 
man  hath  but  a  little  of  what  his  sense 
covets,  he  is  not  contented,  but  impatient 
for  more  :  and  when  he  hath  loads  of  it,  he 
does  not  feel  it.  For  he  that  swallows  a  full 
|  goblet  does  not  taste  his  wine;  and  this  is 
,  the  pleasure  of  the  sense  ;  nothing  contents 
it  but  that  which  we  cannot  perceive,  and  it 
j  is  always  restless,  till  it  be  weary ;  and  all 
the  way  unpleased  till  it  can  feel  no  pleasure ; 
j  and  that  which  is  the  instrument  of  sense, 
I  is  the  means  of  its  torment ;  by  the  faculty 
by  which  it  tastes,  by  the  same  is  it  afflicted  ; 
;  for  so  long  as  it  can  taste,  it  is  tormented 
with  desire,  and  when  it  can  desire  no  longei , 
it  cannot  feel  pleasure. 

7.  Sin  hath  little  or  no  pleasure  in  its  very 
enjoyment ;  because  its  very  manner  of  entry 
and  production  is  by  a  curse  and  a  contra- 
diction ;  it  comes  into  the  world  like  a  viper 
through  the  sides  of  its  mother,  by  means 
unnatural,  violent  and  monstrous.  Men 
j  love  sin  only  because  it  is  forbidden;  "Sin 
I  took  occasion  by  the  law,"  saith  St.  Paul ; 
it  could  not  come  in  upon  its  own  pretences, 
but  men  rather  suspect  secret  pleasure  in  it 
because  there  are  guards  kept  upon  it. 


Seem.  XIX. 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


145 


Sed  quia  caecus  ir.est  vitiis  amor,  omne  futurum  aud  finds  them  not  of  so  long  abode  as  one 
Despicimr.suadentquebrevemprasentiafructum,  f  his  cares  which  |„  so  yast  numbers 
Et  ruit  in  veutum  damni  secura  libido.  I  '  .  . 

made  so  great  a  portion  of  his  me  afflicted. 

Men  run  into  sin  with  blind  affections,  and  npoaxcupov  dpxp-ri'as  axoiavow,  "  the  enjoying 
against  all  reason  despise  the  future,  hoping  of  sin  for  a  season,"  St.  Paul"5  calls  it;  he 
for  some  little  pleasure  for  the  present ;  and  names  no  pleasures  ;  our  English  translation 
and  all  this  is  only  because  they  are  forbid-  ;  uses  the  word  of  enjoying  pleasures;  but  if 
den  :  do  not  many  men  sin  out  of  spite?  ; there  were  any,  they  were  but  for  that  sea- 
Some  out  of  the  spirit  of  disobedience,  some  son,  that  instant,  that  very  transition  of  the 
by  wildness  and  indetermination,  some  by  !  act,  which  dies  in  its  very  birth,  and  of 
imprudence,  and  because  they  are  taken  in  a  !  which  we  can  only  say  as  the  minstrel  sang 
fault ;  I  of  Pacuvius,  when  he  was  carried  dead  from 

his  supper  to  his  bed,  3s3taxs,  j3f  ^uoxe.  A 
man  can  scarce  have  time  enough  to  say  it 
is  alive,  but  that  it  was  :  "  nullo  non  se  die 
extulit,"  it  died  every  day,  it  lived  never 
unto  life,  but  lived  and  died  unto  death, 
being  its  mother  and  daughter :  the  man 
died  before  the  sin  did  live;  and  when  it  had 
lived,  it  consigned  him  to  die  eternally. 
Add  to  this,  that  it  so  passes  away,  that 


 Fromemque  a  crimine  sumunt; 

some  because  they  are  reproved ;  many  by 
custom,  others  by  importunity : 

Ordo  fuit  crevisse  malis  — — 

It  grows  upon  crab-stocks,  and  the  lust  itself 
is  sour  and  unwholesome :  and  since  it  is 
evident,  that  very  many  sins  come  in  wholly 


upon  these  accounts,  such  persons  and  such  ( nothing  at  all  remains  behind  it  that  is  pleas 


;ins  cannot  pretend  pleasure  ;  but  as  natural- 
ists say  of  pulse,  "  Cum  maledictis  et  pro- 
bris  serendura  praecipiunt,  ut  laetius  prove- 


ant :  it  is  like  the  path  of  an  arrow  in  the 
air ;  the  next  morning  no  man  can  tell  what 
is  become  of  the  pleasures  of  the  last  night's 


niat;"  "the  country-people  were  used  to  [sin  :  they  are  nowhere  but  in  God's  books, 
curse  it  and  rail  upon  it  all  the  while  that  it ;  deposited  in  the  conscience,  and  sealed  up 
was  sowing,  that  it  might  thrive  the  better;"  j  against  the  day  of  dreadful  accounts;  but 
it  is  true  with  sins,  they  grow  up  with  curses,  j  as  to  the  man,  they  are  as  if  they  never  had 
with  spite  and  contradiction,  peevishness  |  been ;  and  then,  let  it  be  considered,  what 
and  indignation,  pride  and  cursed  principles;  a  horrible  aggravation  it  will  be  to  the  niise- 
and  therefore,  pleasure  ought  not  to  be  the  iries  of  damnation,  that  a  man  shall  forever 
inscription  of  the  box;  for  that  is  the  least  j  perish  for  that,  which  if  he  looks  round  about 
part  of  its  ingredient  and  constitution.  he  cannot  see,  nor  tell  where  it  is.  '-'He 

8.  The  pleasures  in  the  very  enjoying  of  ,  that  dies,  dies  for  that  which  is  not ;"  and  in 
sin  are  infinitely  trifling  and  inconsiderable,  the  very  little  present  he  finds  it  an  unre- 
because  they  pass  away  so  quickly;  if  they  warding  interest,  to  walk  seven  days  together 
be  in  themselves  little,  they  are  made  less  I  over  sharp  stones  only  to  see  a  place  from 
by  their  volatile  and  fugitive  nature;  but  \ whence  he  must  come  back  in  an  hour.  If 
if  they  were  great,  then  their  being  so  tran-  it  goes  off  presently,  it  is  not  worth  the  la- 
sient  does  not  only  lessen  the  delight,  but  bour ;  if  it  stays  long,  it  grows  tedious;  so 
changes  it  into  a  torment,  and  loads  the  that  it  cannot  be  pleasant,  if  it  stays ;  and  if 


spirit  of  the  sinner  with  impatience  and  in- 
dignation.   It  is  not  a  high  upbraiding  to 


it  does  not  stay,  it  is  not  to  be  valued :  "  Ha?c 
mala  mentis  gaudia."    It  abides  too  little  a 


the  watchful  adulterer,  that  after  he  hath  :  while  to  be  felt,  or  called  pleasure;  and  if  it 
contrived  the  stages  of  his  sin,  and  tied  many  \  should  abide  longer,  it  would  be  troublesome 
circumstances  together  with  arts  and  labour,  as  pain,  and  loathed  like  the  tedious  speech 
and  these  join  and  stand  knit  and  solid  only  of  an  orator  pleading  against  the  life  of  the 
by  contingency,  and  are  very  often  borne  'innocent. 

away  with  the  impetuous  torrent  of  an  inevi- !  9.  Sin  hath  in  its  best  advantages  but  a 
table  accident,  like  Xerxes'  bridge  over  the  trifling,  inconsiderable  pleasure :  because  not 
Hellespont;  and  then  he  is  to  begin  again,  only  God  and  reason,  conscience  and  honour, 
and  sets  new  wheels  a-going ;  and  by  the  interest  and  laws,  do  sour  it  in  the  sense  and 
arts  and  the  labour,  and  the  watchings,  and  gust  of  pleasure,  but  even  the  devil  liimself, 
the  importunity,  and  the  violence,  and  the  either  being  overruled  by  God, or  by  a  strange 
unwearied  study,  and  indefatigable  diligence,  ]  — — — — 


of  many  months,  he  enters  upon  possession. 

19  1 


Heb.  xi.  25. 
N 


140 


APPLES   OF  SODOM. 


Serm.  XIX. 


insignificant  malice,  makes  it  troublesome 
and  intricate,  entangled  and  involved ;  and 
one  sin  contradicts  another,  and  vexes  the 
man  with  so  great  variety  of  evils,  that  if 
in  the  course  of  God's  service,  he  should 
meet  with  half  the  difficulty,  he  would  cer- 
minly  give  over  the  whole  employment. 

Those  that  St.  James  speaks  of,  who 
•■  prayed  that  they  might  spend  it  upon  their 
lusts,"  were  covetous  and  prodigal,  and  there- 
fore must  endure  the  torments  of  one  to 
have  the  pleasure  of  another ;  and  which  is 
greater,  the  pleasure  of  spending,  or  the  dis- 
pleasure that  it  is  spent  and  does  not  still 
remain  after  its  consumption,  is  easy  to  tell : 
certain  it  is,  that  this  lasts  much  longer. 
Does  not  the  devil  often  tempt  men  to  de- 
spair, and  by  that  torment  puts  bars  and  locks 
upon  them,  that  they  may  never  return  to 
God?  Which  what  else  is  it  but  a  plain 
indication  that  it  is  intended  the  man  should 
feel  the  images  and  dreams  of  pleasure,  no 
longer  but  till  he  be  without  remedy  ?  Pleas- 
ure is  but  like  sentries  or  wooden  frames, 
set  under  arches,  till  they  be  strong  by  their 
own  weight  and  consolidation  to  stand  alone; 
and  when  by  any  means  the  devil  hath  a 
man  sure,  he  takes  no  longer  care  to  cozen 
him  with  pleasures,  but  is  pleased  that  men 
should  begin  an  early  hell,  and  be  tormented 
before  the  time.  Does  not  envy  punish  or 
destroy  flattery ;  and  self-love  sometimes 
torments  the  drunkard;  and  intemperance 
abate  the  powers  of  lust,  and  make  the  man 
impotent ;  and  laziness  become  a  hinderance 
to  ambition ;  and  the  desires  of  man  wax 
impatient  upon  contradicting  interests,  and 
by  crossing  each  other's  design  on  all  hands 
lessen  the  pleasure  and  leave  man  tormented  ? 

10.  Sin  is  of  so  little  a  relish  and  gust,  so 
trifling  a  pleasure,  that  it  is  always  greater 
in  expectation  than  it  is  in  the  possession. 
But  if  men  did  beforehand  see,  what  the 
utmost  is  which  sin  ministers  to  please  the 
beastly  part  of  man,  it  were  impossible  it 
should  be  pursued  with  so  much  earnestness 
and  disadvantages.  It  is  necessary  it  should 
promise  more  than  it  can  give ;  men  could 
not  otherwise  be  cozened.  And  if  it  be  in- 
quired, why  men  should  sin  again,  after  they 
had  experience  of  the  little  and  great  decep- 
tion ?  it  is  to  be  confessed,  it  is  a  wonder  they 
should  ;  but  then  we  may  remember,  that 
men  sin  again,  though  their  sin  did  afflict 
them  ;  they  will  be  drunk  again,  though  they 
were  sick ;  they  will  again  commit  folly, 
though  they  be  surprised  in  their  shame, 


'  though  they  have  needed  an  hospital ;  and 
therefore,  there  is  something  else  that  moves 
|  them,  and  not  the  pleasure  ;  for  they  do  it 
!  without  and  against  its  interests ;  but  either 
\  they  still  proceed,  hoping  to  supply  by  num- 
:  bers  what  they  find  not  in  proper  measures  ; 
I  or  God  permits  them  to  proceed  as  an  instru- 
j  ment  of  punishment ;  or  their  understandings 
j  and  reasonings  grow  cheaper ;  or  they  grow 
in  love  with  it,  and  take  it  upon  any  terms ;  or 
contract  new  appetites,  and  are  pleased  with 
1  the  baser  and  the  lower  reward  of  sin :  but 
:  whatsoever  can  be  the  cause  of  it,  it  is  certain , 
!  by  the  experience  of  all  the  world,  that  the 
fancy  is  higher,  the  desires  more  sharp,  and 
!  the  reflection  more  brisk,  at  the  door  and 
entrance  of  the  entertainment,  than  in  all  the 
;  little  and  shorter  periods  of  its  possession  : 
for  then  it  is  but  limited  by  the  natural  mea- 
\  sures,  and  abated  by  distemper,  and  loathed 
by  enjoying,  and  disturbed  by  partners,  and 
dishonoured  by  shame  and  evil  accidents ; 
t  so  that  as  men  coming  to  the  river  Lucius, 
'.        jusv  tevxotcrfov  vSdtuv  xol  pu  Sttifc'fftfara, 
and  seeing  "waters  pure"  as  the  tears  of 
the  spring,  or  the  pearls  of  the  morning, 
;  expect  that  in  such  a  fair  promising  bosom, 
|  the  inmates  should  be  fair  and  pleasant ; 
]  tixtsi  Be  bg03s  fistoLvas  ttf^vpwj ,  but  find  "  the 
\  fishes  black,"  filthy  and  unwholesome;  so  it 
|  is  in  sin ;  its  face  is  fair  and  beauteous, 

*H  taxepols Xe £cfjat"?a  xopaig  fia^xixurepov  vrtvov, 
Avatfios  aXxvuv,  teprtvby  aSvpixa  (jUdqs. 

Softer  than  sleep,  or  the  dreams  of  wine, 
tenderer  than  the  curd  of  milk;  "  Et  Euganea 
quantumvis  mollior  agna;"  but  when  you 
I  come  to  handle  it,  it  is  filthy,  rough  as  the 
!  porcupine,  black  as  the  shadows  of  the  night, 
and  having  promised  a  fish  it  gives  a  scor- 
pion and  a  stone  instead  of  bread. 

11.  The  fruits  of  its  present  possession, 
the  pleasures  of  its  taste,  are  less  pleasant, 
because  no  sober  person,  no  man  that  can 
discourse,  does  like  it  long. 

 Breve  sit  quod  turpiter  audes. — Juven. 

But  he  approves  it  in  the  height  of  passion, 
and  in  disguises  of  a  temptation  ;  but  at  all 
other  times  he  finds  it  ugly  and  unreasonable; 
and  the  very  remembrances  must  at  all  times 
abate  its  pleasures,  and  sour  its  delicacies. 
In  the  most  parts  of  a  man's  life  he  wonders 
at  his  own  folly,  and  prodigious  madness, 
that  it  should  be  ever  possible  for  him  to  be 


Serm.  XIX. 


APPLES   OF  SODOM. 


147 


deluded  by  such  trifles;  and  he  sighs  next  I  considerations  will  meet  with  some  persons 
morning  and  knows  it  over-night ;  and  is  it  that  think  them  to  be  f*  protestatio  contra 
not  therefore  certain,  that  he  leans  upon  a  J  factum,"  and  fine  pretences  against  all  ex- 
thorn,  which  he  knows  will  smart,  and  helperience;  and  that,  for  all  these  severe  say- 
dreads  the  event  of  to-morrow  ?  But  so  havejings,  sin  is  still  so  pleasant  as  to  tempt  the 
I  known  a  bold  trooper  fight  in  the  confusion  i  wisest -resolution.  Such  men  are  in  a  very 
of  a  battle,  and  being  warm  with  heat  and  evil  condition  :  and  in  their  case  only  I  come 
rage,  received,  from  the  swords  of  his  enemy, '  to  understand  the  meaning  of  those  words  of 
wounds  open  like  a  grave  ;  but  he  felt  them  Seneca  ;  "  Malorum  ultimum  est  mala  sua 
not,  and  when,  by  the  streams  of  blood,  he  amare,  ubi  turpia  non  solum  delectant,  sed 
found  himself  marked  for  pain,  he  refused  etiam  placent "  It  is  the  worst  of  evils 
to  consider  then  what  he  was  to  feel  to-  when  men  are  so  in  love  with  sin  that  they 
morrow :  but  when  his  rage  had  cooled  into  are  not  only  delighted  with  them,  but  pleased 
the  temper  of  a  man,  and  clammy  moisture  also  not  only  feel  the  relish  with  too  quick 
had  checked  the  fiery  emission  of  spirits,  he  a  sense,  but  also  feel  none  of  the  objections, 
wonders  at  his  own  boldness,  and  blames  nothing  of  the  pungency,  the  sting,  or  the 
his  fate,  and  needs  a  mighty  patience  to  bear  lessening  circumstances.  However,  to  these 
his  great  calamity.  So  is  the  bold  and  merry  I  men  I  say  this  only,  that  if  by  experience 
sinner,  when  he  is  warm  with  wine  and !  they  feel  sin  pleasant,  it  is  as  certain  also  by 
lust,  wounded  and  bleeding  with  the  strokes:  experience,  that  most  sins  are  in  their  own 
of  hell,  he  twists  with  the  fatal  arm  that  strikes'  nature  sharpnesses  and  diseases;  and  that 
him,  and  cares  not;  but  yet  it  must  abate  his 1  very  few  do  pretend  to  pleasure  :  that  a  man 
gaiety,  because  he  remembers  that  when  his 1  cannot  feel  any  deliciousness  in  them,  but 
wounds  are  cold  and  considered,  he  must  !  when  he  is  helped  by  folly  and  inconsidera- 
roar  or  perish,  repent  or  do  worse,  that  is, !  tion ;  that  is,  a  wise  man  cannot,  though  a 
be  miserable  or  undone.  The  Greeks  call  boy  or  a  fool  can  be  pleased  with  them:  that 
this  tC*  sdxxav  lufaifiwim,  "the  felicity  of  j  they  are  but  relics  and  images  of  pleasure 


condemned  slaves  feasted  high  in  sport." 
Dion  Prusias  reports,  that  when  the  Persians 
had  got  the  victory,  they  would  pick  out  the 
noblest  slave,  xai  xaBitovviv  a?  rbv  %povov  tov 
3a5t?ioc,  xai  -try  itfeqfm  Bi8<^Gtv  try  axnffjp  xai 
Tpvfai',  xai  iMAazat s zp^vOai ,  "they  make  him 


left  upon  nature's  stock,  and  therefore,  much 
less  than  the  pleasures  of  natural  virtues  : 
that  a  man  must  run  througli  much  trouble 
before  he  brings  them  to  act  and  enjoyment: 
that  he  must  take  them  in  despite  of  himself, 

against  reason  and  his  conscience,  the  ten- 

I  7* 


a  king  for  three  days,  and  clothe  him  with  \  derest  parts  of  man  and  the  most  sensible  of 
royal  robes,  and  minister  to  him  all  the  plea- !  affliction  :  they  are  at  the  best  so  little,  that 
sures  he  can  choose,  and  all  the  while  he  j  they  are  limited  to  one  sense,  not  spread  upon 
knows  he  is  to  die  a  sacrifice  to  mirth  and 
folly."  But  then,  let  it  be  remembered,  what 
checks  and  allays  of  mirth  the  poor  man  starts 


all  the  faculties  like  the  pleasures  of  virtue, 
which  make  the  bones  fat  by  an  intellectual 
rectitude,  and  the  eyes  sprightly  by  a  wise 
at,  when  he  remembers  the  axe  and  the  altar  i  proposition,  and  pain  itself  to  become  easy  by 
where  he  must  shortly  bleed;  and  by  this  we  hope  and  a  present  rest  within  :  it  is  certain 


may  understand  what  that  pleasure  is,  in  the 
midst  of  which  the  man  sighs  deeply,  when 
he  considers  what  opinion  he  had  of  this  sin, 


(I  say)  by  a  great  experience,  that  the  pleas- 
ures of  sin  enter  by  cursings  and  a  contra- 
dictory interest,  and  become  pleasant  not  by 


in  the  days  of  counsel  and  sober  thoughts ;!  their  own  relish,  but  by  the  viciousness  of 
and  what  reasons  against  it  he  shall  feel  to-  j  the  palate,  by  spite  and  peevishness,  by  being 
morrow,  when  he  must  weep  or  die.    Thus1  forbidden  and  unlawful :  and  that  which  is 


it  happens  to  sinners  according  to  the  saying 
of  the  prophet,  "  Q,ui  sacrificant  hominem, 
osculabuntur  vitulum,"  "  He  that  gives  a 
man  in  sacrifice  shall  kiss  the  calf ; "  * 
that  is,  shall  be  admitted  to  the  seventh 
chapel  of  Moloch  to  kiss  the  idol :  a  goodly 
reward  for  so  great  a  price,  for  so  great  an 
inquiry. 

After  all  this  I  do  not  doubt  but  these 
*  Hosea  xiii.  2. 


its  sting  is,  at  some  times,  the  cause  of  all  its 
sweetness  it  can  have  :  they  are  gone  sooner 
than  a  dream  :  they  are  crossed  by  one  ano- 
ther, and  their  parent  is  their  tormenter ;  and 
and  when  sins  are  tied  in  a  chain,  with  that 
chain  they  dash  one  another's  brains  out,  or 
make  their  lodging  restless  :  it  is  never  liked 
long ;  and  promises  much  and  performs  little; 
it  is  great  at  distance,  and  little  at  hand,  against 
the  nature  of  all  substantial  things  ;  and,  after 
all  this,  how  little  pleasure  is  left,  themselves 


148 


APPLES   OF  SODOM. 


Serm.  XX. 


have  reason  with  scorn  and  indignation  to 
resent.  So  that,  if  experience  can  be  pre- 
tended against  experience,  there  is  nothing 
to  be  said  to  it  but  the  words  which  Phryne 
desired  to  be  written  on  the  gates  of  Thebes, 
Ato'iavSpoj  xatidxa^sv,  avicftqclt  8k  $>pvvr{  rj  ttatpa, 
"  Phryne  the  harlot  built  it  up,  but  Alex- 
ander dug  it  down :"  the  pleasure  is  sup- 
ported by  little  things,  by  the  experience  of 
fools  and  them  that  observed  nothing,  and 
the  relishes  tasted  by  artificial  appetites,  by 
art  and  cost,  by  violence  and  preternatural 
desires,  by  the  advantage  of  deception  and 
evil  habits,  by  expectation  and  delays,  by 
dreams  and  inconsiderations  :  these  are  the 
harlot's  hands  that  build  the  fairy  castle,  but 
the  hands  of  reason  and  religion,  sober  coun- 
sels and  the  voice  of  God,  experience  of  wise 
men  and  the  sighings  and  intolerable  accents 
of  perishing  or  returning  sinners,  dig  it  down, 
and  sow  salt  in  the  foundations,  that  they 
may  never  spring  up  in  the  accounts  of  men 
that  delight  not  in  the  portion  of  fools  and 
forgetfulness.  "  Neque  enim  Deus  ita  viven- 
tibus  quicquam  promisit  boni,  neque  ipsa 
per  se  mens  humana,  talium  sibi  conscia, 
quicquam  boni  sperare  audet:"  "To  men 
that  live  in  sin,  God  hath  promised  no  good, 
and  the  conscience  itself  dares  not  expect  it."* 


SERMON  XX 


PART  II. 


We  have  already  opened  this  dunghill, 
covered  with  snow,  which  was  indeed  on 
the  outside  white  as  the  spots  of  leprosy, 
but  it  was  no  better  ;  and  if  the  very  colours 
and  instruments  of  deception,  if  the  fucus 
and  ceruse  be  so  spotted  and  sullied,  what 
can  we  suppose  to  be  under  the  wrinkled 
skin,  what  in  the  corrupted  liver,  and  in  the 
sinks  of  the  body  of  sin  1  That  we  are  next 
to  consider :  but  if  we  open  the  body,  and 
see  what  a  confusion  of  all  its  parts,  what  a 
rebellion  and  tumult  of  the  humours,  what 
a  disorder  of  the  members,  what  a  mon- 
strosity or  deformity  is  all  over,  we  shall 
be  infinitely  convinced,  that  no  man  can 
choose  a  sin,  but  upon  the  same  ground  on 
which  he  may  choose  a  fever,  or  long  for 
madness  or  the  gout.  Sin,  in  its  natural 
efficiency,  hath  in  it  so  many  evils,  as  must 
needs  affright  a  man,  and  scare  the  confi- 
dence of  every  one  that  can  consider. 

When  our  blessed  Saviour  shall  conduct 
his  church  to  the  mountains  of  glory,  he 


*Plat.  de  Rep. 


sliall  es  present  it  to  God  without  spot  or 
wrinkle,"*  that  is,  pure  and  vigorous,  en- 
tirely freed  from  the  power  and  the  infection 
of  sin.  Upon  occasion  of  which  expres- 
sion it  hath  been  spoken,  that  sin  leaves  in 
the  soul  a  stain  or  spot,  permanent  upon 
the  spirit,  discomposing  the  order  of  its 
beauty,  and  making  it  appear  to  God  "  in 
sordibus,"  "  in  such  filthiness,"  that  he 
who  "  is  of  pure  eyes  cannot  behold."  But 
concerning  the  nature  or  proper  effects  of 
this  spot  or  stain,  they  have  not  been  agreed  : 
some  call  it  an  obligation  or  a  guilt  of 
punishment ;  so  Scotus.  Some  fancy  it  to 
|  be  an  elongation  from  God,  by  dissimilitude 
of  conditions ;  so  Peter  Lombard.  Alex- 
ander of  Ales  says  it  is  a  privation  of  the 
proper  beauty  and  splendour  of  the  soul, 
with  which  God  adorned  it  in  the  creation 
and  superaddition  of  grace ;  and  upon  this 
expression  they  most  agree,  but  seem  not  to 
understand  what  they  mean  by  it;  and  it 
signifies  no  more,  but  as  you,  describing 
sickness,  call  it  a  want  of  health,  and  folly, 
a  want  of  wisdom  ;  which  is  indeed  to  say, 
what  a  thing  is  not,  but  not  to  tell  what  it 
is :  but  that  I  may  not  be  hindered  by  this 
consideration,  we  may  observe,  that  the 
spots  and  stains  of  sin  are  metaphorical 
significations  of  the  disorder  and  evil  conse- 
quents of  sin  ;  which  it  leaves  partly  upon 
the  soul,  partly  upon  the  state  and  condi- 
tion of  man,  as  meekness  is  called  an  orna- 
ment, and  faith  a  shield,  and  salvation  a 
helmet,  and  sin  itself  a  wrinkle,  corruption, 
rottenness,  a  burden, f  a  wound,  death, 
filthiness  :  so  it  is  a  defiling  of  a  man  ;  that 
is,  as  the  body  contracts  nastiness  and  dis- 
honour by  impure  contacts  and  adherences, 
so  does  the  soul  receive  such  a  change,  as 
must  be  taken  away  before  it  can  enter  into 
the  eternal  regions,  and  house  of  puritv. 
But  it  is  not  a  distinct  thing,  not  an  inherent 
quality,  Avhich  can  be  separated  from  other 
evil  effects  of  sin,  which  I  shall  now  reckon 
by  their  proper  names  ;  and  St.  Paul  com- 
prises under  the  scornful  appellative  of 
"  shame." 

1.  The  first  natural  fruit  of  sin  is  igno- 
rance. Man  was  first  tempted  by  the  pro- 
mise of  knowledge;  he  fell  into  darkness 
by  believing  the  devil  holding  forth  to  him 
a  new  light.  It  was  not  likely  good  should 
come  of  so  foul  a  beginning;  that  the  wo- 


*  Eph.  v.  27. 

Kn>.t  <T'  eixTpraTav  Ktyjurcu,  &c.  flecub. 


Serm.  XX. 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


149 


man  should  believe  the  devil  putting  on  no 
brighter  shape  than  a  snake's  skin,  she 
neither  being  afraid  of  sin.  nor  affrighted  to 
hear  a  beast  speak,  and  he  pretending  so 
weakly  in  the  temptation,  that  he  promised 
only  that  they  should  know  evil ;  for  they 
knew  good  before  ;  and  all  that  was  offered 
to  them  was  the  experience  of  evil :  and  it 
was  no  wonder  that  the  devil  promised  no 
more,  for  sin  never  could  perform  any  thing 
but  an  experience  of  evil,  no  other  know- 
ledge can  come  upon  that  account ;  but  the 
wonder  was,  why  the  woman  should  sin 
for  no  other  reward,  but  for  that  which  she 
ought  to  have  feared  infinitely ;  for  nothing 
could  have  continued  her  happiness,  but 
not  to  have  known  evil.  Now  this  know- 
ledge was  the  introduction  of  ignorance. 
For  when  the  understanding  suffered  itself 
to  be  so  baffled  as  to  study  evil,  the  will 
was*  as  foolish  to  fall  in  love  with  it,  and 
they  conspired  to  undo  each  other.  For 
when  the  will  began  to  love  it,  then  the 
understanding  was  set  on  work  to  com- 
mend, to  advance,  to  conduct  and  to  ap- 
prove, to  believe  it,  and  to  be  factious  in 
behalf  of  the  new  purchase.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve the  understanding  part  of  man  re- 
ceived any  natural  decrement  or  diminution. 
For  if  to  the  devils  their  naturals  remain 
entire,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  lesser  sin  of 
man  should  suffer  a  more  violent  and  ef- 
fective mischief.  Neither  can  it  be  under- 
stood how  the  reasonable  soul,  being  im- 
mortal both  in  itself  and  its  essential  facul- 
ties, can  lose  or  be  lessened  in  them,  any 
more  than  it  can  die.  But  it  received  im- 
pediment, by  new  propositions  :  it  lost  and 
willingly  forgot  what  God  had  taught,  and 
went  away  from  the  fountain  of  truth, 
and  gave  trust  to  the  father  of  lies,  and  it 
must  without  remedy  grow  foolish  :  and  so  a 
man  came  to  know  evil,  just  as  a  man  is  said 
to  taste  of  death  :  for,  in  proper  speaking, 
as  death  is  not  to  be  felt,  because  it  takes 
away  all  sense ;  so  neither  can  evil  be  known, 
because  whatsoever  is  truly  cognosible 
is  good  and  true;  and  therefore  all  the  know- 
ledge a  man  gets  by  sin  is  to  feel  evil :  he 
knows  it  not  by  discourse,  but  by  sense; 
not  by  proposition,  but  by  smart  :  the  devil 
doing  to  man  as  ^Esculapius  did  to  Neo- 
clides,  b^ft  Ste'ufioj  a^rrtcj,  xaTtrtjaioev  ai'tov 
ra  J3?i<f>apa,  ua  '"OSvtwto  jua?Aor*  "  he  gave 
him  a  formidable  colly  rium  to  torment  him 
more:"  the  effect  of  which  was,  on  3?i*fu 
r6v  nXoiTor  ra.%v  i7toirj(fsvs  Tor  5t  NeoecJle&m 
ftaxxor  irioMpc  fvfXo*  :  (Arist.  PI.  720.)  "  the 


devil  himself  grew  more  quicksighted  to 
abuse  us,"  but  we  became  more  blind  by 
that  opening  of  our  eyes.  I  shall  not  need 
to  discourse  of  the  philosophy  of  this  mis- 
chief, and  by  the  connexion  of  what  causes 
ignorance  doth  follow  sin  :  but  it  is  certain, 
whether  a  man  would  fain  be  pleased  with 
sin,  or  be  quiet  or  fearless  when  he  hath 
sinned,  or  continue  in  it,  or  persuade  others 
to  it,  he  must  do  it  by  false  propositions,  by 
lyings,  and  such  weak  discourses  as  none 
can  believe  but  such  as  are  born  fools,  or 
such  as  have  made  themselves  so,  or  are 
made  so  by  others.  Who  in  the  world  is 
a  verier  fool,  a  more  ignorant,  wretched 
person,  than  he  that  is  an  atheist?  A  man 
may  better  believe  there  is  no  such  man  as 
himself,  and  that  he  is  not  in  being,  than  that 
there  is  no  God  :  for  himself  can  cease  to 
be,  and  once  was  not,  and  shall  be  changed 
from  what  he  is,  and  in  very  many  periods 
of  his  life  knows  not  that  he  is  ;  and  so  it  is 
every  night  with  him  when  he  sleeps  :  but 
none  of  these  can  happen  to  God  ;  and  if  he 
knows  it  not,  he  is  a  fool.  Can  any  thing 
in  this  world  be  more  foolish  than  to  think 
that  all  this  rare  fabric  of  heaven  and  earth 
can  come  by  chance,  when  all  the  skill  of 
art  is  not  able  to  make  an  oyster?  To  see 
rare  effects,  and  no  cause;  an  excellent 
government  and  no  prince ;  a  motion  with- 
out an  immovable  ;  a  circle  without  a  cen- 
tre ;  a  time  without  eternity  ;  a  second  with- 
out a  first :  a  thing  that  begins  not  from 
itself,  and  therefore  not  to  perceive  there  is 
something  from  whence  it  does  begin,  which 
must  be  without  beginning;  these  things 
are  so  against  philosophy  and  natural  rea- 
son, that  he  must  needs  be  a  beast  in  his 
understanding  that  does  not  assent  to  them  ; 
this  is  the  atheist :  "  The  fool  hath  said  in 
his  heart,  There  is  no  God."  That  is  his 
character :  the  thing  framed  says  that  no- 
thing framed  it ;  the  tongue  never  made  itself 
to  speak,  and  yet  talks  against  him  that  did; 
saying,  that  which  is  made,  is,  and  that 
which  made  it,  is  not.  But  this  folly  is  as 
infinite  as  hell,  as  much  without  light,  or 
bound,  as  the  chaos  or  the  primitive  no- 
thing. But  in  this,  the  devil  never  pre- 
vailed very  far;  his  schools  were  always 
thin  at  these  lectures:  some  few  people 
have  been  witty  against  God,  that  taught 
them  to  speak  before  they  knew  to  spell  a 
syllable  ;  but  either  they  are  monsters  in 
their  manners,  or  mad  in  their  understand- 
ings, or  ever  find  themselves  confuted  by  a 
thunder  or  a  plague,  bv  danger  or  death. 
n2 


150 

But  the  devil  hath  infinitely  prevailed  in 
a  thing  that  is  almost  as  senseless  and  igno- 
rant as  atheism,  and  that  is  idolatry  ;  not 
only  making  God  after  man's  image,  but  in 
the  likeness  of  a  calf,  of  a  cat,  of  a  serpent; 
making  men  such  fools  as  to  worship  a  quar- 
tan ague,  fire  and  water,  onions  and  sheep. 
This  is  the  skill  man  learned,  and  the  philo- 
sophy that  he  is  taught,  by  believing  the 
devil.  What  wisdom  can  there  be  in  any 
man,  that  calls  good  evil,  and  evil  good  ;  to 
say  fire  is  cold,  and  the  sun  black  ;  that  for- 
nication can  make  a  man  happy,  or  drunk- 
enness can  make  him  wise  ?  And  this  is  the 
state  of  a  sinner,  of  every  one  that  delights 
in  iniquity  ;  he  cannot  be  pleased  with  it  if 
he  thinks  it  evil;  he  cannot  endure  it  with- 
out believing  this  proposition,  That  there  is 
in  drunkenness  or  lust  pleasure  enough, 
good  enough,  to  make  him  amends  for  the 
intolerable  pains  of  damnation.  But  then, 
if  we  consider  upon  what  nonsense-princi- 
ples the  state  of  an  evil  life  relies,  we  must 
in  reason  be  impatient,  and  with  scorn  and 
indignation  drive  away  the  fool;  such  as 
are — sense  is  to  be  preferred  before  reason, 
interest  before  religion,  a  lust  before  hea- 
ven, moments  before  eternity,  money  above 
God  himself;  that  a  man's  felicity  consists 
in  that  which  a  beast  enjoys  ;  that  a  little 
in  present,  uncertain,  fallible  possession,  is 
better  than  the  certain  state  of  infinite  glories 
hereafter  :  what  child,  what  fool,  can  think 
things  more  weak  and  more  unreasonable  ? 
And  yet  if  men  do  not  go  upon  these 
grounds,  upon  what  account  do  they  sin  ? 
Sin  hath  no  wiser  reasons  for  itself  than 
these  :  ^wpoj  t^f  t  rtvpawou  popov :  the  same 
argument  that  a  fly  hath  to  enter  into  a  can- 
dle, the  same  argument  a  fool  hath  that 
enters  into  sin :  it  looks  prettily,  but  re- 
wards the  eye,  as  burning  basins  do,  with 
intolerable  circles  of  reflected  fire.  Such  are 
the  principles  of  a  sinner's  philosophy. 
And  no  wiser  are  his  hopes ;  all  his  hopes 
that  he  hath  are,  that  he  shall  have  time  to 
repent  of  that  which  he  chooses  greedily ; 
that  he  whom  he  every  day  provokes  will 
save  him,  whether  he  will  or  not ;  that  he 
can,  in  an  instant,  or  in  a  day,  make 
amends  for  all  the  evils  of  forty  years  ;  or 
else,  that  he  shall  be  saved  whether  he  does 
or  not;  that  heaven  is  to  be  had  for  a  sigh, 
or  a  short  prayer,  and  yet  hell  shall  not  be 
consequent  to  the  affections,  and  labours, 
and  hellish  services,  of  a  whole  life;  he 
goes  on  and  cares  not,  he  hopes  without  a 
promise,  and    refuses  to   believe  all  the 


Serm.  XX. 

threatenings  of  God ;  but  believes  he  shall 
have  a  mercy  for  which  he  never  had  a 
revelation.  If  this  be  knowledge  or  wis- 
dom, then  there  is  no  such  thing  as  follv, 
no  such  disease  as  madness. 

But  then  consider,  that  there  are  some 
sins  whose  very  formality  is  a  lie.  Super- 
stition could  not  be  in  the  world,  if  men  did 
believe  God  to  be  good  and  wise,  free  and 
merciful,  not  a  tyrant,  not  an  unreasonable 
exacter ;  no  man  would  dare  to  do  in  pri- 
vate what  he  fears  to  do  in  public,  if  he  did 
know  that  God  sees  him  there,  and  will 
bring  that  work  of  darkness  into  light.  But 
he  is  so  foolish  as  to  think,  that  if  he  sees 
nothing,  nothing  sees  him  ;  for  if  men  did 
perceive  God  to  be  present,  and  yet  do 
wickedly,  it  is  worse  with  them  than  I 
have  yet  spoke  of;  and  they  believe  an- 
other lie,  that  to  be  seen  by  man  will  bring 
more  shame,  than  to  be  discerned  by  God  ; 
or  that  the  shame  of  a  few  men's  talk  is 
more  intolerable  than  to  be  confounded 
before  Christ,  and  his  army  of  angels,  and 
saints,  and  all  the  world.  He  that  excuses 
a  fault  by  telling  a  lie,  believes  it  better  to 
be  guilty  of  two  faults,  than  to  be  thought 
guilty  of  one;  and  every  hypocrite  thinks  it 
not  good  to  be  holy,  but  to  be  accounted  so 
is  a  fine  thing;  that  is,  that  opinion  is  better 
than  reality,  and  that  there  is  in  virtue  no- 
thing good  but  the  fame  of  it.  And  the  man 
that  takes  revenge,  relies  upon  this  foolish 
proposition ;  that  his  evil  that  he  hath 
already  suffered  grows  less  if  another  suf- 
fers the  like ;  that  his  wound  cannot  smart, 
if  by  my  hand  he  dies  that  gave  it ;  jj|m  ti 
fiixoi  yofpov  yofpcus,  the  sad  accents  and  dole- 
ful tunes  are  increased  by  the  number  of 
mourners,  but  the  sorrow  is  not  lessened. 

I  shall  not  need  to  thrust  into  this  account 
the  other  evils  of  mankind  that  are  the 
events  of  ignorance,  but  introduced  by  sin  ; 
such  as  are,  our  being  moved  by  what  we 
see  strongly,  and  weakly  by  what  we  un- 
derstand ;  that  men  are  moved  rather  by  a 
fable  than  by  a  syllogism,  by  parables  than 
by  demonstrations,  by  examples  than  by 
precepts,  by  seeming  things  than  by  real,  by 
shadows  than  by  substances ;  that  men  judge 
of  things  by  their  first  events,  and  measure 
the  events  by  their  own  short  lives,  or 
shorter  observations  ;  that  they  are  credulous 
to  believe  what  they  wish,  and  incredulous 
of  what  makes  against  them,  measuring  truth 
or  falsehood  by  measures  that  cannot  fit 
them,  as  foolishly  as  if  they  should  judge  of 
a  colour  by  the  dimensions  of  a  body,  or  feel 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


Serm.  XX. 


APPLES  O 


F  SODOM 


151 


music  with  the  hand;  they  make  general 
conclusions  from  particular  instances,  and 
take  account  of  God's  actions  by  the  mea- 
sures of  a  man.  Men  call  that  justice  that 
is  on  their  side,  and  all  their  own  causes  are 
right,  and  they  are  so  always ;  they  are  so 
when  they  affirm  them  in  their  youth,  and 
they  are  so  when  they  deny  them  in  their 
old  age;  and  they  are  confident  in  all  their 
changes;  and  their  first  error,  which  they 
now  see,  does  not  make  them  modest  in  the 
proposition  which  they  now  maintain  ;  for 
they  do  not  understand  that  what  was,  may 
be  so  again  :  "  So  foolish  and  ignorant  was 
I,  (said  David,)  and  as  it  were  a  beast  be- 
fore thee."  Ambition  is  folly,  and  temerity 
is  ignorance,  and  confidence  never  goes 
without  it,  and  impudence  is  worse,  and 
zeal  or  contention  is  madness,  and  prating  is 
want  of  wisdom,  and  lust  destroys  it,  and 
makes  a  man  of  a  weak  spirit  and  a  cheap 
reasoning  ;  and  there  are  in  the  catalogue  of 
sins  very  many,  which  are  directly  kinds, 
and  parts,  and  appendages  of  ignorance ; 
such  as  are,  blindness  of  mind,  affected  ig- 
norance, and  wilful ;  neglect  of  hearing  the 
Word  of  God,  resolved. incredulity,  forgetful- 
ness  of  holy  things,  lying  and  believing  a 
lie;  this  is  the  fruit  of  sin,  this  is  the  know- 
ledge that  the  devil  promised  to  our  first 
parents  as  the  rewards  of  disobedience  ;  and  j 
although  they  sinned  as  weakly  and  fondly, 
^por/juar'oj  tortpw  attprfi'ivtes,  upon  as  slight 
grounds,  and  trifling  a  temptation,  and  as 
easy  a  deception,  as  many  of  us  since,  yet 
the  causes  of  our  ignorance  are  increased  by 
the  multiplication  of  our  sins ;  and  if  it  was 
so  bad  in  the  green  tree,  it  is  much  worse  in 
the  dry  ;  and  no  man  is  so  very  a  fool  as 
the  sinner,  and  none  are  wise  but  the  ser- 
vants of  God. 

Movvol  XcoSatot  aofylaw  Tjxxov,  >j6'  dp1  eEj3pacot, 
AvtoyivsdXov  avaxta  otfiaZojAtvoi  &6v  ayvwj. 

"  The  wise  Chaldees  and  the  wiser  Hebrews, 
which  worship  God  chastely  and  purely, 
they  only  have  a  right  to  be  called  wise ;" 
all  that  do  not  so  are  fools  and  ignorants, 
neither  knowing  wrhat  it  is  to  be  happy,  nor 
how  to  purchase  it;  ignorant  of  the  noblest 
end,  and  of  the  competent  means  towards  it: 
they  neither  know  God  nor  themselves,  and 
no  ignorance  is  greater  than  this,  or  more 
pernicious.  What  man  is  there  in  the 
world  that  thinks  himself  covetous  or  proud? 
and  yet  millions  there  are  who,  like  Har- 
paste,  think  that  the  house  is  dark,  but  not 
themselves.    Virtue  makes  our  desires  tem- 


perate and  regular,  it  observes  our  actions, 
condemns  our  faults,  mortifies  our  lusts, 
watches  all  our  dangers  and  temptations: 
but  sin  makes  our  desires  infinite,  and  we 
would  have  we  cannot  tell  what ;  we  strive 
that  we  may  forget  our  faults;  we  labour 
that  we  may  neither  remember  nor  consider ; 
we  justify  our  errors,  and  call  them  inno- 
cent, and  that  which  is  our  shame  we  mis- 
call honour;  and  our  whole  life  hath  in  it 
so  many  weak  discourses  and  trifling  propo- 
sitions, that  the  whole  world  of  sinners  is 
like  the  hospital  of  the  "  insensati,"  madness 
and  folly  possess  the  greater  part  of  man- 
kind. What  greater  madness  is  there  than 
to  spend  the  price  of  a  whole  farm  in  con- 
tention for  three  sheaves  of  corn  ?  and  yet 
"  tantum  pectora  csccae  Noctis  habent,"  this 
is  the  wisdom  of  such  as  are  contentious, 
and  love  their  own  will  more  than  their  hap- 
piness, their  humour  more  than  their  peace. 

Furor  est  post  omnia  perdere  naulum. — Juv. 

Men  lose  their  reason,  and  their  religion, 
and  themselves  at  last,  for  want  of  under- 
standing; and  all  the  wit  and  discourses  by 
which  sin  creeps  in,  are  but  q>popti8uv  fiovXtv- 
/xata,  yfcwtftfgj  is  xofirtov,  "  frauds  of  the 
tongue,  and  consultations  of  care  but  in 
the  whole  circle  of  sins  there  is  not  one  wise 
proposition,  by  which  a  man  may  conduct 
his  affairs,  or  himself  become  instructed  to 
felicity.  This  is  the  first  natural  fruit  of  sin  : 
it  makes  a  man  a  fool,  and  this  hurt  sin 
does  to  the  understanding,  and  this  is  shame 
enough  to  that  in  which  men  are  most  apt 
to  glory. 

Sin  naturally  makes  a  man  weak;  that  is, 
unapt  to  do  noble  things  :  by  which  I  do 
not  understand  a  natural  disability:  for  it  is 
equally  ready  for  a  man  to  will  good  as  evil, 
and  as  much  in  the  power  of  his  hands  to 
be  lifted  up  in  prayer  to  God  as  against  his 
brother  in  a  quarrel  ;  and  between  a  virtuous 
object  and  his  faculties  there  is  a  more  apt 
proportion,  than  between  his  spirit  and  a 
vice ;  and  every  act  of  grace  does  more 
please  the  mind,  than  an  act  of  sin  does  de- 
light the  sense ;  and  every  crime  does  greater 
violence  to  the  better  part  of  man,  than  mor- 
tification does  to  the  lower ;  and  oftentimes 
a  duty  consists  in  a  negative,  as,  not  to  be 
drunk,  not  to  swear,  and  it  is  not  to  be  un- 
derstood that  a  man  hath  naturally  no  power 
not  to  do;  if  there  be  a  natural  disability,  it 
is  to  action,  not  to  rest  or  ceasing;  and 


*  flecub. 


152 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


Serm.  XX. 


therefore  in  this  case,  we  cannot  reasonably 
nor  justly  accuse  our  nature,  but  we  have 
reason  to  blame  our  manners-,  which  have 
introduced  upon  us  a  moral  disability,  that 
is,  not  that  the  faculty  is  impotent  and  dis- 
abled, but  that  the  whole  man  is ;  for  the 
will  in  many  cases  desires  to  do  good,  and 
the  understanding  is  convinced  and  consents, 
and  the  hand  can  obey,  and  the  passions 
can  be  directed,  and  be  instrumental  to  God's 
service  :  but  because  they  are  not  used  to  it, 
the  will  finds  a  difficulty  to  do  them  so  much 
violence,  and  the  understanding  consents  to 
their  lower  reasonings,  and  the  desires  of  the 
lower  man  do  will  stronger;  and  then  the 
whole  man  cannot  do  the  duty  that  is  ex- 
pected. There  is  a  law  in  the  members,  and 
he  that  gave  that  law  is  a  tyrant,  and  the 
subjects  of  that  law  are  slaves,  and  often- 
times their  ear  is  bored  ;  and  they  love  their 
fetters,  and  desire  to  continue  that  bondage 
for  ever ;  the  law  is  the  law  of  sin,  the  devil 
is  the  tyrant,  custom  is  the  sanction  or  the 
firmament  of  the  law :  and  every  vicious 
man  is  a  slave,  and  chooses  the  vilest  mas- 
ter, and  the  basest  of  services,  and  the  most 
contemptible  rewards.  **  Lex  enim  peccati 
est  violentia  consuetudinis,  qua  trahitur  et 
tenetur  animus  etiam  invitus,  eo  merito  quo 
in  earn  volens  illabitur,"  said  St.  Austin; 
"The  law  of  sin  is  the  violence  of  custom, 
which  keeps  a  man's  mind  against  his  mind, 
because  he  entered  willingly,"  and  gave  up 
his  own  interest;  which  he  ought  to  have 
secured  for  his  own  felicity,  and  for  his  ser- 
vice who  gave  for  it  an  invaluable  price : 
and  indeed  in  questions  of  virtue  and  vice 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  nature ;  or  it  is  so 
inconsiderable,  that  it  hath  in  it  nothing  be- 
yond an  inclination  which  may  be  reverted ; 
and  very  often  not  so  much  :  nothing  but  a 
perfect  indifferency,  we  may  if  we  will,  or 
we  may  choose  :  but  custom  brings  in  a  new 
nature,  and  makes  a  bias  in  every  faculty. 
To  a  vicious  man  some  sins  become  neces- 
sary ;  temperance  makes  him  sick ;  severity 
is  death  to  him,  it  destroys  his  cheerfulness 
and  activity,  it  is  as  his  nature,  and  the  de- 
sire dwells  for  ever  with  him,  and  his  rea- 
sonings are  framed  for  it  and  his  fancy,  and 
in  all  he  is  helped  by  example,  by  company, 
by  folly,  and  inconsideration ;  and  all  these 
are  a  faction  and  a  confederacy  against  the 
honour  and  service  of  God.  And  in  this, 
philosophy  is  at  a  stand,  nothing  can  give 
an  account  of  it  but  experience  and  sorrow- 
ful instances;  for  it  is  infinitely  unreason- 
able, that  when  you  have  discoursed  wisely 


against  unchastity,  and  told,  that  we  are 
separated  from  it  by  a  circumvallation  of 
laws  of  God  and  man,  that  it  dishonours  the 
body,  and  makes  the  spirit  caitive,  that  it  is 
fought  against  by  arguments  sent  from  all 
the  corners  of  reason  and  religion,  and  the 
man  knows  all  this,  and  believes  it,  and 
prays  against  his  sin,  and  hates  himself  for 
it,  and  curses  the  actions  of  it;  yet  oppose 
against  all  this  but  a  fable  or  a  merry  story, 
a  proverb  or  a  silly  saying,  the  sight  of  his 
mistress,  or  any  thing  but  to  lessen  any  one 
of  the  arguments  biought  against  it,  and  that 
man  shall  as  certainly  and  clearly  be  deter- 
mined to  that  sin,  as  if  he  had  on  his  side  all 
the  reason  of  the  world.  Aemw  yap  ijfloj  xai 
t^ofjLoiujriat  xoi  /3ca<ratf^a*  rtpo?  tpwfw*  Custom 
does  as  much  as  nature  can  do;  it  does 
sometimes  more,  and  superinduces  a  dispo- 
sition contrary  to  our  natural  temper.  Eu- 
demus  had  so  used  his  stomach  to  so  un- 
natural drinks,  that,  as  himself  tells  the 
story,  he  took  in  one  day  two-and-twenty 
potions  in  which  hellebore  was  infused,  and 
rose  at  noon,  and  supped  at  night,  and  felt 
no  change :  so  are  those  that  are  corrupted 
with  evil  customs,  nothing  will  purge  them  ; 
if  you  discourse  wittily,  they  hear  you  not; 
or,  if  they  do,  they  have  twenty  ways  to 
answer,  and  twice  twenty  to  neglect  it:  if 
you  persuade  them  to  promise  to  leave  their 
sin,  they  do  but  show  their  folly  at  the  next 
temptation,  and  tell  that  they  did  not  mean 
it :  and  if  you  take  them  at  an  advantage 
when  their  hearts  are  softened  with  a  judg- 
ment or  a  fear,  with  a  shame  or  an  indigna- 
tion, and  then  put  the  bars  and  locks  of  vows 
upon  them,  it  is  all  one;  one  vow  shall 
hinder  but  one  action,  and  the  appetite  shall 
be  doubled  by  the  restraint,  and  the  next 
opportunity  shall  make  an  amencls  for  the 
first  omission  :  or  else  the  sin  shall  enter  by 
|  parts :  the  vow  shall  only  put  the  understand- 
ing to  make  a  distinction,  or  to  change  the 
circumstance,  and  under  that  colour  the 
crime  shall  be  admitted,  because  the  man  is 
resolved  to  suppose  the  matter  so  dressed 
was  not  vowed  against.  But  then,  when 
that  is  done,  the  understanding  shall  open 
that  eye  that  did  but  wink  before,  and  see 
that  it  was  the  same  things,  and  secretly  re- 
joice that  it  was  so  cozened :  for  now  the 
lock  is  opened,  and  the  row  was  broken 
against  his  will,  and  the  man  is  at  liberty 
again  because  he  did  the  thing  at  unawares, 
ov  §&m>v  ts  xai  $s?mv,  still  he  is  willing  to 

*  Plutarch. 


Seem.  XX. 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


153 


believe  the  sin  was  not  formal  vow-breach, 
but  now  he  sees  he  broke  it  materially,  and 
because  the  band  is  broken,  the  yoke  is  in 
pieces ;  therefore  the  next  action  shall  go  on 
upon  the  same  stock  of  a  single  iniquity, 
without  being  affrighted  in  his  conscience  at 
the  noise  of  perjury.  I  wish  we  were  all  so 
innocent  as  not  to  understand  the  discourse  ; 
but  it  uses  to  be  otherwise, 

Nam  si  discedas,  laqueo  tenet  ambitiosi 

Consuemdo  mali :  et  in  aegro  corde  senescit. 

Juv. 

*'  Custom  hath  waxen  old  in  his  deceived 
heart,  and  made  snares  for  him  that  he  can- 
not disentangle  himself:"  so  true  is  that 
saying  of  God  by  the  prophet,  "Can  an 
Ethiopian  change  his  skin?  then  may  ye 
learn  to  do  well,  when  ye  are  accustomed 
to  do  evil."  But  I  instance  in  two  things, 
which,  to  my  sense,  seem  great  aggravations 
of  the  slavery  and  weakness  of  a  customary 
sinner. 

The  first  is,  that  men  sin  against  their  in- 
terest. They  know  they  shall  be  ruined  by 
it;  it  will  undo  their  estates,  lose  their  friends, 
ruin  their  fortunes,  destroy  their  body,  im- 
poverish the  spirit,  load  the  conscience,  dis- 
compose his  rest,  confound  his  reason, 
amaze  him  in  all  his  faculties,  destroy  his 
hopes,  and  mischief  enough  besides  ;  and 
when  he  considers  this,  he  declares  against 
it ;  but  "cum  bona  verba  erumpant,  afFectus 
tamen  ad  consuetudinem  relabuntur,"  "  the 
man  gives  good  words,  but  the  evil  custom 
prevails  ;"  and  it  happens  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Tirynthians,  who,  to  free  their  nation 
from  a  great  plague,  were  bidden  only  to 
abstain  from  laughter,  while  they  offered 
their  sacrifice  :  but  they  had  been  so  used  to 
a  ridiculous  effeminacy,  and  vain  course  of 
conversation,  that  they  could  not,  though 
the  honour  and  splendour  of  the  nation  did 
depend  upon  it.  God  of  his  mercy  keep  all 
Christian  people  from  a  custom  in  sinning! 
for  if  they  be  once  fallen  thither,  nothing 
can  recover  them  but  a  miraculous  grace. 

2.  The  second  aggravation  of  it  is,  that 
custom  prevails  against  experience.  Though 
the  man  hath  already  smarted,  though  he 
hath  been  disgraced  and  undone,  though  he 
lost  his  relations  and  his  friends,  he  is  turned 
out  of  service,  and  disemployed,  he  begs 
with  a  load  of  his  old  sins  upon  his  shoul- 
ders— yet  this  will  not  cure  an  evil  custom  : 
do  we  not  daily  see  how  miserable  some 
men  make  themselves  with  drunkenness 
and  folly?  Have  not  we  seen  them  that 
have  been  sick  with  intemperance,  deadly 
20 


'  sick,  enduring  for  one  drunken  meeting 
more  pain  than  is  in  all  the  fasting-days  of 
the  whole  year?  and  yet,  do  they  not  the 
very  next  day  go  to  it  again  ?  Indeed,  some 
■  few  are  smitten  into  the  beginning  of  re- 
1  pentance,  and  they  stay  a  fortnight,  or  a 
I  month-,  and,  it  may  be,  resist  two  or  three 
invitations  ;  but  yet  the  custom  is  not  gone, 

Nec  tu,  cum  obstiteris  semel,  instantique  negaris 
Parere  imperio,  "  Rupi  jam  vincula,"  dicas: 

"Think  not  the  chain  is  off,  when  thou 
hast  once  or  twice  resisted  ;  or  if  the  chain 
be  broke,  part  remains  on  thee,  like  a  cord 
upon  a  dog's  neck," 

Nam  et  luctata  canis  nodum  abripit;  attamen  illi, 
Cum  fugit,  a  collo  trahitur  pars  longa  catena. 

Pers. 

He  is  not  free  that  draws  his  chain  after 
him ;  and  he  that  breaks  off  from  his  sins 
with  greatest  passion,  stands  in  need  of 
prosperous  circumstances,  and  a  strange 
freedom  from  temptation,  and  accidental 
hardness,  and  superinduced  confidence,  and 
j  a  preternatural  severity ;  "  Opus  est  aliqua 
fortunos  indulgentia  adhuc  inter  humana 
luctanti,  dum  nodum  ilium  exsolvit  et  omne 
vinculum  mortale,"*  for  the  knot  can  hardly 
be  untied  which  a  course  of  evil  manners 
hath  bound  upon  the  soul ;  and  every  con- 
tingency in  the  world  can  entangle  him, 
that  wears  upon  his  neck  the  links  of  a 
broken  chain.  "Nam  qui  ab  eo  quod 
amat,  quam  extemplo  suaviis  sagittatis  per- 
cussus  est,  ilico  res  foras  labitur,  iiquitur;" 
if  he  sees  his  temptation  again  he  is  incx^Ji- 
fisvo$  vh  ewolas,  his  kindness  to  it,  and  con- 
versation with  his  lust,  undoes  him,  and 
breaks  his  purposes,  and  then  he  dies  again, 
or  falls  upon  that  stone,  that  with  so  much 
pains  he  removed  a  little  out  of  his  way  ; 
and  he  would  lose  the  spent  wealth,  or  the 
health,  and  the  reputation,  over  again,  if  it 
were  in  his  power.  Philomusus  was  a 
wild  young  fellow  in  Domitian's  time,  and 
he  was  hard  put  to  it  to  make  a  large  pen- 
sion to  maintain  his  lust  and  luxury,  and  he 
was  every  month  put  to  beggarly  arts  to 
feed  his  crime.  But  when  his  father  died 
and  left  him  all,  he  disinherited  himself ;  he 
spent  it  all,  though  he  knew  he  was  to  suffer 
that  trouble  always,  which  vexed  his  lustful 
soul  in  the  frequent  periods  of  his  violent 
want.f 

Now,  this  is  such  a  state  of  slavery,  that 
persons  that  are  sensible  ought  to  complain, 
Sovteiav  8ov"k£veiv  7idw  l6%vpav  that  they  serve 


Seneca  de  vita  beata. 


t  Martial. 


154 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


Serm.  XX. 


worse  lords  than  Egyptian  task-masters,  there 
is  a  lord  within  that  rules  and  rages,  "  Intus 
et  in  jecore  aegro  pascuntur  domini ;"  sin 
dwells  there,  and  makes  a  man  a  miserable 
servant ;  and  this  is  not  only  a  metaphorical 
expression,  under  which  some  spiritual 
and  metaphysical  truth  is  represented,  but 
t  is  a  physical,  material  truth ;  and  a  man 
endures  hardship,  he  cannot  move  but  at 
this  command;  and  not  his  outward  actions 
only,  but  his  will  and  his  understanding 
too,  are  kept  in  fetters  and  foolish  bondage  : 
(xifiv/jzo,  oti  vtvpoi7iaotovv  i6tiv  txtvvo,  to  tvbov 
iyxexpufiftiiW  ixdvo  fatopela,  ixHVQ  £u>rt,  ixuvo 
aV0pcorto$,  said  Marcus  Antoninus,  "The 
two  parts  of  a  man  are  rent  in  sunder,  and 
that  that  prevails  is  the  life,  it  is  the  man, 
it  is  the  eloquence,  persuading  every  thing 
to  its  own  interest."  And  now  consider 
what  is  the  effect  of  this  evil.  A  man  by 
sin  is  made  a  slave,  he  loses  that  liberty 
that  is  dearer  to  him  than  life  itself ;  and, 
like  the  dog  in  the  fable,  we  suffer  chains 
and  ropes  only  for  a  piece  of  bread,  when 
the  lion  thought  liberty  a  sufficient  reward 
and  price  for  hunger,  and  all  the  hardnesses 
of  the  wilderness.  Do  not  all  the  world 
fight  for  liberty,  and  at  no  terms  will  lay 
down  arms,  till  at  least  they  be  cozened 
with  the  image  and  colour  of  it?  ov  $vrtoxni 
£5^.0$  itevfcpias ;  and  yet  for  the  pleasure  of 
a  few  minutes  we  give  ourselves  into  bond- 
age ;  and  all  the  world  does  it,  more  or  less. 

*&ev.  ovx  tnti  ^-v^tHiv,         Xnt  itev&pqs, 
H  xpmuirtw  yap  bov?.6$  iativ,  r  tx>x^, 
7t%Yfito$  avtbv  rtoXsoj,  >?  rouxcv  ypafat 
Ebpyoixft  %prtG9ai  /xr  xovta  yvu>fjL7jv  Tportoij. 

Etjrip. 

Either  men  are  slaves  to  fortune,  or  to  lust  : 
to  covetousness,  or  tyranny ;  something  or 
other  compels  him  to  usages  against  his 
will  and  reason  ;  and  when  the  laws  cannot 
rule  him,  money  can ;  "  Divitise  enim  apud 
sapientem  virum  in  servitute  sunt,  apud 
stultum  in  imperio;"  for  "Money  is  the 
wise  man's  servant,  and  the  fool's  master ;" 
but  the  bondage  of  a  vicious  person,  is  such 
a  bondage  as  the  child  hath  in  the  womb, 
or  rather  as  a  sick  man  in  his  bed;  we  are 
bound  fast  by  our  disease,  and  a  consequent 
weakness ;  we  cannot  go  forth  though  the 
doors  be  open,  and  the  fetters  knocked  off, 
and  virtue  and  reason,  like  St.  Peter's  angel, 
call  us,  and  beat  us  upon  the  sides,  and 
offer  to  go  before  us,  yet  we  cannot  come 
forth  from  prison ;  for  we  have  by  our  evil 
customs  given  hostages  to  the  devil,  never 
to  stir  from  the  enemy's  quarter  j  and  this 


is  the  greatest  bondage  that  is  imaginable, 
the  bondage  of  conquered,  wounded,  unre- 
sisting people;"  abecsxotos  rj  opc^ij,  "virtue 
only  is  the  truest  liberty ;"  "  and  if  the  Son  of 
God  make  us  free,  then  are  we  free  indeed." 

3.  Sin  does  naturally  introduce  a  great 
baseness  upon  the  spirit,  expressed  in  Scrip- 
ture, in  some  cases,  by  the  devil's  entering 
I  into  a  man,  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  Judas, 
I "  after  he  had  taken  the  sop,  Satan  entered 
(into  him;"*  and  St.  Cyprian,  speaking  of 
jthem  that  after  baptism  lapsed  into  foul 
;  crimes,  affirms,  that  "spiritu  immundo  quasi 
iredeunte  quatiuntur,  ut  manifestum  sit  dia- 
bolum  in  baptismo  fide  credentis  excludi,  si 
fides  postmodum  defecerit  regredi  ;''f  "faith, 
and  the  grace  of  baptism,  turn  the  devil  out 
of  possession ;  but  when  faith  fails,  and  we 
loose  the  bands  of  religion,  then  the  devil 
returns ;"  that  is,  the  man  is  devolved  into 
such  sins,  of  which  there  can  be  no  reason 
given,  which  no  excuse  can  lessen,  which 
are  set  off  with  no  pleasure,  advanced  by 
no  temptations,  which  deceive  by  no  allure- 
ments and  flattering  pretences  ;  such  things 
which  have  a  proper  and  direct  contrariety 
to  the  good  spirit,  and  such  as  are  not  re- 
strained by  human  laws;  because  they  are 
states  of  evil  rather  than  evil  actions,  prin- 
1  ciples  of  mischief  rather  than  direct  emana- 
tions; such  as  are  unthankfulness,  impiety, 
'giving  a  secret  blow,  fawning  hypocrisy, 
detraction,  impudence,  forgetfulness  of  the 
dead,  and  forgetting  to  do  that  in  their  ab- 
sence which  we  promised  to  them  in  pre- 
sence ; 

OvXOVV  tO&  (UGX90V      $?irtov?L  /X£V  ^)i,'^9 

Xpwjtwob' ,  irtei  6'  otJJks,      xf>u>/xea^t'  It  v. 

Eurip. 

concerning  which  sorts  of  unworthiness,  it 
is  certain  they  argue  a  most  degenerous 
spirit,  and  they  are  the  effect,  the  natural 
effect,  of  malice  and  despair,  an  unwhole- 
some ill-natured  soul,  a  soul  corrupted  in 
its  whole  constitution.  I  remember  that  in 
the  apologues  of  Phsedrus,  it  is  told  con- 
cerning an  ill-natured  fellow,  that  he  refused 
to  pay  his  symbol,  which  himself  and  all 
the  company  had  agreed  should  be  given 
for  every  disease  that  each  man  had  ;  he 
denying  his  itch  to  be  a  disease;  but  the 
company  taking  off  the  refuser's  hat  for  a 
pledge,  found  that  he  had  a  scald  head,  and 
so  demanded  the  money  double  :  which  he 
pertinaciously  resisting,  they  threw  him 
down  and  then  discovered  he  was  broken- 

*  John  xiii.  27.        t  Cypr.  Ep.  76. 


Skrm.  XXI. 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


155 


bellied,  and  justly  condemned  him  to  pay 
three  philippics: 

Quae  fuerat  fabula,  poena  fuit. 

One  disease  discovers  itself  by  the  hiding 
of  another,  and  that  being  opened  discovers 
a  third  ;  he  that  is  almost  taken  in  a  fault, 
tells  a  lie  to  escape;  and  to  protect  that  lie, 
he  forswears  himself;  and  that  he  may  not 
be  suspected  of  perjury,  he  grows  impu- 
dent; and  that  sin  may  not  shame  him,  he 
will  glory  in  it,  like  the  slave  in  the  comedy, 
who,  being  torn  with  whips,  grinned,  and 
forced  an  ugly  smile  that  it  might  not  seem 
to  smart.  There  are  some  sins  which  a 
man  that  is  newly  fallen  cannot  entertain. 
There  is  no  crime  made  ready  for  a  young 
sinner,  but  that  which  nature  prompts  him 
to.  Natural  inclination  is  the  first  tempter, 
then  compliance,  then  custom,  but  this  being 
helped  by  a  consequent  folly,  dismantles  the 
soul,  making  it  to  hate  God,  to  despise  reli- 
gion, to  laugh  at  severity,  to  deride  sober 
counsels,  to  flee  from  repentance,  to  resolve 
against  it,  to  delight  in  sin  without  abate- 
ment of  spirit  or  purposes  :  for  it  is  an  in- 
tolerable thing  for  a  man  to  be  tormented  in 
his  conscience  for  every  sin  he  acts;  that 
must  not  be ;  he  must  have  his  sin  and  his 
peace  too,  or  else  he  can  have  neither  long; 
and  because  true  peace  cannot  come,  for 
"  There  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the 
wicked,"  therefore  they  must  make  a  fan- 
tastic peace  by  studied  cozening  of  them- 
selves, by  false  propositions,  by  careless- 
ness, by  stupidity,  by  impudence,  by  suffer- 
ance and  habit,  by  conversation  and  daily 
acquaintances,  by  doing  some  things,  as 
Absalom  did  when  he  lay  with  his  father's 
concubines,  to  make  it  impossible  for  him  to 
repent,  or  to  be  forgiven,  something  to  se- 
cure him  in  the  possession  of  hell;  "Tute 
hoc  intristi,  quod  tibi  exedendum  est,"  the 
man  must  through  it  now  ;  and  this  is  it 
that  makes  men  fall  into  all  baseness  of 
spiritual  sins,  ["Atfspijj  iTJOCjv  e£$  |3a>oj  xazwv 
zafa^pojft,  "  When  a  man  is  come  to  the 
bottom  of  his  wickedness,  he  despises  all," J 
such  as  malice  and  despite,  rancour  and 
impudence,  malicious,  studied  ignorance, 
voluntary  contempt  of  all  religion,  hating 
of  good  men  and  good  counsels,  and  taking 
every  wise  man  and  wise  action  to  be  his 
enemy  ;  ov8h  ovtu>^  ai'al'j%vvtov  7ioul  rtov^- 
pov  (jvwtSoj.  And  this  is  that  baseness  of  sin 
which  Plato  so  much  detested,  that  he  said 
"  he  should  blush  to  be  guilty  of,  though  he 
knew  God  would  pardon  him,  and  that  men 


should  never  know  it,  e<  propter  solam  pec- 
cati  turpitudinem,"  for  the  very  baseness 
that  is  in  it."  A  man  that  is  false  to  God, 
will  also,  if  an  evil  temptation  overtakes 
him,  betray  his  friend ;  and  it  is  notorious 
in  the  covetous  and  ambitious  : 

'A^ptffT'oi'  vluov  ort£p[x,)  060i  6rturyopovs 
Zrfiovtf  raids'  /xrfih  yiyviooxoio^'  iuoi, 
Ol  TOL'j  q>L%ovs  faarttovTss  ov  fypovfi&ts 
*Hv  toloo  rtoXkoU  rtpoj  ^dpiv  "htyrfii  ii 

Eurip. 

They  are  an  unthankful  generation,  and,  to 
please  the  people,  or  to  serve  their  interest, 
will  hurt  their  friends.  That  man  hath  so 
lost  himself  to  all  sweetness  and  excellency 
of  spirit,  that  is  gone  thus  far  in  sin,  that  he 
looks  like  a  condemned  man,  or  is  like  the 
accursed  spirits,  preserved  in  chains  of 
darkness  and  impieties  unto  the  judgment 
of  the  great  day,  di£pco,-to$  §'  old  6  ?tor?;p6f 
ovSff  dwio  7tx>jv  xaxdf  "this  man  can  be  no- 
thing but  evil ;"  for  these  inclinations  and 
evil  forwardnesses,  this  dyscrasy  and  gan- 
grened disposition,  do  always  suppose  a 
long  or  a  base  sin  for  their  parent;  and  the 
product  of  these  is  a  wretchless  spirit;  that 
is,  an  aptness  to  any  unworthiness,  and  an 
unwillingness  to  resist  any  temptation,  a 
perseverance  in  baseness,  and  a  consignation 
to  all  damnation :  Apdoavti,  §'  at^pd  8ewat' 
drton^ta  Aalpiuv  SiSuxsv,  "  If  men  do  evil 
things,  evil  things  shall  be  their  reward." 
If  they  obey  the  evil  spirit,  an  evil  spirit 
shall  be  their  portion;  and  the  devil  shall 
enter  into  them  as  he  entered  into  Judas, 
and  fill  them  full  of  iniquity. 

SERMON  XXI. 

PART  III. 

4.  Although  these  are  shameful  effects 
of  sin,  and  a  man  need  no  greater  dishonour 
than  to  be  a  fool  and  a  slave,  and  a  base 
person,  all  which  sin  infallibly  makes  him ; 
yet  there  are  some  sins,  which  are  directly 
shameful  in  their  nature,  and  proper  disre- 
putation ;  and  a  very  great  many  sins  are 
the  worst  and  basest  in  several  respects ; 
that  is,  every  of  them  hath  a  venomous 
quality  of  its  own,  whereby  it  is  marked  and 
appropriated  to  a  peculiar  evil  spirit.  The 
devil's  sin  was  the  worst,  because  it  came 
from  the  greatest  malice:  Adam's  was  the 

I  worst,  because  it  was  of  most  universal  effi- 
cacy and  dissemination:  Judas'  sin  the  worst, 
because  against  the  most  excellent  person ; 

I  and  the  relapses  of  the  godly  are  the  wout, 


156 


APPLES  O 


F  SODOM. 


Serm.  XXI. 


by  reason  they  were  the  most  obliged  per- 
sons. But  the  ignorance  of  the  law  is  the 
greatest  of  evils,  if  we  consider  its  danger ; 
but  covetousness  is  worse  than  it,  if  we  re- 
regard  its  incurable  and  growing  nature; 
luxury  is  most  alien  from  spiritual  things, 
and  is  the  worst  of  all  in  its  temptation  and 
our  proneness ;  but  pride  grows  most  venom- 
ous by  its  unreasonableness  and  importu- 
nity, arising  even  from  the  good  things  a 
man  hath ;  even  from  graces,  and  endear- 
ments, and  from  being  more  in  debt  to  God. 
Sins  of  malice,  and  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
oppugn  the  greatest  grace  with  the  greatest 
spite;  but  idolatry  is  perfectly  hated  by  God 
by  a  direct  enmity.  Some  sins  are  there- 
fore most  heinous,  because  to  resist  them  is 
most  easy,  and  to  act  them  there  is  the  least 
temptation :  such  as  are,  severally,  lying 
and  swearing.  There  is  a  strange  poison 
in  the  nature  of  sins,  that,  of  so  many  sorts, 
every  one  of  them  should  be  the  worst. 
Every  sin  hath  an  evil  spirit,  a  devil  of  its 
own,  to  manage,  to  conduct,  and  to  imbitter 
it:  and  although  all  these  are  God's  ene- 
mies, and  have  an  appendant  shame  in 
their  retinue,  yet  to  some  sins  shame  is 
more  appropriate,  and  a  proper  ingredient 
in  their  constitutions  :  such  as  are  lying, 
and  lust,  and  vow-breach,  and  inconstancy. 
God  sometimes  cures  the  pride  of  a  man's 
spirit  by  suffering  his  evil  manners,  and 
filthy  inclination,  to  be  determined  upon 
lust;  lust  makes  a  man  afraid  of  public 
eyes,  and  common  voices ;  it  is  (as  all  sins 
else  are,  but  this  especially)  a  work  of  dark- 
ness; it  does  debauch  the  spirit,  and  make 
it  lo  decay  and  fall  off  from  courage  and 
resolution,  constancy  and  severity,  the  spirit 
of  government  and  a  noble  freedom  ;  and 
those  punishments,  which  the  nations  of 
the  world  have  inflicted  upon  it,  are  not 
smart  so  much  as  shame :  lustful  souls  are 
cheap  and  easy,  trifling  and  despised,  in  all 
wise  accounts ;  they  are  so  far  from  being 
fit  to  sit  with  princes,  that  they  dare  not 
chastise  a  sinning  servant  that  is  private  to 
their  secret  follies ;  it  is  strange  to  consider 
what  laborious  arts  of  concealment,  what 
excuses  and  lessenings,  what  pretences  and 
fig-leaves,  men  will  put  before  their  naked- 
ness and  crimes ;  shame  was  the  first  thing 
that  entered  upon  the  sin  of  Adam:  and 
when  the  second  world  began,  there  was  a 
strange  scene  of  shame  acted  by  Noah  and 
his  sons,  and  it  ended  in  slavery  and  base- 
ness to  all  descending  generations. 

We  see  the  event  of  this  by  too  sad  an 


experience.  "What  arguments,  what  hard- 
ness, what  preaching,  what  necessity,  can 
persuade  men  to  confess  their  sins  ?  They 
are  so  ashamed  of  them,  that  to  be  concealed 
they  prefer  before  their  remedy ;  and  yet  in 
penitential  confession  the  shame  is  going  off, 
it  is  like  Cato's  coming  out  of  the  theatre, 
or  the  philosopher  from  the  tavern  ;  it  might 
have  been  shame  to  have  entered,  but  glory 
to  have  departed  for  ever ;  and  yet  ever  to 
have  relation  to  sin  is  so  shameful  a  thing, 
that  a  man's  spirit  is  amazed,  and  his  face  is 
confounded,  when  he  is  dressed  of  so  shame- 
ful a  disease.  And  there  are  but  few  men 
that  will  endure  it,  but  rather  choose  to  in- 
volve it  in  excuses  and  denial,  in  the  clouds 
of  lying,  and  the  white  linen  of  hypocrisy  ; 
and  yet,  when  they  make  a  veil  for  their 
shame,  such  is  the  fate  of  sin,  the  shame 
grows  the  bigger  and  the  thicker ;  we  lie  to 
men,  and  we  excuse  it  to  God ;  either  some 
parts  of  lying  or  many  parts  of  impudence, 
darkness  or  forgetfulness,  running  away  or 
running  farther  in,  these  are  the  covers  of  our 
shame,  like  menstruous  rags  upon  a  skin 
of  leprosy  :  but  so  sometimes  we  see  a  de- 
cayed beauty  besmeared  with  a  lying  fucus, 
and  the  chinks  filled  with  ceruse;  besides 
that  it  makes  no  real  beauty,  it  spoils  the 
face,  and  betrays  evil  manners  :  it  does  not 
hide  old  age,  or  the  change  of  years,  out  it 
discovers  pride  or  lust ;  it  was  not  shame  to 
be  old,  or  wearied  and  worn  out  with  age, 
but  it  is  a  shame  to  dissemble  nature  by  a 
wanton  visor.  So  sin  retires  from  blushing 
into  shame ;  if  it  be  discovered,  it  is  not  to 
be  endured,  and  if  we  go  to  hide  it,  we 
make  it  worse.  But  then  if  we  remember 
how  ambitious  we  are  for  fame  and  repu- 
tation, for  honour  and  a  fair  opinion,  for  a 
good  name  all  our  days,  and  when  our  days 
are  done ;  and  that  no  ingenious  man  can 
enjoy  any  thing  he  hath,  if  he  lives  in  dis- 
grace; and  that  nothing  so  breaks  a  man's 
spirit  as  dishonour,  and  the  meanest  person 
alive  does  not  think  himself  fit  to  be  despised ; 
we  are  to  consider  into  what  an  evil  condition 
sin  puts  us,  for  which  we  are  not  only  dis- 
graced and  disparaged  here,  marked  with  dis- 
graceful punishments,  despised  by  good  men, 
our  follies  derided,  our  company  avoided,  and 
hooted  at  by  boys,  talked  of  in  fairs  and 
markets,  pointed  at  and  described  by  appel- 
latives of  scorn,  and  every  body  can  chide  us, 
and  we  die  unpitied,  and  lie  in  our  graves 
eaten  up  by  worms,  and  a  foul  dishonour; 
but  after  all  this,  at  the  day  of  judgment,  we 
shall  be  called  from  our  charnel-houses, 


Serm.  XXI. 


APTLES  OF  SODOM. 


157 


where  our  disgrace  could  not  sleep,  and  shall, 
in  the  face  of  God,  in  the  presence  of  angels 
and  devils,  before  all  good  men  and  all  the 
evil,  see  and  feel  the  shame  of  all  our  sins 
written  upon  our  foreheads  :  here  in  this  state 
of  misery  and  folly  we  make  nothing  of  it  ; 
and  though  Ave  dread  to  be  discovered  to  men, 
yet  to  God  we  confess  our  sins  without  a 
trouble  or  a  blush ;  but  to  tell  an  even  story, 
because  we  find  some  forms  of  confession 
prescribed  in  our  prayer-books ;  and,  that  it 
may  appear  how  indifferent  and  unconcerned 
we  seern  to  be,  we  read  and  say  all,  and  con- 
fess the  sins  we  never  did,  with  as  much 
sorrow  and  regret,  as  those  that  we  have 
acted  a  thousand  times.  But  in  that  strange 
day  of  recompenses,  we  shall  find  the  devil 
to  upbraid  the  criminal,  Christ  to  disown 
them,  the  angels  to  drive  them  from  the  seat 
of  mercy,  and  shame  to  be  their  smart,  the 
consigning  them  to  damnation ;  they  shall 
then  find,  that  they  cannot  dwell  where  virtue 
is  rewarded,  and  where  honour  and  glory 
have  a  throne ;  there  is  no  veil  but  what  is 
rent,  no  excuse  to  any  but  to  them  that  are 
declared  as  innocent :  no  circumstances  con- 
cerning the  wicked  to  be  considered,  but 
them  that  aggravate  ;  then  the  disgrace  is  not 
confined  to  the  talk  of  a  village,  or  a  province, 
but  is  scattered  to  all  the  world  :  not  only  in 
one  age  shall  the  shame  abide,  but  the  men 
of  all  generations  shall  see  and  wonder  at  the 
vastness  of  that  evil  that  is  spread  upon  the 
souls  of  sinners  for  ever;  dywv  fxeyag,  Iltojp?;? 
stsvaryitwv,  ov§£  Saxpvuv  xsv6$.  No  night  shall 
then  hide  it;  for  in  those  regions  of  darkness 
where  the  dishonoured  man  shall  dwell  for 
ever,  there  is  nothing  visible  but  the  shame  ; 
there  is  light  enough  for  that,  but  darkness 
for  all  things  else  ;  and  then  he  shall  reap  the 
full  harvest  oHiis  shame ;  all  that  for  which 
wise  men  scorned  him,  and  all  that  for  which 
God  hated  him ;  all  that  in  wrhich  he  was  a 
fool,  and  all  that  in  which  he  was  malicious  ; 
that  which  was  public,  and  that  which  was 
private  ;  that  which  fools  applauded,  and  that 
which  himself  durst  not  own;  the  secrets 
of  his  lust,  and  the  criminal  contrivances 
of  his  thoughts;  the  base  and  odious  cir- 
cumstances, and  the  frequency  of  the  action, 
and  the  partner  of  his  sin ;  all  that  which 
troubles  his  conscience,  and  all  that  he  will- 
ingly forgets, — shall  be  proclaimed  by  the 
trumpet  of  God,  by  the  voice  of  an  arch- 
angel, in  the  great  congregation  of  spirits 
and  just  men. 

There  is  one  great  circumstance  more  of 
the  shame  of  sin,  which  extremely  enlarges, 


the  evil  of  a  sinful  state,  but  that  is  not  con- 
sequent to  sin  by  a  natural  emanation,  but  is 
superinduced  by  the  just  wrath  of  God  ;  and 
therefore  is  to  be  considered  in  the  third  part, 
which  is  next  to  be  handled. 

3.  When  the  Boeotians  asked  the  oracle, 
by  what  they  should  become  happy?  the 
answer  was  made,  : 'Aosprfiavtas  tvjtpa^nv. 
"  Wicked  and  irreligious  persons  are  pros- 
perous:" and  they  taking  the  devil  at  his 
word,  threw  the  inspired  Pythian,  the  minis- 
tering witch,  into  the  sea,  hoping  so  to  be- 
come mighty  in  peace  and  war.  The  effect 
of  which  wTas  this,  the  devil  was  found  a  liar, 
and  they  fools  at  first,  and  at  last  felt  the  re- 
ward of  irreligion.  For  there  are  to  some 
crimes  such  events ;  which  are  not  to  be  ex- 
pected from  the  connexion  of  natural  causes, 
but  from  secret  influences  and  undiscernible 
conveyances  ;  that  a  man  should  be  made  sick 
for  receiving  the  holy  sacrament  unworth- 
ily, and  blind  for  resisting  the  words  of 
and  apostle,  a  preacher  of  the  laws  of  Jesus, 
and  die  suddenly  for  breaking  of  his  vow, 
and  committing  sacrilege,  and  be  under  the 
power  and  scourge  of  an  exterminating 
angel  for  climbing  his  father's  bed, — these  are 
things  beyond  the  world's  philosophy ;  but 
as  in  nature,  so  in  divinity  too,  there  are 
sympathies  and  antipathies,  effects  which  we 
feel  by  experience,  and  are  forewarned  of  by 
revelation,  which  no  natural  reason  can 
judge,  nor  any  providence  can  prevent,  but 
by  living  innocently,  and  complying  with 
the  commandments  of  God.  The  rod  of 
God,  which  "cometh  not  into  the  lot  of  the 
righteous,"  strikes  the  sinning  man  with  sore 
strokes  of  vengeance. 

1.  The  first  that  I  shall  note  is,  that  which 
I  called  the  aggravation  of  the  shame  of  sin  ; 
and  that  is,  an  impossibility  of  being  con- 
cealed in  most  cases  of  heinous  crimes,  Mrfit- 
rtots  firjbh  aisxpov  rtotjjtfa?  forties  Kr^stv,  "  Let 
no  man  suppose  that  he  shall  for  ever  hide  his 
sin  :"  a  single  action  may  be  conveyed  away 
under  the  covert  of  an  excuse  or  a  privacy, 
escaping  as  Ulysses  did  the  search  of  Poly- 
phemus, and  it  shall  in  time  be  known  that 
it  did  escape,  and  shall  be  discovered  that  it 
was  private ;  that  is,  that  it  is  so  no  longer. 
But  no  wicked  man,  that  dwelt  and  delighted 
in  sin,  did  ever  go  off  from  his  scene  of  un- 
worthiness  without  a  filthy  character ;  the 
black  veil  is  thrown  over  him  before  his  death, 
and  by  some  contingency  or  other  he  enters 
into  his  cloud,  because  few  sins  determine 
finally  in  the  thoughts;  but  if  they  dwell 
there,  they  will  also  enter  into  action,  and 
o 


158 


APPLES   OP  SODOM. 


Serm.  XXI. 


then  the  sin  discovers  itself;  or  else  the  in- 
jured person  will  proclaim  it,  or  the  jealous 
man  will  talk  of  it  before  it  is  done,  or  curious 
people  will  inquire  and  discover,  or  the  spirit 
of  detraction  shall  be  let  loose  upon  him,  and 
in  spite  shall  declare  more  than  he  knows, 
not  more  than  is  true.  The  ancients,  espe- 
cially the  scholars  of  Epicurus,  believed  that 
no  man  could  be  secured  or  quiet  in  his  spirit 
from  being  discovered.  "  Scelus  aliqua  tu- 
tum,  nulla  securum  tulit;"  "They  are  not 
secure,  even  when  they  are  safe;"  but  are 
afflicted  with  perpetual  jealousies  ;  and  every 
whisper  is  concerning  them,  and  all  new 
noises  are  arrests  to  their  spirits ;  and  the 
day  is  too  light,  and  the  nightis  too  horrid,  and 
both  are  most  opportune  for  their  discovery  ; 
and  besides  the  undiscernible  connexion  of 
the  contingencies  of  Providence,  many  secret 
crimes  have  been  published  by  dreams,  and 
talkings  in  their  sleep.  It  is  the  observation 
of  Lucretius, 

Multi  de  magnis  per  somnum  rebu'  loquuntur, 
Indicioque  sui  facti  persaepe  fuere. 

And  what  their  understanding  kept  a  guard 
upon,  their  fancy  let  loose ;  fear  was  the  bars 
and  locks,  but  sleep  became  the  key  to  open, 
even  then  when  all  the  senses  were  shut, 
and  God  ruled  alone  without  the  choice  and 
discourse  of  man.  And  though  no  man 
regards  the  wilder  talkings  of  a  distracted 
man,  yet  it  hath  sometimes  happened,  that 
a  delirium  and  a  fever,  fear  of  death,  and 
the  intolerable  apprehensions  of  damnation, 
have  opened  the  cabinet  of  sin,  and  brought 
to  light  all  that  was  acted  in  the  curtains  of 
night; 

Quippe  ubi  se  multi,  per  somnia  saspe  loquentes, 
Aut  morbo  delirantes,  protraxe  feruntur, 
Et,  celata  diu,  in  medium  peccata  dedisse. 

Lucr. 

But  there  are  so  many  ways  of  discovery, 
and  amongst  so  many  some  one  does  so  cer- 
tainly happen,  that  they  are  well  summed 
up  by  Sophocles,  by  saying,  that  "Time 
hears  all,  and  tells  all ;" 

ITp6$  tavta  xpvrtte  (iq§h  u>$  o  rfcw£'  opwv 
Kai  7tdvt  axovutv,  rtdvt  dvaHtvaaet  %p6vo$, 

A  cloud  may  be  its  roof  and  cover  till  it 
passes  over,  but  when  it  is  driven  by  a  fierce 
wind,  or  runs  fondly  after  the  sun,  it  lays 
open  a  deformity,  which  like  an  ulcer  had 
a  skin  over  it,  and  pain  within,  and  drew 
to  it  a  heap  of  sorrows  big  enough  to  run 
over  all  its  enclosures.  Many  persons  have 
betrayed  themselves   by  their  own  fears, 


and  knowing  themselves  never  to  be  secure 
enough,  have  gone  to  purge  themselves  of 
what  nobody  suspected  them ;  offered  an 
apology  when  they  had  no  accuser,  but  one 
within ;  which,  like  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  or 
like  "  a  word  in  a  fooPs  heart  "  was  un- 
easy till  it  came  out.  "  Non  amo  se  nimi- 
um  purgitantes,:"  when  men  are  "over- 
busy  in  justifying  themselves,"  it  is  a  sign 
themselves  think  they  need  it.  Plutarch 
tells  of  a  young  gentleman  that  destroyed  a 
swallow's  nest,  pretending  to  them  that 
reproved  him  for  doing  the  thing,  which  in 
their  superstition  the  Greeks  esteemed  so 
ominous,  that  the  little  bird  accused  him  for 
killing  his  father.  And  to  this  purpose  it 
was  that  Solomon  gave  counsel:  "Curse 
not  the  king,  no,  not  in  thy  thought,  nor  the 
rich  in  thy  bedchamber ;  for  a  bird  of  the  air 
shall  carry  the  voice,  and  that  which  hath 
wings  shall  tell  the  matter  :"*  murder  and 
treason  have  by  such  strange  ways  been 
revealed,  as  if  God  had  appointed  an  angel 
president  of  the  revelation,  and  had  kept 
this  in  secret  and  sure  ministry,  to  be  as  an 
argument  to  destroy  atheism  from  the  face 
of  the  earth,  by  opening  the  secrets  of  men 
with  his  key  of  providence.  Intercepting 
of  letters,  mistaking  names,  false  inscrip- 
tions, errors  of  messengers,  faction  of  the 
parties,  fear  in  the  actors,  horror  in  the 
action,  the  majesty  of  the  person,  the  rest- 
lessness of  the  mind,  distracted  looks,  wea- 
riness of  the  spirit,  and  all  under  the  con- 
duct of  the  Divine  wisdom,  and  the  Divine 
vengeance,  make  the  covers  of  the  most 
secret  sin  transparent  as  a  net,  and  visible 
as  the  Chian  wines  in  the  purest  crystal. 

For  besides  that  God  takes  care  of  kings, 
and  of  the  lives  of  men, — 

"H  Sf  toaov  (iev  tspyev  drcb  %po$,      6Vf  (irflop 
Uaibos  ifpiyse  (ivlav,  o#'  ^Sfl  Tci^ato  vrtvtjt, 

Homer. 

driving  away  evil  from  their  persons,  and 
"watching  as  a  mother  to  keep  gnats  and 
flies  from  her  dear  boy  sleeping  in  the  cra- 
dle;" there  are,  in  the  machinations  of  a 
mighty  mischief,  so  many  motions  to  be 
concentred,  so  many  wheels  to  move  regu- 
larly, and  the  hand  that  turns  them  does  so 
tremble,  and  there  is  so  universal  a  con- 
fusion in  the  conduct,  that  unless  it  passes 
suddenly  into  act,  it  will  be  prevented  by  dis- 
covery, and  if  it  be  acted  it  enters  into  such 
a  mighty  horror,  that  the  face  of  a  man  will 


*  Eccl.  x.  20. 


Serm.  XXI. 


APPLES  OF  SODOM. 


159 


tell  what  his  heart  did  think,  and  his  hands 
have  done.  And,  after  all,  it  was  seen  and 
observed  by  him  that  stood  behind  the  cloud, 
who  shall  also  bring  every  work  of  dark- 
ness into  light  in  the  day  of  strange  disco- 
veries and  fearful  recompenses :  and  in  the 
mean  time  certain  it  is,  that  no  man  can 
long  put  on  a  person  and  act  a  part,  but  his 
evil  manner  will  peep  through  the  corners 
of  the  white  robe,  and  God  will  bring  a 
hypocrite  to  shame  even  in  the  eyes  of  men. 

2.  A  second  superinduced  consequent  of 
sin  brought  upon  it  by  the  wrath  of  God,  is 
sin ;  when  God  punishes  sin  with  sin  he  is 
extremely  angry  ;  for  then  the  punishment 
is  not  medicinal,  but  final  and  extermi- 
nating ;  God  in  that  case  takes  no  care  con- 
cerning him,  though  he  dies,  and  dies  eter- 
nally. I  do  not  here  speak  of  those  sins 
which  are  naturally  consequent  to  each 
other,  as  evil  words  to  evil  thoughts,  evil 
actions  to  evil  words,  rage  to  drunkenness, 
lust  to  gluttony,  pride  to  ambition;  but  such 
which  God  suffers  the  man's  evil  nature  to 
oe  tempted  to  by  evil  opportunities:  ©fwv 
di  ayxcuov  ro§F,  "  This  is  the  wrath  of  God," 
and  the  man  is  without  remedy.  It  was  a 
sad  calamity,  when  God  punished  David's 
adultery  by  permitting  him  to  fall  to  mur- 
der.— and  Solomon's  wanton  and  inordinate 
love,  with  the  crime  of  idolatry, — and  Ana- 
nias' sacrilege  with  lying  against  the  Holy 
Ghost, — and  Judas'  covetousness  with  be- 
traying his  Lord,  and  that  betraying  with 
despair,  and  that  despair  with  self-murder. 

 Uapaxa'ku  6  exslSsv  av 

Avrty  nj  aXkq3  6ta6o^o$  xaxujv  xaxci$. 

Eurip. 

"  One  evil  invites  another ;"  and  when  God 
is  angry  and  withdraws  his  grace,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  grieved  and  departs  from  his 
dwelling,  the  man  is  left  at  the  mercy  of 
the  merciless  enemy,  and  he  shall  receive 
him  only  with  variety  of  mischiefs;  like 
Hercules  when  he  had  broken  the  horn  of 
Achelous,  he  was  almost  drowned  with  the 
flood  that  sprang  from  it ;  and  the  evil  man, 
when  he  hath  passed  the  first  scene  of  his 
sorrows,  shall  be  enticed  or  left  to  fall  into 
another.  For  it  is  a  certain  truth,  that  he 
who  resists,  or  that  neglects  to  use,  God's 
grace,  shall  fall  into  that  evil  condition,  that 
when  he  wants  it  most  he  shall  have  least. 
It  is  so  with  every  man  ;  he  that  hath  the 
greatest  want  of  the  grace  of  God,  shall 
want  it  more,  if  this  great  want  proceeded 
once  from  his  own  sin.  "  Habenti  dabitur," 


said  our  blessed  Lord,  "To  him  that  hath, 
shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  more 
abundantly  ;  from  him  that  hath  not,  shall 
be  taken  even  that  which  he  hath."  It  is 
a  remarkable  saying  of  David's  ;  "  I  have 
thought  upon  thy  name,  O  Lord,  in  the 
night  season,  and  have  kept  thy  law ;  this  I 
had  because  I  kept  thy  commandments  ;"* 
keeping  God's  commandments  was  re- 
warded with  keeping  God's  command- 
ments. And  in  this  world  God  hath  not 
a  greater  reward  to  give ;  for  so  the  soul  is 
nourished  unto  life,  so  it  grows  up  with  the 
increase  of  God,  so  it  passes  on  to  a  perfect 
man  in  Christ,  so  it  is  consigned  for  heaven, 
and  so  it  enters  into  glory  ;  for  glory  is  the 
perfection  of  grace,  and  when  our  love  to 
God  is  come  to  its  state  and  perfection,  then 
we  are  within  the  circles  of  a  diadem,  and 
then  we  are  within  the  regions  of  felicity. 
And  there  is  the  same  reason  in  the  con- 
trary instance. 

The  wicked  person  falls  into  sin,  and 
this  he  haa,  because  he  sinned  against  his 
Maker.  "Tradidit  Deus  eos  in  desideria 
cordis  eorum ;"  and  it  concerns  all  to  ob- 
serve it ;  and  if  ever  we  find  that  a  sin  suc- 
ceeds a  sin  in  the  same  instance,  it  is  be- 
cause we  refuse  to  repent;  but  if  a  sin  suc- 
ceeds a  sin  in  another  instance,  as,  if  lust 
follows  pride,  or  murder  drunkenness ;  it  is 
a  sign  that  God  will  not  give  us  the  grace 
of  repentance  :  he  is  angry  at  us  with  a 
destructive  fury,  he  hath  dipped  his  arrows 
in  the  venom  of  the  serpent,  and  whets 
his  sword  in  the  forges  of  hell;  then  it  is 
time  that  a  man  withdraw  his  foot,  and  that 
he  start  back  from  the  preparations  of  an 
intolerable  ruin :  for  though  men  in  this 
case  grew  insensible,  and  that  is  the  part  of 
the  disease,  Sea  tovto  /uya  iati  xaxbv,  oft  ovbsv 
that  Soxcl,  saith  Chrysostom;  "It  is  the 
biggest  part  of  the  evil  that  the  man  feels  it 
not;"  yet  the  very  antiperistasis,  or  the 
contrariety,  the  very  horror  and  bigness  of 
the  danger,  may  possibly  make  a  man  to 
contend  to  leap  out  of  the  fire ;  and  some- 
times God  works  a  miracle,  and  besides  his 
own  rule  delights  to  reform  a  dissolute  per- 
son, to  force  a  man  from  the  grave,  to  draw 
him  against  the  bent  of  his  evil  habits ;  yet 
it  is  so  seldom,  that  we  are  left  to  consider, 
that  such  persons  are  in  a  desperate  condi- 
tion, who  cannot  be  saved  unless  God  is 
pleased  to  work  a  miracle. 

*  Psal.  cxix.  55,  56. 


160 


apples  of  Sodom. 


Serm.  XXI. 


3.  Sin  brings  in  its  retinue,  fearful  plagues, 
and  evil  angels,  messengers  of  the  dis- 
pleasure of  God,  concerning  which,  tw 
ttdvrjxotuv  aue,  "  there  are  enough  of  dead 
I  mean,  the  experience  is  so  great,  and 
the  notion  so  common,  and  the  examples 
so  frequent,  and  the  instances  so  sad, 
that  there  is  scarce  any  thing  new  in  this 
particular  to  be  noted;  but  something  is 
remarkable,  and  that  is  this, — that  God, 
even  when  he  forgives  the  sin,  does  reserve 
such  vatsprj/jKita  tys  $utyu>s,  "  remains  of 
punishment,"  and  those  not  only  to  the 
.ess  perfect,  but  to  the  best  persons,  that  it 
makes  demonstration,  that  every  sinner  is  in 
a  worse  condition  than  he  dreams  of.  For 
consider;  can  it  be  imagined  that  any  one 
of  us  should  escape  better  than  David  did? 
AVe  have  reason  to  tremble  when  we  re- 
member what  he  suffered,  even  when  God 
had  sealed  his  pardon.  Did  not  God  punish 
Zedekiah  with  suffering  his  eyes  to  be  put 
out  in  the  house  of  bondage?  Was  not  God 
so  angry  with  Valentinian,  that  he  gave 
him  into  his  enemy's  hand  to  be  flayed 
alive  ?  Have  not  many  persons  been  struck 
suddenly  in  the  very  act  of  sin,  and  some 
been  seized  upon  by  the  devil  and  carried 
away  alive  ?  These  are  fearful  contingen- 
cies: but  God  hath  been  more  angry  yet; 
rebellion  was  punished  in  Korah  and  his 
company,  by  the  gaping  of  the  earth,  and 
the  men  were  buried  alive ;  and  Dathan 
and  Abiram  were  consumed  with  fire  for 
usurping  the  priest's  office  :  but  God  hath 
struck  severely  since  that  time ;  and  for  the 
prostitution  of  a  lady  by  the  Spanish  king, 
the  Moors  were  brought  in  upon  his  king- 
dom, and  ruled  there  for  seven  hundred 
years.  And  have  none  of  us  known  an  ex- 
cellent and  good  man  to  have  descended,  or 
rather  to  have  been  thrust,  into  sin,  fori 
which  he  hath  repented,  which  he  hath 
confessed,  which  he  hath  rescinded,  and 
which  he  hath  made  amends  for  as  he 
could,  and  yet  God  was  so  severely  angry, 
that  this  man  was  suffered  to  fall  in  so  big  a 
calamity,  that  he  died  by  the  hands  of  vio- 
lence, in  a  manner  so  seemingly  impossible 
to  his  condition,  that  it  looked  like  the  big- 
gest sorrow  that  hath  happened  to  the  sons 
of  men  ?  But  then,  let  us  consider,  how 
many  and  how  great  crimes  we  have  done  ; 
and  tremble  to  think,  that  God  hath  exacted 
so  fearful  pains  and  mighty  punishments 
for  one  such  sin,  which  we,  it  may  be, 
have  committed  frequently.    Our  sin  de- 


]  serves  as  bad  as  theirs  :  and  God  is  impar- 
tial, and  we  have  no  privilege,  no  promise 
of  exemption,  no  reason  to  hope  it;  what 
then  do  we  think  shall  become  of  this  affair? 
Where  must  we  suffer  this  vengeance?  For 
that  it  is  due,  that  it  is  just  we  suffer  it, 
these  sad  examples  are  a  perfect  demon- 
stration. We  have  done  that  for  which  God 
thought  flaying  alive  not  to  be  too  big  a 
punishment;  that  for  which  God  hath  smit- 
ten kings  with  formidable  plagues  ;  that  for 
which  governments  have  been  changed, 
and  nations  enslaved,  and  churches  de- 
stroyed, and  the  candlestick  removed,  and 
famines  and  pestilences  have  been  sent  upon 
a  whole  kingdom;  and  what  shall  become 
of  us?  Why  do  we  vainly  hope  it  shall 
not  be  so  with  us?  If  it  were  just  for  these 
men  to  suffer  what  they  did,  then  we  are  at 
least  to  expect  so  much ;  and  then,  let  us 
consider,  into  what  a  fearful  condition  sin 
hath  put  us,  upon  whom  a  sentence  is  read, 
that  we  shall  be  plagued  like  Zedekiah,  or 
Korah,  or  Dathan,  or  the  king  of  Spain,  or 
any  other  king,  who  were,  for  aught  we 
know,  infinitely  more  innocent  and  more 
excellent  persons  than  any  of  us.  What 
will  become  of  us?  For  God  is  as  just  to 
us  as  to  them;  and  Christ  died  for  them  as 
well  as  for  us;  and  they  have  repented 
more  than  we  have  done;  and  what  mercy 
can  we  expect,  that  they  might  not  hope 
for,  upon  at  least  as  good  ground  as  we  ? 
God's  ways  are  secret,  and  his  mercies  and 
justice  dwell  in  a  great  abyss  ;  but  we  are 
to  measure  our  expectations  by  revelation 
and  experience.  But  then  what  would  be- 
come of  us,  if  God  should  be  as  angry  at 
our  sin  as  at  Zedekiah's,  or  king  David's  ? 
Where  have  we  in  our  body  room  enough 
for  so  many  stripes,  as  our  sin  ought  justly 
to  be  punished  withal ;  or  what  security  or 
probability  have  we  that  he  will  not  so 
punish  us? 

For  I  did  not  represent  this  sad  story,  as 
a  matter  of  possibility  only,  that  we  may 
fear  such  fearful  strokes  as  we  see  God  lay 
upon  sinners;  but  we  ought  to  look  upon 
it  as  a  thing  that  will  come  some  way  or 
other,  and,  for  aught  we  know,  we  cannot 
escape  it.  So  much,  and  more,  is  due  for 
the  sin ;  and  though  Christ  hath  redeemed 
our  souls,  and  if  we  repent  we  shall  not  die 
eternally,  yet  he  hath  no  where  promised 
we  shall  not  be  smitten.  It  was  an  odd 
saying  of  the  devil  to  a  sinner  whom  he 
would  fain  have  had  to  despair;   "Me  e 


Serm.  XXI. 


APPLES   OF  SODOM. 


161 


cceIo  ad  Barathrum  demisit  peccatum,  et  vos 
ullum  in  terra  locum  tutum  existimabitis?" 
'*  Sin  thrust  me  from  heaven  to  hell,,  and  do 
you  think  on  earth  to  have  security!" — 
Men  use  to  presume  that  they  shall  go  un- 
punished ;  but  we  see  what  little  reason  we 
have  to  natter  and  undo  ourselves,  rtacrt  yap 
xoivbv  t68s,  tbv  /xsv  xaxov  xaxov  ti  7ia6x^v, 
"  He  that  hath  sinned  must  look  for  a  judg- 
ment," and  how  great  that  is,  we  are  to 
take  our  measures  by  those  sad  instances  of 
vengeance  by  which  God  hath  chastised 
the  best  of  men,  when  they  have  committed 
but  a  single  sin,  oteOpiov,  otedplov  xaxov,  "  sin 
is"  damnable  and  "  destructive :"  and 
therefore,  as  the  ass  refused  the  barley 
which  the  fatted  swine  left,  perceiving  by 
it  he  was  fatted  for  the  slaughter, 

Tuum  libenter  prorsus  appeterem  cibum, 
Nisi,  qui  nutritus  illo  est,  jugulatus  foret, 

Phjedrus. 

we  may  learn  to  avoid  these  vain  pleas- 
ures which  cut  the  throat  after  they  are 
swallowed,  and  leave  us  in  that  condition 
that  we  may  every  day  fear,  lest  that  evil 
happen  unto  us,  which  we  see  fall  upon 
the  great  examples  of  God's  anger ;  and 
our  fears  cannot,  ought  not,  at  all  to  be 
taken  off,  but  by  an  effective,  busy,  pun- 
gent, hasty,  and  a  permanent  repentance  ; 
and  then  also  but  in  some  proportions, 
for  we  cannot  be  secured  from  temporal 
plagues,  if  we  have  sinned  ;  no  repentance 
can  secure  us  from  all  that;  nay,  God's 
pardon,  or  remitting  his  final  anger,  and 
forgiving  the  pains  of  hell,  does  not  secure 
us  here  ;  r\  vifjuats  rtapa  7t68a$  jScu-Ve t ;  but  sin 
lies  at  the  door  ready  to  enter  in,  and  rifle 
all  our  fortunes. 

1.  But  this  hath  two  appendages,  which 
are  very  considerable  :  and  the  first  is,  that 
there  are  some  mischiefs  which  are  the  pro- 
per and  appointed  scourges  of  certain  sins, 
and  a  man  need  not  ask ;  "  Cujus  vulturis 
hoc  erit  cadaver  ?"  "  What  vulture,"  what 
death,  what  affliction,  ec  shall  destroy  this 
sinner?"  The  sin  hath  a  punishment  of 
his  own,  which  usually  attends  it,  as  giddi- 
ness does  a  drunkard.  He  that  commits  sa- 
crilege, is  marked  for  a  vertiginous  and 
changeable  fortune ;  "  Make  them,  O  my 
God,  like  unto  a  wheel,"*  of  an  inconstant 
state :  and  we  and  our  fathers  have  seen  it, 
in  the  change  of  so  many  families,  which 
have  been  undone  by  being  made  rich  :  they 


took  the  lands  from  the  church,  and  the 
curse  went  along  with  it,  and  the  misery 
and  the  affliction  lasted  longer  than  the  sin. 
Telling  lies  frequently  hath  for  its  punish- 
ment to  be  "given  over  to  believe  a  lie," 
and  at  last,  that  nobody  shall  believe  it  but 
himself;  and  then  the  mischief  is  full,  he 
becomes  a  dishonoured  and  a  baffled  person. 
The  consequence  of  lust  is  properly  shame  ; 
and  witchcraft  is  still  punished  with  base- 
ness and  beggary ;  and  oppression  of  wi- 
dows hath  a  sting ;  for  the  tears  of  the  op- 
pressed are,  to  the  oppressor,  like  the  waters 
of  jealousy,  making  the  belly  to  swell,  and 
the  thigh  to  rot ;  the  oppressor  seldom  dies 
in  a  tolerable  condition;  but  is  marked  to- 
wards his  end  with  some  horrible  affliction. 
The  sting  of  oppression  is  darted  as  a  man 
goes  to  his  grave.  In  these,  and  the  like, 
God  keeps  a  rule  of  striking,  "  In  quo  quis 
peccat,  in  eo  punitur."  The  Divine  judg- 
ment did  point  at  the  sin,  lest  that  be  con- 
cealed by  excuses,  and  protected  by  affec- 
tion, and  increased  by  passion,  and  destroy 
the  man  by  its  abpde.  For  some  sins  are  so 
agreeable  to  the  spirit  of  a  fool  and  an  abused 
person,  because  he  hath  framed  his  affections 
to  them  and  they  comply  with  his  unworthy 
interest,  that  when  God,  out  of  an  angry 
kindness,  smites  the  man  and  punishes  the 
sin,  the  man  does  carefully  defend  his  be 
loved  sin,  as  the  serpent  does  his  head, 
which  he  would  most  tenderly  preserve. 
But  therefore  God,  that  knows  all  our  tricks 
and  devices,  our  stratagems,  to  be  undone, 
hath  therefore  apportioned  out  his  punish- 
ments by  analogies,  by  proportions,  and  en- 
tail:  so  that  when  every  sin  enters  into  its 
proper  portion,  we  may  discern  why  God 
is  angry,  and  labour  to  appease  him  speedily. 

2.  The  second  appendage  to  this  consider- 
ation is  this,  that  there  are  some  states  of 
sin,  which  expose  a  man  to  all  mischief,  as 
it  can  happen,  by  taking  off  from  him  al1 
his  guards  and  defences;  by  driving  the 
good  spirit  from  him,  by  stripping  him  of 
the  guards  of  angels.  But  this  is  the  effec* 
of  an  habitual  sin,  a  course  of  an  evil  life, 
and  it  is  called  in  Scripture,  ' '  a  grieving  the 
good  spirit  of  God."  But  the  guard  of  angels 
is,  in  Scripture,  only  promised  to  them  that 
live  godly  ;  "  The  angels  of  the  Lord  pitch 
their  tents  round  about  them  that  fear  him, 
and  deliver  them,"  said  David.* 
T9  hi  ^poi'ci  rtrpdft'T't  rtapferraW  rtoT-^uo^^ot 
vAyyftoc,  olac  ixiixr-Xs  ppor ot?  wj  rcdvta  teteitai: 


Psal.  lxxxiii. 
21 


*  Psal.  xxxiii.  4,  7. 
0  2 


162  APPLES  O 

And  the  Hellenists  used  to  call  the  angels 
typriyopovs,  "  watchmen which  custody  is 
at  first  designed  and  appointed  for  all,  when 
by  baptism  they  give  up  their  names  to 
Christ,  and  enter  into  the  covenant  of  reli- 
gion. And  of  this  the  heathen  have  been 
taught  something  by  conversation  with  the 
Hebrews  and  Christians  ;  "  unicuique  nos- 
trum dare  paedagogum  Deum,"  said  Seneca 
to  Lucilius,  "  non  primarium,  sed  ex  eorum 
numero,  quos  Ovidius  vocat  ex  plebe  deos  :" 
"  There  is  a  guardian  God  assigned  to  every 
one  of  us,  of  the  number  of  those  which  are 
of  the  second  order;"  such  are  those  of 
whom  David  speaks,  "  Before  the  gods  will 
I  sing  praise  unto  thee ;"  and  it  was  the 
doctrine  of  the  stoics,  that  to  every  one  there 
was  assigned  a  genius,  and  a  Juno :  "Q,uam- 
obrem  major  ccelitum  populus  etiam  quam 
hominum  intelligi  potest,  quum  singuli  ex 
semetipsis  totidem  Deos  faciant,  Junones 
geniosque  adoptando  sibi,"  said  Pliny : 
"  Every  one  does  adopt  gods  into  his  family, 
and  get  a  genius  and  a  Juno  of  their  own." 
"  Junonem  meam  iratam  habeam;"  it  was 
the  oath  of  Quartilla  in  Petronius  ;  and  So- 
crates in  Plato  is  said  to  "swear  by  his 
Juno  f  though  afterwards,  among  the  Ro- 
mans, it  became  the  woman's  oath,  and  a 
note  of  effeminacy  ;  but  the  thing  they  aimed 
at  was  this,  that  God  took  care  of  us  below, 
and  sent  a  ministering  spirit  for  our  defence ; 
but  that  this  is  only  upon  the  accounts  of 
piety,  they  knew  not.  But  we  are  taught  it 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  Scripture.  For,  "  the 
angels  are  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to 
minister  to  the  good  of  them  who  shall  be 
heirs  of  salvation;"*  and  concerning  St. 
Peter,  the  faithful  had  an  opinion,  that  it 
might  be  "his  angel :"  agreeing  to  the  doc- 
trine of  our  blessed  Lord,  who  spake  of 
angels  appropriate  to  his  little  ones,  to  in- 
fants, to  those  that  belong  to  him.  Now 
what  God  said  to  the  sons  of  Israel,  is  also 
true  to  us  Christians ;  "  Behold,  I  send  an 
angel  before  thee :  beware  of  him,  and  obey 
his  voice,  provoke  him  not ;  for  he  will  not 
pardon  your  transgressions. "f  So  that  if 
we  provoke  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  to  anger 
by  a  course  of  evil  living,  either  the  angel 
will  depart  from  us,  or,  if  he  stays,  he  will 
strike  us.  The  best  of  these  is  bad  enough, 
and  he  is  highly  miserable, 

Qui  non  sit  tanto  hoc  custode  securus, 
whom  an  angel  cannot  defend  from  mis- 
chief, nor  any  thing  secure  him  from  the 

*  Heb.  i.  14.  t  Exod.  xxiii.  20,  21. 


F  SODOM.  Serm.  XXL 

j  wrath  of  God.  It  was  the  description  and 
|  character  which  the  Erythrean  sibyl  gave 
l  to  God, 

I  v        '  i  ,i 

j  AtySaptos,  xtirstrjs  cuWtoj,  at^tpa  vaicov, 

i  Tot  5  t   axaxoi$  ix.xo.xov  rtpoytpcov  rto?.v  /Xcl^ova 

i  Tois  8e  xaxoi$  dStxoij  ts  %o"kov  xai  ^vfiov  syetptov. 
It  is  God's  appellative  to  be  "a  giver  of 
excellent  rewards  to  just  and  innocent  per- 
sons: but  to  assign  to  evil  men  fury  ,  wrath, 
and  sorrow,  for  their  portion."  If  I  should 
launch  farther  into  this  dead  sea,  I  should 

j  find  nothing  but  horrid  shriekings,  and  the 

!  skulls  of  dead  men  utterly  undone.  Fearful 
it  is  to  consider,  that  sin  does  not  only  drive 
us  into  calamity,  but  it  makes  us  also  impa- 
tient, and  imbitters  our  spirit  in  the  suffer- 
ance :  it  cries  loud  for  vengeance,  and  so 
torments  men  before  the  time,  even  with 
such  fearful  outcries,  and  horrid  alarms,  that 
their  hell  begins  before  the  fire  is  kindled. 
It  hinders  our  prayers,  and  consequently 
makes  us  hopeless  and  helpless.  It  perpetu- 
ally affrights  the  conscience,  unless  by  its 
frequent  stripes  it  brings  a  callousness  and 
an  insensible  damnation  upon  it.  It  makes 
us  to  lose  all  that  which  Christ  purchased 
for  us,  all  the  blessings  of  his  providence, 
the  comforts  of  his  Spirit,  the  aids  of  his 
grace,  the  light  of  his  countenance,  the 
hopes  of  his  glory ;  it  makes  us  enemies  to 
God,  and  to  be  hated  by  him  more  than  he 
hates  a  dog:  and  with  a  dog  shall  be  his 
portion  to  eternal  ages ;  with  this  only  differ- 
ence, that  they  shall  both  be  equally  excluded 
from  heaven,  but  the  dog  shall  not,  and  the 
sinner  shall,  descend  into  hell ;  and,  which 
is  the  confirmation  of  all  evil,  for  a  transient 
sin  God  shall  inflict  an  eternal  death.  Well 
might  it  be  said  in  the  words  of  God  by  the 
prophet,  "Ponam  Babylonem  in  posses- 
sionem erinacei,"  "  Babylon  shall  be  the 

I  possession  of  a  hedgehog:"  that  is,  a  sinner's 
dwelling,  encompassed  round  with  thorns 
and  sharp  prickles,  afflictions  and  uneasi- 
ness all  over.  So  that  he  that  wishes  his 
sin  big  and  prosperous,  wishes  his  bee  as 
big  as  a  bull,  and  his  hedgehog  like  an  ele- 
phant ;  the  pleasure  of  the  honey  would  not 
cure  the  mighty  sting;  and  nothing  make 
recompense,  or  be  a  good,  equal  to  the  evil 
of  an  eternal  ruin.  But  of  this  there  is  no 
end.  I  sum  up  all  with  the  saying  of  Pub- 
lius  Mimus;  "  Tolerabilior  est  qui  mori  ju- 
bet,  quam  qui  male  vivere,"  "  He  is  more 
to  be  endured  that  puts  a  man  to  death,  than 
he  that  betrays  him  into  sin  :" — for  the  end 
of  this  is  "death  eternal." 


Serm.  XXII. 


THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE. 


163 


SERMON  XXII. 

THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE. 
PART  I. 

Let  no  corrupt  communication  proceed  out  of  your 
mouth,  but  that  which  is  good  to  the  use  of  edify- 
ing, that  it  may  minister  grace  unto  the  hearers. 
— Ephes.  iv.  29. 

He  that  had  an  ill  memory,  did  wisely 
comfort  himself  by  reckoning  the  advantages 
he  had  by  his  forgetfulness.  For  by  this 
means  he  was  hugely  secured  against  malice 
and  ambition ;  for  his  anger  went  off  with 
the  short  notice  and  observation  of  the  in- 
jury j  and  he  saw  himself  unfit  for  the 
businesses  of  other  men,  or  to  make  records 
in  his  head,  and  undertake  to  conduct  the 
intrigues  of  affairs  of  a  multitude,  who  was 
apt  to  forget  the  little  accounts  of  his  own 
seldom  reading.  He  also  remembered  this, 
that  his  pleasures  in  reading  books  were 
more  frequent,  while  he  remembered  but 
little  of  yesterday's  study,  and  to-morrow 
the  book  is  new,  and  with  its  novelties  gives 
him  fresh  entertainment,  while  the  retaining 
brain  lays  the  book  aside,  and  is  full  already. 
Every  book  is  new  to  an  ill  memory,  and 
one  long  book  is  a  library,  and  its  parts  re- 
turn fresh  as  the  morning,  which  becomes 
a  new  day,  though  by  the  revolution  of  the 
same  sun.  Besides  these,  it  brought  him  to 
tell  truth  for  fear  of  shame,  and  in  mere  ne- 
cessity made  his  speech  little,  and  his  dis- 
coursings  short;  because  the  web  drawn 
from  his  brain  was  soon  spun  out,  and  his 
fountain  grew  quickly  dry,  and  left  run- 
ning through  forgetfumess.  He  that  is  not 
eloquent  and  fair-spoken,  hath  some  of  these 
comforts  to  plead  in  excuse  of  his  ill  fortune 
or  defective  nature.  For  if  he  can  but  hold 
his  peace,  he  shall  be  sure  not  to  be  trouble-  \ 
some  to  his  company,  nor  marked  for  lying, 
nor  become  tedious  with  multiplicity  of  idle 
talk ;  he  shall  be  presumed  wise,  and  often- 
times is  so ;  he  shall  not  feel  the  wounds  of 
contention,  nor  be  put  to  excuse  an  ill- 
taken  saying,  nor  sigh  for  the  folly  of  an  ir- 
recoverable word;  if  his  fault  be  that  he 
hath  not  spoken,  that  can  at  any  time  be 
mended,  but  if  he  sinned  in  speaking,  it  can- 
not be  unspoken  again.  Thus  he  escapes 
the  dishonour  of  not  being  believed,  and  the 
trouble  of  being  suspected ;  he  shall  never 
fear  the  sentence  of  judges,  nor  the  decrees 
of  courts,  high  reproaches,  or  the  angry 
words  of  the  proud,  the  contradiction  of  the 
disputing  man,  or  the  thirst  of  talkers.  By 


these,  and  many  other  advantages,  he  that 
holds  his  peace,  and  he  that  cannot  speak, 
may  please  themselves ;  and  he  may  at  least 
have  the  rewards  and  effects  of  solitariness, 
if  he  misses  some  of  the  pleasures  of  society. 
But  by  the  use  of  the  tongue,  God  hath  dis- 
tinguished us  from  beasts,  and  by  the  well 
or  ill  using  it,  we  are  distinguished  from  one 
another ;  and  therefore,  though  silence  be 
innocent  as  death,  harmless  as  a  rose's 
breath  to  a  distant  passenger,  yet  it  is  rather 
the  state  of  death  than  life ;  and  therefore, 
when  the  Egyptians  sacrificed  to  Harpo- 
crates,  their  God  of  silence,  in  the  midst  of 
their  rites  they  cried  out,  yjiiwo  Saiucw ,  "  the 
tongue  is  an  angel,"  good  or  bad,  that  is  as 
it  happens  ;  silence  was  to  them  a  god,  but 
the  tongue  is  greater  :  it  is  the  band  of  hu- 
man intercourse,  and  makes  men  apt  to 
unite  in  societies  and  republics :  and  I  re- 
member what  one  of  the  ancients  said,  that 
we  are  better  in  the  company  of  a  known 
dog,  than  of  a  man  whose  speech  is  not 
known,  "  ut  externus  alieno  non  sit  hominis 
vice ;"  "  a  stranger  to  a  stranger  in  his  lan- 
guage, is  not  as  a  man  to  a  man ;"  for  by 
voices  and  homilies,  by  questions  and  an- 
swers, by  narratives  and  invectives,  by 
counsel  and  reproof,  by  praises  and  hymns, 
by  prayers  and  glorifications,  we  serve  God's 
glory  and  the  necessities  of  men ;  and  by 
the  tongue  our  tables  are  made  to  differ  from 
mangers,  our  cities  from  deserts,  our  churches 
from  herds  of  beasts  and  flocks  of  sheep. 
"  Faith  comes  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by 
the  word  of  God,"  spoken  by  the  tongues 
of  men  and  angels  :  and  the  blessed  spirits 
in  heaven  cease  not  from  saying  night  and 
day  their  Tptoaytov,  "  their  song  of  glory," 
to  him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  to  the 
Lamb,  for  ever  and  ever  :  and  then  our  em- 
ployment shall  be  glorious  as  our  state,  when 
our  tongue  shall  to  eternal  ages  sing  halle- 
lujahs to  their  Maker  and  Redeemer;  and 
therefore,  since  nature  hath  taught  us  to 
speak,  and  God  requires  it,  and  our  thank- 
fulness obliges  us,  and  our  necessities  en- 
gage us,  and  charity  sometimes  calls  for  it, 
and  innocence  is  to  be  defended,  and  we 
are  to  speak  in  the  cause  of  the  oppressed, 
and  open  our  mouths  in  the  cause  of  God, 
and  it  is  always  a  seasonable  prayer,  that 
God  would  open  out  lips,  that  our  mouth 
may  do  the  work  of  heaven,  and  declare  his 
praises,  and  show  forth  his  glory ;  it  con- 
cerns us  to  take  care  that  nature  be  changed 
into  grace,  necessity  into  choice,  that,  while 
we  speak  the  greatness  of  God,  and  minister 


164 


THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE.      Serm.  XXII. 


to  the  needs  of  our  neighbour,  and  do  the  ( the  Divine  Spirit,  but  dishonours  all  its 
works  of  life  and  religion,  of  society  and  I  channels  and  conveyances :  the  proper  lan- 
prudence,  we  may  be  fitted  to  bear  a  part  guage  of  the  sin  is  not  fit  to  be  used  so 
in  the  songs  of  angels,  when  they  shall  re-  much  as  in  reproof;  and  therefore,  I  have 
joice  at  the  feast  of  the  marriage-supper  of  I  sometimes  wondered,  how  it  came  to  pass, 


the  Lamb.  But  the  tongue  is  a  fountain 
both  of  bitter  waters  and  of  pleasant;  it 
sends  forth  blessing  and  cursing ;  it  praises 
God,  and  rails  at  men ;  it  is  sometimes  set 
on  fire,  and  then  it  puts  whole  cities  in  com- 
bustion; it  is  unruly,  and  no  more  to  be 
restrained  than  the  breath  of  a  tempest;  it  is 
volatile  and  fugitive :  reason  should  go  be- 
fore it,  and  when  it  does  not,  repentance 
comes  after  it ;  it  was  intended  for  an  organ 
of  the  Divine  praises,  but  the  devil  often 
plays  upon  it,  and  then  it  sounds  like  the 
screech-owl,  or  the  groans  of  death ;  sorrow 
and  shame,  folly  and  repentance,  are  the 
notes  and  formidable  accents  of  that  discord. 
We  all  are  naturally  toyd<j>a<x,  "lovers  of 
speech,''  more  or  less ;  and  God  reproves 


that  some  of  the  ancients,  men  wise  and 
modest,  chaste  and  of  sober  spirits,  have 
fallen  into  a  fond  liberty  of  declamation 
against  uncleanness,  using  such  words 
which  bring  that  sin  upon  the  stage  of 
fancy,  and  offend  "auriculas  non  calentes," 
"sober  and  chaste  ears."  For  who  can, 
without  blushing,  read  Seneca  describing 
the  looking-glass  of  Hostius,  or  the  severe 
but  looser  words  of  Persius,  or  the  reproofs 
of  St.  Jerome  himself,  that  great  patron  of 
virginity,  and  exacter  of  chastity  ?  yet  more 
than  once  reprove  filthy  things  with  un- 
handsome language :  St.  Chrysostom  makes 
an  apology  for  them  that  do  so ;  tav  /juv  yap 
Qt[ivu>$  urtrjS,  ov  Swrvri  xaBixt'&H  Toy  axovovtoi' 


it  not,  provided  that  we  be  also  <j>adkoyot,  | aTtoyvuvwai  oatytvtspov  ra  teyousva,'*  "you 
"  wise  and  material,  useful  and  prudent,  in  cannot  profit  the  hearers  unless  you  discover 


our  discourses."  For  since  speech  is  for 
conversation,  let  it  be  also  charitable  and 
profitable,  let  it  be  without  sin,  but  not  with- 
out profit  and  grace  to  the  hearers,  and  then 
it  is  as  God  would  have  it ;  and  this  is  the 
precept  of  the  text,  first  telling  us  what  we 
should  avoid,  and  then  telling  us  what  we 
should  pursue;  what  our  discourse  ought 
not  to  be,  and,  secondly,  what  it  ought  to 
be.  There  being  no  more  variety  in  the 
structure  of  the  words,  I  shall,  1.  discourse 
of  the  vices  of  the  tongue ;  2.  of  its  duty 
and  proper  employment. 

L.  "Let  no  corrupt  communication  pro- 
ceed out  of  your  mouth ;"  ?ta$  6  Ganpbs  x,6yoj, 
corrupt  or  "  filthy  "  communication  ;  so  we 
read  it :  and  it  seems  properly  to  note  such 
communication  as  ministers  to  wantonness; 


the  filthiness,"  for  the  withdrawing  the  cur- 
tain is  shame  and  confutation  enough  for  so 
great  a  baseness ;  and  chirurgeons  care  not 
how  they  defile  their  hand,  so  they  may  do 
profit  to  the  patient.  And,  indeed,  there  is 
a  material  difference  in  the  design  of  him 
that  speaks ;  if  he  speaks  oixnov  7td9ov$, 
"according  to  his  secret  affection,"  and  pri- 
vate folly,  it  is  certainly  intolerable:  but  if 
he  speaks  anb  xrfisuovlas,  "  out  of  a  desire  to 
profit"  the  hearer,  and  cure  the  criminal, 
though  it  be  in  the  whole  kind  of  it  honest 
and  well  meant ;  yet,  that  it  is  imprudent, 

(Irritamentum  Veneris  languentis,  et  acris 
Divitis  urticae,)— Juv. 

and  not  wholly  to  be  excused  by  the  fair 
meaning,  will  soon  be  granted  by  all  who 


such  as  are  the  Fescennines  of  Ausonius,  iknow  what  danger  and  infection  it  leaves 


the  excrement  and  spume  of  Martial's  verse, 
and  the  Ephesiaca  of  Xenophon;  indeed, 
this  is  such  a  rudeness  as  is  not  to  be  ad- 
mitted into  civil  conversation ;  and  is  wittily 
noted  by  the  apostle,  charging  that  "  forni- 
cation should  not  be  once  named  among 
them,  as  becometh  saints ;"  not  meaning 
that  the  vice  should  not  have  its  name  and 
filthy  character,  but  that  nothing  of  it  be 
named,  in  which  it  can  be  tempting  or  of- 
fensive ;  nothing  tending  to  it,  or  teachin: 


upon  the  fancy,  even  by  those  words  by 
which  the  spirit  is  instructed.  "Ab  hac 
scabie  teneamus  ungues ;"  it  is  not  good  to 
come  near  the  leprosy,  though  to  cleanse 
the  leper's  skin. 

But  the  word  which  the  apostle  uses, 
(jarfpoj  Jtoyoj,  means  more  than  this.  2a,-r  po* 
oti  to  fxoxQrfibv  tyavXov,  aWud  to  rtaJjiibv,  said 
Eupolis;  and  so  it  signifies,  "  musty,  rotten, 
and  out- worn  with  age ;"  campus  Uprpqs, 
rusty  peace,"  so  Aristophanes :  and,  ac- 


of  it,  should  be  named;  we  must  not  have  ; cording  to  this  acceptation  of  the  word,  we 

rtopvov  ?joyov,  "  fornication  in  our  talk;"  that  — .  — — 

is  such  a  baseness,  that  it  not  only  grieves!  *  Horail.  4.  in.  ep.  Rom. 


Serm.  XXII.       THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE. 


165 


are  forbidden  to  use  all  language  that  is  in 
any  sense  corrupted,  unreasonable,  or  use- 
less ;  language  proceeding  from  an  old  ini- 
quity, evil  habits,  or  unworthy  customs, 
called,  in  the  style  of  Scripture,  "the  re- 
mains of  the  old  man,"  and  by  the  Greeks, 
"  doting  "  or  "talking  fondly  ;"  to  rtaiSaplov 
il,  xai,  fypovng  apzaixa ;  "  the  boy  talks  like 
an  old  dotard."  2.  Sartpoy  signifies  "wicked, 
filthy,  or  reproachful cartpov,  aiazpbv,  axd- 
§ap*ov,  "  any  thing  that  is  in  its  own  nature 
criminal  and  disgraceful,  any  language  that 
ministers  to  mischief."  But  it  is  worse  than 
all  this  :  oartpb?  o  a^anctyios,  "  it  is  a  deletery, 
an  extinction  of  all  good ;"  for  a^oW^ou.,  is 
^ft'pcj,  "Kvpalvoixai,  xatahvu,  it  is  "  a  destruc- 
tion, an  entire  corruption,"  of  all  morality; 
and  to  this  sense  is  that  of  Menander,  quoted 
by  St.  Paul,  qfetipovaw  rj^rrj  Z9Va^  fy*1*1'0*  xaxai' 
"  Evil  words  corrupt  good  manners."  And 
therefore,  under  this  word  is  comprised  all 
the  evil  of  the  tongue,  that  wicked  instru- 
ment of  the  unclean  spirit,  in  the  capacity 
of  all  the  appellatives.  1.  Here  is  forbidden 
the  useless,  vain,  and  trifling  conversation, 
the  Beei^sfiovh,  "  the  god  of  flies,"  so  is  the 
devil's  name ;  he  rules  by  these  little  things, 
by  trifles  and  vanity,  by  idle  and  useless 
words,  by  the  intercourses  of  a  vain  con- 
versation. 2.  The  devil  is  AtajSofcoj,  "an 
accuser  of  the  brethren,  and  the  calumnia- 
ting, slandering,  and  undervaluing,  detract- 
ing tongue  does  his  work ;  that  is,  jioyos  ala- 
*p6f,  the  second  that  I  named ;  for  oUazpot^ 
is  ?,otSopta  (xl(5o$,  so  Hesychius ;  it  is  "slander, 
hatred,  and  calumny."  3.  But  the  third  is 
'AjtoXkviw,  the  devil's  worst  appellative,  "the 
destroyer,"  the  dissolute,  wanton,  tempting, 
destroying  conversation ;  and  its  worst  in- 
stance of  all  is  flattery,  that  malicious,  co- 
zening devil,  that  strengthens  our  friend  in 
sin,  and  ruins  him  from  whom  we  have 
received,  and  from  whom  we  expect,  good. 
Of  these  in  order :  and  first,  of  the  trifling, 
vain,  useless,  and  impertinent  conversation, 
crartpoy  koyoy,  "  Let  no  vain  communication 
proceed  out  of  your  mouth." 

1.  The  first  part  of  this  inordination  is 
"  multiloquium,"  "talking  too  much;" 
concerning  which,  because  there  is  no  rule 
or  just  measure  for  the  quantity,  and  it  is 
as  lawful,  and  sometimes  as  prudent,  to  tell 
a  long  story  as  a  short,  and  two  as  well  as 
one,  and  sometimes  ten  as  well  as  two :  all 
such  discourses  are  to  take  their  estimate  by 
the  matter  and  the  end,  and  can  only  be 
altered  bj  their  circumstances  and  append- 


ages. Much  speaking  is  sometimes  neces- 
sary, sometimes  useful,  sometimes  pleasant; 
and  when  it  is  none  of  all  these,  though  it 
be  tedious  and  imprudent,  yet  it  is  not 
always  criminal.  Such  was  the  humour 
of  the  gentleman  Martial  speaks  of:  he  was 
a  good  man,  and  full  of  sweetness  and  jus- 
lice  and  nobleness,  but  he  would  read  his 
nonsense- verses  to  all  companies ;  at  the 
public  games  and  in  private  feasts,  in  the 
baths  and  on  the  beds,  in  public  and  in 
private,  to  sleeping  and  waking  people. 

Vis,  quantum  facias  mali,  videre  ? 
Vir  justus,  probus,  innocens  timeris. 

Lib.  3.  Ep.  44. 

Every  one  was  afraid  of  him,  and  though 
he  was  good,  yet  he  was  not  to  be  endured. 
The  evil  of  this  is  very  considerable  in  the 
accounts  of  prudence,  and  the  effects  and 
plaisance  of  conversation  :  and  the  ancients 
described  its  evil  well  by  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression ;  for  when  a  sudden  silence  arose, 
they  said  that  Mercury  was  entered,  mean- 
ing, that  he  being  their  "  loquax  numen," 
their  prating  god,"  yet  that  quitted  him  not, 
but  all  men  stood  upon  their  guard,;  and 
called  for  aid  and  rescue,  when  they  were 
seized  upon  by  so  tedious  an  impertinence. 
And,  indeed,  there  are  some  persons  so  full 
of  nothings,  that,  like  the  strait  sea  of  Pon- 
tus,  they  perpetually  empty  themselves  by 
their  mouth,  making  every  company  or 
single  person  they  fasten  on  to  be  their  Pro- 
pontis;  such  a  one  as  was  Anaximenes, 
Xiifwv  7tota[M>s,  vov  8e  dtaTMryfio^  "He  was 
an  ocean  of  words,  but  a  drop  of  under- 
standing." And  if  there  were  no  more  in 
this  than  the  matter  of  prudence,  and  the 
proper  measures  of  civil  conversation,  it 
would  yet  highly  concern  old  men,#  and 
young  men  and  women, f  to  separate  from 
their  persons  the  reproach  of  their  sex  and 
age,  that  modesty  of  speech  be  the  orna- 
ment of  the  youthful,  and  a  reserved  dis- 
course be  the  testimony  of  the  old  man's 
prudence.  "  Adolescens,"  from  'AoWtj^y, 
said  one :  "  a  young  man  is^  a  talker  for 
want  of  wit,"  and  an  old  man  for  want  of 
memory  ;  for  while  he  remembers  the  things 
of  his  youth,  and  not  how  often  he  hath 
told  them  in  his  old  age,  he  grows  in  love 


*  Supellex  ejus  garrulitas. — Comced. 

t  Muliebre  ingenium  proluvium. — Accius  in 
Andromeda.  Sola  laboranti  potuit  succurrere 
lunse. — Juven. 


166 


THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE.      Serm.  XXII. 


with  the  trifles  of  his  youthful  days,  and 
thinks  the  company  must  do  so  too  :  but  he 
canonizes  his  folly,  and  by  striving  to  bring 
reputation  to  his  first  days,  he  loses  the 
honour  of  his  last.  But  this  thing  is  con- 
siderable to  further  issues ;  for  though  no 
man  can  say,  that  much  speaking  is  a  sin, 
yet  the  Scripture  says,  "In  multiloquio 
peccatum  non  deerit;"  "Sin  goes  along 
with  it,  and  is  an  ingredient  in  the  whole 
composition."  For  it  is  impossible  but  a 
long  and  frequent  discourse  must  be  served 
with  many  passions,  and  they  are  not  al- 
ways innocent;  for  he  that  loves  to  talk 
much,  must  "  rem  corradere,"  "  scrape  ma- 
terials together,"  to  furnish  out  the  scenes 
and  long  orations ;  and  some  talk  them- 
selves into  anger,  and  some  furnish  out 
their  dialogues  with  the  lives  of  others ; 
either  they  detract,  or  censure,  or  they  flatter 
themselves,  and  tell  their  own  stories  with 
friendly  circumstances,  and  pride  creeps  up 
the  sides  of  the  discourse ;  and  the  man  en- 
tertains his  friend  with  his  own  panegyric ; 
or  the  discourse  looks  one  way  and  rows 
another,  and  more  minds  the  design  than 
its  own  truth ;  and  most  commonly  will 
be  so  ordered,  that  it  shall  please  the  com- 
pany, (and  that  truth  or  honest  plainness 
seldom  does,)  or  there  is  a  bias  in  it,  which 
the  more  of  weight  and  transportation  it  hath, 
the  less  it  hath  of  ingenuity.  "  Non  cre- 
do auguribus  qui  aureis  rebus  divinant;" 
like  soothsayers,  men  speak  fine  words  to 
serve  ends,  and  then  they  are  not  believed, 
or  at  last  are  found  liars,  and  such  discourses 
are  built  up  to  serve  the  ministries  or  pleas- 
ures of  the  company,  but  nothing  else.  Pride 
and  flattery,  malice  and  spite,  self-love  and 
vanity,  these  usually  wait  upon  much  speak- 
ing ;  and  the  reward  of  it  is,  that  the  persons 
grow  contemptible  and  troublesome,  they 
engage  in  quarrels,  and  are  troubled  to  an- 
swer exceptions ;  some  will  mistake  them, 
and  some  will  not  believe  them,  and  it  will" 
be  impossible  that  the  mind  should  be  per- 
petually present  to  a  perpetual  talker,  but 
they  will  forget  truth  and  themselves,  and 
their  own  relations.  And  upon  this  ac- 
count it  is,  that  the  doctors  of  the  primi- 
tive church  do  literally  expound  those  mi- 
natory words  of  our  blessed  Saviour ;  "  Ve- 
rily I  say  unto  you,  of  every  idle  word 
that  men  shall  speak,  they  shall  give  ac- 
count at  the  day  of  judgment."*    And  by 

*  Mattt.  xii.  36. 


"  idle  words,"  they  understand,  such  as  are 
not  useful  to  edification  and  instruction. 
So  St.  Basil :  "  So  great  is  the  danger  of 
an  idle  word,  that  though  a  word  be  in  its 
own  kind  good,  yet,  unless  it  be  directed  to 
the  edification  of  faith,  he  is  not  free  from 
danger  that  speaks  it  :"*  to  this  purpose  are 
the  words  of  St.  Gregory;  "  While  the 
tongue  is  not  restrained  from  idle  words," 
"  ad  temeritatem  stultae  increpationis  erTera- 
tur,"  "  it  is  made  wild,  or  may  be  brought 
forth  to  rashness  and  folly  :"  and  therein  lies 
the  secret  of  the  reproof:  "A  periculo  liber 
non  est,  et  ad  temeritatem  efferatur,"  "  the 
man  is  not  free  from  danger,  and  he  may 
grow  rash,"f  and  foolish,  and  run  into 
crimes,  whilst  he  gives  his  tongue  the  reins, 
and  lets  it  wander,  and  so  it  may  be  fit  to  be 
reproved,  though  in  its  nature  it  were  in- 
nocent. I  deny  not,  but  sometimes  they 
are  more  severe.  St.  Gregory  calls  every 
word  "  vain"  or  "  idle,"  "  quod  aut  rationae 
justae  necessitatis,  aut  intentione  pise  utilitatis 
caret and  St.  Jerome  calls  it  "vain," 
"  quod  sine  utilitate  et  loquentis  dicitur  et  au- 
dientis,"  "which  profits  neither  the  speaker 
nor  the  hearer."||  The  same  is  affirmed  by 
St.  Chrysostom§  and  Gregory  NyssenH 
upon  Ecclesiastes ;  and  the  same  seems  in- 
timated in  the  word  xsvbv  prjfia,  or  fatm  apy6i>, 
as  it  is  in  some  copies,  "  every  word  that  is 
idle,  or  empty  of  business."  But,  for  the 
stating  of  the  case  of  conscience,  I  have 
these  things  to  say  : 

1.  That  the  words  of  our  blessed  Saviour, 
being  spoken  to  the  Jews,  were  so  certainly 
intended  as  they  best  and  most  commonly 
understood,  and  by  "  vain"  they  under- 
stood "  false"  or  "  lying,"  not  "  useless" 
or  "imprudent;"  and  yet  so,  though  our 
blessed  Saviour  hath  not  so  severely  for- 
bidden every  empty,  insignificant  discourse; 
and  yet  he  hath  forbidden  every  lie,  though 
it  be  "  in  genere  bonorum,"  as  St.  Basil's 
expression  is  ;  that  is,  "  though  it  be  in  the 
intention  charitable,  or  in  the  matter  inno- 
cent." 

2.  "Of  every  idle  word  we  shall  give 
account;"  but  yet  so,  that  sometimes  the 
xpifxa,  "the  judgment,"  shall  fall  upon  the 
words,  not  upon  the  persons ;  they  be  hay 
and  stubble,  useless  and  impertinent,  light 
and  easy,  the  fire  shall  consume  them  and 
himself  shall  escape  with  that  loss ;  he  shall 


*  In  Reg.  brevior 
t  C.  17.  ubi  sup. 
$  In  Ps.  cxviii. 


t  Lib.  7.  Moral. 
II  In  Matt.  xii. 
f  Cap.  1. 


Slrm.  XXII. 


THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE 


167 


tl.en  have  no  honour,  no  fair  return  for  such 
discourses,  but  they  shall  with  loss  and  pre- 
judice be  rejected  and  cast  away. 

3.  If  all  unprofitable  discourses  be  reck- 
oned for  idle  words,  and  put  upon  the  ac- 
count, yet  even  the  capacities  of  profit  are 
so  large  and  numerous,  that  no  man  hath 
cause  to  complain  that  his  tongue  is  too 
much  restrained  by  this  severity.  For  in  all 
the  ways  in  which  he  can  do  himself  good 
or  his  neighbour,  he  hath  his  liberty  ;  he  is 
only  to  secure  the  words  from  being  directly 
criminal,  and  himself  from  being  arrested 
with  a  passion,  and  then  he  may  reckon  it 
lawful,  even  upon  the  severest  account,  to 
discourse  freely,  while  he  can  instruct,  or 

'  while  he  can  please  his  neighbour ; 

Aut  prodesse  volunt,  aut  delectare — Hor. 

while  himself  gets  a  fair  opinion  and  a  good 
name,  apt  to  serve  honest  and  fair  pur- 
poses; he  may  discourse  himself  into  a 
friendship,  or  help  to  preserve  it;  he  may 
serve  the  works  of  art  or  nature,  of  business 
public  or  private,  the  needs  of  his  house,  or 
the  uses  of  mankind;  he  may  increase 
learning,  or  confirm  his  notices,  cast  in  his 
symbol  of  experience  and  observation,  till 
the  particulars  may  become  a  proverbial 
sentence  and  a  rule  ;  he  may  serve  the  ends 
of  civility  and  popular  addresses,  or  may 
instruct  his  brother  or  himself,  by  some- 
thing which,  at  that  time,  shall  not  be  re- 
duced to  a  precept  by  way  of  meditation, 
but  is  of  itself  apt  at  another  time  to  do  it ; 
he  may  speak  the  praises  of  the  Lord  by 
discoursing  of  any  of  the  works  of  creation, 
and  himself  or  his  brother  may  afterwards 
remember  it  to  that  purpose  ;  he  may  coun- 
sel or  teach,  reprove  or  admonish,  call  to 
mind  a  precept,  or  disgrace  a  vice,  reprove 
it  by  a  parable  or  a  story,  by  way  of  idea 
or  witty  rep  resentment ;  and  he  that  can 
find  talk  beyond  all  this,  discourse  that  can- 
not become  useful  in  any  one  of  these  pur- 
poses, may  well  be  called  a  prating  man, 
and  expect  to  give  account  of  his  folly,  in 
the  days  of  recompense. 

4.  Although,  in  this  latitude,  a  man's 
discourses  may  be  free  and  safe  from  judg- 
ment, yet  the  man  is  not,  unless  himself 
design  it  to  good  and  wise  purposes  ;  not 
always  actually,  but  by  an  habitual  and 
general  purpose.  Concerning  which  he 
may,  by  these  measures,  best  take  his  ac- 
counts. 

1.  That  he  be  sure  to  speak  nothing  that 


may  minister  to  a  vice,  willingly  and  Ly 
observation. 

2.  If  any  thing  be  of  a  suspicious  and 
dubious  nature,  that  he  decline  to  publish  it. 

3.  That,  by  a  prudent  moral  care,  he 
watch  over  his  words,  that  he  do  none  of 
this  injury  and  unworthiness. 

4.  That  he  offer  up  to  God  in  his  prayers 
all  his  words,  and  then  look  to  it,  that  he 
speak  nothing  unworthy  to  be  offered. 

5.  That  he  often  interweave  discourses 
of  religion,  and  glorifications  of  God,  in- 
structions to  his  brother,  and  ejaculations  of 
his  own,  something  or  other  not  only  to 
sanctify  the  order  of  his  discourses,  but  to 
call  him  back  into  retirement  and  sober 
thoughts,  lest  he  wander  and  be  carried  off 
too  far  into  the  wild  regions  of  imperti- 
nence; and  this  Zeno  calls  -/kussav  ft?  vovv 
vjtofo&u,  -'Mo  dip  our  tongues  in  under- 
standing." In  all  other  cases  the  rule  is 
good,  "H  xiyf  tl  Ghyr-s  xptlttov,  »7  avyriv  tz^, 
"  Either  keep  silence,  or  speak  something 
that  is  better  than  it;"*  rt  r>ir/rtv  xaiptov  rt  Tjoyov 
utftUfiov,  so  Isocrafes,  consonantly  enough 
to  this  evangelical  precept ;  "  a  seasonable 
silence,  or  a  profitable  discourse,"  choose 
you  whether ;  for  whatsoever  cometh  of 
more,  is  sin,  or  else  is  folly  at  hand,  and 
will  be  sin  at  distance. 

6.  This  account  is  not  to  be  taken  by  lit- 
tle traverses  and  intercourses  of  speech,  but 
by  greater  measures,  and  more  discernible 
portions,  such  as  are  commensurate  to  va- 
luable portions  of  time;  for  however  we  are 
pleased  to  throw  away  our  time,  and  are 
weary  of  many  parts  of  it,  yet  are  impa- 
tiently troubled  when  all  is  gone  ;  yet  we 
are  as  sure  to  account  for  every  considerable 
portion  of  our  time,  as  for  every  sum  of 
money  we  receive ;  and  in  this  it  was,  that 
St.  Bernard  gave  caution,  "  Nemo  parvi 
sestimet  tempus,  quod  in  verbis  consumitur 
otiosis,"  "  Let  no  man  think  it  a  light  mat- 
ter, that  he  spend  his  precious  time  in  idle 
words  ;"t  let  no  man  be  so  weary  of  what 
flies  away  too  fast,  and  cannot  be  recalled, 
as  to  use  arts  and  devices  to  pass  the  time 
away  in  vanity,  which  might  be  rarelv 
spent  in  the  interests  of  eternity.  Time  is 
given  us  to  repent  in,  to  appease  the  Divine 
anger,  to  prepare  for  and  hasten  to  the 
society  of  angels,  to  stir  up  our  slackened 
wills,  and  enkindle  our  cold  devotions,  to 
weep  for  our  daily  iniquities,  and  to  sigh 


*Eurip.  +  Scrm.  de  Triplici  Custodia. 


168 


THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE.     Serm.  XXII 


after,  and  to  work  for,  the  restitution  of  our 
lost  inheritance ;  and  the  reward  is  very- 
inconsiderable,  that  exchanges  all  this  for 
the  pleasure  of  a  voluble  tongue ;  and  in- 
deed this  is  an  evil,  that  cannot  be  avoided 
by  any  excuse  that  can  be  made  for  words, 
that  are,  in  any  sense,  idle, — though,  in  all 
senses  of  their  own  nature  and  proper  rela- 
tions, they  be  innocent.  They  are  a  throw- 
ing away  something  of  that,  which  is  to  be 
expended  for  eternity,  and  put  on  degrees 
of  folly,  according  as  they  are  tedious  and 
expensive  of  time  to  no  good  purposes.  I 
shall  not  after  all  this  need  to  reckon  more 
of  the  evil  consequents  to  the  vain  and 
great  talker ;  but  if  these  already  reckoned 
were  not  a  heap  big  enough,  I  could  easily 
add  this  great  evil;  that  the  talking  man 
makes  himself  artificially  deaf,  being  like  a 
man  in  the  steeple  when  the  bells  ring,  you 
talk  to  a  deaf  man,  though  you  speak 
wisely  ; 

Ovx  av  8vvcu/xtjv  fxrj  Gtsyovta  riifirtTMicu 

Eurip. 

Good  counsel  is  lost  upon  him,  and  he  hath 
served  all  his  ends  when  he  pours  out  what- 
soever he  took  in ;  for  he  therefore  loaded 
his  vessel,  that  he  might  pour  it  forth  into 
the  sea. 

These  and  many  more  evils,  and  the  per- 
petual unavoidable  necessity  of  sinning  by 
much  talking,  hath  given  great  advantages 
to  silence,  and  made  it  to  be  esteemed  an 
act  of  discipline  and  great  religion.  St. 
Romualdus,  upon  the  Syrian  mountain, 
severely  kept  a  seven  years'  silence  ;  and 
Thomas  Cantipratensis  tells  of  a  religious 
person,  in  a  monastery  in  Brabant,  that 
spake  not  one  word  in  sixteen  years.  But 
they  are  greater  examples  which  Palladius 
tells  of:  Ammona,  who  lived  with  three 
thousand  brethren  in  so  great  silence,  as  if 
he  were  an  anchoret ;  but  Theona  was 
silent  for  thirty  years  together ;  and  Johan- 
nes, surnamed  Silentiarius,  was  silent  for 
forty-seven  years.  But  this  morosity  and 
sullenness  are  so  far  from  being  imitable 
and  laudable,  that  if  there  were  no  direct 
prevarication  of  any  commands  expressed 
or  intimated  in  Scripture,  vet  it  must  cer- 
tainly either  draw  with  it,  or  be  itself,  an 
infinite  omission  of  duty  ;  especially  in  the 
external  glorifications  of  God,  in  the  insti- 
tution or  advantages  of  others,  in  thanks  - 
giving  in  public  offices,  and  in  all  the  ef 


!  fects  and  emanations  of  spiritual  mercy. 
This  was  to  make  amends  for  committing 
many  sins  by  omitting  many  duties ;  and, 
instead  of  digging  out  the  offending  eye,  to 
pluck  out  both,  that  they  might  neither  see 
the  scandal  nor  the  duty;  for  fear  of  seeing 
what  they  should  not,  to  shut  their  eyes 
against  all  light.  It  was  more  prudent 
which  was  reported  of  St.  Gregory  Nazian- 
zen,  who  made  silence  an  act  of  discipline, 
and  kept  it  a  whole  Lent  in  his  religious 
retirements,  te  Cujus  facti  mei  si  causam 
quairis,"  (said  he  in  his  account  he  gives 
of  it,)  "idcirco  a  sermone  prorsus  abstinui, 
ut  sermonibus  meis  moderari  discam;"  "I 
then  abstained  wholly,  that  all  the  year 
after  I  might  be  more  temperate  in  my 
talk."  This  was  in  him  an  act  of  caution ; 
but  how  apt  it  was  to  minister  to  his  pur- 
pose of  a  moderated  speech  for  the  future, 
is  not  certain;  nor  the  philosophy  of  it,  and 
natural  efficacy,  easy  to  be  apprehended. 
It  was  also  practised  by  way  of  penance, 
with  indignation  against  the  follies  of  the 
tongue,  and  the  itch  of  prating  ;  so  to  chas- 
tise that  petulant  member,  as  if  there  wert! 
a  great  pleasure  in  prating,  which  when  it 
grew  inordinate,  it  was  to  be  restrained  and 
punished  like  other  lusts.  I  remember  it 
was  reported  of  St.  Paul  the  hermit,  scho- 
lar of  St.  Anthony,  that,  having  once  asked 
whether  Christ  or  the  old  prophets  were 
first,  he  grew  so  ashamed  of  his  foolish 
question,  that  he  spake  not  a  word  for  three 
years  following :  and  Sulpitius,  as  St. 
Jerome  reports  of  him,  being  deceived  by 
the  Pelagians,  spoke  some  fond  things, 
and,  repenting  of  it,  held  his  tongue  to  his 
dying  day,  "  ut  peccatum  quod  loquendo 
contraxerat,  tacendo  penitus  emendaret." 
Though  the  pious  mind  is  in  such  actions 
highly  to  be  regarded,  yet  I  am  no  way  per- 
suaded of  the  prudence  of  such  a  deadness 
and  Labitinarian  religion ; 

Murmura  cum  secum  et  rabiosa  sflentia  rodunt, 

so  such  importune  silence  was  called  and 
understood  to  be  a  degree  of  stupidity  and 
madness :  for  so  physicians,  among  the 
signs  of  that  disease  in  dogs,  place  their  not 
barking;  and  yet,  although  the  excess  and 
unreasonableness  of  this  may  be  well  chas- 
tised by  such  a  severe  reproof,  yet  it  is  cer- 
tain, in  silence  there  is  wisdom,  and  there 
may  be  deep  religion.  So  Aretaeus,  de- 
scribing the  life  of  a  studious  man  among 
others,  he  inserts  this,  they  are  d^poot,  xai  e> 


Serm.  XXII.      THE  GOOD  AND 


EVIL  TONGUE. 


K*0 


vtoir^i  yrjpatJoi,  xai  V7i  ivvolai  xufyoi  "With- 
out  colour,  pale  and  wise  when  they  are 
young,  and,  by  reason  of  their  knowledge, 
silent"  as  mutes,  and  dumb  as  the  Seri- 
phian  frogs.  And  indeed  it  is  certain,  great 
knowledge,  if  it  be  without  vanity,  is  the 
most  severe  bridle  of  the  tongue.  For  so 
have  I  heard,  that  all  the  noises  and  prating 
of  the  pool,  the  croaking  of  frogs  and  toads, 
is  hushed  and  appeased  upon  the  instant  of 
bringing  upon  them  the  light  of  a  candle  or 
torch.  Every  beam  of  reason  and  ray  of 
knowledge  checks  the  dissolutions  of  the 
tongue.  But  Ut  quisque  contemptissi- 
mus  et  maxime  ludibrio  est,  ita  solutissimse 
linguae  est,"  said  Seneca;  "Every  man, 
as  he  is  a  fool  and  contemptible,  so  his 
tongue  is  hanged  loose  ;"  being  like  a  bell, 
in  which  there  is  nothing  but  tongue  and 
noise. 

Silence  therefore  is  the  cover  of  folly,  or 
the  effect  of  wisdom ;  it  is  also  religious ; 
and  the  greatest  mystic  rites  of  any  institu- 
tion are  ever  the  most  solemn  and  the  most 
silent;  the  words  in  use  are  almost  made 
synonymous  :  "  There  was  silence  made  in 
heaven  for  a  while,"  said  St.  John,  who 
noted  it  upon  occasion  of  a  great  solemnity 
and  mysterious  worshippings  or  revelations 
to  be  made  there.  ~H  ^caa  *£$  Mov, 
"One  of  the  gods  is  within,"  said  Telema- 
chus ;  upon  occasion  of  which  his  father 
reproved  his  talking. 

liya,  xai  fist  a  <sbv  voov  Za%av£,  firjb^  ipseivs' 

Odys.  t. 

"  Be  thou  also  silent  and  say  little  ;  let  thy 
soul  be  in  thy  hand,  and  under  command ; 
for  this  is  the  rite  of  the  gods  above."  And 
I  remember,  that  when  Aristophanes*  de- 
scribes the  religion  in  the  temple  of  iEscula- 
pJUS,  6  rtpoffrtokos,  strtwv,  rjv  ti$  alo^-tao  ^,6tyov, 
Xvyav :  "  The  p  riest  commanded  great  silence 
when  the  mysteriousness  was  nigh;"  and 
so  among  the  Romans  : 

Ite  igitur,  pueri,  Unguis  animisque  faventes, 
Sertaque  delubris  et  farra  imponite  cultris. 

But  now,  although  silence  is  become  reli- 
gious, and  is  wise,  and  reverend,  and  severe, 
and  safe,  and  quiet,  a5t4o$,  xai  a%vrtos,  xai 
avuSwog,  as  Hippocrates  affirms  of  it,  "  with- 
out thrist,  and  trouble,  and  anguish  ;"  yet  it 
must  be  xou'pios,  it  must  be  "  seasonable," 
and  just,  and  not  commenced  upon  chance 


*  Plutus. 
22 


or  humour,  not  sullen  and  ill-natured,  not 
proud  and  full  of  fancy,  not  pertinacious 
and  dead,  not  mad  and  uncharitable,  "  nam 
sic  etiam  tacuisse  nocet."  He  that  is  silent 
in  a  public  joy  hath  no  portion  in  the  fes- 
tivity, or  no  thankfulness  to  him  that  gave 
the  cause  of  it.  And  though,  of  all  things 
in  the  world,  a  prating  religion,  and  much 
talk  in  holy  things,  does  most  profane  the  mys- 
teriousness of  it,  and  dismantles  its  regards, 
and  makes  cheap  its  reverence,  and  takes 
off  fear  and  awfulness,  and  makes  it  loose 
and  garish,  like  the  laughters  of  drunken- 
ness, yet  even  in  religion  there  are  seasons 
to  speak;  and  it  was  sometimes  "pain  and 
grief"  to  David  to  be  silent;  but  yet,  al- 
though tedious  and  dead  silence  hath  not  a 
just  measure  of  praise  and  wisdom  ;  yet  the 
worst  silence  of  a  religious  person  is  more 
tolerable  and  innocent,  than  the  usual  prat- 
ings  of  a  looser  or  foolish  man.  "  Pone, 
Domine,  custodiam  ori  meo  et  ostium  cir- 
cumstantiae  labiis  meis,"  said  David  ;  "  Put 
a  guard,  O  Lord,  unto  my  mouth,  and  a 
door  unto  my  lips ;"  upon  which  St.  Gre- 
gory said  well,  "  Non  parietem,  sed  ostium 
petit,  quod  viz.  aperitur  et  clauditur ;"  "  He 
did  not  ask  for  a  wall,  but  for  a  door ;  a  door 
that  might  open  and  shut:"  and  it  were  well 
it  were  so  indeed :  "  Labia  tua  sicut  vitta 
coccinea ;"  so  Christ  commends  his  spouse 
in  the  Canticles  ;  "  Thy  lips  are  like  a  scarlet 
hair-lace,"  that  is,  tied  up  with  modesty 
from  folly  and  dissolution.  For  however 
that  few  people  offend  in  silence  and  keep- 
ing the  door  shut  too  much,  yet,  in  opening 
it  too  hastily,  and  speaking  too  much  and 
too  foolishly,  no  man  is  without  a  load  of 
guiltiness ;  and  some  mouths,  like  the  gates 
of  death, 

Noctes  atque  dies  patent — 

"  are  open  night  and  day ;"  and  he  who  is 
so,  cannot  be  innocent.  It  is  said  of  Cicero, 
he  never  spake  a  word  which  himself  would 
fain  have  recalled,  he  spake  nothing  that  re- 
pented him.  St.  Austin,  in  his  seventh 
epistle  to  Marcellinus,  says,  it  was  the  say- 
ing of  a  fool  and  a  sot,  not  of  a  wise  man ; 
and  yet  I  have  read  the  same  thing  to  have 
been  spoken  by  the  famous  Abbot  Pambo, 
in  the  primitive  church ;  and  if  it  could  be 
well  said  of  this  man,  who  was  sparing  and 
severe  in  talk,  it  is  certain  it  could  not  be 
said  of  the  other,  who  was  a  talking,  brag- 
ging person. 

P 


170 


THE  GOOD  AND 


EVIL  TONGUE. 


Serm.  XXIII. 


SERMON  XXIII. 

PART  II. 

The  consideration  hitherto  hath  been  of 
the  immoderation  and  general  excess  in 
speaking,  without  descending  to  particular 
cases  :  but  because  it  is  a  principle  and  pa- 
rent of  much  evil,  it  is  with  great  caution  to 
be  cured,  and  the  evil  consequents  will 
quickly  disband.  But  when  we  draw  near 
to  give  counsel,  we  shall  find,  that  upon  a 
talking  person  scarce  any  medicine  will  stick. 

1.  Plutarch  advises,  that  "such  men 
should  give  themselves  to  writing,"  that, 
making  an  issue  in  the  arm,  it  should  drain 
the  floods  of  the  head ;  supposing,  that  if 
the  humour  were  any  way  vented,  the 
tongue  might  be  brought  to  reason.  But 
the  experience  of  the  world  hath  confuted 
this ;  and  when  Ligurinus  had  writ  a  poem, 
he  talked  of  it  to  all  companies  he  came  in  f 
but,  however,  it  can  be  no  hurt  to  try ;  for 
some  have  been  cured  of  bleeding  at  the 
nose,  by  opening  a  vein  in  the  arm. 

2.  Some  advise,  that  such  persons  should 
keep  company  with  their  betters,  with  grave, 
and  wise,  and  great  persons,  before  whom 
men  do  not  usually  bring  forth  all,  but  the 
better  parts  of  their  discourse :  and  this  is 
apt  to  give  assistance  by  the  help  of  modesty ; 
and  might  do  well,  if  men  were  not  apt  to 
learn  to  talk  more  in  the  society  of  the  aged, 
and,  out  of  a  desire  to  seem  wise  and 
knowing,  be  apt  to  speak  before  their  oppor- 
tunity. 

3.  Consideration  of  the  dangers  and  con- 
sequent evils  hath  some  efficacy  in  nature 
to  restrain  our  looser  talkings,  by  the  help 
of  fear  and  prudent  apprehensions.  iElian 
tells  of  the  geese  flying  over  the  mountain 
Taurus  ;|  that,  for  fear  of  eagles,  nature  hath 
taught  them  to  carry  stones  in  their  mouths, 
till  they  be  past  their  danger ;  care  of  our- 
selves, desire  of  reputation,  appetite  of  being 
believed,  love  of  societies  and  fair  com- 
pliances, fear  of  quarrels  and  misinterpreta- 
tion, of  law-suits  and  affronts,  of  scorn  and 
contempt,  of  infinite  sins,  and  consequently 
the  intolerable  wrath  of  God  ;  these  are  the 
great  endearments  of  prudent  and  temperate 
speech. 

Some  advise,  that  such  persons  should 
change  their  speech  into  business  and  action : 


*  Mart. 

WO/MOV,  S'lOLTiTCVIAI. 


and  it  were  well  if  they  changed  it  into  any 
good  thing,  for  then  the  evil  were  cured  ; 
but  action  and  business  are  not  the  cure 
alone,  unless  we  add  solitariness;  for  the 
experience  of  this  last  age  hath  made  us  to 
feel,  that  companies  of  working  people  have 
nursed  up  a  strange  religion ;  the  first, 
second,  and  third  part  of  which  is  talking 
and  folly,  save  only  that  mischief,  and  pride, 
and  fighting,  came  in  the  retinue.  But  he 
that  works,  and  works  alone,  he  hath  em- 
ployment, and  no  opportunity.  But  this  is 
but  a  cure  of  the  symptom  and  temporary 
effect;  but  the  disease  may  remain  yet, 
Therefore, . 

5.  Some  advise,  that  the  business  and  em- 
ployment of  the  tongue  be  changed  into 
religion ;  and  if  there  be  a  "  pruritus,"  or 
"  itch  "  of  talking,  let  it  be  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion, in  prayers,  and  pious  discourses,  in 
glorifications  of  God,  and  the  wise  sayings 
of  Scripture  and  holy  men  ;  this  indeed  will 
secure  the  material  part,  and  make  that  the 
discourses  in  their  nature  shall  be  innocent. 
But  I  fear  this  cure  will  either  be  improper, 
or  insufficient.  For  in  prayers,  the  multi- 
tude of  words  is  sometimes  foolish,  very 
often  dangerous;  and,  of  all  things  in  the 
world,  we  must  be  careful  we  bring  not  to 
God  "  the  sacrifice  of  fools ;"  and  the  talk- 
ing much  of  the  things  of  Scripture  hath 
ministered  often  to  vanity  and  divisions. 
But  therefore,  whoever  will  use  this  remedy 
must  never  dwell  long  upon  any  one  in- 
stance, but  by  variety  of  holy  duties  enter- 
tain himself;  for  he  may  easily  exceed  his 
rule  in  any  thing,  but  in  speaking  honourably 
of  God,  and  in  that  let  him  enlarge  himself 
as  he  can ;  he  shall  never  come  10  equal, 
much  less  to  exceed,  that  which  is  infinite. 

6.  But  some  men  will  never  be  cured 
without  a  cancer  or  a  quinsy  ;  and  such 
persons  are  taught  by  all  men  what  to  do  ; 
for  if  they  would  avoid  all  company,  as  will- 
ingly as  company  avoids  them,  they  might 
quickly  have  a  silence  great  as  midnight, 
prudent  as  the  Spartan  brevity.  But  God's 
grace  is  sufficient  to  all  that  will  make  use 
of  it ;  and  there  is  no  way  for  the  cure  of 
this  evil,  but  the  direct  obeying  of  a  counsel, 
and  submitting  to  the  precept,  and  fearing 
the  Divine  threatening  :  always  remember- 
ing, that  (t  of  every  word  a  man  speaks,  he 
shall  give  account  at  the  day  of  judgment;" 
I  pray  God  show  us  all  a  mercy  in  that  day, 
and  forgive  us  the  sins  of  the  tongue. 
Amen. 


Serm.  XXIII. 


THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE. 


171 


iC  Cito  lutum  colligit  amnis  exundans,"  But  that  which  is  here  meant  by  stultilo- 
said  St.  Ambrose;  let  your  language  be  quy,  or  foolish  speaking,  is  the  "lubricum 
restrained  within  its  proper  channels  and  verbi,"  as  St.  Ambrose  calls  it,  "  the  slipping 
measures  ;  for,  "  if  the  river  swells  over  the  with  the  tongue  :"  which  prating  people 
banks,  it  leaves  nothing  but  dirt  and  filthi-1  often  sutler,  whose  discourses  betray  the 
ness  behind:"  and,  besides  the  great  evils  vanity  of  their  spirit,  and  discover  "  the  hid- 
and  mischiefs  of  a  wicked  tongue, — the  vain  den  man  of  the  heart."  For  no  prudence 
tongue,  and  the  trifling  conversation,  hath  is  a  sufficient  guard,  or  can  always  stand 
some  proper  evils;  1.  "  Stultiloquium,"  or!  "in  excubiis,"  "still  watching,"  when  a 
"speaking  like  a  fool;"  2.  "  Scurrilitas," i  man  is  in  perpetual  floods  of  talk:  for  pru- 
or,  "  immoderate  and  absurd  jesting  :"  and,  dence  attends  after  the  manner  of  an  angel's 
3.  Revealing  secrets.  j  ministry ;  it  is  despatched  on  messages  from 

L  Concerning  stultiloquy,  it  is  to  be  ob-  God,  and  drives  away  enemies,  and  places 
served,  that  the  masters  of  spiritual  life  mean  guards,  and  calls  upon  the  man  to  awake, 
not,  the  talk  and  useless  babble  of  weak  and  and  bids  him  send  out  spies  and  observers, 
ignorant  persons ;  because  in  their  propor- 1  and  then  goes  about  his  own  ministries 
tion  they  may  serve  their  little  mistaken  ends  above :  but  an  angel  does  not  sit  by  a  man,  as 
of  civility  and  humanity,  as  seemingly  to  a  nurse  by  the  baby's  cradle,  watching  every 
them,  as  the  strictest  and  most  observed  motion,  and  the  lighting  of  a  fly  upon  the 
words  of  the  wiser ;  if  it  be  their  best,  their  child's  lip :  and  so  is  prudence  :  it  gives  rules, 
folly  may  be  pitied,  but  not  reproved ;  and  and  proportions  out  our  measures,  and  pre- 
to  them  there  is  no  caution  to  be  added,  but  scribes  us  cautions,  and  by  general  influences, 
that  it  were  well  if  they  would  put  the  bridle  orders  our  particulars;  but  he  that  is  given 
into  the  hands  of  another,  who  may  give  to  talk,  cannot  be  secured  by  all  this ;  the 
them  check  when  themselves  cannot ;  and  ]  emissions  of  his  tongue  are  beyond  the  gene- 
no  wisdom  can  be  required  or  useful  to  ;  ral  figures  and  lines  of  rule  ;  and  he  can  no 
them,  but  to  suspect  themselves  and  choose  more  be  wise  in  every  period  of  a  long  and 
to  be  conducted  by  another.  For  so  the  running  talk,  than  a  lutanist  can  deliberate 
little  birds  and  laborious  bees, — who,  having  and  make  every  mouon  of  his  hand  by  the 
no  art  and  power  of  contrivance,  no  distinc-  division  of  his  notes,  to  be  chosen  and  dis- 
tion  of  time,  or  foresight  of  new  necessities,  tinctly  voluntary.  And  hence  it  comes,  that 
yet  being  guided  by  the  hand,  and  counselled  at  every  corner  of  the  mouth  a  f?lly  peeps 
by  the  wisdom,  of  the  Supreme  Power,  their  out,  or  a  mischief  creeps  in.  A  little  pride 
Lord,  and  ours, — do  things  with  greater  and  a  great  deal  of  vanity  will  soon  escape, 
niceness  and  exactness  of  art,  and  regularity  while  the  man  minds  the  sequel  of  his  talk, 
of  lime,  and  certainty  of  effect,  than  the  wise  and  not  that  ugliness  of  humour,  wVuch  the 
counsellor,  who,  standing  at  the  back  of  the  severe  man,  that  stood  by,  did  observe,  and 
prince's  chair,  guesses  imperfectly  ,  and  was  ashamed  of.  Do  not  many  men  talk  them- 
counsels  timorously,  and  thinks  by  interest,  selves  into  anger,  screwing  up  themselves 
and  determines  extrinsical  events  bv  inward  with  dialogues  of  fancv.  till  thev  forget  the 
and  unconcerning  principles  ;  because  these  company  and  themselves  ?  And  some  men 
have  understanding,  but  it  is  less  than  hate  to  be  contradicted,  or  interrupted,  or  to 
the  infinity  of  accidents  and  contingencies ;  be  discovered  in  their  folly  ;  and  some  men 
without ;  but  the  other  having  none,  are  being  a  little  conscious,  and  not  striving  to 
wholly  guided  by  him,  that  knows  and  de- ,  amend  by  silence,  they  make  it  worse  by 
termines  all  things  :  so  it  is  in  the  im- 1  discourse  ;  a  long  story  of  themselves, — a  te- 
perfect  designs  and  actions  and  discourses  dious  praise  of  another  collaterally  to  do  them- 
of  weaker  people;  if  they  can  be  ruled  by  selves  advantage, — a  declamation  against  a 
an  understanding  without,  when  they  have  sin  to  undo  the  person,  or  oppress  the  reputa- 
none  within,  they  shall  receive  this  advan-  tion  of  their  neighbour, — unseasonable  repe- 
tage,  that  their  own  passions  shall  not  trans-  tition  of  that  which  neither  profits  nor  de- 
port their  minds,  and  the  divisions  and! lights, — trifling  contentions  about  a  goat's 
weakness  of  their  own  sense  and  notices  J  beard,  or  the  blood  of  an  oyster, — anger  and 
shall  not  make  them  uncertain  and  indeter- :  animosity,  spite  and  rage, — scorn  and  re- 
minate  ;  and  the  measures  they  shall  walk  proach  begun  upon  questions  which  concern 
by,  shall  be  disinterest,  and  even,  and  dis-  j  neither  of  the  litigants, — fierce  disputations, 
passionate,  and  full  of  observation.  | — strivings  for  what  is  past,  and  for  what 


172 


THE  GOOD  AND 


EVIL  TONGUE. 


Serm.  XXIII. 


shall  never  be :  these  are  the  events  of  the 
loose  and  unwary  tongue;  which  are  like 
flies  and  gnats  upon  the  margin  of  a  pool ; 
they  do  not  sting  like  an  asp,  or  bite  deep 
as  a  bear ;  yet  they  can  vex  a  man  into  a 
fever  and  impatience,  and  make  him  incapa- 
ble of  rest  and  counsel. 

2.  The  second  is  scurrility,  or  foolish  jest- 
ing. This  the  apostle  so  joins  with  the  for- 
mer f.icopo%joyi,a,  "  foolish  speaking,  and  jest- 
ings  which  are  not  convenient,"*  that  some 
think  this  to  be  explicative  of  the  other,  and 
that  St.  Paul,  using  the  word  tv-tpartsxla, 
(which  all  men  before  his  time  used  in  a 
good  sense,)  means  not  that  which  indeed  is 
witty  and  innocent,  pleasant  and  apt  for  in- 
stitution, but  that  which  fools  and  parasites 
call  Evipartstia,  but  indeed  is  (xapo^oyia ;  what 
they  call  facetiousness  and  pleasant  wit,  is 
indeed  to  all  wise  persons  a  mere  stultiloquy , 
or  talking  like  a  fool;  and  that  kind  of  jest- 
ing is  forbidden.  And  indeed  I  am  induced 
fully  to  this  understanding  of  St.  Paul's 
words,  by  the  conjunctive  particle  which 

he  uses,  xcu  altizpotrjs  xai  jtwopo^oyta,  t)  f vtfpartf- 
?u'a,  "  and  filthiness  and  foolish  talking,  or 
jesting ;"  just  as  in  the  succeeding  verse,  he 
joins  axa^xtpala  rCkeovs&a,  "  uncleanness  (so 
we  read  it)  or  covetousness;"  one  explicates 
the  other ;  for  by  "  covetousness"  is  meant 
any  "  defraudation  ;"  7fK(ovexT^,  "  frauda- 
tor,"  so  St.  Cyprian  renders  it :  and  rttewsx- 
tslv  St.  Jerome  derives  from  7tKsov  sz*w>  "to 
take  more  than  a  man  should ;"  and  there- 
fore, when  St.  Paul  said,  "  Let  no  man  cir- 
cumvent his  brother  in  any  matter,"  he 
expounds  it  of  "  adultery  ;"  and  in  this  very 
place  he  renders  7tteov£%lav,  "stuprum," 
"lust;"  and,  indeed,  it  is  usual  in  Scripture, 
that  covetousness, — being  so  universal,  so 
original  a  crime,  such  a  prolific  sin, — be 
called  by  all  the  names  of  those  sins  by 
which  it  is  either  punished,  or  to  which  it 
tempts,  or  whereby  it  is  nourished ;  and  as 
here  it  is  called  "uncleanness,"  or  "cor- 
ruption ;"  so,  in  another  place,  it  is  called 
"idolatry."  But  to  return;  this  jesting, 
which  St.  Paul  reproves,  is  a  direct  ^uopo- 
Tioyta,  or  the  jesting  of  mimics  and  players, 
that  of  the  fool  in  the  play,  which,  in  those 
times,  and  long  before,  and  long  after,  were 
of  that  licentiousness,  that  they  would  abuse 
Socrates  or  Aristides :  and  because  the  rab- 
ble were  the  laughers,  they  knew  how  to 
make  them  roar  aloud  with  a  slovenly  and 
wanton  word,  when  they  understood  not  the 
salt  and  ingenuity  of  a  witty  and  useful 

*Ephes.  v.4. 


answer  or  reply ;  as  it  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
intertextures  of  Aristophanes'  comedies.  But 
in  pursuance  of  this  of  St.  Paul,  the  fathers 
of  the  church  have  been  very  severe  in  the 
censures  of  this  liberty.  St.  Ambrose  for- 
bids all :  "  Non  solum  profusos,  sed  etiam 
omnes  jocos  declinandos  arbitror;"  "Not 
only  the  looser  jestings,  but  even  all,  are  to 
be  avoided:"*  nay,  " licet  interdum  joca 
honesta  et  suavia  sint,  tamen  ab  ecclesioe 
horrent  regula,"  "  the  church  allows  them 
not,  though  they  be  otherwise  honest  and 
pleasant ;  for  how  can  we  use  those  things 
we  find  not  in  Holy  Scripture?"  St.  Basil 
gives  reason  for  this  severity :  Jocus  facit 
animam  remissam  et  erga  praecepta  Dei 
negligentem ;"  and,  indeed,  that  cannot  be 
denied ;  those  persons  whose  souls  are  dis- 
persed and  ungathered  by  reason  of  a  wan- 
ton humour  to  intemperate  jesting,  are  apt 
to  be  trifling  in  their  religion.  St.  Jerome 
is  of  the  same  opinion,  and  adds  a  command- 
ment of  a  full  authority,  if  at  least  the  record 
was  right;  for  he  quotes  a  saying  of  our 
blessed  Saviour  out  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
Nazarenes  ;  "  Nunquam  Iseti  sitis,  nisi  cum 
fratrem  vestrum  incharitate  videritis  ;"  "  Ne- 
ver be  merry,  but  when  you  see  your  brother 
in  charity  :"f  and  when  you  are  merry,  St. 
James  hath  appointed  a  proper  expression 
of  it,  and  a  fair  entertainment  to  the  passion ; 
"  If  any  man  be  merry,  let  him  sing  psalms." 
But  St.  Bernard,  who  is  also  strict  in  this 
particular,  yet  he  adds  the  temper.  Though 
jestings  be  not  fit  for  a  Christian,  "Interdum 
tamen  si  incidant,  ferendae  fortassis,  referen- 
da nunquam  :  magis  interveniendum  caute 
et  prudenter  nugacitati ;"  "  If  they  seldom 
happen,  they  are  to  be  borne,  but  never  to  be 
returned  and  made  a  business  of;  but  we 
must  rather  interpose  warily  and  prudently 
to  hinder  the  growth  and  progress  of  the 
trifle." 

But  concerning  this  case  of  conscience, 
we  are  to  remember,  these  holy  persons 
found  jesting  to  be  a  trade  \%  such  were  the 
"  ridicularii"  among  the  Romans,  and  the 
yeUitoriovoi  among  the  Greeks ;  and  this  trade, 
besides  its  own  unworthiness,  was  mingled 
with  infinite  impieties;  and  in  the  institu- 
tion, and  in  all  the  circumstances  of  its  prac- 
tice, was  not  only  against  all  prudent  se- 
verity, but  against  modesty  and  chastity, 
and  was  a  license  in  disparagement  of 
virtue;  and  the  most  excellent  things  and 


*  Lip.  de  Offic.  t  In  ep.  ap.  Ephes. 

t  Vide  S.  Chrysost.  Homil.  6.  in  Matth. 


Serm.  XXIII.     THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE. 


173 


persons  were  by  it  undervalued ;  so  that 
in  this  throng  of  evil  circumstances  finding 
a  humour  placed,  which,  without  infinite 
wariness,  could  never  pretend  to  innocence, 
it  is  no  wonder  they  forbade  all ;  and  so  also 
did  St.  Paul  upon  the  same  account.  And 
in  the  same  state  of  reproof  to  this  day,  are 
all  that  do  as  they  did  :  such  as  are  professed 
jesters,  people  that  play  the  fool  for  money, 
whose  employment  and  study  is  to  unclothe 
themselves  of  the  covers  of  reason  or  mo- 
desty, that  they  may  be  laughed  at.  And 
let  it  be  considered,  how  miserable  every 
sinner  is,  if  he  does  not  deeply  and  truly 
repent ;  and  when  the  man  is  wet  with  tears, 
and  covered  with  sorrow,  crying  out  mightily 
against  his  sins,  how  ugly  will  it  look  when 
this  is  remembered,  the  next  day,  that  he 
plays  the  fool,  and  rasies  his  laughter  louder 
ttian  his  prayers  and  yesterday's  groans,  for 
no  interest  but  that  he  may  eat !  A  penitent 
and  a  jester  is  like  a  Grecian  piece  of  money, 
on  which  were  stamped  a  Helena  on  one 
side,  and  a  Hecuba  on  the  other,  a  rose  and 
a  deadly  aconite,  a  Paris  and  an  iEsop, — 
nothing  was  more  contrary;  and  upon  this 
account  this  folly  was  reproved  by  St.  Je- 
rome; "Verum  et  haec  a  Sanctis  viris  peni- 
tus  propellenda,  quibus  magis  convenit  stere 
atque  lugere ;"  "  Weeping,  and  penitential 
sorrow,  and  the  sweet  troubles  of  pity  and 
compassion,  become  a  holy  person,"*  much 
better  than  a  scurrilous  tongue.  But  the 
whole  state  of  this  question  is  briefly  this. 

1.  If  jesting  be  unseasonable,  it  is  also  in- 
tolerable; rt%u>$  axatpoj  ev  fipotols  dsivbv  xaxov. 

2.  If  it  be  immoderate,  it  is  criminal,  and 
a  little  thing  here  makes  the  access ;  it  is  so 
in  the  confines  of  folly,  that,  as  soon  as  it 
is  out  of  doors,  it  is  in  the  regions  of  sin. 

3.  If  it  be  in  an  ordinary  person,  it  is  dan- 
gerous ;  but  if  in  an  eminent,  a  consecrated, 
a  wise,  and  extraordinary  person,  it  is  scan- 
dalous. "  Inter  saeculares  nuga?  sunt,  in  ore 
Sacredotis  blasphemiae,"  so  St.  Bernard. 

4.  If  the  matter  be  not  of  an  indifferent 
nature,  it  becomes  sinful  by  giving  counte- 
nance to  a  vice,  or  making  virtue  to  become 
ridiculous. 

5.  If  it  be  not  watched  that  it  complies 
with  all  that  hear,  it  becomes  offensive  and 
injurious. 

6.  If  it  be  not  intended  to  fair  and  lawful 
purposes,  it  is  sour  in  the  using. 

7.  If  it  be  frequent,  it  combines  and  clus- 
ters into  a  formal  sin. 


Ubi  supra. 


I  8.  If  it  mingles  with  any  sin,  it  puts  on 
I  the  nature  of  that  new  unworthiness,  beside 
I  the  proper  ugliness  of  the  thing  itself ;  and, 
|  after  all  these,  when  can  it  be  lawful  or  apt 
,  for  Christian  entertainment? 

The  Ecclesiastical  History  reports,  that 
many  jests  passed  between  St.  Anthony,  the 
■  father  of  the  hermits,  and  his  scholar  St. 
j  Paul ;  and  St.  Hilarion  is  reported  to  have 
been  very  pleasant,  and  of  facete,  sweet, 
and  more  lively  conversation  ;  and,  indeed, 
I  plaisance  and  joy,  and  a  lively  spirit,  and  a 
j  pleasant  conversation,  and  the  innocent  ca- 
J  resses  of  a  charitable  humanity,  is  not  for- 
j  bidden ;  "  Plenum  tamen  suavitatis  et  gratia? 
sermonemnon  esse  indecorum,"  St.  Ambrose 
affirmed ;  and  here  in  my  text  our  conversa- 
tion is  commanded  to  be  such,  iva  69  ^aptv, 
"  that  it  may  minister  grace,"  that  is,  favour, 
complaisance,  cheerfulness  ;  and  be  accepta- 
ble and  pleasant  to  the  hearer :  and  so  must 
be  our  conversation  ;  it  must  be  as  far  from 
sullenness  as  it  ought  to  be  from  lightness, 
and  a  cheerful  spirit  is  the  best  convoy  for 
religion ;  and  though  sadness  does  in  some 
cases  become  a  Christian,  as  being  an  index 
of  a  pious  mind,  of  compassion,  and  a  wise, 
proper  resentment  of  things,  yet  it  serves 
but  one  end,  being  useful  in  the  only  instance 
of  repentance ;  and  hath  done  its  greatest 
works,  not  when  it  weeps  and  sighs,  but 
when  it  hates  and  grows  careful  against  sin. 
But  cheerfulness  and  a  festival  spirit  fill  the 
soul  full  of  harmony,  it  composes  music  for 
churches  and  hearts,  it  makes  and  publishes 
glorifications  of  God,  it  produces  thankful- 
ness, and  serves  the  end  of  charity :  and 
when  the  oil  of  gladness  runs  over,  it  makes 
bright  and  tall  emissions  of  light  and  holy 
fires,  reaching  up  to  a  cloud,  and  making 
joy  round  about :  and  therefore,  since  it  is 
so  innocent,  and  may  be  so  pious  and  full  of 
holy  advantage,  whatsoever  can  innocently 
minister  to  this  holy  joy,  does  set  forward 
the  work  of  religion  and  charity.  And,  in- 
deed, charity  itself,  which  is  the  vertical  top 
of  all  religion,  is  nothing  else  but  a  union  of 
joys,  concentred  in  the  heart,  and  reflected 
from  all  the  angels  of  our  life  and  intercourse. 
It  is  a  rejoicing  in  God,  a  gladness  in  our 
neighbour's  good,  a  pleasure  in  doing  good, 
a  rejoicing  with  him ;  and  without  love  we 
cannot  have  any  joy  at  all.  It  is  this  that 
makes  children  to  be  a  pleasure,  and  friend- 
ship to  be  so  noble  and  divine  a  thing;  and 
upon  this  account  it  is  certain,  that  all  that 
which  can  innocently  make  a  man  cheerful, 
does  also  make  him  charitable;  for  grief, 
p2 


174 


THE  GOOD  AND  EVIL  TONGUE 


Serm.  XXIII. 


and  age,  and  sickness,  and  weariness,  these 
are  peevish  and  troublesome ;  but  mirth  and 
cheerfulness  are  content,  and  civil,  and  com- 
pliant, and  communicative,  and  love  to  do 
good,  and  swell  up  to  felicity  only  upon  the 
wings  of  charity.  Upon  this  account,  here 
is  pleasure  enough  for  a  Christian  at  present ; 
and  if  a  facete  discourse,  and  an  amicable 
friendly  mirth,  can  refresh  the  spirit,  and  take 
it  off  from  the  vile  temptation  of  peevish,  de- 
spairing, uncomplying  melancholy,  it  must 
needs  be  innocent  and  commendable.  And 
we  may  as  well  be  refreshed  by  a  clean  and 
brisk  discourse,  as  by  the  air  of  Campanian 
wines;  and  our  faces  and  our  heads  may  as 
well  be  anointed  and  look  pleasant  with  wit 
and  friendly  intercourse,  as  with  the  fat  of 
the  balsam  tree ;  and  such  a  conversation  no 
wise  man  ever  did  or  ought  to  reprove.  But 
when  the  jest  hath  teeth  and  nails,  biting  or 
scratching  our  brother, — when  it  is  loose 
and  wanton, — when  it  is  unseasonable, — 
and  much,  or  many, — when  it  serves  ill  pur- 
poses, or  spends  better  time, — then  it  is  the 
drunkenness  of  the  soul,  and  makes  the 
spirit  fly  away,  seeking  for  a  temple  where 
the  mirth  and  the  music  are  solemn  and  re- 
ligious. 

But,  above  all  the  abuses  which  ever  dis- 
honoured the  tongue  of  man,  nothing  more 
deserves  the  whip  of  an  exterminating  angel, 
or  the  stings  of  scorpions,  than  profane 
jesting:  which  is  a  bringing  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  to  partake  of  the  follies  of  a  man ; 
as  if  it  were  not  enough  for  a  man  to  be  a 
fool,  but  the  wisdom  of  God  must  be  brought 
into  those  horrible  scenes :  he  that  makes  a 
jest  of  the  words  of  Scripture,  or  of  holy 
things,  plays  with  thunder,  and  kisses  the 
mouth  of  a  cannon  just  as  it  belches  fire 
and  death ;  he  stakes  heaven  at  spurn-point, 
and  trips  cross  and  pile  whether  ever  he 
shall  see  the  face  of  God  or  not;  he  laughs 
at  damnation,  while  he  had  rather  lose 
God  than  lose  his  jest;  nay,  (which  is 
the  horror  of  all,)  he  makes  a  jest  of  God 
himself,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Father  and 
the  Son  to  become  ridiculous.  Some  men 
use  to  read  Scripture  on  their  knees,  and 
many  with  their  heads  uncovered,  and  all 
good  men  with  fear  and  trembling,  with 
reverence  and  grave  attention.  "Search 
the  Scriptures,  for  therein  ye  hope  to  have 
life  eternal;"  and,  "All  Scripture  is  written 
by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  fit  for  instruc- 
tion, for  reproof,  for  exhortation,  for  doc- 
trine," hot  for  jesting;  but  he  that  makes 
that  use  of  it,  had  better  part  with  his  eyes  ! 


in  jest,  and  give  his  heart  to  make  a  tennis- 
ball;  and,  that  I  may  speak  the  worst  thing 
in  the  world  of  it,  it  is  as  like  the  material 
part  of  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  as 
jeering  of  a  man  is  to  abusing  him ;  and  no 
man  can  use  it  but  he  that  wants  wit  and 
manners,  as  well  as  he  wants  religion. 

3.  The  third  instance  of  the  vain,  trifling 
conversation  and  immoderate  talking  is  re- 
vealing secrets  ;  which  is  a  dismantling  and 
rending  of  the  robe  from  the  privacies  of  hu- 
man intercourse  ;  and  it  is  worse  than  deny- 
ing to  restore  that  which  was  entrusted  to 
our  charge;  for  this  not  only  injures  his 
neighbour's  right,  but  throws  it  away,  and 
exposes  it  to  his  enemy  ;  it  is  a  denying  to 
give  a  man  his  own  arms,  and  delivering 
them  to  another,  by  whom  he  shall  suffer 
mischief.  He  that  entrusts  a  secret  to  his 
friend,  goes  thither  as  to  a  sanctuary,  and  to 
violate  the  rites  of  that  is  sacrilege,  and  pro- 
fanation of  friendship,  which  is  the  sister  of 
religion,  and  the  mother  of  secular  blessing ; 
a  thing  so  sacred,  that  it  changes  a  kingdom 
into  a  church,  and  makes  interest  to  be 
piety,  and  justice  to  become  religion.  But 
this  mischief  grows  according  to  the  subject- 
matter  and  its  effect ;  and  the  tongue  of  a 
babbler  may  crush  a  man's  bones,  and  break 
his  fortune  upon  her  own  wheel ;  and 
whatever  the  effect  be,  yet  of  itself  it  is  the 
betraying  of  a  trust,  and,  by  reproach,  often- 
times passes  on  to  intolerable  calamities, 
like  a  criminal  to  his  scaffold  through  the 
execrable  gates  of  cities ;  and,  though  it  is 
infinitely  worse  that  the  secret  is  laid  open 
out  of  spite  or  treachery,  yet  it  is  more 
foolish  when  it  is  discovered  for  no  other 
end  but  to  serve  the  itch  of  talking,  or  to 
seem  to  know,  or  to  be  accounted  worthy  of 
a  trust;  for  so  some  men  open  their  cabinets, 
to  show  only  that  a  treasure  is  laid  up,  and 
that  themselves  were  valued  by  their  friend, 
when  they  were  thought  capable  of  a  secret ; 
but  they  shall  be  so  no  more,  for  he  that  by 
that  means  goes  in  pursuit  of  reputation, 
loses  the  substance  by  snatching  at  the 
shadow,  and,  by  desiring  to  be  thought 
worthy  of  a  secret,  proves  himself  unworthy 
of  friendship  or  society.  D'Avila  tells  of  a 
French  marquis,  young  and  fond,  to  whom 
the  duke  of  Guise  had  conveyed  notice  oi 
the  intended  massacre;  which  when  he  had 
whispered  into  the  king's  ear,  where  there 
was  no  danger  of  publication,  but  only 
would  seem  a  person  worthy  of  such  a  trust, 
!  he  was  instantly  murdered,  lest  a  vanity 
!  like  that  might  unlock  so  horrid  a  mystery. 


Serm.  XXIII. 


THE  GOOD  AN 


D  EVIL  TONGUE. 


175 


I  have  nothing  more  to  add  concerning 
this,  but  that  if  this  vanity  happens  in  the 
matters  of  religion,  it  puts  on  some  new 
circumstances  of  deformity  :  and  if  he,  that 
ministers  to  the  souls  of  men,  and  is  appoint- 
ed to  "restore  him  that  is  overtaken  in  a 
fault,  shall  publish  the  secrets  of  a  con- 
science, he  prevaricates  the  bands  of  nature 
and  religion ;  instead  of  a  father,  he  turns 
"an  accuser,"  a  Ata,8oXoj,  he  weakens  the 
hearts  of  the  penitent,  and  drives  the  repent- 
ing man  from  his  remedy  by  making  it  to  be 
intolerable  ;  and  so  religion  becomes  a  scan- 
dal, and  his  duty  is  made  his  disgrace,  and 
Christ's  yoke  does  bow  his  head  unto  the 
ground,  and  the  secrets  of  the  Spirit  pass 
into  the  flames  of  the  world,  and  all  the 
sweetness  by  which  the  severity  of  the  duty 
is  alleviated  and  made  easy,  are  imbittered 
and  become  venomous  by  the  tongue  of  a 
talking  fool.  Valerius  Soranus  was  put  to 
death  by  the  old  and  braver  Romans,  "  ob 
meritum  profanse  vocis,  quod,  contra  inter- 
dictum,  Romse  nomen  eloqui  fuit  ausus;" 
"  because  by  prating  he  profaned  the  secret 
of  their  religion,  and  told  abroad  that  name 
of  the  city  which  the  Tuscan  rites  had  com- 
manded to  be  concealed,  lest  the  enemies  of 
the  people  should  call  from  them  their  tutelar 
gods,  which  they  could  not  do  but  by  telling 
the  proper  relation.  And  in  Christianity,  all 
nations  have  consented  to  disgrace  that  priest, 
who  loves  the  pleasure  of  a  fool's  tongue 
before  the  charity  of  souls,  and  the  arts  of  the 
Spirit,  and  the  nobleness  of  the  religion ;  and 
they  have  inflicted  upon  him  all  the  censures 
of  the  church,  which  in  the  capacity  of  an 
ecclesiastical  person  he  can  suffer. 

These  I  reckon  the  proper  evils  of  the 
vain  and  trifling  tongues ;  for  though  the 
effect  passes  into  further  mischief,  yet  the 
original  is  weakness  and  folly,  and  all  that 
un  worthiness  which  is  not  yet  arrived  at 
malice.  But  hither  also,  upon  the  same  ac- 
count, some  other  irregularities  of  speech  are 
reducible,  which,  although  they  are  of  a 
mixed  nature,  yet  are  properly  acted  by  a 
vain  and  loose  tongue  ;  and  therefore  may 
be  considered  here  not  improperly. 

1 .  The  first  is  common  swearing,  against 
which  St.  Chrysostom  spends  twenty  homi- 
lies :  and  by  the  number  and  weight  of  ar- 
guments hath  left  this  testimony,  that  it  is  a 
foolish  vice,  but  hard  to  be  cured  :  infinitely 
unreasonable,  but  strangely  prevailing;  al- 
most as  much  without  remedy,  as  it  is  with- 
out pleasure  ;  for  it  enters  first  by  folly,  and 
grows  by  custom,  and  dwells  with  careless- 


ness, and  is  nursed  by  irreligion,  and  want 
of  the  fear  of  God  ;  it  profanes  the  most  holy 
things,  and  mingles  dirt  with  the  beams  ot 
the  sun,  follies  and  trifling  talk  interweaved 
and  knit  together  with  the  sacred  name  of 
God ;  it  placeth  the  most  excellent  of  things 
in  the.  meanest  and  basest  circumstances,  it 
brings  the  secrets  of  heaven  into  the  streets, 
dead  men's  bones  into  the  temple  ;  nothing 
is  a  greater  sacrilege  than  to  prostitute  the 
great  name  of  God  to  the  petulancy  of  an 
idle  tongue,  and  blend  it  as  an  expletive  to 
fill  up  the  emptiness  of  a  weak  discourse. 
The  name  of  God  is  so  sacred,  so  mighty, 
that  it  rends  mountains,  it  opens  the  bowels 
of  the  deepest  rocks,  it  casts  out  devils,  and 
makes  hell  to  tremble,  and  fills  all  the  regions 
of  heaven  with  joy;  the  name  of  God  is 
our  strength  and  confidence,  the  object  of 
our  worshippings,  and  the  security  of  all 
our  hopes  ;  and  when  God  had  given  him- 
self a  name,  and  immured  it  with  dread  and 
reverence,  like  the  garden  of  Eden  with  the 
swords  of  cherubim,  and  none  durst  speak 
it  but  he  whose  lips  were  hallowed,  and 
that  at  holy  and  solemn  times,  in  a  most 
holy  and  solemn  place;  I  mean  the  high 
priest  of  the  Jews  at  the  solemnities  when 
he  entered  into  the  sanctuary, — then  he 
taught  all  the  world  the  majesty  and  venera- 
tion of  his  name  ;  and  therefore  it  was  that 
God  made  restraints  upon  our  conceptions 
and  expressions  of  him :  and,  as  he  was  in- 
finitely curious,  that,  from  all  appearances 
he  made  to  them,  they  should  not  depict  or 
engrave  any  image  of  him ;  so  he  took  care 
that  even  the  tongue  should  be  restrained, 
and  not  be  too  free  in  forming  images  and 
representments  of  his  name  ;  and  therefore, 
as  God  drew  their  eyes  from  vanity,  by  put- 
ting his  name  amongst  them,  and  repre- 
senting no  shape;  so  even  when  he  had 
put  his  name  amongst  them,  he  took  it  off 
from  the  tongue,  and  placed  it  before  the 
eye;  for  Jehovah  was  so  written  on  the 
priest's  mitre,  that  all  might  see  and  read, 
but  none  speak  it  but  the  priest.  But  be- 
sides all  this,  there  is  one  great  thing  con- 
cerning the  name  of  God,  beyond  all  that 
can  be  spoken  or  imagined  else ;  and  that 
is,  that  when  God  the  Father  was  pleased 
to  pour  forth  all  his  glories,  and  imprint 
them  upon  his  holy  Son,  in  his  exaltation, 
it  was  by  giving  him  his  holy  name,  the 
Tetragrammaton,  or  Jehovah  made  articu- 
late; to  signify  "God  manifested  in  the 
flesh ;"  and  so  he  wore  the  character  of  God, 
and  became  the  bright  image  of  his  person 


176 


THE  GOOD  AND 


EVIL  TONGUE. 


Serm.  XXIII. 


Now  all  these  great  things  concerning  the 
name  of  God,  are  infinite  reproofs  of  com- 
mon and  vain  swearing  by  it ;  God's  name 
is  left  us  here  to  pray  by,  to  hope  in,  to  be 
the  instrument  and  conveyance  of  our  wor- 
shippings, to  be  the  witness  of  truth  and  the 
judge  of  secrets,  the  end  of  strife  and  the 
avenger  of  perjury,  the  discerner  of  right  and 
the  severe  exacter  of  all  wrongs  ;  and  shall 
all  this  be  unhallowed  by  impudent  talking 
of  God  without  sense,  or  fear,  or  notices,  or 
reverence,  or  observation  ? 

One  thing  more  I  have  to  add  against  this 
vice  of  a  foolish  tongue,  and  that  is,  that,  as 
much  prating  fills  the  discourse  with  lying, 
so  this  trifling  swearing  changes  every 
trifling  lie  into  a  horrid  perjury ;  and  this  was 
noted  by  St.  James  :  "  But  above  all  things 
swear  not  at  all,"  tva  fo}  vrtb  xplaw  Ttstfyte, 
"  that  ye  may  not  fall  into  condemnation  ;"* 
so  we  read  it,  following  the  Arabian,  Syrian, 
and  Latin  books,  and  some  Greek  copies ; 
and  it  signifies,  that  all  such  swearing,  and 
putting  fierce  appendages  to  every  word, 
like  great  iron  bars  to  a  straw  basket,  or  the 
curtains  of  a  tent,  is  a  direct  condemnation 
of  ourselves  :  for  while  we  by  much  talking 
regard  truth  too  little,  and  yet  bind  up  our 
trifles  with  so  severe  a  band,  we  are  con- 
demned by  our  own  words ;  for  men  are 
made  to  expect  what  you  bound  upon 
them  by  an  oath,  and  account  your  trifle 
to  be  serious;  of  which  when  you  fail, 
you  have  given  sentence  against  yourself : 
and  this  is  agreeable  to  those  words  of  our 
blessed  Saviour,  "  Of  every  idle  word  you 
shall  give  account  ;"f — "  for  by  thy  words 
thou  shalt  be  condemned,  and  by  thy  words 
thou  shalt  be  justified."  But  there  is  another 
reading  of  these  words,  which  hath  great 
emphasis  and  power,  in  this  article,  "  Swear 
not  at  all,"  vm  /xyj  si$  vrtbxpLGw  rtlotytft,  te  that 
you  may  not  fall  into  hypocrisy,"  that  is, 
into  the  disreputation  of  a  lying,  deceiving, 
cozening  person :  for  he  that  will  put  his 
oath  to  every  common  word,  makes  no  great 
matter  of  an  oath ;  for  in  swearing  com- 
monly, he  must  needs  sometimes  swear 
without  consideration,  and  therefore  without 
truth ;  and  he  that  does  so,  in  any  company, 
tells  the  world  he  makes  no  great  matter  of 
being  perjured. 

All  these  things  put  together  may  take  off 
our  wonder  at  St.  James'  expression,  of 
rtpo  rtuvtov,  "above  all  tilings  swear  not;"  it 
is  a  thing  so  highly  to  be  regarded,  and  yet 


*  Chap.  v.  12.  t  Matt.  xii. 


is  so  little  considered,  that  it  is  hard  to  say 
whether  there  be  in  the  world  any  instance 
in  which  men  are  so  careless  of  their  danger, 
and  damnation,  as  in  this. 

2.  The  next  appendage  of  vain  and  trifling 
speech  is  contention,  wrangling,  and  per- 
petual talk,  proceeding  from  the  spirit  of 
contradiction  :  "  Profert  enim  mores  plerum- 
que  oratio,  et  animi  secreta  detegit.  Nec 
sine  causa  Graeci  prodiderunt,  '  Ut  vivat, 
quemque  etiam  dicere,' "  said  Quintilian : 
"  For  the  most  part,  a  man's  words  betray 
his  manners,  and  unlock  the  secrets  of  the 
mind  :  and  it  was  not  without  cause  that  the 
Greeks  said, f  As  a  man  lives,  so  he  speaks ;' " 
for  so  indeed  Menander,  dvSpoj  ^apcwcrrp  ix 
Tuyyov  yvtopl^E-tav ;  and  Aristides,  oloj  o  tpoTtoj, 
tocovtos  xai  6  %6yo$:  so  that  it  is  a  sign  of  a 
peevish,  an  angry,  and  quarrelling  disposi- 
tion, to  be  disputative,  and  busy  in  questions, 
and  impertinent  oppositions. 

You  shall  meet  with  some  men,  (such 
were  the  sceptics  and  such  were  the  Acade- 
mics, of  old,)  who  will  not  endure  any  man 
shall  be  of  their  opinion,  and  will  not  suffer 
men  to  speak  truth,  or  to  consent  to  their  own 
propositions,  but  will  put  every  man  to  fight 
for  his  own  possessions,  disturbing  the  rest  of 
truth,  and  all  the  dwellings  of  unity  and  con- 
sent: "clamosum  altercatorem,"  Q,uintilian 
calls  such  a  one.  This  is  ftBplccssvfm  xap6«x$, 
"  an  overflowing  of  the  heart,"  and  of  the 
gall;  and  it  makes  men  troublesome,  and 
intricates  all  wise  discourses,  and  throws  a 
cloud  upon  the  face  of  truth;  and  while 
men  contend  for  truth,  error,  dressed  in  the 
same  habit,  slips  into  her  chair,  and  all  the 
litigants  court  her  for  the  divine  sister  of  wis- 
dom. "  Nimium  altercando  Veritas  amittit- 
ur:"  There  is  noise  but  no  harmony,  fight- 
ing, but  no  victory,  talking,  but  no  learning: 
all  are  teachers,  and  are  wilful,  every  man 
is  angry,  and  without  reason,  and  without 
charity. 

"  Their  mouth  is  a  spear,  their  language  is 
a  two-edged  sword,  their  throat  is  a  shield," 
as  Nonnus'  expression  is ;  and  the  cla- 
mours and  noises  of  this  folly  is  that  which 
St.  Paul  reproves  in  this  chapter;  "  Let 
all  bitterness  and  clamour  be  put  away." 
People  that  contend  earnestly,  talk  loud; 
"Clamor  equus  estirae;  cum  prostraveris, 
equitem  dejeceris,"  saith  St.  Chrysostom ; 
"  Anger  rides  upon  noise  as  upon  a  horse; 
still  the  noise  and  the  rider  is  in  the  dirt;" 


Seem.  XXIV. 


OF  SLANDER  AND  FLATTERY. 


177 


and,  indeed,  so  to  do  is  an  act  of  fine  strength, 
and  the  cleanest  spiritual  force  that  can  be 
exercised  in  this  instance  ;  and  though  it  be 
hard,  in  the  midst  of  a  violent  motion,  in- 
stantly to  stop,  yet  by  strength  and  good 
conduct  it  may  done.  But  he  whose  tongue 
rides  upon  passion,  and  is  spurred  by  vio- 
lence and  contention,  is  like  a  horse  or  mule 
without  a  bridle,  and  without  understand- 
ing, xZiV  hi  xsxpar/oruv  ovSfi?  odtyw  £6tL  I 
"  No  person  that  is  clamorous  can  be  wise." 

These  are  the  vanities  and  evil  fruits  of 
the  easy  talker ;  the  instances  of  a  trifling, 
impertinent  conversation ;  and  yet,  it  is 
observable,  that  although  the  instances  in 
the  beginning  be  only  vain,  yet  in  the  issue 
and  effects  they  are  troublesome  and  full  of 
mischief;  and,  that  we  may  perceive,  that 
even  all  effusion  and  multitude  of  language 
and  vainer  talk  cannot  be  innocent,  we  may 
observe  that  there  are  many  good  things 
which  are  wholly  spoiled  if  they  do  but 
touch  the  tongue;  they  are  spoiled  with 
speaking :  such  as  is  the  sweetest  of  all 
Christian  graces,  humility — and  the  noblest 
actions  of  humanity,  the  doing  favours  and 
acts  of  kindness.  If  you  speak  of  them, 
vou  pay  yourself,  and  lose  your  kindness; 
humility  is  by  talking  changed  into  pride 
and  hypocrisy,  and  patience  passes  into 
peevishness,  and  secret  trust  into  perfi- 
tliousness,  and  modesty  into  dissolution, 
and  judgment  into  censure;  but  by  silence, 
and  a  restrained  tongue,  all  the  first  mis- 
chiefs are  avoided,  and  all  these  graces  pre- 
served. 


they  were  but  infant  mischiefs,  which  for 
the  most  part  we  have  already  observed,  as 
the  issues  of  vain  and  idle  talking :  but 
there  are  two  spirits  worse  than  these : 
1.  the  spirit  of  detraction;  and,  2.  the  spirit 
of  flattery.  The  first  is  AtaSo?^,  from  whence 
the  devil  hath  his  name ;  he  is  "  an  ac- 
cuser" of  the  brethren.  But  the  second  is 
worse ;  it  is  gtamffftdpos  or  Savdeipos,  "  damna- 
ble" and  "deadly ;"  it  is  the  nurse  of  vice, 
and  the  poison  of  the  soul.  These  are 
(jampot  %6yoi,  "sour"  and  "filthy  communi- 
cations:" the  first  is  rude,  but  the  latter  is 
most  mischievous ;  and  both  of  them  to  be 
avoided  like  death,  or  the  despairing  mur- 
murs of  the  damned. 

I.  Let  no  calumny,  no  slandering,  de- 
tracting communication  proceed  out  of  your 
mouth ;  the  first  sort  of  this  is  that  which 
the  apostle  calls  ivhispering,  which  signifies 
to  abuse  our  neighbour  secretly,  by  telling  a 
private  story  of  him  : 


 linguaque  refert  audita  susurra  ; 

Ovid. 

for  here  the  man  plays  a  sure  game,  as  he 
supposes,  a  mischief  without  a  witness, 


 Qb^axa  xov&a. 


SERMON  XXIV. 

PART    III  . 
OF  SLANDER  AND  FLATTERY. 

He  that  is  twice  asked  a  question,  and 
then  answers,  is  to  be  excused  if  he  an- 
swers weakly  :  but  he  that  speaks  before 
he  be  asked,  had  need  take  care  he  speak 
wisely ;  for  if  he  does  not,  he  hath  no  ex- 
cuse; and  if  he  does,  yet  it  loses  half  its 
beauty;  and  therefore,  the  old  man  gave 
good  counsel  in.  the  comedy  to  the  boy, 
$  not,  oMrta,  HoTX  t^ft  oiyr\  x&jx  :*  the  pro- 
fits of  a  restrained  modest  tongue  cannot 
easily  be  numbered,  any  more  than  the 
evils  of  an  unbridled  and  dissolute.  But 


Menander. 
23 


as  Anacreon  calls  them ;  "  the  light,  swift 
,  arrows  of  a  calumniating  tongue ;"  they 
pierce  into  the   heart  and  bowels  of  the 
man  speedily.    These  are  those  which  the 
Holy  Scripture  notes   by  the  disgraceful 
jname  of  "tale-bearers;"  "Thou  shalt  not 
go  up  and  down  as  a  tale-bearer  among  the 
people  ;"*  for  "  there  are  six  things  which 
God  hates,"  (saith  Solomon.)  "yea,  the 
seventh  is  an  abomination  unto  him  ;"f  it 
is  38txvyfta3  as  bad,  and  as  much  hated  by- 
God,  as  an  idol,  and  that  is,   "  a  whis- 
jperer,"  or  "tale-bearer  that  soweth  con- 
tention amongst    brethren. "J     This  kind 
of  communication  was   called  ttvxofurtta 
among  the  Greeks,  and  was  as  much  hated 
!  as  the  publicans  among  the  Jews  :  rtonpdr, 
|.«u  aropfj  A^tcuoi,  jtoirpw  (Svxotydvtrj,  "  It  is 
I  a  vile  thing,  O  ye  Athenians,  it  is  a  vile 
thing  for  man  to  be  a  sycophant,  or  a  tale- 
bearer:" and  the  dearest  friendships  in  the 
world  cannot  be  secure,  where  such  whis- 
'  perers  are  attended  to. 

Te  fingente  nefas,  Pyladen  odisset  Orestes, 
Thesea  Pirithoi  destituisset  amor. 

Tu  Siculos  fratres,  et  majus  nomen  Atridas, 
Et  Ledae  poteras  dissociare  genus. 

Mart. 


*  Levit.  xix.  6.   t  Prov.  vi.  17.  t  Prov.  xxvi.  20. 


178 


OF  SLANDER  A 


ND  FLATTERY.     Serm.  XXIV. 


But  this  crime  is  a  conjugation  of  evils, 
and  is  productive  of  infinite  mischiefs;  it 
undermines  peace,  and  saps  the  foundation 
of  friendship  ;  it  destroys  families,  and  rends 
in  pieces  the  very  heart  and  vital  parts  of 
charity ;  it  makes  an  evil  man,  party,  and 
witness,  and  judge,  and  executioner  of  the 
innocent,  who  is  hurt  though  he  deserved 
it  not; 

Et,  si  non  aliqua  nocui3ses,  mortuus  esses. 

Vikg. 

And  no  man's  interest  or  reputation,  no 
man's  peace  or  safety,  can  abide,  where 
this  nurse  of  jealousy  and  parent  of  conten- 
tion, like  the  earwig,  creeps  in  at  the  ear, 
and  makes  a  diseased  noise  and  a  scandal- 
ous murmur. 

2.  But  such  tongues  as  these,  where  they 
dare,  and  where  they  can  safely,  love  to 
speak  louder,  and  then  it  is  detraction; 
when  men,  under  the  colour  of  friendship, 
will  certainly  wound  the  reputation  of  a 
man,  while,  by  speaking  some  things  of 
him  fairly,  he  shall  without  suspicion  be 
believed  when  he  speaks  evil  of  him;  such 
was  he  that  Horace  speaks  of,  "Me  Capi- 
tolinus  convictore  usus  amicoque,"  &c. 
"  Capitolinus  is  my  friend,  and  we  have 
long  lived  together,  and  obliged  each  other 
by  mutual  endearments,  and  I  am  glad  he 
is  acquitted  by  the  criminal  judges  ;" 

Sed  tamen  admiror,  quo  pacto  judicium  illud 
Fugerit : 

tf  Yet  I  confess,  I  wonder  how  he  should 
escape ;  but  I  will  say  no  more,  because  he 
is  my  friend.''  Kcuv6$  yap  Xti  fi$  ovto$  svpr^tai 
rportoj  6ia3o^s,  to  fiy  ^yoyiUj  aM,'  trtacvowraj 
?*jww,W$a*,  says  Polybius;  "This  is  a  new 
way  of  accusation,  to  destroy  a  man  by 
praises."  These  men  strike  obliquely,  like 
a  wild  swine,  or  the  ol  h  vevpot$  j3o*?,  irti  tZiv 
Cjluov  "%ovm  ta  xspata,  "  like  bulls  in  a  yoke, 
they  have  horns  upon  their  necks,"  and  do 
you  a  mischief  when  they  plough  your 
ground ;  and,  as  Joab  slew  Abner,  he  took 
him  by  the  beard  and  kissed  him,  and  smote 
him  under  the  fifth  rib,  that  he  died ;  so 
doth  the  detracting  tongue,  like  the  smooth- 
tongued lightning,  it  will  break  your  bones 
when  it  kisses  the  flesh;  so  Syphax  did 
secretly  wound  Masinissa,  and  made  Scipio 
watchful  and  implacable  against  Sopho- 
nisba,  only  by  commending  her  beauty  and 
her  wit,  her  constancy  and  unalterable  love 
to  her  country,  and  by  telling  how  much 
himself  was  forced  to  break  his  faith  by  the 
tyranny  of  her  prevailing  charms.    This  is 


that  which  the  apostle  calls  7tovr^loa>,  "a 
crafty  and  deceitful  way  of  hurting,"  and 
renders  a  man's  tongue  venomous  as  the 
tougue  of  a  serpent,  that  bites  even  though 
he  be  charmed. 

3.  But  the  next  is  more  violent,  and 
that  is,  railing  or  reviling;  which  Aristo- 
tle, in  his  Rhetorics,  says,  is  very  often 
the  vice  of  boys  and  of  rich  men,  who — out 
of  folly  or  pride,  want  of  manners,  or  want 
of  the  measures  of  a  man,  wisdom,  and 
the  just  proportions  of  his  brethren — do 
use  those  that  err  before  them  most  scorn- 
fully and  unworthily;  and  Tacitus  noted  it 
of  the  Claudian  family  in  Rome,  an  old 
and  inbred  pride  and  scornfulness  made 
them  apt  to  abuse  all  that  fell  under  their 
power  and  displeasure;  "  Quorum  super- 
biam  frustra  per  obsequium  et  modestiam 
effugeres."*  No  observance,  no  prudence, 
no  modesty,  can  escape  the  reproaches  of 
such  insolent  and  high  talkers.  A.  Gellius 
tells  of  a  boy  that  would  give  every  one  that 
he  met  a  box  on  the  ear ;  and  some  men 
will  give  foul  words,  having  a  tongue  rough 
as  a  cat,  and  biting  like  an  adder;  and  all 
their  reproofs  are  direct  scoldings,  their 
common  intercourse  is  open  contumely. 
There  have  been,  in  these  last  ages,  exam- 
ples of  judges,  who  would  reproach  the 
condemned  and  miserable  criminal,  deriding 
his  calamity,  and  reviling  his  person.  Nero 
did  so  to  Thraseas ;  and  the  old  heathens  to 
the  primitive  martyrs ;  "  pereuntibus  ad- 
dita  ludibria,"  said  Tacitus  of  them ;  they 
crucified  them  again,  by  putting  them  to 
suffer  the  shame  of  their  fouler  language; 
they  railed  at  them,  when  they  bowed  their 
heads  upon  the  cross,  and  groaned  forth  the 
saddest  accents  of  approaching  death.  This 
is  that  evil  that  possessed  those,  of  whom  the 
Psalmist  speaks  :  "  Our  tongues  are  our 
own ;  we  are  they  that  ought  to  speak  ;  who 
is  Lord  over  us  V  that  is,  our  tongues  cannot 
be  restrained ;  and  St.  James  said  something 
of  this,  "  The  tongue  is  an  unruly  member, 
which  no  man  can  tarae,"f  that  is,  no  pri- 
vate person,  but  a  public  may ;  for  he  that 
can  rule  the  tongue,  is  fit  also  to  rule  the 
whole  body,  that  is,  the  church  or  congre- 
gation ;  magistrates  and  the  governors  of 
souls,  they  are  by  severity  to  restrain  this 
inordinatipn,  which  indeed  is  a  foul  one ; 

'ftj  apa  ov&ev  -ft,  5taj36^ov  yXw-f-r^j  jfca'ptt*/  iv 
dvtfpujtoij  fVfpov  xaxov. 


*  Levit.  vi.  ;  Zech.  vii.  ;  Luke  iii. 
t  James  iii. 


Serm.  XXIV. 


OF  SLANDER  AND  FLATTERY. 


179 


"  No  evil  is  worse,  or  of  more  open  vio- 
lence to  the  rest  and  reputation  of  men, 
than  a  reproachful  tongue."  And  it  were 
well  if  we  considered  this  evil,  to  avoid  it 
in  those  instances,  by  which  our  conversa- 
tion is  daily  stained.  Are  we  not  often  too 
imperious  against  our  servants?  Do  we 
not  entertain  and  feed  our  own  anger  with 
vile  and  basest  language  ?  Do  not  we  chas- 
tise a  servant's  folly  or  mistake,  his  error  or 
his  chance,  with  language  fit  to  be  used  by 
none  but  vile  persons,  and  towards  none 
but  dogs  ?  Our  blessed  Saviour,  restraining 
the  hostility  and  murder  of  the  tongue, 
threatens  hell-fire  to  them  that  call  their 
brother  "fool;"  meaning,  that  all  language, 
which  does  really,  and  by  intention,  dis- 
grace him  in  the  greater  instances,  is  as 
directly  against  the  charity  of  the  gospel,  as 
killing  a  man  was  against  the  severity  and 
justice  of  the  law.  And  although  the  word 
itself  may  be  used  to  reprove  the  indiscre- 
tions and  careless  follies  of  an  idle  person ; 
yet  it  must  be  used  only  in  order  to  his 
amendment, — by  an  authorized  person, — in 
the  limits  of  a  just  reproof, — upon  just  oc- 
casion,— and  so  as  may  not  do  him  mischief 
in  the  event  of  things.  For  so  we  find  that 
our  blessed  Saviour  called  his  disciples, 
ovaqtovs,  "  foolish  and  St.  James  used 
d>£purfs  xw£,  "  vain  man,"  signifying  the 
same  with  the  forbidden  "  raca,"  xsvov, 
"vain,  useless,  or  empty;"  and  St.  Paul 
calls  the  Galatians  "mad,  and  foolish, 
and  bewitched ;"  and  Christ  called  Herod 
"fox;"  and  St.  John  called  the  Pharisees 
"  the  generation  of  vipers  ;"  and  all  this  mat- 
ter is  wholly  determined  by  the  manner,  and 
with  what  mind,  it  is  done  ;  if  it  be  for  cor- 
rection and  reproof  towards  persons  that 
deserve  it,  and  by  persons  whose  authority 
can  warrant  a  just  and  severe  reproof,  and 
this  also  be  done  prudently,  safely,  and  use- 
fully,—it  is  not  contumely  ;  but  when  men, 
upon  all  occasions,  revile  an  offending  per- 
son, lessening  his  value,  souring  his  spirit, 
and  his  life,  despising  his  infirmities,  tragi- 
cally expressing  his  lightest  misdemean- 
our, ol  V7ib  uixputv  aaafr^1uar'wv  <xn>7t£p8ft.>;T'co$ 
opyi&usvoo,  "being  tyranically  declamatory, 
and  intolerably  angry  for  a  trifle ;" — these 
are  such,  who,  as  Apollonius  the  philo- 
sopher said,  will  not  suffer  the  offending 
person  to  know  when  his  fault  is  great, 
and  when  it  is  little.    For  they,  who  al- 


Matt.  xxiii.  17,  19.  Luke  xxiv.  25. 


ways  put  on  a  supreme  anger,  or  express 
the  less  anger  with  the  highest  reproaches, 
can  do  no  more  to  him  that  steals,  than  to 
him  that  breaks  a  crystal ;  "  non  plus  aequo, 
non  diutius  quo,"  was  a  good  rule  for 
reprehension  of  offending  servants;  but  no 
more  anger,  no  more  severe  language,  than 
the  thing  deserves;  if  you  chide  too  long, 
your  reproof  is  changed  into  reproach ;  it 
too  bitterly,  it  becomes  railing ;  if  too  loud, 
it  is  immodest:  if  too  public  it  is  like  a  do«; 

To  6'  ijtiSiutxtw,  £i$  ts  trv  bhov  fp£%£iv 
"Etc  "KQibopovixevqv,  xvvo$  idt  Ipyov,  'Podq. 

Menand. 

So  the  man  told  his  wife  in  the  Greek  co- 
medy; "To  follow  me  in  the  streets  with 
thy  clamorous'  tongue,  is  to  do  as  dogs  do," 
not  as  persons  civil  or  religious. 

4.  The  fourth  instance  of  the  calumniat- 
ing, filthy  communication,  is  that  which  we 
properly  call  slander,  or  the  inventing  evil 
things,  falsely  imputing  crimes  to  our  neigh- 
bour :  "Falsum  crimen  quasi  venenatum 
telum,"  said  Cicero;  "  A  false  tongue  or  a 
foul  lie  against  a  man's  reputation,  is  like  a 
poisoned  arrow,"  it  makes  the  wound  dead- 
ly, and  every  scratch  to  be  incurable. 
"  Promptissima  vindicta  contumeiia,"  said 
one ;  to  reproach  and  rail,  is  a  revenge  that 
every  girl  can  take.  But  falsely  to  accuse, 
is  as  spiteful  as  hell,  and  deadly  as  the  blood 
of  dragons. 

Stoicus  occidit  Baream,  delator  amicum. 

Juv. 

This  is  the  direct  murder  of  the  tongue, 
for  "  Life  and  death  are  in  the  hand  of  the 
tongue,"  said  the  Hebrew  proverb ;  and  it 
was  esteemed  so  vile  a  thing,  that  when 
Jezebel  commanded  the  elders  ol  Israel  to 
suborn  false  witnesses  against  Naboth,  she 
gave  them  instructions  to  "take  two  men, 
the  sons  of  Belial;"  none  else  were  fit  for 
the  employment. 

Quid  non  audebis,  perfida  lingua,  loqui? 

Makt. 

This  was  it  that  broke  Ephraim  in  judg- 
ment, and  executed  the  fierce  anger  of  the 
Lord  upon  him ;  God  gave  him  over  to  be 
oppressed  by  a  false  witness,  "quoniam 

I  coepit  abire  post  sordes,"  therefore  he  suf- 

j  fered  calumny,  and  was  overthrown  in  judg- 
ment. This  was  it  that  humbled  Joseph  in 
fetters,  and  the  iron  entered  into  his  soul;" 

!  but  it  crushed  him  not  so  much  as  the  false 
tongue  of  his  revengeful  mistress,  "  until  his 

:  cause  was  known,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord 


180 


OF  SLANDER  AND  FLATTERY. 


Serm.  XXIV. 


tried  him."  This  was  it  that  slew  Abime- 
lech,  and  endangered  David ;  it  was  a  sword 
"in  manu  linguae  Doeg,"  "in  the  hand  of 
Doeg's  tongue."  By  this,  Ziba  cut  off  the 
legs  of  Mephibosheth,  and  made  his  reputa- 
tion lame  for  ever ;  it  thrust  Jeremy  into  the 
dungeon,  and  carried  Susanna  to  her  stake, 
and  our  Lord  to  his  cross ;  and  therefore, 
against  the  dangers  of  a  slandering  tongue, 
all  laws  have  so  cautiously  armed  themselves, 
that,  besides  the  severest  prohibitions  of  God, 
often  recorded  in  both  Testaments,  God  hath 
chosen  it  to  be  one  of  his  appellatives  to  the 
defender  of  them,  a  party  for  those,  whose 
innocency  and  defenceless  state  make  them 
most  apt  to  be  undone  by  this  evil  spirit; 
I  mean  pupils,  and  widows,  the  poor,  and 
the  oppressed.*  And  in  pursuance  of  this 
charity,  the  imperial  laws  have  invented  a 
"juramentum  de  calumnia,"  an  oath  to  be 
exhibited  to  the  actor  or  plaintiff,  that  he  be- 
lieves himself  to  have  a  just  cause,  and  that 
he  does  not  implead  his  adversary  "  calum- 
niandi  animo,"  (f  with  false  instances,"  and 
defensible  allegations ;  and  the  defendant  is 
to  swear,  that  he  thinks  himself  to  use  only 
just  defences,  and  perfect  instances  of  re- 
sisting ;  and  both  of  them  obliged  themselves, 
that  they  would  exact  no  proof  but  what 
Avas  necessary  to  the  truth  of  the  cause. 
And  all  this  defence  was  nothing  but  neces- 
sary guards.  For,  ce  a  spear,  and  a  sword, 
and  an  arrow,  is  a  man  that  speaketh  false 
witness  against  his  neighbour."  And  there- 
fore, the  laws  of  God  added  yet  another  bar 
against  this  evil,  and  the  false  accuser  was 
to  suffer  the  punishment  of  the  objected 
crime :  and,  as  if  this  were  not  sufficient, 
God  hath  in  several  ages  wrought  miracles, 
and  raised  the  dead  to  life,  that,  by  such 
strange  appearances,  they  might  relieve  the 
oppressed  innocent,  and  load  the  false  accus- 
ing tongue  with  shame  and  horrible  confu- 
sion. So  it  happened  in  the  case  of  Susanna, 
the  spirit  of  a  man  was  put  into  the  heart 
of  a  child  to  acquit  the  virtuous  woman ; 
and  so  it  was  in  the  case  of  Gregory,  bishop 
of  Agrigentum,  falsely  accused  by  Sabinus 
and  Crescentius;  God's  power  cast  the  devil 
out  of  Eudocia,  the  devil,  or  spirit  of  slander, 
and  compelled  her  to  speak  the  truth.  St. 
Austin,  in  his  book,  "  De  Cur&  pro  Mortuis," 
tells  of  a  dead  father  that  appeared  to  his 
oppressed  son,  and,  in  a  great  matter  of  law, 
delivered  him  from  the  teeth  of  false  accusa- 
tion.f  So  was  the  church  of  Monts  rescued 
by  the  appearance  of  Aia,  the  deceased  wife 

*  Lcvit.  vi.  Zech  v»i.  Luke  iii.         t  C.  11. 


of  Hidulphus,  their  earl,  as  it  appears  in 
Hanovian  story ;  and  the  Polonian  Chroni- 
cles tell  the  like  of  Stanislaus,  bishop  of 
Cracovia,  almost  oppressed  by  the  anger  and 
calumny  of  Boleslaus  their  king ;  God  re- 
lieved him  by  the  testimony  of  St.  Peter, 
their  bishop,  or  a  phantasm  like  him.  But 
whether  these  records  may  be  credited  or  not, 
I  contend  not ;  yet,  it  is  very  material  which 
Eusebius  relates  of  the  three  false  witnesses 
accusing  Narcissus,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  of 
an  infamous  crime,  which  they  did,  affirm- 
ing it  under  several  curses  :*  the  first  wish- 
ing, that,  if  he  said  false,  God  would  destroy 
him  with  fire ;  the  second,  that  he  might  die 
of  the  king's-evil ;  the  third,  that  he  might 
be  blind;  and  so  it  came  to  pass;  the  first, 
being  surprised  with  fire  in  his  own  roof, 
amazed  and  intricated,  confounded  and  de- 
spairing, paid  the  price  of  his  slander  with 
the  pains  of  most  fearful  flames ;  and  the 
second  perished  by  pieces,  and  chirurgeons, 
and  torment :  which  when  the  third  saw,  he 
repented  of  his  fault,  cried  mightily  for  par- 
don, but  wept  so  bitterly,  that  he  found  at 
the  same  time  the  reward  of  his  calumny 
and  the  acceptation  of  his  repentance :  xa- 
xovpyotspov  ov&sv  8iaj3o\y$  i&fl  nu,  said  Clean- 
thes  :  "  Nothing  is  more  operative  of  spitelful 
and  malicious  purposes,  than  the  calumniat- 
ing tongue."  In  the  temple  at  Smyrna, 
there  were  looking-glasses  which  represented 
J  the  best  face  as  crooked,  ugly,  and  deformed ; 
j  the  Greeks  called  these  Iffpos^ua  and  rapa- 
!  #poa :  and  so  is  every  false  tongue ;  it  lies  in 
the  face  of  heaven,  and  abuses  the  ears  of 
justice;  it  oppresses  the  innocent,  and  is 
secretly  revenged  of  virtue  ;  it  defeats  all  the 
charity  of  laws,  and  arms  the  supreme  power, 
and  makes  it  strike  the  innocent ;  it  makes 
frequent  appeals  to  be  made  to  heaven,  and 
causes  an  oath,  instead  of  being  the  end  of 
strife,  to  be  the  beginning  of  mischief ;  it  calls 
the  name  and  testimony  of  God  to  seal  an 
injury;  it  feeds  and  nourishes  cruel  anger, 
but  mocks  justice,  and  makes  mercy  weep 
herself  into  pity,  and  mourn  because  she 
cannot  help  the  innocent. 

5.  The  last  instance  of  this  evil  I  shall 
now  represent,  is  cursing,  concerning  which 
I  have  this  only  to  say :  that  although  the 
causeless  curse  shall  return  upon  the  tongue 
that  spake  it,  yet,  because  very  often  there  is 
a  fault  on  both  sides,  when  there  is  reviling 
or  cursing  on  either,  the  danger  of  a  cursing 
tongue  is  highly  to  be  declined,  as  the  biting 
of  a  mad  dog,  or  the  tongue  of  a  smitten 

*  L.  6.  c.  7. 


Serm.  XXIV. 


OF  SLANDER  AND  FLATTERY. 


181 


serpent.  For,  as  envy  is  in  the  evil  eye,  so 
is  cursing  in  the  reproachful  tongue;  it  is  a 
kind  of  venom  and  witchcraft,  an  instrument 
by  which  God  oftentimes  punishes  anger  and 
uncharitableness;  and  by  which  the  devil  gets 
power  over  the  bodies  and  interests  of  men: 
for  he  that  works  by  Thessalic  ceremonies, 
by  charms,  and  nonsense  words,  by  figures 
and  insignificant  characterisms,  by  images 
and  by  rags,  by  circles  and  imperfect  noises, 
hath  more  advantage  and  real  title  to  the 
opportunities  of  mischief,  by  the  cursing 
tongue;  and  though  God  is  infinitely  more 
ready  to  do  acts  of  kindness  than  of  punish- 
ment, yet  God  is  not  so  careless  a  regarder 
of  the  violent  and  passionate  wishes  of  men, 
but  he  gives  some  over  to  punishment,  and 
chastises  the  folly  of  rage,  and  the  madness 
of  the  tongue,  by  suffering  it  to  pass  into  a 
furtner  mischief  than  the  harsh  sound  and 
horrible  accents  of  the  evil  language.  "  By 
the  tongue  we  bless  God  and  curse  men," 
saith  St.  James ;  totSopta  is  xatapa, "  reproach- 
ing is  cursing,"  and  both  of  them  opposed 
to  fvXoywx,  to  "  blessing;"  and  there  are  many 
times  and  seasons  in  which  both  of  them 
pass  into  real  effect.  These  are  the  particu- 
lars of  the  second. 

3.  I  am  now  to  instance  in  the  third  sort 
of  filthy  communication,  that  in  which  the 
devil  does  the  most  mischief;  by  which  he 
undoes  souls;  by  which  he  is  worse  than 
AtdSotoj,  "an  accuser:"  for  though  he  ac- 
cuses maliciously,  and  instances  spitefully, 
and  heaps  objections  diligently,  and  aggra- 
vates bitterly,  and  with  all  his  power  en- 
deavours to  represent  the  separate  souls  to 
God  as  polluted  and  unfit  to  come  into  his 
presence,  yet  this  malice  is  ineffective,  be- 
cause the  scenes  are  acted  before  the  wise 
Judge  of  men  and  angels,  who  cannot  be 
abused;  before  our  Father  and  our  Lore], 
who  knows  whereof  we  be  made,  and  re- 
membereth  that  we  are  but  dust ;  before  our 
Saviour,  and  our  elder  Brother,  who  hath 
felt  our  infirmities,  and  knows  how  to  pity, 
to  excuse,  and  to  answer  for  us  :  but  though 
this  accusation  of  us  cannot  hurt  them  who 
will  not  hurt  themselves,  yet  this  malice 
is  prevailing  when  the  spirit  of  flattery  is 
let  forth  upon  us.  This  is  the  ' ArtoKkviov , 
"  the  destroyer,"  and  is  the  most  contrary- 
thing  to  charity  in  the  whole  world  :  and 
St.  Paul  noted  it  in  his  character  of  charity, 
"H  dydrtr}  ov  ftepTttpsvettu,  "  Charity  vaunteth 
not  itself;"  *  so  we  translate  it,  but  certain- 


*  1  Cor.  xiii.  5. 


ly,  not  exactly,  for  it  signifieth  "  easiness," 
complying  foolishly,  and  flattering ;  "charity 
Jiattereth  not ;"  Tl  fare  to  rttprtt p?uf  o§ai ;  rtdvo  /.tr; 
Sta^peiar,  a7.%d  bid  xaM.urti^oi'  rtapaXa(u3arf  rat, 
saith  Suidas,  out  of  St.  Basil ;  "  It  signifies 
any  thing  that  serves  rather  for  ornament 
than  for  use,"  for  pleasure  than  for  profit. 

Et  eo  plectuntur  poetae  guam  suo  vitio  saepius, 
Ductabilitate  nimia  vestra  aut  perperitudine  ; 

|  saith  the  comedy  ;  "  The  poets  suffer  more 

j  by  your  easiness  and  flattery,  than  by  their 
own  fault." — And  this  is  it  which  St.  Paul 
says  is  against  charily.  For  if  to  call  a  man 
"fool  and  vicious,"  be  so  high  an  injury,  we 
may  thence  esteem  what  a  great  calamity  it 
is  to  be  so;  and  therefore,  he  that  makes 
him  so,  or  takes  a  course  he  shall  not  be- 
come other,  is  the  vilest  enemy  to  his  per- 
son and  his  felicity:  and  this  is  the  mischief 
that  is  done  by  flattery;  it  is  a  design  against 
the  wisdom,  against  the  repentance,  against 
the  growth  and  promotion  of  a  man's  soul. 
He  that  persuades  an  ugly,  deformed  man, 
that  he  is  handsome, — a  short  man  that  he 
is  tall, — a  bald  man  that  he  hath  a  good 
head  of  hair, — makes  him  to  become  ridicu- 
lous and  a  fool,  but  does  no  other  mischief. 
But  he  that  persuades  his  friend,  that  is  a 
goat  in  his  manners,  that  he  is  a  holy  and  a 
chaste  person, — or  that  his  looseness  is  a 
sign  of  a  quick  spirit, — or  that  it  is  not  dan- 
gerous, but  easily  pardonable, — a  trick  of 
youth,  a  habit  that  old  age  will  lay  aside  as 
a  man  pares  his  nails, — this  man  hath  given 
great  advantage  to  his  friend's  mischief;  he 
hath  made  it  grow  in  all  the  dimensions  of 
the  sin,  till  it  grows  intolerable,  and  perhaps 
unpardonable.  And  let  it  be  considered ; 
what  a  fearful  destruction  and  contradiction 
of  friendship  or  service  it  is,  so  to  love  my- 
self and  my  little  interest,  as  to  prefer  it 
before  the  soul  of  him  whom  I  ought  to 
love !  By  my  flattery  I  lay  a  snare  to  get 
twenty  pounds,  and  rather  than  lose  this 
contemptible  sum  of  money,  I  will  throw 
him  that  shall  give  it  me  (as  far  as  I  can) 
into  hell,  there  to  roar  beyond  all  the  mea- 
sures of  time  or  patience.  Can  any  hatred 
be  more,  or  love  be  less,  can  any  expression 

|  of  spite  be  greater,  than  that  it  be  said, 
"You  will  not  part  with  twenty  pounds  to 
save  your  friend's,  or  your  patron's,  or  your 

!  brother's  soul?"  and  so  it  is  with  him  that 
invites  him  to,  or  confirms  him  in,  his  folly, 
in  hopes  of  getting  something  from  him;  he 
will  see  him  die,  and  die  eternally,  and  help 
forward  that  damnation,  so  he  may  get  that 

a 


182 


OF  SLANDER  AND  FLATTERY.      Serm.  XXIV. 


little  by  it.  Every  state  is  set  in  the  midst 
of  danger,  as  all  trees  are  set  in  the  wind, 
but  the  tallest  endure  the  greatest  violence 
of  tempest :  no  man  natters  a  beggar ;  if  he 
does  a  slovenly  and  a  rude  crime,  it  is  enter- 
tained with  ruder  language,  and  the  mean 
man  may  possibly  be  affrighted  from  his 
fault,  while  it  is  made  so  uneasy  to  him 
by  the  scorn  and  harsh  reproaches  of  the 
mighty.  But  princes  and  nobles  often  die 
with  this  disease :  and  when  the  courtiers 
of  Alexander  counterfeited  his  wry  neck, 
and  the  servants  of  the  Sicilian  tyrant  pre- 
tended themselves  dim-sighted,  and  on  pur- 
pose rushed  one  against  another,  and  over- 
threw the  meat  as  it  was  served  to  his  table, 
only  because  the  prince  was  short-sighted, 
they  gave  them  sufficient  instances  in  what 
state  of  affairs  they  stood  with  them  that 
waited  ;  it  was  certain  they  would  commend 
every  foolish  answer,  and  pretend  subtilty  in 
every  absurd  question,  and  make  a  petition 
that  their  base  actions  might  pass  into  a 
law,  and  be  made  to  be  the  honour  and  sanc- 
tity of  all  the  people  :  and  what  proportions 
or  ways  can  such  great  personages  have 
towards  felicity,  when  their  vice  shall  be 
allowed  and  praised,  every  action  that  is  but 
tolerable  shall  be  accounted  heroical,  and  if 
it  be  intolerable  among  the  wise,  it  shall  be 
called  virtuous  among  the  flatterers  ?  Car- 
neades  said  bitterly,  but  it  had  in  it  too  many 
degrees  of  truth,  That  princes  and  great 
personages  never  learn  to  do  any  thing  per- 
fectly well,  but  to  ride  the  great  horse ; 
"quia  scilicet  ferociens  bestia  adulari  non 
didicit,"  "because  the  proud  beast  knows 
not  how  to  flatter,"  but  will  as  soon  throw 
him  off  from  his  back,  as  he  will  shake  off 
the  son  of  a  porter.  But  a  flatterer  is  like 
a  neighing  horse,  that  neigheth  under  every 
rider,  and  is  pleased  with  every  thing,  and 
commends  all  that  he  sees,  and  tempts  to 
mischief,  and  cares  not,  so  his  friend  may 
but  perish  pleasantly.  And,  indeed,  that  is  a 
calamity  that  undoes  many  a  soul;  we  so 
love  our  peace,  and  sit  so  easily  upon  our 
own  good  opinions,  and  are  so  apt  to  flatter 
ourselves,  and  lean  upon  our  own  false  sup- 
ports, that  we  cannot  endure  to  be  disturbed 
or  awakened  from  our  pleasing  lethargy. 
For  we  care  not  to  be  safe,  but  to  be  secure, 
not  to  escape  hell,  but  to  live  pleasantly;  we 
are  not  solicitous  of  the  event,  but  of  the 
way  thither,  and  it  is  sufficient,  if  we  be 
persuaded  all  is  well;  in  the  mean  time,  we 
are  careless  whether  indeed  it  be  so  or  not, 
and  therefore  we  give  pensions  to  fools  and 


vile  persons  to  abuse  us,  and  cozen  us 
of  felicity.  But  this  evil  puts  on  several 
shapes,  which  we  must  discover,  that  they 
may  not  cozen  us  without  our  observation. 
For  all  men  are  not  capable  of  an  open  flat- 
tery. And  therefore,  some  will  dress  their 
I  hypocrisy  and  illusion  so,  that  you  may  feel 
the  pleasure,  and  but  secretly  the  compli- 
ance and  tenderness  to  serve  the  ends  ot 
your  folly.  "  Perit  procari,  si  latet,"  said 
Plancus;  "If  you  be  not  perceived  you  lose 
your  reward;  if  you  be  too  open,  you  lose  it 
worse." 

1.  Some  flatter  by  giving  great  names  and 
propounding  great  examples ;  and  thus  the 
Egyptian  villains  hung  a  tumbler's  rope 
upon  their  prince,  and  a  piper's  whistle ; 
I  because  they  called  their  Ptolemy  by  the 
I  name  of  Apollo,  their  god  of  music.  This 
j  put  buskins  upon  Nero,  and  made  him 
fiddle  in  all  the  great  towns  of  Greece. 
When  their  lords  were  drunkards,  they 
called  them  Bacchus ;  when  they  were 
wrestlers,  they  saluted  them  by  the  name 
of  Hercules ;  and  some  were  so  vain,  as  to 
think  themselves  commended,  when  their 
flatterers  told  aloud,  that  they  had  drunk 
more  than  Alexander  the  conqueror.  And 
indeed  nothing  more  abuses  easy  fools,  that 
only  seek  for  an  excuse  for  their  wickedness, 
a  patron  for  their  vice,  a  warrant  for  their 
sleepy  peace, — than  to  tell  stories  of  great 
examples  remarked  for  the  instances  of  their 
temptation.  When  old  Cato  commended 
meretricious  mixtures,  and,  to  prevent  adul- 
teries, permitted  fornication,  the  youth  of 
the  succeeding  ages  had  warrant  enough  to 
go  "ad  olentes  fornices,"  into  their  cham- 
bers of  filthy  pleasures; 

Quidam  notus  homo  cum  exiret  fornice ;  Macte 
Virtute  esto,  inquit  sententia  dia  Catonis.  Hor. 

And  it  would  pass  the  goblets  in  a  freer  cir- 
cle, if  a  flattering  man  shall  but  say,  "Nar- 
ratur  et  prisci  Catonis  Saepe  mero  caluisse 
virtus,"  "That  old  Cato  would  drink  hard 
at  sunset."  When  Varro  had  noted,  that 
wise  and  severe  Sallust,  who,  by  excellent 
sententious  words,  had  reproved  the  follies 
of  lust,  was  himself  taken  in  adultery;  the 
Roman  youth  did  hug  their  vice,  and  thought 
it  grew  upon  their  nature  like  a  man's  beard, 
and  that  the  wisest  men  would  lay  their 
heads  upon  that  threshold;  and  Seneca  tells, 
that  the  women  of  that  age  despised  adultery 
of  one  man  only ;  and  hated  it  like  marriage, 
and  despised  that  as  want  of  breeding,  and 
grandeur  of  spirit:  because  the  braver  Soar- 


Serm.  XXIV.      OF  SLANDER  AND  FLATTERY 


183 


tans  did  use  to  breed  their  children  promis- 
cuously, as  the  herdsmen  do  cattle  from  the 
fairest  bulls.  And  Arrianus  tells  that  the 
women  would  defend  their  baseness  by  the 
doctrine  of  Plato,  who  maintained  the  com- 
munity of  women.  This  sort  of  flattery  is 
therefore  more  dangerous,  because  it  makes 
the  temptation  ready  for  mischief,  apted  and 
dressed  with  proper,  material,  and  imitable 
circumstances.  The  way  of  discourse  is  far 
about,  but  evil  examples  kill  quickly. 

2.  Others  flatter  by  imitation:  for  when  a 
crime  is  rare  and  insolent,  singular  and  out 
of  fashion,  it  must  be  a  great  strength  of 
malice  and  impudence  that  must  entertain  it ; 
but  the  flattering  man  doing  the  vice  of  his 
lord  takes  off  the  wonder,  and  the  fear  of 
being  stared  at ;  and  so  encourages  it  by 
making  it  popular  and  common.  Plutarch 
tells  of  one  that  divorced  himself  from  his 
wife,  because  his  friend  did  so,  that  the 
other  might  be  hardened  in  the  mischief; 
and  when  Plato  saw  his  scholars  stoop  in 
the  shoulders,  and  Aristotle  observed  his  to 
stammer,  they  began  to  be  less  troubled  with 
those  imperfections  which  they  thought  com- 
mon to  themselves  and  others. 

3.  Some  pretend  rusticity  and  downright 
plainness,  and  upon  the  confidence  of  that, 
humour  their  friend's  vice,  and  flatter  his 
ruin.  Seneca  observed  it  of  some  of  his 
time  :  "Alius  quadam  adulatione  clam  ute- 
batur  parce,  alius  ex  aperto  palam,  rustici- 
tate  simulata,  quasi  simplicitas  ilia  ars  non 
sit."  They  pretend  they  love  not  to  dissem- 
ble, and  therefore  they  cannot  hide  their 
thoughts  ;  let  their  friend  take  it  how  he  will, 
they  must  commend  that  which  is  commend- 
able ;  and  so,  man,  that  is  willing  to  die 
quietly,  is  content  with  the  honest-heartiness 
and  downright  simplicity  of  him,  that  with 
an  artificial  rudeness  dressed  the  flattery. 

4.  Some  will  dispraise  themselves,  that 
their  friend  may  think  better  of  himself,  or 
less  severely  of  his  fault. 

5.  Others  will  reprove  their  friend  for  a 
trifle,  but  with  a  purpose  to  let  him  under- 
stand, that  this  is  all ;  for  the  honest  man 
would  have  told  his  friend  if  it  had  been 
worse. 

6.  Some  will  laugh  and  make  a  sport  of  a 
vice,  and  can  hear  their  friend  tell  the  cursed 
narrative  of  his  adultery,  of  his  drunken- 
ness, of  his  craft  and  unjust  purchases;  and 
all  this  shall  prove  but  a  merry  scene ;  as  if 
damnation  were  a  thing  to  be  laughed  at, 
and  the  everlasting  ruin  of  his  friend  were 


I  a  very  good  jest.  But  thus  the  poor  sinner 
:  shall  not  be  affrighted  from  his  danger,  nor 
j  chastised  by  severe  language;  but  the  villain 
that  eats  his  meat,  shall  take  him  by  the 
hand,  and  dance  about  the  pit  till  he  falls  in, 
and  dies  with  shame  and  folly.  Thus  the 
evil  spirit  puts  on  shapes  enough ;  none  to 
affright  the  man,  but  all  to  destroy  him ;  and 
yet  it  is  filthy  enough,  when  it  is  invested 
with  its  own  character. 

ra6trtp  bp%ov  to  <?wua,  Ttavtix^  fiteftiuv 
'OtJ^afytotr,  sp7iu>v  tot  $  oboiai  ^piov. 

"  The  parasite  or  flatterer  is  a  beast  that  is 
all  belly,  looking  round  with  his  eyes,  watch- 
ful, ugly,  and  deceitful,  and  creeping  on  his 
teeth ;"  they  feed  him,  and  he  kills  them  that 
reach  him  bread ;  for  this  is  the  nature  of 
all  vipers. 

I  have  this  one  thing  only  to  insert,  and 
then  the  caution  will  be  sufficient,  viz.,  that 
we  do  not  think  all  praise  given  to  our  friend 
to  be  flattery,  though  it  be  in  his  presence. 
For  sometimes  praise  is  the  best  conveyance 
for  a  precept,  and  it  may  nourish  up  an 
infant  virtue,  and  make  it  grow  up  towards 
perfection,  and  its  proper  measures  and  re- 
wards. Friendship  does  better  please  our 
friend  than  flattery,  and  though  it  was  made 
also  for  virtue,  yet  it  mingles  pleasures  in 
the  chalice :  Et?  bnfxart,  svvov  $>or6f  t^Gai^tu 
ykvxv.  "  It  is  delicious  to  behold  the  face  of 
a  friendly  and  a  sweet  person  :*  and  it  is  not 
the  office  of  a  friend  always  to  be  sour,  or 
at  any  time  morose;  but  free,  open,  and 
ingenuous,  candid  and  humane,  not  deny- 
ing to  please,  but  ever  refusing  to  abuse  or 
corrupt.  For  as  adulterine  metals  retain  the 
lustre  and  colour  of  gold,  but  not  the  value  ; 
so  flattery,  in  imitation  of  friendship,  takes 
the  face  and  outside  of  it,  the  delicious  part ; 
but  the  flatterer  uses  it  to  the  interests  of 
vice,  and  a  friend  by  it  serves  virtue ;  and 
therefore,  Plutarch  well  compared  friendship 
to  medicinal  ointments,  which  however  deli- 
cious they  be,  yet  they  are  also  useful,  and 
minister  to  healing:  but  flattery  is  sweet 
and  adulterate,  pleasant,  but  without  health. 
He,  therefore,  that  justly  commends  his 
friend  to  promote  and  encourage  his  virtue, 
reconciles  virtue  with  his  friend's  affection, 
and  makes  it  pleasant  to  be  good ;  and  he 
that  does  so,  shall  also  better  be  suffered 
when  he  reproves,  because  the  needing  per- 
son shall  find  that  then  is  the  opportunity  and 


*  Eurip. 


184 


THE  DUTIES  OF 


THE  TONGUE. 


Serm.  XXV. 


season  of  it,  since  he  denied  not  to  please 
so  long  as  he  could  also  profit.  I  only  add 
this  advice ;  that  since  self-love  is  the  ser- 
pent's milk  that  feeds  this  viper,  flattery, — 
we  should  do  well  to  choke  it  with  its 
mother's  milk;  I  mean,  learn  to  love  our- 
selves more,  for  then  we  should  never  en- 
dure to  be  flattered.  For  he  that,  because 
he  loves  himself,  loves  to  be  flattered,  does, 
because  he  loves  himself,  love  to  entertain  a 
a  man  to  abuse  him,  to  mock  him,  and  to 
destroy  him  finally.  But  he  that  loves  him- 
self truly,  will  suffer  fire,  will  endure  to  be 
burnt,  so  he  may  be  purified;  put  to  pain, 
so  he  may  be  restored  to  health ;  for  "of  all 
sauces,"  (said  Evenus,)  sharpness,  severity, 
and  "  fire,  are  the  best." 


SERMON  XXV. 

PART  IV. 

THE  DUTIES  OF  THE  TONGUE. 

 But  that  which  is  good  to  the  use  of  edify- 
ing, that  it  may  minister  grace  unto  the  hearers. 
— Ephes.  iv.  latter  part  ofver.  29. 

"  Loq.uendi  magistros  habemus  homines, 
tacendi  Deos,"  said  one;  Men  teach  us 
to  speak,  and  God  teaches  us  to  hold  our 
tongue."  The  first  we  are  taught  by  the 
lectures  of  our  schools;  the  latter,  by  the 
mysteries  of  the  temple.  But  now,  in  the 
new  institution,  we  have  also  a  great  master 
of  speaking ;  and  though  silence  is  one  of 
the  great  paths  of  innocence,  yet  holy  speak- 
ing is  the  instrument  of  spiritual  charity, 
and  is  a  glorification  of  God ;  and  therefore, 
this  kind  of  speaking  is  a  degree  of  perfec- 
tion beyond  the  wisdom  and  severity  of  si- 
lence. For,  although  garrulity  and  foolish 
inordinate  talking  are  a  conjunction  of  folly 
and  sin,  and  the  prating  man,  while  he  de- 
sires to  get  the  love  of  them  he  converses 
with,  incurs  their  hatred ;  while  he  would 
be  admired,  is  laughed  at;  he  spends  much 
and  gets  nothing;  he  wrongs  his  friends, and 
makes  sport  to  his  enemies,  and  injures  him- 
self; he  is  derided  when  he  tells  what  others 
know,  he  is  endangered  if  he  tells  a  secret 
and  what  they  know  not ;  he  is  not  believed 
when  he  tells  good  news,  and  when  he  tells 
ill  news  he  is  odious ;  and  therefore,  that  si- 
lence, which  is  a  cure  of  all  this  evil,  is  an 
excellent  portion  of  safety  and  religion : — 
yet  it  is  with  holy  speaking  and  innocent  si- 


lence as  it  is  with  a  hermit  and  a  bishop  • 
the  first  goes  to  a  good  school,  but  the  second 
is  proceeded  toward  greater  perfection  ;  and 
therefore,  the  practical  life  of  ecclesiastical 
governors,  being  found  in  the  way  of  holi- 
ness and  zeal,  is  called  "  status  perfectionis :" 
a  more  excellent  and  perfect  condition  of 
life,  and  far  beyond  the  retirements  and  inof- 
fensive life  of  those  innocent  persons,  which 
do  so  much  less  of  profit,  by  how  much  cha 
rity  is  better  than  meditation,  and  going  to 
heaven  by  religion  and  charity,  by  serving 
God  and  converting  souls,  is  better  than 
going  to  heaven  by  prayers  and  secret 
thoughts :  so  it  is  with  silence  and  religious 
communication.  That  does  not  offend  God, 
this  glorifies  him  :  that  prevents  sin,  this 
sets  forward  the  interests  of  religion.  And 
therefore  Plutarch  said  well,  "  Q,ui  generose 
et  regio  more  instituuntur,  primum  tacere, 
deinde  loqui  discunt :"  "To  be  taught  first 
to  be  silent,  then  to  speak  well  and  hand- 
somely, is  education  fit  for  a  prince ;"  and 
that  is  St.  Paul's  method  here  :  first  we  were 
taught  how  to  restrain  our  tongues,  in  the 
foregoing  instances, — and  now  we  are  called 
to  employ  them  in  religion. 

1.  We  must  speak  "  that  which  is  good," 
ayaBov  ft,  any  thing  that  may  serve  the  ends 
of  our  God  and  of  our  neighbour,  in  the 
measures  of  religion  and  usefulness.  But 
it  is  here  as  in  all  other  propositions  of  reli- 
gion. To  us, — who  are  in  the  body,  and 
conducted  by  material  phantasms,  and  un- 
derstanding nothing  but  what  we  feel,  or  13 
conveyed  to  us  by  the  proportions  of  what 
we  do  or  have, — God  hath  given  a  religion 
that  is  fitted  to  our  condition  and  constitution. 
And  therefore,  when  we  are  commanded  to 
love  God,  by  this  love  Christ  understands 
obedience;  when  we  are  commanded  to 
honour  God,  it  is  by  singing  and  reciting  his 
praises,  and  doing  things  which  cause  repu- 
tation and  honour :  and  even  here  when  we 
are  commanded  to  speak  that  which  is  good, 
it  is  instanced  in  such  good  things  which 
are  really  profitable,  practically  useful ;  and 
here  the  measures  of  God  are  especially  by 
the  proportions  of  our  neighbour  ;  and  there- 
fore, though  speaking  honourable  things  of 
God  be  an  employment  that  does  honour  to 
our  tongues  and  voices,  yet  we  must  tune 
and  compose  even  these  notes  so  as  may  best 
profit  our  neighbour  ;  for  so  it  must  be  koyoj 
ayadbs,  "good  speech,"  such  as  is  el$  01x080- 
mv  *W  xp*u*t,  "  f°r  me  edification  of  neces- 
sity :"  the  phrase  is  a  Hebraism,  where  the 
genitive  case  of  a  substantive  is  put  for  the 


Sehm.  XXV. 


THE  DUTIES  OF  THE  TONGUE. 


185 


adjective ;  and  means  that  our  speech  be 
adapted  to  necessary  edification,  or  such  edi- 
fication as  is  needful  to  every  man's  parti- 
cular case;  that  is,  that  we  so  order  our 
communication,  that  it  be  apt  to  instruct  the 
ignorant,  to  strengthen  the  weak,  to  recall 
the  wanderer,  to  restrain  the  vicious,  to 
comfort  the  disconsolate,  to  speak  a  word  in 
season  to  every  man's  necessity,  iva  S&j^apu', 
'*  that  it  may  minister  grace;"  something 
that  may  please  and  profit  them,  according 
as  they  shall  need ;  all  which  I  shall  reduce 
to  these  three  heads  : 

1.  To  instruct. 

2.  To  comfort. 

3.  To  reprove. 

1.  Our  conversation  must  be  &§o.xtixbs, 
"  apt  to  teach."  For  since  all  our  hopes  on 
our  part  depend  upon  our  obedience  to  God, 
and  conformity  to  our  Lord  Jesus,  by  whom 
our  endeavours  are  sanctified  and  accepted, 
and  our  weaknesses  are  pardoned,  and  all 
our  obedience  relies  upon,  and  is  encouraged 
and  grounded  in  faith,  and  faith  is  founded 
naturally  and  primarily  in  the  understanding, 
— we  may  observe,  that  it  is  not  only  reason- 
ably to  be  expected,  but  experimentally  felt, 
that,  in  weak  and  ignorant  understandings, 
there  are  no  sufficient  supports  for  the 
vigorousness  of  a  holy  life;  there  being 
nothing,  or  not  enough,  to  warrant  and 
strengthen  great  resolutions,  to  reconcile  our 
affections  to  difficulties,  to  make  us  patient 
of  affronts,  to  receive  deeper  mortifications, 
and  ruder  usages,  unless  where  an  extraor- 
dinary grace  supplies  the  want  of  ordinary- 
notice*,  as  the  apostles  were  enabled  to  their 
preaching;  but  he,  therefore,  that  carries 
and  imports  into  the  understanding  of  his 
brother,  notices  of  faith,  and  incomes  of 
spiritual  propositions,  and  arguments  of  the 
Spirit,  enables  his  brother  towards  the  work 
and  practices  of  a  holy  life :  and  though 
every  argument,  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
hath  made  and  recorded  in  Holy  Scripture, 
is  of  itself  inducement  great  enough  to  en- 
dear obedience  ;  yet  it  is  not  so  in  the  event 
of  things  to  every  man's  infirmity  and  need; 
but  in  the  treasures  of  the  Spirit,  in  the 
heaps  and  variety  of  institution,  and  wise 
discourses,  there  will  not  only  be  enough  to 
make  a  man  without  excuse,  but  sufficient 
to  do  his  work,  and  to  cure  his  evil,  and  to 
fortify  his  weaker  parts,  and  to  comply  with 
his  necessities  :  for  although  God's  sufficient 
grace  is  present  to  all  that  can  use  it,  yet,  if 
there  be  no  more  than  that,  it  is  a  sad  con- 
sideration to  remember,  that  there  are  bat 
24 


few  that  will  be  saved,  if  they  be  helped 
but  with  just  so  much  as  can  possibly  do  the 
work  :  and  this  we  may  well  be  assured  of, 
if  we  consider  that  God  is  never  wanting  to 
any  man  in  what  is  simply  necessary :  but 
then,  if  we  add  this  also,  that  of  the  vast 
numbers  of  men,  who  might  possibly  be 
saved,  so  few  really  are  so,  we  shall  perceive, 
that  that  grace  which  only  is  sufficient,  is 
not  sufficient ;  sufficient  to  the  thing,  is  not 
sufficient  for  the  person;  and  therefore,  that 
God  does  usually  give  us  more,  and  we 
need  more  yet ;  and  unless  God  <f  works  in 
us  to  will  and  to  do,"  we  shall  neither 
"  will "  nor  "  do ;"  though  to  will  be  in  the 
power  of  our  hand,  yet  we  will  not  will :  it 
follows  from  hence,  that  all  they,  who  will 
comply  with  God's  method  of  graciousness, 
and  the  necessities  of  their  brethren,  must  en- 
deavour, by  all  means,  and  in  all  their  own 
measures  and  capacities,  to  lay  up  treasures 
of  notices  and  instructions  in  their  brother's 
soul,  that,  by  some  argument  or  other,  they 
may  be  met  withal,  and  taken  in  every  cor- 
ner of  their  conversation.  Add  to  this,  that 
the  duty  of  a  man  hath  great  variety,  and 
the  souls  of  men  are  infinitely  abused,  and 
the  persuasions  of  men  are  strangely  divided, 
and  the  interests  of  men  are  a  violent  and 
preternatural  declination  from  the  strictness 
of  virtue,  and  the  resolutions  of  men  are 
quickly  altered,  and  very  hardly  to  be  se- 
cured, and  the  cases  of  conscience  are  nu- 
merous and  intricate,  and  every  state  of  life 
hath  its  proper  prejudice,  and  our  notices 
are  abused  by  our  affections,  and  we  shall 
perceive  that  men  generally  need  knowledge 
enough  to  overpower  all  their  passions,  to 
root  out  their  vicious  inclinations,  to  master 
their  prejudice,  to  answer  objections,  to  re- 
sist temptations,  to  refresh  their  weariness, 
to  fix  their  resolutions,  and  to  determine 
their  doubts;  and  therefore,  to  see  your 
brother  in  a  state  of  ignorance,  is  to  see  him 
unfurnished  and  unprepared  to  all  good 
works;  a  person  safe  no  longer  than  till  a 
temptation  comes,  and  one  that  cannot  be 
saved  but  by  an  absolute,  unlimited  predes- 
tination, a  favour  of  which  he  hath  no  pro- 
mise, no  security,  no  revelation ;  and  al 
though,  to  do  this,  God  hath  appointed  a 
special  order  of  men,  the  whole  ecclesiastical 
order,  whom  he  feeds  at  his  own  charges, 
and  whom  men  rob  at  their  own  peril,  yet 
this  doth  not  disoblige  others  :  for  every 
master  of  a  family  is  to  instruct^  or  cause 
his  family  to  be  instructed,  and  catechised ; 
every  governor  is  to  instruct  his  charge, 
*2 


186 


THE  DUTIES  OF  THE  TONGUE.      Serm.  XXV. 


every  man  his  brother,  not  always  in  person, 
but  ever  by  all  possible  and  just  provisions. 
For  if  the  people  die  for  want  of  knowledge, 
they  who  are  set  over  them  shall  also  die 
for  want  of  charity.  Here,  therefore,  we 
must  remember,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  us  all, 
in  our  several  measures  and  proportions,  to 
instruct  those  that  need  it,  and  whose  neces- 
sity is  made  ready  for  our  ministration ;  and 
let  us  tremble  to  think,  what  will  be  the  sad 
account  which  we  shall  make,  when  even 
our  families  are  not  taught  in  the  funda- 
mentals of  religion  ;  for  how  can  it  be  pos- 
sible for  those,  who  could  not  account  con- 
cerning the  stories  of  Christ's  life  and  death, 
the  ministries  of  their  redemption,  the  found- 
ation of  all  their  hopes,  the  great  argument 
of  all  their  obediences ;  how  can  it  be  ex- 
pected, that  they  should  ride  in  triumph  over 
all  the  evils,  which  the  devil,  and  the  world, 
and  their  own  follies,  daily  present  to  them, 
in  the  course  of  every  day's  conversation? 
And  it  will  be  an  ill  return  to  say,  that  God 
will  require  no  more  of  them  than  he  hath 
given  them ;  for  suppose  that  be  true  in 
your  own  sense,  yet  he  will  require  it  of 
thee,  because  thou  gavest  them  no  more ; 
and,  however,  it  is  a  formidable  danger, 
and  a  trifling  hope,  for  any  man  to  put  all 
the  hopes  of  his  being  saved  upon  the  only 
stock  of  ignorance;  for  if  his  ignorance 
should  never  be  accounted  for,  yet  it  may 
leave  him  in  that  state,  in  which  his  evils 
shall  grow  great,  and  his  sins  may  be  irreme- 
diable. 

2.  Our  conversation  must  be  rtapaxXytos, 
"apt  to  comfort  "  the  disconsolate  ;  and  than 
this,  men  in  present  can  feel  no  greater 
charity  :  for  since  half  the  duty  of  a  Chris- 
tian in  this  life  consists  in  the  exercise  of 
passive  graces,  and  the  infinite  variety  of 
Providence,  and  the  perpetual  adversity  of 
chances,  and  the  dissatisfaction  and  empti- 
ness that  are  in  things  themselves,  and  the 
weariness  and  anguish  of  our  spirit,  do  call 
us  to  the  trial  and  exercise  of  patience,  even 
in  the  days  of  sunshine,  and  much  more  in 
the  \  iolent  storms  that  shake  our  dwellings, 
and  make  our  hearts  tremble;  God  hath  sent 
some  angels  into  the  world,  whose  office  is 
to  refresh  the  sorrows  of  the  poor,  and  to 
lighten  the  eyes  of  the  disconsolate  ;  he  hath 
made  some  creatures  whose  powers  are 
chiefly  ordained  to  comfort;  wine,  arid  oil, 
and  society,  cordials,  and  variety  ;  and  time 
itself  is  checkered  with  black  and  white; 
stay  but  till  to-morrow,  and  your  present 
sorrow  will  be  weary,  and  will  lie  down  to 


rest.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  third  person 
of  the  holy  Trinity  is  known  to  us  by  the 
name  and  dignity  of  the  "  Holy  Ghost,  the 
Comforter,"  and  God  glories  in  the  appella- 
tive, that  he  is  "  the  Father  of  mercies,  and 
the  God  of  all  comfort ;"  and  therefore,  to 
minister  in  the  office,  is  to  become  like  God, 
and  to  imitate  the  charities  of  heaven;  and 
God  hath  fitted  mankind  for  it :  he  most 
needs  it,  and  he  feels  his  brother's  wants,  by 
his  own  experience ;  and  God  hath  given 
us  speech,  and  the  endearments  of  society, 
and  pleasantness  of  conversation,  and  powers 
of  seasonable  discourse,  arguments  to  allay 
the  sorrow,  by  abating  our  apprehensions 
and  taking  out  the  sting,  or  telling  the  pe- 
riods of  comfort,  or  exciting  hope,  or  urging 
a  precept,  and  reconciling  our  affections, 
and  reciting  promises,  or  telling  stories  of 
the  Divine  mercy,  or  changing  it  into  duty, 
or  making  the  burden  less  by  comparing  it 
with  greater,  or  by  proving  it  to  be  less  than 
we  deserve,  and  that  it  is  so  intended,  and 
may  become  the  instrument  of  virtue.  And, 
certain  it  is,  that  as  nothing  can  better  do  it, 
so  there  is  nothing  greater,  for  which  God 
made  our  tongues,  next  to  reciting  his 
praises,  than  to  minister  comfort  to  a  weary 
soul.  And  what  greater  measure  can  we 
have,  than  that  we  should  bring  joy  to  our 
brother,  who,  with  his  dreary  eyes,  looks  to 
heaven  and  round  about,  and  cannot  find 
so  much  rest  as  to  lay  his  eyelids  close  to- 
gether;  than  that  thy  tongue  should  be 
tuned  with  heavenly  accents,  and  make  the 
weary  soul  to  listen  for  light  and  ease,  and 
when  he  perceives  that  there  is  such  a  thing 
in  the  world,  and  in  the  order  of  things,  as 
comfort  and  joy,  to  begin  to  break  out  from 
the  prison  of  his  sorrows,  at  the  door  of 
sighs  and  tears,  and,  by  little  and  little,  melt 
into  showers  and  refreshment?  This  is 
glory  to  thy  voice,  and  employment  fit  for 
the  brightest  angel.  But  so  have  I  seen  the 
sun  kiss  the  frozen  earth,  which  was  bound 
up  with  the  images  of  death,  and  the  colder 
breath  of  the  north;  and  then  the  waters 
break  from  their  enclosures,  and  melt  with 
joy,  and  run  in  useful  channels  ;  and  the 
flies  do  rise  again  from  their  little  graves  in 
walls,  and  dance  a  while  in  the  air,  to  tell 
that  there  is  joy  within,  and  that  the  great 
mother  of  creatures  will  open  the  stock  of 
her  new  refreshment,  become  useful  to  man- 
kind, and  sing  praises  to  her  Redeemer ;  so 
is  the  heart  of  a  sorrowful  man  under  the 
discourses  of  a  wise  comforter;  he  breaks 
from  the  despairs  of  the  grave,  and  the  fet- 


Serm.  XXV. 


THE  DUTIES  OF  THE  TONGUE. 


187 


ters  and  chains  of  sorrow  ;  he  blesses  God, 
and  he  blesses  thee,  and  he  feels  his  life  re- 
turning j  for  to  be  miserable  is  death,  but 
nothing  is  life  but  to  be  comforted ;  and  God 
is  pleased  with  no  music  from  below  so 
much  as  in  the  thanksgiving-songs  of  re- 
lieved widows,  of  supported  orphans,  of  re- 
joicing, and  comforted,  and  thankful  persons. 
This  part  of  communication  does  the  work 
of  God  and  of  our  neighbours,  and  bears  us 
to  heaven  in  streams  of  joy  made  by  the 
overflowings  of  our  brother's  comfort.  It  is 
a  fearful  thing  to  see  a  man  despairing. 
None  knows  the  sorrow  and  the  intolerable 
anguish  but  themselves,  and  they  that  are 
damned ;  and  so  are  all  the  loads  of  a 
wounded  spirit,  when  the  staff  of  a  man's 
broken  fortune  bows  his  head  to  the  ground, 
and  sinks  like  an  osier  under  the  violence  of 
a  mighty  tempest.  But  therefore,  in  pro- 
portion to  this,  I  may  tell  the  excellency  of 
the  employment,  and  the  duty  of  that  charity, 
which  bears  the  dying  and  languishing  soul 
from  the  fringes  of  hell,  to  the  seat  of  the 
brightest  stars,  where  God's  face  shines,  and 
reflects  comforts,  for  ever  and  ever.  And 
though  God  hath,  for  this,  especially  in- 
trusted his  ministers  and  servants  of  the 
church,  and  hath  put  into  their  hearts  and 
notices  great  magazines  of  promises,  and 
arguments  of  hope,  and  arts  of  the  Spirit, 
yet  God  does  not  always  send  angels  on 
these  embassies,  but  sends  a  man,  "  ut  sit 
homo  homini  Deus,"  "  that  every  good  man 
m  his  season  may  be  to  his  brother  in  the 
place  of  God,"  to  comfort  and  restore  him ; 
and  that  it  may  appear,  how  much  it  is  the 
duty  of  us  all  to  minister  comfort  to  our 
brother,  we  may  remember,  that  the  same 
words  and  the  same  arguments  do  often- 
times more  prevail  upon  our  spirits,  when 
they  are  applied  by  the  hands  of  another, 
than  when  they  dwell  in  us,  and  come  from 
our  own  discoursings.  This  is  indeed  koyoj 
XWcs-tbs  and  dyo&os,  it  is,  sis  otxoSo^v  trj 
X^'-o-i,  "  to  the  edification  of  our  needs,"  and 
the  greatest  and  most  holy  charity. 

3.  Our  communication  must  in  its  just  sea- 
son be  stay** txoj, "  we  must  reprove"  our  sin- 
ning brother;  "  for  the  wounds  of  a  friend 
are  better  than  the  kisses  of  an  enemy,"  saith 
Solomon  ;*  we  imitate  the  office  of  "  the  great 
Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls,"  if  we  go 
"  to  seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost ;" 
and  it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  see  a  friend  go  to 
hell  undisturbed,  when  the  arresting  him  in 

*  Prov.  xxvii.  6. 


his  horrid  progress  may  possibly  make  him 
to  return ;  this  is  a  course  that  will  change 
our  vile  itch  of  judging  and  censuring  others 
into  an  act  of  charity ;  it  will  alter  slander 
into  piety,  detraction  into  counsel,  revenge 
into  friendly  and  most  useful  offices,  that  the 
viper's  flesh  may  become  Mithridate,and  the 
devil  be  defeated  in  his  malicious  employ- 
ment of  our  language.  He  is  a  miserable 
man,  whom  none  dares  tell  of  his  faults  so 
plainly,  that  he  may  understand  his  danger ; 
and  he  that  is  incapable  and  impatient  of 
reproof,  can  never  become  a  good  friend  to 
any  man.  For,  besides  that  himself  would 
never  admonish  his  friend  when  he  sins  (and 
if  he  would,  why  should  not  himself  be  glad 
of  the  same  charity  1)  he  is  also  "proud,  and 
scorner  is  his  name ;"  he  thinks  himself  ex- 
empt from  the  condition  and  failings  of  men  ; 
or,  if  he  does  not,  he  had  rather  go  to  hell 
than  be  called  to  his  way  by  an  angry  sermon, 
or  driven  back  by  the  sword  of  an  angel,  or 
endure  one  blushing,  for  all  his  hopes  and 
interests  of  heaven.  It  is  no  shame  to  be  re- 
proved, but  to  deserve  it;  but  he  that  de- 
serves it,  and  will  do  so  still,  shall  increase 
his  shame  into  confusion,  and  bring  upon 
himself  a  sorrow  bigger  than  the  calamities 
of  war,  and  plagues,  and  hospitals,  and  po- 
verty. He  only  is  truly  wise,  and  will  be 
certainly  happy,  that  so  understands  himself 
and  hates  his  sin,  that  he  will  not  nurse  it, 
but  get  to  himself  a  reprover  on  purpose, 
whose  warrant  shall  be  liberty,  whose  thanks 
shall  be  amendment,  whose  entertainment 
shall  be  obedience ;  for  a  flattering  word  is 
like  a  bright  sunshine  to  a  sore  eye,  it  in- 
creases the  trouble,  and  lessens  the  sight ; 

Haec  demum  sapiet  dictio  quae  feriet ; 

"  The  severe  word  of  the  reproving  man  is 
wise  and  healthful:"  but  because  all  times, 
and  all  circumstances,  and  all  persons,  are 
not  fit  for  this  employment: 

 Plurima  sunt,  quae 

Non  audent  homines  pertusa  dicere  Iaena  ;  Juv. 

"  Some  will  not  endure  that  a  poor  man,  or 
an  obliged  person,  should  reprove  them," 
and  themselves  are  often  so  unprofitable 
servants,  that  they  will  rather  venture  their 
friend's  damnation,  than  hazard  their  own 
interest;  therefore,  in  the  performance  of 
this  duty  of  useful  communication,  the  fol- 
lowing measuies  are  fit  to  be  observed. 

1.  Let  not  your  reproof  be  public  and  per- 
sonal :— if  it  be  public,  it  must  be  in  general ; 
if  it  be  personal  it  must  be  in  private ;  and 
this  is  expressly  commanded  by  our  blessed 


188 


THE  DUTIES  OF  THE  TONGUE.       Serm.  XXV. 


Saviour  :  "  If  thy  brother  offends,  tell  it  him 
between  him  and  thee ;"  for  if  it  comes  after- 
wards, in  case  of  contumacy,  to  be  declared 
in  public,  it  passes  from  fraternal  correption 
to  ecclesiastical  discipline.  When  Socrates 
reproved  Plato  at  a  feast,  Plato  told  him,  "it 
had  been  better  he  had  told  him  his  fault  in 
private;  for  to  speak  it  publicly  is  inde- 
cency:" Socrates  replied  ;  "And  so  it  is  for 
you,  publicly  to  condemn  that  indecency." 
For  it  is  the  nature  of  man  to  be  spiteful 
when  he  is  shamed,  and  to  esteem  that  the 
worst  of  evils,  and  therefore,  to  take  impu- 
dence and  perseverance  for  its  cover,  when 
his  shame  is  naked  ;  and  for  this  indiscretion, 
Aristomenes,  the  tutor  of  Ptolemy,  who,,  be- 
fore the  Corinthian  ambassadors  reproved 
the  king  for  sleeping  at  the  solemn  audience, 
profited  nothing,  but  enraged  the  prince,  and 
was  himself  forced  to  drink  poison.  But 
this  wariness  is  not  always  necessary.  For, 
1.  A  public  and  an  authorized  person  may 
do  it  publicly,  and  may  name  the  person  as 
himself  shall  judge  expedient. 

 secuit  Lucilius  urbem, — 

Te  Lupe,  te  Muti, — et  genuinum  fregit  in  illis.  j 
Omne  vafer  vitium.  Pers. 

Lucilius  was  a  censor  of  manners,  and  by 
his  office  he  had  warrant  and  authority.  2. 
There  are  also  some  cases  in  which  a  public 
reproof  is  prudent;  and  that  is,  when  the 
crime  is  great,  but  not  understood  to  be  any 
at  all ;  for  then  it  is  instruction  and  catechism, 
and  lays  aside  the  affront  and  trouble  of  re- 
proof. Thus  Ignatius  the  martyr  did  reprove 
Trajan  sacrificing  at  the  altar  in  the  sight  of 
all  the  officers  of  the  army ;  and  the  Jews 
were  commanded  to  reprove  the  Babylonians 
for  idolatry  in  the  land  of  their  captivity 
and  if  we  see  a  prince,  in  the  confidence  of 
his  pride,  and  carelessness  of  spirit,  and  heat 
of  war,  spoil  a  church,  or  rob  God,  it  is  then 
fit  to  tell  him  the  danger  of  sacrilege,  if  other- 
wise he  cannot  well  be  taught  his  danger, 
and  his  duty.  3.  There  are  some  circum- 
stances of  person,  in  which,  by  interpre- 
tation, duty,  or  custom,  a  leave  is  indulged 
or  presumed,  that  liberty  may  be  prudently 
used,  publicly  to  reprove  the  public  vices ; 
so  it  was  in  the  old  days  of  the  Romans  ;  vice 
had  then  so  little  footing  and  au^ority,  so 
few  friends  and  advocates,  that  the  prophets 
and  poets  used  a  bolder  liberty  to  disgrace 
whatsoever  was  amiss  ; 

 ;  unde  ilia  priorum 

Scribendi  quodcunque  animo  flagrante  liberet 
Simplicitas.  Juv. 

*  Jer.  x.  11. 


;  And  much  of  the  same  liberty  is  still  re- 
'  served  to  pulpits,  and  to  the  bishop's  office, 
save  only,  that  although  they  may  reprove 
publicly,  yet  they  may  not  often  do  it  per- 
sonally. 

2.  Use  not  to  reprove  thy  brother  for  every 
thing,  but  for  great  things  only ; — for  this  is 
the  office  of  a  tutor,  not  of  a  friend ;  and  few 
men  will  suffer  themselves  to  abide  always 
under  pupilage.  When  the  friend  of  Phi- 
lotimus,  the  physician,  came  to  him  to  be 
cured  of  a  sore  finger,  he  told  him,  "Heus 
tu,  non  tibi  cum  reduvia  est  negotium!"  he 
let  his  finger  alone,  and  told  him  "that  his 
liver  was  imposthumate :"  and  he  that  tells 
his  friend  that  his  countenance  is  not  grave 
enough  in  the  church,  when  it  may  be  the 
man  is  an  atheist,  offers  him  a  cure  that  will 
do  him  no  good  :  and  to  chastise  a  trifle  is 
not  a  worthy  price  of  that  noblest  liberty  and 
ingenuity,  which  becomes  him  that  is  to  heal 
his  brother's  soul.  But  when,  a  vice  stains 
his  soul,  when  he  is  a  fool  in  his  manners, 
when  he  is  proud  and  impatient  of  contra- 
diction, when  he  disgraces  himself  by  talking 

I  weakly,  and  yet  believes  himself  wise,  and 
above  the  confidence  of  a  sober  person,  then 
it  concerns  a  friend  to  rescue  him  from  folly. 
So  Solon  reproved  Croesus,  and  Socrates 
Alcibiades,  and  Cyrus  chid  Cyaxares,  and 
Plato  told  to  Dion,  that  of  all  things  in  the 
world  he  should  beware  of  that  folly  "  by 
which  men  please  themselves,  and  despise 
a  better  judgment:"  "quia  ei  vitio  adsidet 
solitudo,"  "because  that  folly  hath  in  it  sin- 
gularity," and  is  directly  contrary  to  all  capa- 
cities of  a  friendship,  or  the  entertainments 
of  necessary  reproof. 

3.  Use  not  liberty  of  reproof  in  the  days  of 
sorrow  and  affliction ;  for  the  calamity  itself 
is  enough  to  chastise  the  gaieties  of  sinning 
persons,  and  to  bring  them  to  repentance ;  it 
may  be  sometimes  fit  to  insinuate  the  mention 
of  the  cause  of  that  sorrow  in  order  to  repent- 
ance, and  a  cure :  but  severe  and  biting  lan- 
guage is  then  out  of  season,  and  it  is  like 
putting  vinegar  to  an  inflamed  and  smarting 
eye,  it  increases  the  anguish,  and  tempts 
into  impatience.  In  the  accidents  of  a  sad 
person,  we  must  do  as  nurses  to  their  falling 
children,  snatch  them  up  and  still  their  cry- 
ings,  and  entertain  their  passion  with  some 
delightful  avocation :  but  chide  not  then,  when 
the  sorrowful  man  needs  to  be  refreshed. 
When  Crates,  the  cynic,  met  Demetrius 
Phalereus  in  his  banishment  and  trouble,  he 
went  to  him  and  spoke  to  him  friendly,  and 
used  his  philosophy  in  the  ministries  of  com- 


Skrm.  XXV. 


THE  DUTIES  OF  THE  TONGUE. 


189 


fort,  and  taught  him  to  bear  his  trouble  nobly, 
and  so  wrought  upon  the  criminal  and  wild 
Demetrius ;  and  he  moved  him  to  repentance, 
who,  if  he  had  been  chidden,  (as  he  expect- 
ed,) would  have  scorned  the  manners  of  the 
cynic,  and  hated  his  presence  and  institution ; 
and  Perseus  killed  Euchus  and  Eulseus,  for 
reproving  his  rashness,  when  he  was  newly 
defeated  by  the  Romans. 

4.  Avoid  all  the  evil  appendages  of  this 
liberty  : — for  since  to  reprove  a  sinning 
brother  is,  at  the  best,  but  an  unwelcome  and 
invidious  employment,  though  it  may  also 
be  understood  to  be  full  of  charity  ;  yet,  there- 
fore, we  must  not  make  it  to  be  hateful  by 
adding  reproach,  scorn,  violent  expressions, 
scurrility,  derision,  or  bitter  invectives.  Je- 
rome invited  Epicharmus  to  supper ;  and  he, 
knowing  that  Jerome  had  unfortunately 
killed  his  friend,  replied  to  his  invitation, 
"  Atqui  nuper  cum  amicos  immolares,  non 
vorasti,"  "  I  think  I  may  come,  for  when 
thou  didst  sacrifice  thy  friends,  thou  didst 
not  devour  them."  This  was  a  bitter  sar- 
casm, and  might  with  more  prudence  and 
charity  have  been  avoided.  They  that  in- 
tend charitably  and  conduct  wisely,  take 
occasions  and  proper  seasons  of  reproof,  they 
do  it  by  way  of  question  and  similitude,  by 
narrative  and  apologues,  by  commending 
something  in  him  that  is  good,  and  discom- 
mending the  same  fault  in  other  persons,  by 
way  that  may  disgrace  that  vice,  and  pre- 
serve the  reputation  of  the  man.  Ammonius, 
observing  that  his  scholars  were  nice  and 
curious  in  their  diet,  and  too  effeminate  for 
a  philosophical  life,  caused  his  freedman  to 
chastise  his  boy  for  not  dining  without  vine- 
gar, and  all  the  while  looked  upon  the  young 
gentlemen,  and  read  to  them  a  lecture  of 
severity.  Thus  our  dearest  Lord  reproved 
St.  Peter;  he  looked  upon  him  when  the 
sign  was  given  with  the  crowing  of  the  cock, 
and  so  chid  him  into  a  shower  of  penitential 
tears.  Some  use  to  mingle  praises  with  their 
reprehensions,  and  to  invite  their  friend's 
patience  to  endure  remedy,  by  ministering 
some  pleasure  with  their  medicine;  for  as 
no  wise  man  can  well  endure  to  be  praised, 
by  him  that  knows  not  how  to  dispraise,  and 
to  reprove;  so  neither  will  they  endure  to 
be  reproved  by  him  that  knows  not  how  to 
praise  ;  for  reproof  from  such  a  man  betrays 
too  great  a  love  of  himself,  and  an  illiberal 
spirit :  he  that  will  reprove  wisely,  must 
efform  himself  into  all  images  of  things 
which  innocently  and  wisely  he  can  put  on; 
not  by  changing  his  manners,  his  principles, 


and  the  consequences  of  his  discourse,  (as 
Alcibiades  was  supposed  to  do,)  for  it  is  best 
to  keep  the  severity  of  our  own  principles, 
and  the  manner  of  our  own  living ;  for  so 
Plato  lived  at  Syracuse,  just  as  he  lived  in 
the  Academy ;  he  was  the  same  to  Dionysius 
that  he  was  to  Dion:  but  this  I  mean,  that 
he  who  means  to  win  souls,  and  prevail  to 
his  brother's  institution,  must,  as  St.  Paul 
did,  effigiate  and  conform  himself  to  those 
circumstances  of  living  and  discourse,  by 
which  he  may  prevail  upon  the  persuasions 
by  complying  with  the  affections  and  usages 
of  men. 

These  are  the  measures  by  which  we  are 
to  communicate  our  counsels  and  advices  to 
our  erring  brethren  :  to  which  I  add  this  last 
advice,  that  no  man  should,  at  that  time  in 
which  he  is  reproved,  give  counsel  and  re- 
proof to  his  reprover,  for  that  betrays  an 
angry  spirit,  and  makes  discord  out  of  piety, 
and  changes  charity  into  wrangling;  and  it 
looking  like  a  revenge,  makes  it  appear  that 
himself  took  the  first  reproof  for  an  injury. 

That  which  remains  now  is,  that  I  persuade 
men  to  do  it,  and  that  I  persuade  men  to 
suffer  it ;  it  is  sometimes  hard  to  do  it  but  the 
cause  is  only,  because  it  is  hard  to  bear  it ; 
for  if  men  were  but  apprehensive  of  their 
danger,  and  were  not  desirous  to  die,  there 
were  no  more  to  be  said  of  this  affair ;  they 
would  be  as  glad  to  entertain  a  severe  re- 
prover as  a  careful-physician  ;  of  whom  be- 
cause most  men  are  so  willing  to  make  use, 
so  thankful  for  their  care,  so  great  valuers  of 
their  skill,  such  lovers  of  their  persons, — no 
man  is  put  to  it  to  persuade  men  to  be  phy- 
sicians, because  there  is  no  need  to  persuade 
men  to  live,  or  to  be  in  health  :  if  therefore 
men  would  as  willingly  be  virtuous  a-s  be 
healthful,  as  willingly  do  no  evil  as  suffer 
none,  be  as  desirous  of  heaven  as  of  a  long 
life  on  earth,  all  the  difficulties  and  tempta- 
tions against  this  duty  of  reproving  our  sin- 
ning brother  would  soon  be  concealed  ;  but 
let  it  be  as  it  will,  we  must  do  it  in  duty  and 
piety  to  him  that  needs,  and  if  he  be  impatient 
of  it,  he  needs  more:  "Et  per  hujusmodi 
offensas  emetiendum  est  confragosum  hoc 
iter:"  it  is  a  troublesome  employment,  but  it 
is  duty  and  charity ;  and  therefore,  when  it 
can,  with  hope  of  success,  with  prudence 
and  piety,  be  done,  no  other  consideration 
ought  to  interpose.  And  for  the  other  part, 
those  [  mean  who  ought  to  be  reproved, — 
they  are  to  remember,  that  themselves  give 
pensions  to  the  preacher  on  purpose  to  be 
reproved  if  they  shall  need  it;— that  God 


190 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE. 


Serm.  XXVI. 


hath  instituted  a  holy  order  of  men  to  that 
very  purpose,  that  they  should  be  severally 
told  of  all  that  is  amiss ; — that  themselves 
chide  their  children  and  their  servants  for 
their  good,  and  that  they  may  amend ; — and 
that  they  endure  thirst  to  cure  their  dropsies  : 
— that  they  suffer  burnings  to  prevent  gan- 
grenes ; — and  endure  the  cutting  of  a  limb 
to  preserve  their  lives ; — and  therefore,  that 
it  is  a  strange  witchcraft  and  a  prodigious 
folly,  that,  at  so  easy  a  mortification  as  the 
suffering  of  a  plain  friendly  reproof,  they 
will  not  set  forward  their  interest  of  heaven, 
and  suffer  themselves  to  be  set  forward  in 
their  hopes  of  heaven  : 


■dura  latemur 


Esse ;  sed,  ut  valeas,  multa  dolenda  feras. 

And  when  all  remember,  that  flattery  and 
importune  silence  suffer  the  mighty  to  perish 
like  fools  and  inconsiderate  persons,  it  ought 
to  awake  our  spirits,  and  make  us  to  attend 
to  the  admonitions  of  a  friend,  with  a  silence 
great  as  midnight,  and  watchful  as  a  widow's 
eyes.  It  was  a  strange  thing,  that  Valen- 
tinian  should,  in  the  midst  of  so  many  Chris- 
tian prelates,  make  a  law  to  establish  poly- 
gamy, and  that  no  bishop  should  dare  to 
reprehend  him.  The  effect  of  it  was  this, 
that  he  had  a  son  by  a  second  wife,  the  first 
being  alive  and  not  divorced,  and  he  left  him 
heir  of  a  great  part  of  the  empire;  and  what 
the  effect  of  that  was  to  his  soul,  God,  who 
is  his  judge,  best  knows. 

If  now  at  last  it  be  inquired — whether 
every  man  is  bound  to  reprove  every  man, 
if  he  sins,  and  if  he  converse  with  him, — I 
answer,  that  if  it  should  be  so,  it  were  to  no 
purpose,  and  therefore  for  it  there  is  no  com- 
mandment ;  every  man  that  can,  may  instruct 
him  that  wants  it;  but  every  man  may  not 
reprove  him  that  is  already  instructed.  That 
it  is  an  act  of  charity,  for  which  there  are  no 
measures,  but  the  other's  necessity,  and  his 
own  opportunity ;  but  this  is  also  an  act  of 
discipline,  and  must,  in  many  cases,  suppose 
an  authority ;  and  in  all  cases  such  a  liberty 
as  is  not  fit  to  be  permitted  to  mean,  and 
ignorant,  and  inferior  persons.  I  end  this 
with  the  saying  of  a  wise  person,  advising 
to  every  one  concerning  the  use  of  the  tongue, 
"  Aut  lucrentur  vitara  loquendo,  aut  tacendo 
abscondant  scientiam;"  if  they  speak,  let 
them  minister  to  the  good  souls;  if  they 
speak  not  let  them  minister  to  sobriety  ;  in  the 
first,  they  serve  the  end  of  charity  ;  in  the 
other,  of  humility. 


I    SERMON  XXVI.— ^WHITSUNDAY. 

OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE. 

But  ye  are  not  in  the  flesh,  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so 
be  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you.  Now  if 
any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none 
of  his.  And  if  Christ  be  in  you,  the  body  is  dead, 
because  of  sin;  but  the  Spirit  is  life  because  of 
righteousness. — Rom.  vih.  9,  10. 

Thts  day,  in  which  the  church  commemo- 
rates the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon 
the  apostles,  was  the  first  beginning  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.    This  was  the  first 
day  that  the  religion  was  professed:  now 
j  the  apostles  first  opened  their  commission, 
and  read  it  to  all  the  people.    "The  Lord 
gave  his  Spirit,  (or,  the  Lord  gave  his 
Word,)  and  great  was  the  company  of  the 
1  preachers."    For  so  I  make  bold  to  render 
[that  prophecy  of  David.    Christ  was  "the 
':  Word  "  of  God,  "  Verbum  aeternum  ;"  but 
!  the  Spirit  was  the  Word  of  God,  "  Verbum 
'  patefactum  :"  Christ  was  the  Word  mani- 
j  fested  in  the  flesh ;  the  Spirit  was  the  Wori 
!  manifested  to  flesh,  and  set  in  dominion  over, 
!  and  in  hostility  against,  the  flesh.    The  gos- 
pel and  the  Spirit  are  the  same  thing;  not 
I  in  substance ;  but  "  the  manifestation  of  the 
|  Spirit  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ:"  and 
because  he  was  this  day  manifested,  the  gos- 
pel was  this  day  first  preached,  and  it  be- 
came a  law  to  us,  called  "the  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life  ;"*  that  is,  a  law  taught  us  by 
the  Spirit,  leading  us  to  life  eternal.  But 
the  gospel  is  called  "  the  Spirit ;"  1 .  Because 
it  contains  in  it  such  glorious  mysteries, 
which  were  revealed  by  the  immediate  in- 
spirations of  the  Spirit,  not  only  in  the  mat- 
ter itself,  but  also  in  the  manner  and  powers 
to  apprehend  them.    For  what  power  of  hu- 
man understanding  could  have  found  out 
the  incarnation  of  a  God  ;  that  two  natures 
[a  finite,  and  an  infinite]  could  have  been 
concentred  into  one  hypostasis  (or  person)  ; 
that  a  virgin  should  be  a  mother;  that 
dead  men  should  live  again ;  that  the  xovic 
datiuv  hvOivtiov,  "the  ashes  of  dissolved 
bones"  should  become  bright  as  the  sun, 
blessed  as  the  angels,  swift  in  motion  as 
thought,  clear  as  the  purest  noon ;  that  God 
should  so  love  us,  as  to  be  willing  to  be  re- 
conciled to  us,  and  yet  that  himself  must  dm 
that  he  might  pardon  us ;  that  God's  most 
holy  Son  should  give  us  his  body  to  eat,  and 
his  blood  to  crown  our  chalices,  and  his 
Spirit  to  sanctify  our  souls,  to  turn  our  bo- 


*  Rom.  viii.  2. 


Serm.  XXVI.         OF  THE  SPIRI 


T  OF  GRACE. 


191 


dies  into  temperance,,  our  souls  into  minds, 
our  minds  into  spirit,  our  spirit  into  glory ; 
that  he,  who  can  give  us  all  things,  who  is 
Lord  of  men  and  angels,  and  King  of  all  the 
creatures,  should  pray  to  God  for  us  without 
intermission;  that  he,  who  reigns  over  all 
the  world,  should,  at  the  day  of  judgment, 
"  give  up  the  kingdom  to  God  the  Father," 
and  yet,  after  this  resignation,  himself  and 
we  with  him  should  for  ever  reign  the  more 
gloriously  ;  that  we  should  be  justified  by 
faith  in  Christ,  and  that  charity  should  be  a 
part  of  faith,  and  that  both  should  work  as 
acts  of  duty,  and  acts  of  relation ;  that  God 
should  crown  the  imperfect  endeavours  of 
his  saints  with  glory,  and  that  a  human  act 
should  be  rewarded  with  an  eternal  inherit- 
ance ;  that  the  wicked,  for  the  transient  plea- 
sure of  a  few  minutes,  should  be  tormented 
with  an  absolute  eternity  of  pains ;  that  the 
waters  of  baptism,  when  they  are  hallowed 
by  the  Spirit,  shall  purge  the  soul  from  sin  ;  j 
and  that  the  spirit  of  man  shall  be  nourished 
with  the  consecrated  and  mysterious  ele- 
ments, and  that  any  such  nourishment  should 
bring  a  man  up  to  heaven  :  and,  after  all 
this,  that  all  Christian  people,  all  that  will  be 
saved,  must  be  partakers  of  the  Divine  na- 
ture, the  infinite  nature,  of  God,  and  must 
dwell  in  Christ,  and  Christ  must  dwell  in 
them,  and  they  must  be  in  the  Spirit,  and 
the  Spirit  must  be  for  ever  in  them  ?  These 
are  articles  of  so  mysterious  a  philosophy, 
that  we  could  have  inferred  them  from  no 
premises,  discoursed  them  upon  the  stock  of 
no  natural  or  scientifical  principles  ;  nothing 
but  God  and  God's  Spirit  could  have  taught 
them  to  us  :  and  therefore  the  gospel  is  "Spi- 
ritus  patefactus,"  "the  manifestation  of  the 
Spirit,"  "ad  aedificationem,"*  (as  the  apostle 
calls  it)  "  for  edification,"  and  building  us 
up  to  be  a  holy  temple  to  the  Lord. 

2.  But  when  we  had  been  taught  all  these 
mysterious  articles,  we  could  not,  by  any 
human  power,  have  understood  them,  unless 
the  Spirit  of  God  had  given  us  a  new  light, 
and  created  in  us  a  new  capacity,  and  made 
us  to  be  a  new  creature,  of  another  definition. 
"  Animalis  homo,"  ^izoj,  that  is,  as  St. 
Jude  expounds  the  word,  nvsvpuj.  /xt]  f^wv 
"  The  animal,  or  the  natural  man,  the  man 
that  hath  not  the  Spirit,  cannot  discern  the 
tilings  of  God,  for  they  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned ;"f  that  is,  not  to  be  understood  but 
by  the  light  proceeding  from  the  Sun  of  right- 


*  1  Cor.  xii.  7.  +  1  Cor.  ii.  14. 


eousness,  and  by  that  eye  whose  bird  is  the 
holy  Dove,  whose  candle  is  the  gospel. 

Scio  incapacem  te  sacramenti,  impie, 
Non  posse  ccecis  mentibus  mysterium 
Haurire  nostrum  :  nil  diurnum  nox  capit. 

Prudent. 

He  that  shall  discourse  Euclid's  elements 
to  a  swine,  or  preach  (as  venerable  Bede's 
story  reports  of  him)  to  a  rock,  or  talk  meta- 
physics to  a  boar,  will  as  much  prevail  upon 
his  assembly,  as  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  could 
do  upon  uncircumcised  hearts  and  ears, 
upon  the  indisposed  Greek,  and  prejudicate 
Jews.  An  ox  will  relish  the  tender  flesh  of 
kids  with  as  much  gust  and  appetite,  as  an 
unspiritual  and  unsanctified  man  will  do 
the  discourses  of  angels  or  of  an  apostle, 
if  he  should  come  to  preach  the  secrets  of 
the  gospel.  And  we  find  it  true  by  a  sad  ex- 
perience. How  many  times  doth  God  speak 
to  us  by  his  servants  the  prophets,  by  his 
[  Son,  by  his  apostles,  by  sermons,  by  spiritual 
books,  by  thousands  of  homilies,  and  arts  of 
counsel  and  insinuation  ;  and  we  sit  as  un- 
concerned as  the  pillars  of  a  church,  and 
hear  the  sermons  as  the  Athenians  did  a 
story,  or  as  we  read  a  gazette !  And  if  ever 
it  come  to  pass,  that  we  tremble,  as  Felix 
did,  when  we  hear  a  sad  story  of  death,  of 
"righteousness  and  judgment  to  come," 
then  we  put  it  off  to  another  time,  or  we 
forget  it,  and  think  we  had  nothing  to  do  but 
to  give  the  good  man  a  hearing;  and  as 
Anacharsis  said  of  the  Greeks,  they  used  mo- 
ney for  nothing  but  to  cast  account  withal ; 
so  our  hearers  make  use  of  sermons  and 
discourses  evangelical,  but  to  fill  up  void 
spaces  of  their  time,  to  help  to  tell  an  hour 
with,  or  pass  it  without  tediousness.  The 
reason  of  this  is  a  sad  condemnation  to  such 
persons ;  they  have  not  yet  entertained  the 
Spirit  of  God,  they  are  in  darkness :  they 
were  washed  in  water,  but  never  baptized 
with  the  Spirit;  "  for  these  things  are  spiritu- 
ally discerned."  They  would  think  the 
preacher  rude,  if  he  should  say, — they  are 
not  Christians,  they  are  not  within  the  cove- 
nant of  the  gospel : — but  it  is  certain  that 
"the  Spirit  of  manifestation"  is  not  yet 
upon  them  ;  and  that  is  the  first  effect  of  the 
Spirit,  whereby  we  can  be  called  sons  of 
God,  or  relatives  of  Christ.  If  we  do  not 
apprehend,  and  greedily  suck  in,  the  pre- 
cepts of  this  holy  discipline,  as  aptly  as  mer- 
chants do  discourse  of  gain,  or  farmers  of 
j  fair  harvests,  we  have  nothing  but  the  name 
I  of  Christians ;  but  we  are  no  more  such 


192 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE.         Serm.  XXVI. 


really,  than  mandrakes  are  men,  or  sponges 
are  living  creatures. 

3.  The  gospel  is  called  "  Spirit,"  because 
it  consists  of  spiritual  promises  and  spiritual 
precepts,  and  makes  all  men  that  embrace  it 
truly  to  be  spiritual  men;  and  therefore  St. 
Paul  adds  an  epithet  beyond  this,  calling  it 
"a  quickening  Spirit,"*  that  is,  it  puts  life 
into  our  spirits,  which  the  law  could  not. 
The  law  bound  us  to  punishment,  but  did 
not  help  us  to  obedience,  because  it  gave  not 
the  promise  of  eternal  life  to  its  disciples. 
"The  Spirit,"  that  is,  "the  gospel,"  only 
does  this  :  and  this  alone  is  it  which  com- 
forts afflicted  minds,  which  puts  activeness 
into  wearied  spirits,  which  inflames  our  cold 
desires,  and  does  ava£oi7tvp£iv ,  blows  up 
sparks  into  live  coals,  and  coals  up  to  flames, 
and  flames  into  perpetual  burnings.  And  it 
is  impossible  that  any  man, — who  believes 
and  considers  the  great,  the  infinite,  the  un- 
speakable, the  unimaginable,  the  never- 
ceasing  joys,  that  are  prepared  for  all  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  gospel, — should 
not  desire  them  :  and,  unless  he  be  a  fool,  he 
cannot  but  use  means  to  obtain  them,  ef- 
fective, hearty  pursuances.  For  it  is  not 
directly  in  the  nature  of  a  man  to  neglect  so 
great  a  good;  there  must  be  something  in 
his  manners,  some  obliquity  in  his  will,  or 
madness  in  his  intellectuals,  or  incapacity  in 
his  naturals,  that  must  make  him  sleep  such 
a  reward  away,  or  change  it  for  the  pleasure 
of  a  drunken  fever,  or  the  vanity  of  a  mis- 
tress, or  the  rage  of  a  passion,  or  the  un- 
reasonableness of  any  sin.  However,  this 
promise  is  the  life  of  all  our  actions,  and  the 
Spirit  that  first  taught  it  is  the  life  of  our 
souls. 

But,  beyond  this,  is  the  reason  which 
is  the  consummation  of  all  the  faithful.  The 
"gospel  "  is  called  the  "Spirit,"  because  by 
and  in  the  gospel,  God  hath  given  to  us  not 
only  "  the  Spirit  of  manifestation,"  that  is, 
of  instruction  and  of  catechism,  of  faith  and 
confident  assent;  but  the  "Spirit  of  con- 
firmation, or  obsignation"  to  all  them  that 
believe  and  obey  the  gospel  of  Christ :  that 
is,  the  power  of  God  is  come  upon  our 
hearts,  by  which,  in  an  admirable  manner, 
we  are  made  sure  of  a  glorious  inherit- 
ance ;  made  sure  (I  say)  in  the  nature  of 
the  thing;  and  our  own  persuasions  also 
are  confirmed  with  an  excellent,  a  comforta- 
ble, a  discerning,  and  a  reasonable  hope: 
in  the  strength  of  which,  and  by  whose  aid, 


*  1  Cor.  xv.  45. 


as  we  do  not  doubt  of  the  performance  of 
|  the  promise,  so  we  vigorously  pursue  all 
the  parts  of  the  condition,  and  are  enabled 
J  to  work  all  the  work  of  God,  so  as  not  to 
be  affrighted  with  fear,  or  seduced  by  vanity, 
or  oppressed  by  lust,  or  drawn  off  by  evil 
example,  or  abused  by  riches,  or  imprisoned 
by  ambition  and  secular  designs.  This  the 
Spirit  of  God  does  work  in  all  his  servants ; 
and  is  called,  "  the  Spirit  of  obsignation,  or 
:  the  confirming  Spirit,"  because  it  confirms 
our  hope,  and  assures  our  title  to  life  eternal , 
and  by  means  of  it,  and  other  its  collateral 
assistances,  it  also  confirms  us  in  our  duty, 
that  we  may  not  only  profess  in  word,  but 
live  lives  according  to  the  gospel.  And  this 
is  the  sense  of  "  the  Spirit "  mentioned  in 
the  text;  "Ye  are  not  in  the  flesh,  but  in 
the  Spirit,  if  so  be  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
dwell  in  you :"  that  is,  if  ye  be  made  par- 
takers of  the  gospel,  or  of  "the  Spirit  of 
manifestation;"  if  ye  be  truly  entitled  to 
God,  and  have  received  the  promise  of  the 
Father,  then  are  ye  not  carnal  men ;  ye  are 
"spiritual,"  ye  are  "in  the  Spirit:"  if  ye 
have  the  Spirit  in  one  sense  to  any  purpose. 
I  ye  have  it  also  in  another :  if  the  Spirit  be 
j  in  you,  you  are  in  it ;  if  it  hath  given  you 
hope,  it  hath  also  enabled  and  ascertained 
your  duty.  For  "  the  Spirit  of  manifesta- 
tion "  will  but  upbraid  you  in  the  shame 
and  horrors  of  a  sad  eternity,  if  you  have 
not  "  the  Spirit  of  obsignation  :"  if  the  Holy- 
Ghost  be  not  come  upon  you  to  great  pur- 
poses of  holiness,  all  other  pretences  are 
vain, — ye  are  still  in  the  flesh,  which  shall 
never  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God. 

"In  the  Spirit:"  that  is,  in  the  power  of 
the  Spirit.    So  the  Greeks  call  him  ev&ov, 
"  who  is  possessed  by  a  spirit,"  whom  God 
hath  filled  with  a  celestial  immission ;  he  is 
|  said  to  be  in  God,  when  God  is  in  him. 
'  And  it  is  this  similitude  taken  from  persons 
encompassed  with  guards ;  they  are  "  in 
custodia,"  that  is  "  in  their  power,"  under 
their  command,  moved  at  their  dispose ; 
they  rest  in  their  time,  and  receive  laws 
:  from   their  authority,  and  admit  visiters 
!  whom  they  appoint,  and  must  be  employed 
'  as  they  shall  suffer:  so  are  men  who  are  in 
I  the  Spirit;  that  is,  they  believe  as  he  teaches, 
!  they  work  as  he  enables,  they  choose  what 
|  he  calls  good,  they  are  friends  of  his  friends, 
and  they  hate  with  his  hatred  :  with  this 
only  difference,  that  persons  in  custody  are 
forced  to  do  what  their  keepers  please,  and 
nothing  is  free  but  their  wills  ;  but  they  that 
are  under  the  command  of  the  Spirit,  do  all 


Serm.  XXVI. 


OF  THE  SPIRI 


T  OF  GRACE. 


193 


things  which  the  Spirit  commands,  but  they 
do  them  cheerfully ;  and  their  will  is  now 
the  prisoner,  but  it  is  "  in  libera  custodia," 
the  will  is  where  it  ought  to  be,  and  where 
it  desires  to  be,  and  it  cannot  easily  choose 
any  thing  else,  because  it  is  extremely  in 
love  with  this,  as  the  saints  and  angels  in 
their  state  of  beatific  vision  cannot  choose 
but  love  God  ;  and  yet  the  liberty  of  their 
choice  is  not  lessened,  because  the  object 
fills  all  the  capacities  of  the  will  and  the 
understanding.  IndifTerency  to  an  object  is 
the  lowest  degree  of  liberty,  and  supposes 
unworthiness  or  defect  in  the  object,  or  the 
apprehension  :  but  the  will  is  then  the  freest 
and  most  perfect  in  its  operation,  when  it 
entirely  pursues  a  good  with  so  certain  de- 
termination and  clear  election,  that  the  con- 
trary evil  cannot  come  into  dispute  or  pre- 
tence. Such  in  our  proportions  is  the  liberty 
of  the  sons  of  God  ;  it  is  a  holy  and  amiable 
captivity  to  the  Spirit :  the  will  of  man  is  in 
love  with  those  chains,  which  draw  us  to 
God,  and  loves  the  fetters  that  confine  us  to 
the  pleasures  and  religion  of  the  kingdom. 
And  as  no  man  will  complain  that  his  tem- 
ples are  rt  drained,  and  his  head  is  prisoner, 
when  it  is  encircled  with  a  crown;  so  when 
the  Son  of  God  hath  made  us  free,  and  hath 
only  subjected  us  to  the  service  and  dominion 
of  the  Spirit,  we  are  free  as  princes  within 
the  circle  of  their  diadem^and  our  chains  are 
bracelets,  and  the  law  is  a  law  of  liberty,  and 
4  his  service  is  perfect  freedom;"  and  the 
more  we  are  his  subjects,  the  more  "  we 
shall  reign  as  kings;"  and-  the  faster  we 
run,  the  easier  is  our  burden  ;  and  Christ's 
yoke  is  like  feathers  to  a  bird,  not  loads,  but 
helps  to  motion,  without  them  the  body 
falls ;  and  we  do  not  pity  birds,  when  in 
summer  we  wish  them  unfeathered  and 
callow,  or  bald  as  eggs,  that  they  might  be 
cooler  and  lighter.  Such  is  the  load  and 
captivity  of  the  soul,  when  we  do  the  work 
of  God,  and  are  his  servants,  and  under  the 
government  of  the  Spirit.  They  that  strive 
to  be  quit  of  this  subjection,  love  the  liberty 
of  outlaws,  and  the  licentiousness  of  anar- 
chy, and  the  freedom  of  sad  widows  and 
distressed  orphans:  for  so  rebels,  and  fools, 
and  children,  long  to  be  rid  of  their  princes, 
and  their  guardians,  and  their  tutors,  that 
they  may  be  accursed  without  law,  and  be 
undone  without  control,  and  be  ignorant  and 
miserable  without  a  teacher  and  without 
discipline.  He  that  is  in  the  Spirit,  is  under 
tutors  and  governors,  until  the  time  appoint- 
ed of  the  Father,  just  as  all  great  heirs  are; 
25 


only,  the  first  seizure  the  Spirit  makes  ia 
upon  the  will.  He  that  loves  the  yoke  of 
Christ,  and  the  discipline  of  the  gospel,  he 
is  in  the  Spirit,  that  is,  in  the  Spirit's  power. 

Upon  this  foundation  the  apostle  hath 
built  these  two  propositions.  1.  Whoso- 
ever hath  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  in 
none  of  his  :  he  does  not  belong  to  Christ 
at  all:  he  is  not  partaker  of  his  Spirit,  and 
therefore  shall  never  be  partaker  of  his 
glory.  2.  Whosoever  is  in  Christ  is  dead 
to  sin,  and  lives  to  the  Spirit  of  Christ:  that 
is,  lives  a  spiritual,  a  holy,  and  a  sanctified 
life.    These  are  to  be  considered  distinctly. 

1.  All  that  belong  to  Christ  have  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.  Immediately  before  the 
ascension,  our  blessed  Saviour  bid  his  disci- 
ples "  tarry  in  Jerusalem,  till  they  should 
receive  the  promise  of  the  Father."  Who- 
soever stay  at  Jerusalem,  and  are  in  actual 
communion  of  the  church  of  God,  shall 
certainly  receive  this  promise.  "  For  it  is 
made  to  you  and  to  your  chilJren,"  (saith 
St.  Peter,)  "and  to  as  many  as  the  Lord 
our  God  shall  call." — All  shall  receive 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  the  promise  of  the 
Father,  because  this  was  the  great  instru- 
ment of  distinction  between  the  law  and  the 
gospel.  In  the  law,  God  gave  his  Spirit,  1. 
to  some;  to  them,  2.  extra-regularly ;  3. 
without  solemnity;  4.  in  small  proportions, 
like  the  dew  upon  Gideon's  fleece ;  a  little 
portion  was  wet  sometimes  with  the  dew 
of  heaven,  when  all  the  earth  besides  was 
dry.  And  the  Jews  called  it  "filiam  vocis,'* 
"  the  daughter  of  a  -voice,"  still,  and  small', 
and  seldom,  and  that  by  secret  whispers,, 
and  sometimes  inarticulate,  by  way  of  en- 
thusiasm, rather  than  of  instruction,;  and 
God  spake  by  the  prophets,  transmitting  the- 
sound  as  through  an  organ-pipe,  things 
which  themselves  oftentimes  understood  not. 
But  in  the  gospel,  the  Spirit  is  given  with- 
out measure;  first  poured  forth  upon  our 
head  Christ  Jesus;  then  descending  upon 
the  beard  of  Aaron,  the  fathers  of  the 
church ;  and  thence  falling,  like  the  tears 
of  the  balsam  of  Judea,  upon  the  foot  of 
the  plant,  upon  the  lowest  of  the  people. 
And  this  is  given  regularly  to  all  that  ask 
it,  to  all  that  can  receive  it,  and  by  a  solemn 
ceremony,  and  conveyed  by  a  sacrament: 
and  is  now,  not  the  daughter  of  a  voice, 
but  the  mother  of  many  voices,  of  divided 
tongues,  and  united  hearts ;  of  the  tongues 
of  prophets,  and  the  duty  of  saints ;  of  the 
sermons  of  apostles*  and  the  wisdom  of  go- 
vernors: it  is  the  parent  of  boldness  and 
R 


194 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE.         Serm.  XXVI. 


fortitude  to  martyrs,  the  fountain  of  learning 
to  doctors,  an  ocean  of  all  things  excellent 
to  all  who  are  within  the  ship  and  bounds 
of  the  catholic  church  :  so  that  old  men 
and  young  men,  maidens  and  boys,  the 
scribe  and  the  unlearned,  the  judge  and  the 
advocate,  the  priest  and  the  people,  are  fall 
of  the  Spirit,  if  they  belong  to  God.  Moses' 
wish  is  fulfilled,  and  all  the  Lord's  people  are 
prophets  in  some  sense  or  other. 

In  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients  it  was  ob- 
served, that  there  are  four  great  cords,  which 
tie  the  heart  of  man  to  inconvenience,  and 
a  prison,  making  it  a  servant  of  vanity,  and 
an  heir  of  corruption;  I.  pleasure,  and,  2. 
pain  :  3.  fear,  and  4.  desire. 

IIp6$  to  titpdxopBov  8  oXov, 

trtv  ^8ovrtv,  ijiLBv^av,  Xvrtrjv,  tyofiov, 

CL3xrtGtu>$  ys  xal  7to7Jkir]S  fA(*Z*]$  8soi. 

These  are  they  that  exercise  all  the  wisdom 
and  resolutions  of  man,  and  all  the  powers 
that  God  hath  given  him. 

ovtoi  yap,  ovtOL  seat  8un  tfrfXay^wov  6\fi 
%uipovai  xai  xvxwocp  av^purtuv  xtap, 

said  Agathon.  These  are  those  evil  spirits 
that  possess  the  heart  of  man,  and  mingle 
with  all  his  actions  ;  so  that  either  men  are 
tempted  to,  1.  "  lust  by  pleasure,"  or,  2.  to 
"  baser  arts  by  covetousness,"  or,  3.  to 
4<r  impatience  by  sorrow,"  or  4.  to  dishonour- 
able actions  by  fear:"  and  this  is  the  state  of 
man  by  nature,  and  under  the  law,  and  for 
ever,  till  the  Spirit  of  God  came,  and  by 
four  special  operations  cured  these  four  in- 
conveniences, and  restrained  or  sweetened 
these  unwholesome  waters. 

I.  God  gave  us  his  Spirit  that  we  might 
be  insensible  of  worldly  pleasures,  having 
our  souls  wholly  filled  with  spiritual  and 
heavenly  relishes.  For  when  God's  Spirit 
hath  entered  into  us,  and  possessed  us  as 
his  temple,  or  as  his  dwelling,  instantly  we 
begin  to  taste  manna,  and  to  loath?,  'he  diet 
of  Egypt;  we  begin  to  consider  cum.erning 
heaven,  and  to  prefer  eternity  before  mo- 
ments, and  to  love  the  pleasures  of  the  soul 
above  the  sottish  and  beastly  pleasures  of 
the  body.  Then  we  can  consider  that  the 
pleasures  of  a  drunken  meeting  cannot  make 
recompense  for  the  pains  of  a  surfeit,  and 
that  night's  intemperance ;  much  less  for 
the  torments  of  eternity :  then  we  are  quick 
to  discern  that  the  itch  and  scab  of  lustful 
appetites  is  not  worth  the  charges  of  a  chi- 
rurgeon:  much  less  can  it  pay  for  the  dis- 
grace, the  danger,  the  sickness,  the  death, 


and  the  hell,  of  lustful  persons.  Then  77e 
wonder  that  any  man  should  venture  his 
head  to  get  a  crown  unjustly;  or  that,  for 
the  hazard  of  a  victory,  he  should  throw 
away  all  his  hopes  of  heaven  certainly. 

A  man  that  hath  tasted  God's  Spirit,  can 
instantly  discern  the  madness  that  is  in  rage, 
the  folly  and  the  disease  that  are  in  envy, 
the  anguish  and  tediousness  that  are  in  lust, 
the  dishonour  that  is  in  breaking  our  faith 
and  telling  a  lie;  and  understands  things 
truly  as  they  are;  that  is,  that  charity  is  the 
greatest  nobleness  in  the  world ;  that  reli- 
gion hath  in  it  the  greatest  pleasures ;  that 
temperance  is  the  best  security  of  health ; 
that  humility  is  the  surest  way  to  honour. 
And  all  these  relishes  are  nothing  but  ante- 
pasts  of  heaven,  where  the  quintessence  of 
all  these  pleasures  shall  be  swallowed  for 
ever;  where  the  chaste  shall  follow  the 
Lamb,  and  the  virgins  sing  there  where  the 
mother  of  God  shall'reign;  and  the  zealous 
converters  of  souls,  and  labourers  in  God's 
vineyard,  shall  worship  eternally ;  where 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  do  wear  their  crowns 
of  righteousness  ;  and  the  patient  persons 
shall  be  rewarded  with  Job,  and  the  meek 
persons  with  Christ  and  Moses,  and  all 
with  God  ;  the  very  expectation  of  which, 
— proceeding  from  a  hope  begotten  in  us  by 
"the  Spirit  of  manifestation,"  and  bred  up 
and  strengthened  by  "  the  Spirit  of  obsigna- 
tion,"— is  so  delicious  an  entertainment  of 
all  our  reasonable  appetites,  that  a  spiritual 
man  can  no  more  be  removed  or  enticed 
from  the  love  of  God  and  of  religion,  than 
the  moon  from  her  orb,  or  a  mother  from 
loving  the  son  of  her  joys  and  of  her  sor- 
rows. 

This  was  observed  by  St.  Peter:  "As 
new-born  babes,  desire  the  sincere  milk  of 
the  word,  that  ye  may  grow  thereby  ;  if  so 
be  that  ye  have  tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gra- 
cious."* When  once  we  have  tasted  the 
grace  of  God.  the  sweetness  of  his  Spirit; 
then  no  food  but  "  the  food  of  angels,"  no 
cup  but  "  the  cup  of  salvation,"  the  "  divin- 
ing cup,"  in  which  we  drink  salvation  to 
our  God,  and  call  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord  with  ravishment  and  thanksgiving. 
And  there  is  no  greater  external  testimony 
that  we  are  in  the  Spirit,  and  that  the  Spirit 
dwells  in  us,  than  if  we  find  joy  and  delight 
and  spiritual  pleasure  in  the  greatest  myste- 
ries of  our  religion;  if  we  communicate 
often,  and  that  with  appetite,  and  a  forward 

*  1  Pet.  ii.  2. 


Serm.  XXVI. 


OP  THE  SPIR 


IT  OF  GRACE. 


195 


choice,  and  an  unwearied  devotion,  and  a! 
heart  truly  fUed  uj  on  God,  and  upon  the 
offices  of  a  holy  worship.  He  that  loathes 
good  meat,  is  sick  at  heart,  or  near  it;  and 
he  that  despises,  or  hath  not  a  holy  appe- 
tite to,  the  food  of  angels,  the  wine  of  elect 
souls,  is  fit  to  succeed  the  prodigal  at  his 
banquet  of  sin  and  husks,  and  to  be  partaker 
of  the  table  of  devils  :  but  all  they  who 
have  God's  Spirit,  love  to  feast  at  the  sup- 
per of  the  Lamb,  and  have  no  appetites  but 
what  are  of  the  Spirit,  or  servants  to  the 
Spirit.  I  have  read  of  a  spiritual  person 
who  saAv  heaven  but  in  a  dream,  but  such 
as  made  great  impression  upon  him,  and 
was  represented  with  vigorous  and  pertina- 
cious phantasms,  not  easily  disbanding ; 
and  when  he  awaked  hp  knew  not  his  cell, 
he  remembered  not  him  that  slept  in  the 
same  dorture,  nor  could  tell  how  night  and 
day  were  distinguished,  nor  could  discern 
oil  from  wine ;  but  called  out  for  his  vision 
again  :  "  Redde  mihi  eampos  meos  floridos, 
colutnnam  auream,  comitem  Hieronymum, 
assistentes  angelos;"  "Give  me  my  fields 
again,  my  most  delicious  fields,  my  pillar 
of  a  glorious  light,  my  companion  St.  Je- 
rome, my  assistant  angels." — And  this  lasted 
till  he  was  told  of  his  duty,  and  matter  of 
obedience,  and  the  fear  of  a  sin  had  disen- 
charmed  him,  and  caused  him  to  take  care, 
lest  he  lose  the  substance  out  of  greediness 
to  possess  the  shadow. 

And  if  it  were  given  to  any  of  us  to  see 
paradise,  or  the  third  heaven,  (as  it  was  to 
St.  Paul.)  could  it  be  that  ever  we  should 
love  any  thing  but  Christ,  or  follow  any 
uuide  but  the  Spirit,  or  desire  any  thing  but 
heaven,  or  understand  any  thing  to  be  pleas- 
ant but  what  shall  lead  thither?  Now 
what  a  vision  can  do,  that  the  Spirit  doth 
lertainly  to  them  that  entertain  him.  They 
that  have  him  really,  and  not  in  pretence 
only,  are  certainly  great  despisers  of  the 
things  of  the  world.  The  Spirit  doth  not 
create  or  enlarge  our  appetites  of  things 
below  :  spiritual  men  are  not  designed  to 
reign  upon  earth,  but  to  reign  over  their 
lusts  and  sottish  appetites.  The  Spirit  doth 
not  inllame  our  thirst  of  wealth,  but  extin- 
guishes it,  and  makes  us  to  "  esteem  all 
things  as  loss,  and  as  dung,  so  that  we  may 
gain  Christ."  No  gain  then  is  pleasant  but 
godliness,  no  ambition  but  longings  after 
heaven,  no  revenge  but  against  ourselves 
for  sinning;  nothing  but  God  in  Christ: 
"  Deus  meus,  et  omnia  :"  and  "  date  nobis 
animas,  castera  vobis  tollite,"  as  the  king  of 


!  Sodom  said  to  Abraham;  "Secure  but  the 
I  souls  to  us,  and  take  our  goods."  Indeed, 
this  is  a  good  sign  that  we  have  the  Spirit. 

St.  John  spake  a  hard  saying,  but  by  the 
Spirit  of  manifestation  we  are  all  taught  to 
understand  it :  "  Whosoever  is  born  of  God. 
doth  not  commit  sin,  for  his  seed  remain- 
eth  in  him;  and  he  cannot  sin,  because  he 
is  born  of  God."*  The  seed  of  God  is  the 
Spirit,  which  hath  a  plastic  power  to  efform 
us  "  in  similitudinem  filiorum  Dei,"  "into 
the  image  of  the  sons  of  God  ;"  and  as  long 
as  this  remains  in  us,  while  the  Spirit 
dwells  in  us,  we  cannot  sin ;  that  is,  it  is 
against  our  natures,  our  reformed  natures, 
to  sin.  And  as  we  say,  we  cannot  endure 
such  a  potion,  we  cannot  suffer  such  a 
pain  ;  that  is,  we  cannot  without  great  trou- 
ble, we  cannot  without  doing  violence  to 
our  nature;  so  all  spiritual  men,  all  that  are 
born  of  God,  and  the  seed  of  God  remains 
in  them,  "  they  cannot  sin  ;"  cannot  with- 
out trouble,  and  doing  against  their  natures, 
and  their  most  passionate  inclinations,  /v 
man,  if  you  speak  naturally,  can  masticatf 
gums,  and  he  can  break  his  own  legs,  and  he 
can  sip  up,  by  little  draughts,  mixtures  ol 
aloes,  and  rhubarb,  of  henbane,  or  the  dead- 
ly nightshade;  but  he  cannot  do  this  na- 
turally and  willingly,  cheerfully,,  or  with 
delight.  Every  sin  is  against  a  good  manV 
nature  :  he  is  ill  at  ease  when  he  has  missed 
his  usual  prayers,  he  is  amazed  if  he  have 
fallen  into  an  error,  he  is  infinitely  ashamed 
of  his  imprudence ;  he  remembers,  a  sin  as 
he  thinks  of  an  enemy,  or  the  horrors  of  :« 
midnight  apparition  :  for  all  his  capacities, 
his  understanding,  and  his  choosing  facul- 
ties, are  filled  up  with  the  opinion  and  per- 
suasions,, with  the  love  and  with  the  desires 
of  God.  And  this,  I  say,  is  the  great 
benefit  of  the  Spirit,  which  God  hath  giver, 
to  us  as  an  antidote  against  worldly  pleas- 
ures. And  therefore,  St.  Paul  joins  them 
as  consequent  to  each  other :  "  For  it  i« 
impossible  for  those  who  were  once  en 
lightened,  and  have  tasted  of  the  heavenly 
gift,  and  were  made  partakers  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  have  tasted  the  good  word  of 
God,  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to 
come,"  &c.f  First,  we  are  enlightened  in 
baptism,  and  by  "  the  Spirit  of  manifesta- 
tion," the  revelations  of  the  gospel: — then 
we  relish  and  taste  interior  excellencies,  and 
receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  "  the  Spirit  of  con- 


*  1  Episi.  iii.  9.  t  Heb.  vi.  4. 


196 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE.      Serm.  XXVI. 


firmation,"  an  J  he  gives  us  a  taste  of  the  j  us  out  of  his  storehouses,  the  sorrows  of  this 
powers  of  the  world  to  come  ;  that  is,  of  the  ;  world  would  be  more  and  unmixed,  and 


great  efficacy  that  is  in  the  article  of  eternal 
life,  to  persuade  us  to  religion  and  holy- 
living::  then  we  feel  that  as  the  belief  of 
that  article  dwells  upon  our  understand- 
ing and  is  incorporated  into  our  wills  and 
choice,  so  we  grow  powerful  to  resist  sin 
by  the  strengths  of  the  Spirit,  to  defy  all  car- 
nal pleasure,  and  to  suppress  and  mortify  it 
by  the  powers  of  this  article  :  those  are 
"  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come." 

2.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  given  to  all  Avho 
truly  belong  to  Christ,  as  an  antidote  against 
sorrows,  against  impatience,  against  the 


the  troubles  of  persecution  would  be  too 
great  for  natural  confidences.  For  who 
shall  make  him  recompense  that  lost  his  life 
in  a  duel,  fought  about  a  draught  of  wine, 
or  a  cheaper  woman  ?  What  arguments 
shall  invite  a  man  to  suffer  torments  in  tes- 
timony of  a  proposition  of  natural  philoso- 
phy ?  And  by  what  instruments  shall  we 
comfort  a  man  who  is  sick  and  poor,  and 
disgraced  and  vicious,  and  lies  cursing,  and 
despairs  of  any  thing  hereafter?  That 
man's  condition  proclaims  what  it  is  to 
want  the  Spirit  of  God,  "the  Spirit  of  corn- 


evil  accidents  of  the  world,  and  against  the! fort."  Now  this  Spirit  of  comfort  is  the 
oppression  and  sinking  of  our  spirits  under  |  hope  and  confidence,  the  certain  expecta- 
the  cross.    There  are  in  Scripture  noted  jtion  of  partaking,   in  the  inheritance  of 


two  births  besides  the  natural;  to  which 
also  by  analogy  we  may  add  a  third.  The 
first  is,  to  be  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit. 
It  is  h  But  8vckv,  one  thing  signified  by  a 
divided  appellative,  by  two  substantives, 
f*  water  and  the  Spirit,"  that  is,  "  Spiritus 
aqueus,"  the  "  Spirit  moving  upon  the 
waters  of  baptism."    The  second  is,  to  be 


Jesus;  this  is  the  faith  and  patience  of 
the  saints ;  this  is  the  refreshment  of  all 
wearied  travellers,  the  cordial  of  all  lan- 
guishing sinners,  the  support  of  the  scrupu- 
lous, the  guide  of  the  doubtful,  the  anchor 
of  timorous  and  fluctuating  souls,  the  con- 
fidence and  the  staff  of  the  penitent.  He 
that  is  deprived  of  his  whole  estate  for 


born  of  "  Spirit  and  fire ;  for  so  Christ  was  j  good  conscience,  by  the  Spirit  he  meets  this 
promised  to      baptize  us  with  the  Holy  comfort,  that  he  shall  find  it  again  with  ad- 


Ghost  and  with  fire  ;"  that  is,  "  cum  Spi_ 
ritu  igneo,"  "  with  a  fiery  Spirit,"  the  Spi- 
rit as  it  descended  into  Pentecost  in  the 
shape  of  fiery  tongues.  And  as  the  watery 
Spirit  washed  away  the  sins  of  the  church, 
so  the  Spirit  of  fire  enkindles  charity  and 
the  love  of  God.    To  7tvp  xaSotpti,  to  v'6up 


vantage  in  the  day  of  restitution  ;  and  this 
comfort  was  so  manifest  in  the  first  days  of 
Christianity,  that  it  was  no  unfrequent  thing 
to  see  holy  persons  court  a  martyrdom, 
with  a  fondness  as  great  as  is  our  impa- 
tience and  timorousness  in  every  perse- 
cution.   Till  the  Spirit  of  God  comes  upon 


vp%!*9  (says  Plutarch,)  the  Spirit  is  the  jus,  we  are  o&cyo^agot.    "  Inopis  nos  atque 


same  under  both  the  titles,  and  it  enables 
me  church  with  gifts  and  graces.  And 
from  these  there  is  another  operation  of  the 
new  birth,  but  the  same  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of 
rejoicing,  or  "  spiritus  exultans,  spiritus 
laetitiae."  "  Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you 
with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye 
may  abound  in  hope  through  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost."*  There  is  a  certain  joy 
and  spiritual  rejoicing,  that  accompanies 
them  in  whom  the  Holy  Ghost  doth  dwell; 
a  joy  in  the  midst  of  sorrow :  a  joy  given 
1.0  allay  the  sorrows  of  secular  troubles,  and 
to  alleviate  the  burden  of  persecution.  This 
St.  Paul  notes  to  this  purpose:  "And  ye 
became  followers  of  us,  and  of  the  Lord, 
having  received  the  word  in  much  affliction, 
with  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost."f  Worldly 
afflictions  and  spiritual  joys  may  very  well 
dwell  together;  and  if  God  did  not  supply 


*  Rom.  xv.  13. 


1  1  Thess.  1.  6. 


pusilli  finxerunt  animi;""we  have  little 
souls,"  little  faith,  and  as  little  patience  ; 
we  fall  at  every  stumbling-block,  and  sink 
under  every  temptation ;  and  our  hearts 
fail  us,  and  we  die  for  fear  of  death,  and 
lose  our  souls  to  preserve  our  estates  or  our 
persons,  till  the  Spirit  of  God  "  fills  us  with 
joy  in  believing ;"  and  the  man  that  is  in  a 
great  joy,  cares  not  for  any  trouble  that  is 
less  than  his  joy ;  and  God  hath  taken  so 
great  care  to  secure  this  to  us,  that  he  hath 
turned  it  into  a  precept,  "Rejoice  ever- 
more;" and,  "Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always, 
and  again  I  say,  rejoice."*  But  this  re- 
joicing must  be  only  in  the  hope  that  is  laid 
up  for  us,  iv  i-Knihi  zmpovtes"  so  the  apostle, 
"  rejoicing  in  hope."f  For  although  God 
sometimes  makes  a  cup  of  sensible  comfort 
to  overflow  the  spirit  of  a  man,  and  thereby 
loves  to  refresh  his  sorrows;  yet  that  is 


*  1  Thess.  v.  16. 


t  Rom.  xii.  12. 


Serm.  XXVII. 


OF  THE  SPIR  T  OF  GRACE. 


197 


from  a  secret  principle  not  regularly  given, 
not  to  be  waited  tor,  not  to  be  prayed  for, 
and  it  may  fail  us  if  we  think  upon  it;  but 
the  hope  of  life  eternal  can  never  fail  us, 
and  the  joy  of  that  is  great  enough  to  make 
us  suffer  any  thing,  or  to  do  any  thing. 


"  Ibimus,  ibimus, 

Ut  cunque  praecedes,  supremum 
Carpere  it^r  comites  parati. 


Hor. 


them  in  single  rays.  But  as  the  "  Spirit  of 
obsignation"  was  given  to  them  under  a 
seal,  and  within  a  veil,  so  the  "Spirit  of 
manifestation,"  or  "  patefaction,"  was  like 
the  gem  of  a  vine,  or  the  bud  of  a  rose, 
plain  "'indices"  and  significations  of  life, 
and  principles  of  juice  and  sweetness;  bux 
yet  scarce  out  of  the  doors  of  their  causes  : 
they  had  the  infancy  of  knowledge,  and 
revelations  to  them  were  given  as  catechism 
is  taught  to  our  children  :  which  they  read 
with  the  eye  of  a  bird,  and  speak  with  the 
tongue  of  a  bee,  and  understand  with  the 


To  death,  to  oands,  to  poverty,  to  banish- 
ment, to  tribunals,  any  whither  in  hope  of 
life  eternal;  as  long  as  this  anchor  holds, 
we  may  suffer  a  storm,  but  cannot  suffer  heart  of  a  child;  that  is,  weakly  and  im- 
shipwreck.  And  I  desire  you,  by  the  way,  perfectly.  And  they  understand  so  little, 
to  observe  how  good  a  God  we  serve,  and ,  that,  1.  they  thought  God  heard  them  not, 
how  excellent'  a  religion  Christ  taught,  unless  they  spake  their  prayers,  at  least 
when  one  of  his  great  precepts  is,  that  we  efforming  their  words  within  their  lips;  and. 


should  "rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad;" 
and  God  hath  given  us  the  spirit  of  re- 
joicing, not  a  sullen  melancholy  spirit,  not 
the  spirit  of  bondage  or  of  a  slave,  but  the 


2.  their  forms  of  prayer  were  so  few  and 
seldom,  that  to  teach  a  form  of  prayer,  or 
to  compose  a  collect,  was  thought  a  work 
fit  for  a  prophet,  or  the  founder  of  an  insti- 


Spirit  of  his  Son,  consigning  us  by  a  holyltution.  3.  Add  to  this,  that,  as  their  pro- 
conscience  to  "joys  unspeakable  and  full  j  mises  were  temporal,  so  were  their  hopes; 
of  glory."  And  from  hence  you  may  also  J  as  were  their  hopes,  so  were  their  desires  ; 
infer,  that  those  who  sink  under  a  perse-  and,  according  to  their  desires,  so  were  their 
cution,  or  are  impatient  in  a  sad  accident, '  prayers.  And  although  the  Psalms  of  David 
they  put  out  their  own  fires  which  the  Spi-was  their  great  office,  and  the  treasury  of 
rit  of  the  Lord  hath  kindled,  and  lose  those  devotion  to  their  nation, — and  very  worthily  ; 
glories  which  stand  behind  the  cloud.  yet  it  was  full  of  wishes  for  temporals,  in- 

vocations of  God  the  avenger,  on  God  the 
Lord  of  hosts,  on  God  the  enemy  of  their 
enemies  :  and  they  desired  their  nation  to  be 
prospered,  and  themselves  blessed,  and  dis- 
tinguished from  all  the  world  by  the  effects 
of  such  desires.  This  was  the  state  of 
prayer  in  their  synagogues;  save  only  that  it 
3.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  given  us  as  an;  had  also  this  ally;  4.  that  their  addresses  to 
antidote  against  evil  concupiscences  and  God  were  crass,  material,  typical,  and  full 
sinful  desires,  and  is  then  called  "  the  Spi-jof  shadows  and  imaginary,  and  patterns  of 
rit  of  prayer  and  supplication."  For,  ever '  things  to  come;  and  so  in  its  very  being  and 
since  the  affections  of  the  outward  man  pre- j  constitution  was  relative  and  imperfect, 
vailed  upon  the  ruins  the  soul,  all  our  de-|But  that  we  may  see  how  great  things  the 
sires  were  sensual,  and  therefore  hurtful; I  Lord  has  done  for  us,  God  hath  poured  his 
for,  ever  after,  our  body  grew  to  be  our  Spirit  into  our  hearts,  "  the  Spirit  of  prayer 
enemy.    In  the  loosenesses  of  nature,  ind;and  supplication." 

amongst  the  ignorance  o'r  imperfection  of  And  now,  1.  Christians  "pray  in  their 
gentile  philosophy,  men  used  to  pray  with '  spirit,"  with  sighs  and  groans,  and  know 
their  hands  full  of  rapine,  and  their  mouths  that  God,  who  dwells  within  them,  can  as 
full  of  blood  ;  and  their  hearts  full  of  ma- 'clearly  distinguish  those  secret  accents,  and 


SERMON  XXVII. 


PART  II 


read  their  meaning  in  the  Spirit,  as  plainly 
as  he  knows  the  voice  of  his  own  thunder, 


lice;  and  they  prayed  accordingly,  for  an' 
opportunity  to  steal,  for  a  fair  body,  for  a 
prosperous  revenge,  for  a  prevailing  malice,  or  could  discern  the  letter  of  the  law  written 
for  the  satisfaction  of  whatsoever  they  could!  in  the  tables  of  stone  by  the  finger  of  God. 

2.  Likewise,  "  the  Spirit  helpeth  our  in- 
firmities ;  for  we  know  not  what  we  should 


be  tempted  to  by  any  object,  by  any  lust,  by 
any  devil,  whatsoever. 

The  Jews  were  better  taught;  for  God  pray  for  as  we  ought."  This  is,  when  God 
was  their  teacher,  and  he  gave  the  Spirit  to  sends  an  affliction  or  persecution  upon  us, 

r2 


198 


OF  THE  SPRIT  OF  GRACE. 


Serm.  XXVII. 


we  are  indeed  extreme  apt  to  lay  our  hand 
upon  the  wound,  and  never  take  it  off,  but 
when  we  lift  it  up  in  prayer  to  be  delivered 
from  that  sadness;  and  then  we  pray  fer- 
vently to  be  cured  of  a  sickness,  to  be  de- 
livered from  a  tyrant,  to  be  snatched  from 
the  grave,  not  to  perish  in  the  danger.  But 
the  Spirit  of  God  hath,  from  all  sad  accidents, 
drawn  the  veil  of  error  and  the  cloud  of  in- 
tolerableness,  and  hath  taught  us  that  our 
happiness  cannot  consist  in  freedom  or  de- 
liverances from  persecutions,  but  in  patience, 
resignation,  and  noble  sufferance;  and  that 
we  are  not  then  so  blessed  when  God  hath 
turned  our  scourges  into  ease  and  delicacy, 
as  when  we  convert  our  very  scorpions  into 
the  exercise  of  virtues  :  so  that  now  the 
Spirit  having  helped  our  infirmities,  that  is, 
comforted  our  weaknesses  and  afflictions,  our 
sorrow  and  impatience,  by  this  proposition, 
that  "  All  things  work  together  for  the  good 
of  them  that  fear  God,"  he  hath  taught  us 
to  pray  for  grace,  for  patience  under  the 
cross,  for  charity  to  our  persecutors,  for  re- 
joicing in  tribulations,  for  perseverance  and 
boldness  in  the  faith,  and  for  whatsoever 
will  bring  us  safely  to  heaven. 

3.  Whereas  only  a  Moses  or  a  Samuel,  a 
David  or  a  Daniel,  a  John  the  Baptist  or  the 
Messias  himself,  could  describe  and  indite 
forms  of  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to  the  tune 
and  accent  of  heaven  ;  now  every  wise  and 
good  man  is  instructed  perfectly  in  the  scrip- 
tures,— which  are  writings  of  the  Spirit, — 
what  things  he  may,  and  what  things  he 
must,  ask  for. 

4.  The  Spirit  of  God  hath  made  our  ser- 
vices to  be  spiritual,  intellectual,  holy,  and 
effects  of  choice  and  religion,  the  conse- 
quence of  a  spiritual  sacrifice,  and  a  holy 
union  with  God.  The  prayer  of  a  Chris- 
tian is  with  the  effects  of  the  "  Spirit  of  sanc- 
tification  ;"  and  then  we  pray  with  the  Spirit, 
when  we  pray  with  holiness,  which  is  the 
great  fruit,  the  principal  gift,  of  the  Spirit. 
And  this  is  by  St.  James  called  **  the  prayer 
of  faith,"  and  is  said  to  be  certain  that  it 
shall  prevail.  Such  a  praying  with  the 
Spirit  when  our  prayers  are  the  voices  of. 
our  spirits,  and  our  spirits  are  first  taught, 
then  sanctified  by  God's  Spirit,  shall  never 
fail  of  its  effect ;  because  then  it  is  that  "  the 
Spirit  himself  maketh  intercession  for  us  ;" 
that  is,  hath  enabled  us  to  do  it  upon  his 
strengths;  we  speak  his  sense,  we  live  his 
life,  we  breathe  his  accents,  we  desire  in 
order  to  his  purposes,  and  our  persons  are 
gracious  by  his  holiness,  and  are  accepted 


by  his  interpellation  and  intercession  in  the 
act  and  offices  of  Christ.  This  is  "  praying 
with  the  Spirit." — To  which,  by  way  of  ex- 
plication, I  add  these  two  annexes  of  holy 
prayer,  in  respect  of  which  also  every  good 
man  prays  with  the  Spirit. 

5.  The  Spirit  gives  us  great  relish  and 
appetite  to  our  prayers;  and  this  St.  Paul 
calls*  "Serving  of  God  in  his  Spirit,"** 
rtvevfiatl  /uov;  that  is,  with  a  willing  mind: 
not  as  Jonas  did  his  errand,  but  as  Christ 
did  die  for  us  ;  he  was  straitened  till  he  had 
accomplished  it.  And  they — that  say  their 
prayers  out  of  custom  only,  or  to  comply 
with  external  circumstances,  or  collateral 
advantages,  or  pray  with  trouble  and  un- 
willingness— give  a  very  great  testimony 
that  they  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ  with- 
in them,  that  Spirit  which  maketh  interces- 
sion for  the  saints  :  but  he  that  delighteth 
in  his  prayers,  not  by  a  sensible  or  fantastic 
pleasure,  but  whose  choice  dwells  in  his 
prayers,  and  whose  conversation  is  with 
God  in  holy  living,  and  praying  accordingly, 
that  man  hath  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and 
therefore  belongs  to  Christ;  for  by  this 
Spirit  it  is  that  Christ  prays  in  heaven  for 
us  :  and  if  we  do  not  pray  on  earth  in  the 
same  manner  according  to  our  measures, 
we  had  as  good  hold  our  peace?  our  prayers 
are  an  abominable  sacrifice,  and  send  up  to 
God  no  better  a  perfume,  than  if  we  burned 
"  assa  foetid  a,"  or  the  raw  flesh  of  a  mur- 
dered man  upon  the  altar  of  incense. 

6.  The  Spirit  of  Christ  and  of  prayer 
helps  our  infirmities,  by  giving  us  confi- 
dence and  importunity.  I  put  them  together: 
for  as  our  faith  is,  and  our  trust  in  God,  so 
is  our  hope,  and  so  is  our  prayer;  weary  or 
lasting,  long  or  short,  not  in  words,  but  in 
works  and  in  desires  :  for  the  words  of 
prayer  are  no  part  of  the  Spirit  of  prayer. 
Words  may  be  the  body  of  it,  but  the  Spirit 
of  prayer  always  consists  in  holiness,  that 
is,  in  holy  desires  and  holy  actions.  Words 
are  not  properly  capable  of  being  holv  ;  all 
words  are  in  themselves  servants  of  things  ; 
and  the  holiness  of  a  prayer  is  not  at  all  con- 
cerned in  the  manner  of  its  expression,  but 
in  the  spirit  of  it,  that  is,  in  the  violence  of 
its  desires,  and  the  innocence  of  its  ends, 
and  the  continuance  of  its  employment. 

j  This  is  the  verification  of  that  great  prophecy 
j  which  Christ  made,  that  "  in  all  the  world 
the  true  worshippers  should  worship  in 
'spirit  and  in  truth;"  that  is,  with  a  pure 

!  *  Rom.  i.  9. 


Serm.  XXVII. 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE. 


199 


mind,  with  holy  desires,  for  spiritual  things,  |  ing,  it  was  certain  that  the  Spirit  did  teach, 
according  to  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  in  the 
imitation  of  Christ's  intercession,  with  per- 
severance, with  charity  or  love.  That  is 
the  Spirit  of  God,  and  these  are  the  spiritual- 
ities of  the  gospel,  and  the  formalities  of 
prayers  as  they  are  Christian  and  evangelical. 

7.  Some  men  have  thought  of  a  seventh 
way,  and  explicate  our  praying  in  the  Spirit 
by  a  mere  volubility  of  language ;  which 
indeed  is  a  direct  undervaluing  the  Spirit  of 
God  and  of  Christ,  "  the  Spirit  of  manifesta- 
tion and  intercession:"  it  is  to  return  to  the 
materiality  and  imperfection  of  the  law  ;  it 
is  to  worship  God  in  outward  forms,  and  to 
think  that  God's  service  consists  in  shells 
and  rinds,  in  lips  and  voices,  in  shadows 
and  images  of  things ;  it  is  to  retire  from 
Christ  to  Moses,  and,  at  the  best,  it  is  a 
going  from  real  graces  to  imaginary  gifts. 
And  when  praying  with  the  Spirit  hath  in 
it  so  many  excellencies,  and  consists  of  so 


— in  the  case  of  inditing  or  forming  the 
words,  it  is  not  certain  whether  he  did  or 
not:  yet  because  in  both  it  was  extraordi- 
nary, (if  it  was  at  all,)  and  ever  since  in 
both-  it  is  infinitely  needless;  to  pretend 
the  Spirit,  in  forms  of  every  man's  making, 
(even  though  they  be  of  contrary  religions, 
and  pray  one  against  the  other,)  it  may 
serve  an  end  of  a  fantastic  and  hypochondri- 
acal religion,  or  a  secret  ambition,  but  not  the 
ends  of  God,  or  the  honour  of  the  Spirit. 

The  Jews  in  their  declensions  to  folly  and 
idolatry  did  worship  the  stone  of  imagina- 
tion, that  is,  certain  smooth  images,  in 
which,  by  art  magic,  pictures  and  little  faces 
were  represented,  declaring  hidden  things 
and  stolen  goods;  and  God  severely  forbade 
this  baseness.*  But  we  also  have  taken  up 
this  folly,  and  worship  the  stone  of  imagina- 
tion :  we  beget  imperfect  phantasms  and 
speculative  images  in  our  fancy,  and  we 


many  parts  of  holiness  and  sanctification,  |  fall  down  and  worship  them;  never  con- 


and  is  an  act  of  the  inner  man  ;  we  shall  be 
infinitely  mistaken,  if  we  let  go  this  sub- 
stance, and  catch  at  the  shadow,  and  sit 
down  and  rest  in  the  imagination  of  an  im- 
probable, unnecessary,  useless  gift  of  speak- 
ing, to  which  the  nature  of  many  men,  and 
the  art  of  all  learned  men,  and  the  very  use 
and  confidence  of  ignorant  men,  is  too 
abundantly  sufficient.  Let  us  not  so  de- 
spise the  Spirit  of  Christ,  as  to  make  it  no 
other  than  the  breath  of  our  lungs.  For 
though  it  might  be  possible,  that  at  the  first, 
and  when  forms  of  prayer  were  few  and  sel- 
dom, the  Spirit  of  God  might  dictate  the 
very  words  to  the  apostles,  and  first  Chris- 
tians ;  yet,  it  follows  not,  that  therefore  he 
does  so  still,  to  all  that  pretend  praying  with 
the  Spirit.  For  if  he  did  not  then,  at  the 
first,  dictate  words,  (as  we  know  not  whether 
he  did  or  not,)  why  shall  he  be  supposed  to 
do  so  now  ?  If  he  did  then,  it  follows  that 
he  does  not  now  :  because  his  doing  it  then 
was  sufficient  for  all  men  since  :  for  so  the 
forms  taught  by  the  Spirit  were  patterns  for 
others  to  imitate,  in  all  the  descending  ages 
of  the  church.  There  was  once  an  occasion 
so  great,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  did  think  it 


sidering,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  never  ap- 
pears through  such  spectres.  Prayer  is  one 
of  the  noblest  exercises  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion ;  or  rather,  it  is  that  duty  in  which  all 
graces  are  concentred.  Prayer  is  charity,  it 
is  faith,  it  is  a  conformity  to  Godls  will,  a 
desiring  according  to  the  desires  of  heaven, 
an  imitation  of  Christ's  intercession,  and 
prayer  must  suppose  all  holiness,  or  else  U 
is  nothing :  and  therefore,  all  that  in  which 
men  need  God's  Spirit,  all  that  is  in  order 
to  prayer.  Baptism  is  but  a  prayer,  and  the 
holy  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper  is  but 
a  prayer ;  a  prayer  of  sacrifice  representa- 
tive, and  a  prayer  of  oblation,  and  a  prayer 
of  intercession,  and  a  prayer  of  thanksgiving. 
And  obedience  is  a  prayer,  and  begs  and 
procures  blessings  :  and  if  the  Holy  Ghost 
hath  sanctified  the  whole  man,  then  he  hath 
sanctified  the  prayer  of  the  man,  and  not  till 
then.  And  if  ever  there  was,  or  could  be, 
any  other  praying  with  the  Spirit,  it  was 
such  a  one  as  a  wicked  man  might  have  ; 
and  therefore,  it  cannot  be  a  note  of  distinc- 
tion between  the  good  and  bad,  between  the 
saints  and  men  of  the  world.  But  this  only, 
which  I  have  described  from  the  fountains 


a  work  fit  for  him,  to  teach  a  man  to  weave  1  0f  Scripture,  is  that  which  a  good  man  can 


silk,  or  embroider  gold,  or  work  in  brass  (as 
it  happened  to  Bezaleel  and  Aholiah)  :  but 
then,  every  weaver  or  worker  in  brass  may, 
by  the  same  reason,  pretend  that  he  works 
by  the  Spirit,  as  that  he  prays  by  the 
Spirit,  ;f  by  prayer  he  means  forming  the 
words     For  although  in  the  case  of  work- 


have,  and  therefore,  this  is  it  in  which  we 
ought  to  rejoice ;  "that  he  that  glories,  may 
glory  in  the  Lord." 

Thus,  I  have  (as  I  could)  described  the 
effluxes  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  us  in  hij 


Levit. 


xxvi.  1. 


200 


OF  THE  SPIRI 


T  OF  GRACE.         Serm.  XXVII. 


great  chan  nels.  But  the  great  effect  of  them 
is  this  :  that  as,  by  the  arts  of  the  spirit  of 
darkness  and  our  own  malice,  our  souls  are 
turned  into  flesh,  (not  in  the  natural  sense, 
but  in  the  moral  and  theological,)  and  "  ani- 
malis  homo  "  is  the  same  with  "  caraaZis," 
that  is,  his  soul  is  a  servant  of  the  passions 
and  desires  of  the  flesh,  and  is  flesh  in  its 
operations  and  ends,  in  its  principles  and 
actions  :  so,  on  the  other  side,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  and  "  the  promise  of  the  Father," 
and  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  our 
souls  are  not  only  recovered  from  the  state 
of  flesh,  and  reduced  back  to  the  entireness 
of  animal  operations,  but  they  are  heightened 
into  spirit,  and  transformed  into  a  new  na- 
ture. And  this  is  a  new  article,  and  now  to 
be  considered. 

St.  Jerome  tells  of  the  custom  of  the  em- 
pire; when  a  tyrant  was  overcome,  they 
used  to  break  the  head  of  his  statues,  and 
upon  the  same  trunk  to  set  the  head  of  the 
conqueror,  and  so  it  passed  wholly  for  the 
new  prince.  So  it  is  in  the  kingdom  of 
grace.  As  soon  as  the  tyrant  sin  is  over- 
come, and  a  new  heart  is  put  into  us,  or  that 
we  serve  under  a  new  head,  instantly  we 
have  a  new  name  given  us,  and  we  are 
esteemed  a  new  creation;  and  not  only 
changed  in  manners,  but  we  have  a  new 
nature  within  us,  even  a  third  part  of  an 
essential  constitution.  This  may  seem 
strange ;  and  indeed  it  is  so :  and  it  is  one 
of  the  great  mysteriousnesses  of  the  gospel. 
Every  man  naturally  consists  of  soul  and 
body  ;  but  every  Christian  man  that  belongs 
lo  Christ,  hath  more :  for  he  hath  body,  and 
soul,  and  spirit.    My  text  is  plain  for  it : 

If  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
he  is  none  of  his."  And  by  Spirit  is  not 
meant  only  the  graces  of  God,  and  his  gifts 
enabling  us  to  do  holy  things  :  there  is  more 
belongs  to  a  good  man  than  so.  But  as  when 
God  made  man,  he  made  him  after  his  own 
image,  and  breathed  into  him  the  spirit  of  | 
life,  and  he  was  made  "  in  animam  viven- 
tom,"  "into  a  living  soul;"  then  he  was 
made  a  man  :  so  in  the  new  creation,  Christ, 
*'  by  whom  God  made  the  worlds,"  intends 
to  conform  us  to  his  image,  and  he  hath 
given  us  "the  Spirit  of  adoption,"  by  which 
we  are  made  sons  of  God  ;  and  by  the  spirit 
of  a  new  life  we  are  made  new  creatures, 
capable  of  a  new  state,  entitled  to  another 
manner  of  duration,  enabled  to  do  new  and 
greater  actions  in  order  to  higher  ends  ;  we 
have  new  affections,  new  understandings, 
new  wills  :  "  Vetera  transierunt,  etecce  om- 


nia nova  facta  sunt ;"  "  all  things  are  be- 
come new."  And  this  is  called  "  the  seed 
of  God,"  when  it  relates  to  the  principle 
and  cause  of  this  production  ;  but  the  thing 
that  is  produced,  is  a  spirit,  and  that  is  as 
much  in  nature  beyond  a  soul,  as  a  soul  is 
beyond  a  body.  This  great  mystery  I  should 
not  utter  but  upon  the  greatest  authority  in 
the  world,  and  from  an  infallible  doctor ;  I 
mean  St.  Paul,  who  from  Christ  taught  the 
church  more  secrets  than  all  the  whole 
college  besides;  "And  the  very  God  of 
peace  sanctify  you  wholly  :  and  I  pray  God 
that  your  whole  spirit,  and  soul,  and  body, 
be  preserved  blameless  unto  the  coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."*  We  are  not  sanc- 
tified wholly,  nor  preserved  in  safety,  unless, 
besides  our  souls  and  bodies,  our  spirit  also 
be  kept  blameless.  This  distinction  is  nice, 
and  infinitely  above  human  reason :  but 
"  The  word  of  God  (saith  the  same  apostle) 
"  is  sharper  than  a  two  edged  sword,  pierc- 
ing even  to  the  dividing  asunder  the  sou! 
and  the  spirit :"+  and  that  hath  taught  us 
to  distinguish  the  principle  of  a  new  life 
from  the  principle  of  the  old,  the  celestial 
from  the  natural ;  and  thus  it- is. 

The  Spirit  (as  I  now  discourse  of  it)  is  a 
principle  infused  into  us  by  God,  when  we 
become  his  children,  whereby  we  live  the 
life  of  grace,  and  understand  the  secrets  of 
the  kingdom,  and  have  passions  and  desires 
of  things  beyond  and  contrary  to  our  natural 
appetites,  enabling  us  not  only  to  sobriety, 
which  is  the  duty  of  the  body, — not  only  to 
justice,  which  is  the  rectitude  of  the  soul, — 
but  to  such  a  sanctity  as  makes  us  like  to 
God  :  for  so  saith  the  Spirit  of  God,  "  Be  ye 
holy,  as  I  am  :  be  pure,  be  perfect,  as  your 
heavenly  Father  is  pure,  as  he  is  perfect 
which  because  it  cannot  be  a  perfection  of 
degrees,  it  must  be  "  in  similitudine  naturae," 
"  in  the  likeness  of  that  nature,"  which  God 
hath  given  us  in  the  new  birth,  that  by  it  we 
might  resemble  his  excellency  and  holiness. 
And  this  I  conceive  to  be  the  meaning  of  St. 
Peter,  "  According  as  his  divine  power  hath 
given  unto  us  all  things  that  pertain  to  life 
and  godliness,"  (that  is,  to  this  new  life  of 
godliness,)  "  through  the  knowledge  of  him, 
that  hath  called  us  to  glory  and  v  rtue  : 
whereby  are  given  unto  us  exceeding  great 
and  precious  promises,  that  by  these  you 
might  be  partakers  of  the  Divine  nature  :"J 
so  we  read  it ;  but  it  is  something  mistaken  : 
it  is  not  the  tijf  $nas  <j>vrt£o>s,  "  the  Divine  na- 


*  1  Thes.  v.  23.  t  Heb.  iv.  12.  t  2  Epist.  i.  3,  \. 


SteRM.  XXVII. 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE. 


201 


Rife  :"  for  God's  nature  is  indivisible,  and 
incommunicable;  "  but  it  is  spoken  partici- 
pative," or  "  per  analogiam,"  "  partakers 
of  a  Divine  nature,"  that  is,  of  this  new  and 
godlike  nature  given  to  every  person  that 
serves  God,  whereby  he  is  sanctified,  and 
made  the  child  of  God,  and  framed  into  the 
likeness  of  Christ.  The  Greeks  generally 
call  this  ^a'ptTita,  "a  gracious  gift,"  an  ex- 
traordinary super-addition  to  nature;  not  a 
single  gift  in  order  to  single  purposes,  but  a 
universal  principle  ;  and  it  remains  upon  all 
good  men  during  their  lives,  and  after  their 
death,  and  is  that  "  white  stone"  spoken  of 
in  the  Revelation,  "and  in  it  a  new  name 
written,  which  no  man  knoweth  but  he  that 
hath  it  :"*  and  by  this,  God's  sheep,  at  the 
day  oT  judgment,  shall  be  discerned  from 
goats.  If  their  spirits  be  presented  to  God 
pure  and  unblameable,  this  great  ^apiaua, 
this  talent,  which  God  hath  given  to  all 
Christians  to  improve  in  the  banks  of  grace, 
and  religion,  if  they  bring  this  to  God  in- 
creased and  grown  up  to  the  fulness  of  the 
measure  of  Christ,  (for  it  is  Christ's  Spirit; 
and  as  it  is  in  us,  it  is  called  "  the  supply  of 
the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ, "f)  then  we  shall 
be  acknowledged  for  sons,  and  our  adoption 
shall  pass  into  an  eternal  inheritance  in  the 
portion  of  our  elder  Brother. 

I  need  not  to  apply  this  discourse  :  the  very 
mystery  itself  is  in  the  whole  world  the 
greatest  engagement  of  our  duty  that  is  ima- 
ginable, by  the  way  of  instrument,  and  by 
the  way  of  thankfulness. 

Quisquis  magna  dedit,  voluit  sibi  magna  rependi ;  j 

'*  He  that  gives  great  things  to  us,  ought  to ! 
have  great  acknowledgments:" — and  Se-i 
neca  said  concerning  wise  men,  "That  he 
that  doth  benefits  to  others,  hides  those  be- 
nefits ;  as  a  man  lays  up  great  treasures  in 
the  earth,  which  he  must  never  see  with  his 
eyes,  unless  a  great  occasion  forces  him  to 
dig  the  graves,  and  produce  that  which  he 
buried;  but  all  the  while  the  man  was 
hugely  rich,  and  he  had  the  wealth  of  a  great 
relation."  So  it  is  with  God  and  us:  for 
this  huge  benefit  of  the  Spirit,  which  God 
gives  us,  is  for  our  good  deposited  into  our 
souls;  not  made  for  forms  and  ostentation, 
not  to  be  looked  upon,  or  serve  little  ends;' 
but  growing  in  the  secret  of  our  souls,  and 
swelling  up  to  a  treasure,  making  us  in  | 
this  world  rich  by  title  and  relation  ;  but  it| 
shall  be  produced  in  the  great  necessities! 


*  Apoc.  ii.  17. 


26 


t  Phil.  i.  9. 


of  doomsday.  In  the  mean  t' tj  >.  if  the 
fire  be  quenched,  the  fire  of  God's  Spirit. 
God  will  kindle  another  in  his  anger  that 
shall  never  be  quenched :  but  if  we  enter- 
tain God's  spirit  with  our  own  purities,  and 
employ  it  diligently,  and  serve  it  will- 
ingly, (for  God's  Spirit  is  a  loving  Spirit,) 
then  we  shall  really  be  turned  into  spirits. 
Irseneus  had  a  proverbial  saying,  "  Perfecti 
sunt,  qui  tria  sine  querela  Deo  exhibent;" 
"  They  that  present  three  things  right  to 
God,  they  are  perfect ;" — that  is,  a  chaste 
body,  a  righteous  soul,  a  holy  spirit.  And  the 
event  shall  be  this,  which  Maimonides  ex- 
pressed not  amiss, — though  he  did  not  at  all 
understand  the  secret  of  this  mystery  ;  the 
soul  of  man  in  this  life  is  "in  potentia.  ad 
esse  spiritum,"  "  it  is  designed  to  be  a  spirit," 
but  in  the  world  to  come  it  shall  be  actually 
as  very  a  spirit  as  an  angel  is.  And  this 
state  is  expressed  by  the  apostle  calling  it 
"  the  earnest  of  the  Spirit :"  that  is,  here  it  is 
begun,  and  given  us  as  an  antepast  of  glory, 
and  a  principle  of  grace  ;  but  then  we  shall 
have  it  "  in  plenitudine." 

 -regit  idem  spiritus  artus 

Orbe  alio  ■ 

Here  and  there  it  is  the  same";  bui  here  we 
have  the  earnest,  there  the  riches  and  the 
inheritance. 

But  then,  if  this  be  a  new  principle,  and 
be  given  us  in  order  to  the  actions  of  a  holy 
life,  we  must  take  care  that  we  receive  not 
"  the  Spirit  of  God  in  vain,"  but  remember 
that  it  is  a  new  life  :  and  as  no  man  can  pre- 
tend that  a  person  is  alive,  that  doth  not  al- 
ways do  the  works  of  life ;  so  it  is  certain  no 
man  hath  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  he  that  lives 
the  life  of  grace,  and  doth  the  works  of  the 
Spirit,  that  is,  "  in  all  holiness,  and  justice, 
and  sobriety." 

"  Spiritus  qui  accedit  animo,  vel  Dei  est. 
vel  dsemonis,"  said  Tertullian  :  "  Every  man 
hath  within  him  the  Spirit  of  God  or  the 
spirit  of  the  devil."  The  spirit  of  fornica- 
tion is  an  unclean  devil,  and  extremely  con- 
trary to  the  Spirit  of  God ;  and  so  is  the 
spirit  of  malice  or  uncharitableness  ;  for  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  the  spirit  of  love  :  for  as  by 
purities  God's  Spirit  sanctifies  the  body,  so 
by  love  he  purifies  the  soul,  and  makes  the 
soul  grow  into  a  spirit,  into  a  divine  nature. 
But  God  knows  that  even  in  Christian  so- 
cieties, we  see  the  devils  walk  up  and  down 
every  day  and  every  hour;  the  devil  of  un- 
cleanness,  and  the  devil  of  drunkenness  ;  the 
devil  of  malice,  and  the  devil  of  rage ;  the 


202 


CF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE.      Serm.  XXVII. 


spirit  of  fillhy  speaking,  and  the  spirit  of  de- ! 
traction  ;  a  proud  spirit,  and  the  spirit  of  re- 
bellion :  and  yet  all  called  "  Christian. "  It 
is  generally  supposed,  that  unclean  spirits 
walk  in  the  night,  and  so  it  used  to  be ;  u  for 
they  that  are  drunk  are  drunk  in  the  night," 
said  the  apostle.  But  Suidas  tells  of  certain 
"  empusoe"  that  used  to  appear  at  noon,  at 
such  times  as  the  Greeks  did  celebrate  the 
funerals  of  the  dead ;  and  at  this  day  some 
of  the  Russians  fear  the  noon-day  devil, 
which  appeareth  like  a  mourning  widow  to 
reapers  of  hay  and  corn,  and  uses  to  break 
their  arms  and  legs  unless  they  worship  her. 
The  prophet  David  speaketh  of  both  kinds  : 
'•Thou  shalt  not  be  afraid  for  the  terror  by 
night;"  and,  "a  ruina  et  daemonio  meri- 
diano,"  "  from  the  devil  at  noon  thou  shalt 
be  free."*  It  were  happy  if  we  were  so : 
but  besides  the  solemn  followers  of  the  works 
of  darkness,  in  the  times  and  proper  seasons 
of  darkness,  there  are  very  many  who  act 
their  scenes  of  darkness  in  the  face  of  the 
sun,  in  open  defiance  of  God,  and  all  laws, 
and  all  modesty.  There  is  in  such  men  the 
spirit  of  impudence,  as  well  as  of  impiety. 
And  yet  I  might  have  expressed  it  higher; 
for  every  habitual  sin  doth  not  only  put  us 
into  the  power  of  the  devil,  but  turns  us  into 
his  very  nature:  just  as  the  Holy  Ghost 
transforms  us  into  the  image  of  God. 

Here,  therefore,  I  have  a  greater  argument 
to  persuade  you  to  holy  living  than  Moses 
had  to  the  sons  of  Israel.  "  Behold,  I  have 
set  before  you  life-and  death,  blessing  and 
cursing ;"  so  said  Moses  :  but  I  add,  that  I 
have,  upon  the  stock  of  this  scripture,  set 
before  you  the  good  Spirit  and  the  bad,  God 
and  the  devil :  choose  unto  whose  nature 
vou  will  be  likened,  and  into  whose  inherit- 
ance you  will  be  adopted,  and  into  whose 
possession  you  will  enter.  If  you  commit 
sin,  "  you  are  of  your  father  the  devil,"  ye 
are  begot  of  his  principles,  and  follow  his 
pattern,  and  shall  pass  into  his  portion,  when 
ye  are  led  captive  by  him  at  his  will ;  and 
remember  what  a  sad  thing  it  is  to  go  into  i 
the  portion  of  evil  and  accursed  spirits,  the 
sad  and  eternal  portion  of  devils.  But  he 
that  hath  the  Spirit  of  God,  doth  acknow- 
ledge God  for  his  Father  and  his  Lord,  he 
despises  the  world,  and  hath  no  violent  ap- 
petites for  secular  pleasures,  and  is  dead  to 
the  desires  of  this  life,  and  his  hopes  are  spi- 
ritual, and  God  is  his  joy,  and  Christ  is  his 
pattern  and  support,  and  religion  is  his  em- 


*  Psal.  xci.  5. 


;  ployment,  and  "godliness  is  his  gain  :"  and 
|  this  man  understands  the  things  of  God,  and 
|  is  ready  to  die  for  Christ,  and  fears  nothing 
but  to  sin  against  God ;  and  his  will  is  filled 
with  love, and  it  springs  out  in  obedience  to 
God,  and  in  charity  to  his  brother.  And  of 
such  a  man  we  cannot  make  judgment  by 
his  fortune,  or  by  his  acquaintance;  by  his 
!  circumstances,  or  by  his  adherences;  for 
they  are  the  appendages  of  a  natural  man: 
but  "the  spiritual  is  judged  of  no  man;" 
that  is,  the  rare  excellencies,  that  make  him 
|  happy,  do  not  yet  make  him  illustrious,  un- 
less we  will  reckon  virtue  to  be  a  great  for- 
tune, and  holiness  to  be  great  wisdom,  and 
God  to  be  the  best  friend,  and  Christ  the  best 
relative,  and  the  Spirit  the  hugest  advan- 
tage, and  heaven  the  greatest  reward.  He 
that  knows  how  to  value  these  things,  may 
sit  down  and  reckon  the  felicities  of  him 
that  hath  the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  purpose  of  this  discourse  is  this  :  that 
since  the  Spirit  of  God  is  a  new  nature,  and 
a  new  life  put  into  us,  we  are  thereby  taught 
and  enabled  to  serve  God  by  a  constant 
course  of  holy  living,  without  the  frequent 
returns  and  intervening  of  such  actions, 
which  men  are  pleased  to  call  <;  sins  of  in- 
firmity." Whosoever  hath  the  Spirit  of 
God,  lives  the  life  of  grace.  The  Spirit  of 
God  rules  in  him,  and  is  strong  according 
to  its  age  and  abode,  and  allows  not  of  those 
often  sins,  which  we  think  unavoidable,  be- 
cause we  call  them  "  natural  infirmities." 

"  But  if  Christ  be  in  you,  the  body  is  dead 
because  of  sin  ;  but  the  Spirit  is  life  because 
of  righteousness."  The  state  of  sin  is  a 
state  of  death.  The  state  of  man  under  the 
law  was  a  state  of  bondage  and  infirmity, 
as  St.  Paul  largely  describes  him  in  the 
seventh  chapter  to  the  Romans :  but  he 
that  hath  the  Spirit  is  made  alive,  and  free, 
and  strong,  and  a  conqueror  over  all  the 
powers  and  violences  of  sin.  Such  a  man 
resists  temptations,  falls  not  under  the  assault 
oi  sin,  returns  not  to  the  sin  which  he  last 
repented  of,  acts  no  more  that  error  which 
brought  him  to  shame  and  sorrow  :  but  he 
that  falls  under  a  crime,  to  which  he  still  hath 
a  strong  and  vigorous  inclination,  he  that 
acts  his  sin,  and  then  curses  it,  and  then  is 
tempted,  and  then  sins  again,  and  then 
weeps  again  and  calls  himself  miserable, 
but  still  the  enchantment  hath  confined  him 
to  that  circle;  this  man  hath  not  the  Spirit: 
"  for  where  the  Spirit  of  God  is,  there  is 
liberty  ;"  there  is  no  such  bondage,  and  a 
returning  folly  to  the  commands  of  sin. 


Serm.  XXVII. 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE. 


^33 


But,  because  men  deceive  themselves  with 
calling  this  bondage  a  pitiable  and  excusa- 
ble infirmity,  it  will  not  be  useless  to  con- 
sider the  state  of  this  question  more  particu- 
larly, lest  men,  from  the  state  of  a  pretended 
inLrmity,  fall  into  a  real  death. 

1.  No  great  sin  is  a  sin  of  infirmity,  or 
excusable  upon  that  stock.  But  that  I  may- 
be understood,  we  must  know  that  every  sin 
is,  in  some  sense  or  other,  a  sin  of  infirmity. 
When  a  man  is  in  the  state  of  spiritual 
sickness  or  death,  he  is  in  a  state  of  in- 
firmity ;  for  he  is  a  wounded  man.  a  pri- 
soner, a  slave,  a  sick  man,  weak  in  his  judg- 
ment, and  weak  in  his  reasonings,  impotent 
in  his  passions,  of  childish  resolutions,  great 
inconstancy,  and  his  purposes  untwist  as 
easily  as  the  rude  contexture  of  uncombining 
cables  in  the  violence  of  a  northern  tempest : 
and  he  that  is  thus  in  infirmity  cannot  be  ex- 
cused :  for  it  is  the  aggravation  of  the  state  of 
his  sin  ;  he  is  so  infirm  that  he  is  in  a  state 
unable  to  do  his  duty.  Such  a  man  is  a 
"  servant  of  sin,"  a  slave  of  the  devil,  an 
heir  of  corruption,  absolutely  under  com- 
mand :  and  every  man  is  so,  who  resolves 
for  ever  to  avoid  such  a  sin,  and  yet  for  ever 
falls  under  it.  For  what  can  he  be  but  a 
servant  of  sin,  who  fain  would  avoid  it,  but 
cannot?  that  is,  he  hath  not  the  Spirit  of 
God  within  him;  Christ  dwells  not  in  his 
soul ;  for  "  where  the  Son  is,  there  is  liber- 
ty ;"  and  all  that  are  in  the  Spirit,  are  the 
sons  of  God,  and  servants  of  righteousness, 
and  therefore  freed  from  sin.  But  then  there 
are  also  sins  of  infirmity  which  are  single 
actions,  intervening  seldom,  in  little  in- 
stances unavoidable,  or  through  a  faultless 
ignorance :  such  as  these  are  always  the 
allays  of  the  life  of  the  best  men  :  and  for 
these  Christ  hath  paid,  and  they  are  never 
to  be  accounted  to  good  men,  save  only  to 
make  them  more  wary  and  more  humble. 
\ow  concerning  these  it  is  that  I  say,  No 
great  sin  is  a  sin  of  excusable  or  unavoid- 
able infirmity  :  because,  whosoever  hath 
received  the  Spirit  of  God,  hath  suffi- 
cient knowledge  of  his  duty,  and  sufficient 
strengths  of  grace,  and  sufficient  advertency 
of  mind,  to  avoid  such  things  as  do  great 
and  apparent  violence  to  piety  and  religion. 
No  man  can  justly  say,  that  it  is  a  sin  of 
infirmity  that  he  was  drunk  :  for  there  are 
but  three  causes  of  every  sin ;  a  fourth 
is  not  imaginable.  1.  If  ignorance  cause 
it,  the  sin  is  as  full  of  excuse  as  the  igno- 
rance was  innocent.    But  no  Christian  can 


j  pretend  this  to  drunkenness,  to  murder,  to 
|  rebellion,  to  uncleanness:  for  what  Chris- 
tian is  so  uninstructed  but  that  he  knows 
adultery  is  a  sin?    2.  Want  of  observation 
is  the  cause  of  many  indiscreet  and  fooli:>h 
actions.    Now  at  this  gap  many  irregulari- 
ties do  enter  and  escape ;  because  in  the 
whole  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  be  of  so 
present  a  spirit,  as  to  consider  and  reflect 
upon  every  word  and  every  thought.  But 
it  is,  in  this  case,  in  God's  laws  otherwise 
than  in  man's:  the  great  flies  cannot  pass 
through  without  observation,  little  ones  do; 
j  and  a  man  cannot  be  drunk,  and  never  take 
notice  of  it;  or  tempt  his  neighbour's  wife 
before  he  be  aware :  therefore,  the  less  the 
j  instance  is,  the  more  likely  is  it  to  be  a  sin 
!  of  infirmity  :  and  yet,  if  it  be  never  so  little, 
if  it  be  observed,  then  it  ceases  to  be  a  sin 
of  infirmity.    3.  But,  because  great  crimes 
cannot  pretend  to  pass  undiscernibly,  it  fol- 
lows that  they  must  come  in  at  the  doo--  of 
j  malice,  that  is,  of  want  of  grace,  in  the 
j  absence  of  the  Spirit ;  they  destroy  where- 
I  ver  they  come,  and  the  man  dies  if  they 
pass  upon  him. 

It  is  true,  there  is  flesh  and  blood  in  every 
regenerate  man,  but  they  do  not  both  rule : 
the  flesh  is  left  to  tempt,  but  not  to  prevail. 
And  it  were  a  strange  condition,  if  both  toe 
godly  and  the  ungodly  were  captives  to  sin, 
and  infallibly  should  fall  into  temptation  and 
death,  without  all  difference,  save  only  that 
I  the  godly  sins  unwillingly,  and  the  ungodly 
|  sins  willingly.    But  if  the  same  things  be 
|  done  by  both,  and  God  in  both  be  disho- 
!  noured,  and  their  duty  prevaricated,  the  pre- 
tended unwillingness  is  the  sign  of  a  greater 
and  a  baser  slavery,  and  of  a  condition  less 
to  be  endured :  for  the  servitude  which  is 
|  against  me,  is  intolerable  :  but  if  I  choose 
j  the  state  of  a  servant,  I  am  free  in  my  mind. 

 ■  Libertatis  servaveris  umbram, 

Si,  quidquid  jubeare,  velis.    Tot  rebus  iniquis 
Paruimus  victi:  venia  est  haec  sola  pudoris, 
Degenerisque  metus,  nil  jam  potuisse  negari. 

L.UCAN. 

Certain  it  is,  that  such  a  person  who  fain 
would,  but  cannot,  choose  but  commit  adul- 
tery or  drunkenness,  is  the  veriest  slave  to 
I  sin  that  can  be  imagined,  and  not  at  all  freed 
I  by  the  Spirit,  and  by  the  liberty  of  the  sons 
|God;  and  there  is  no  other  difference,  but 
I  that  the  mistaken  good  man  feels  his  slave- 
ry, and  sees  his  chains  and  his  fetters; 
but  therefore,  it  is  certain  that  he  is,  because 
I  he  sees  himself  to  be,  a  slave.    No  man  cai 


204 


OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GRACE.        Serm.  XXVII. 


be  a  servant  of  sin  and  a  servant  of  right- 
eousness at  the  same  time;  but  every  man 
that  hath  the  Spirit  of  God  is  a  servant 
of  righteousness  :  and  therefore,  whosoever 
find  great  sins  to  be  unavoidable,  are  in  a 
state  of  death  and  reprobation,  as  to  the 
present,  bemuse  they  willingly  or  unwill- 
ingly (it  matters  not  much  whether  of  the 
two)  are  servants  of  sin. 

2.  Sins  of  infirmity,  as  they  are  small  in 
their  instance,  so  they  put  on  their  degree  of 
excusableness  only  according  to  the  weak- 
ness or  infirmity  of  the  man's  understanding. 
So  far  as  men  (without  their  own  fault) 
understand  not  their  duty,  or  are  possessed 
with  weakness  of  principles,  or  are  destitute 
and  void  of  discourse,  or  discerning  powers 
and  acts, — so  far,  if  a  sin  creeps  upon  them, 
it  is  as  natural,  and  as  free  from  a  law,  as 
is  the  action  of  a  child  ;  but  if  any  thing 
else  be  mingled  with  it,  if  it  proceed  from 
any  other  principle,  it  is  criminal,  and 
not  excused  by  our  infirmity,  because  it 
is  chosen!  and  a  man's  will  hath  no  in- 
firmity, but  when  it  wants  the  grace  of  God, 
or  is  mastered  with  passions  and  sinful 
appetites:  and  that  infirmity  is  the  state  of 
unregeneration. 

3.  The  violence  or  strength  of  a  tempta- 
tion is  not  sufficient  to  excuse  an  action,  or 
to  make  it  accountable  upon  the  stock  of  a 
pitiable  and  innocent  infirmity,  if  it  leaves 
the  understanding  still  able  to  judge;  be- 
cause a  temptation  cannot  have  any  proper 
strengths  but  from  ourselves ;  and  because 
we  have  in  us  a  principle  of  baseness  which 
this  temptation  meets,  and  only  persuades 
me  to  act  because  I  love  it.    Joseph  met 
with  a  temptation  as  violent  and  as  strong 
as  any  man  ;  and  it  js  certain  there  are  not 
many  Christians  but  would  fall  under  it,  and 
call  it  a  sin  of  infirmity,  since  they  have 
been  taught  so  to  abuse  themselves,  by  sew- 
ing fig-leaves  before  their  nakedness;  but  be- 
cause Joseph  had  a  strength  of  God  within 
him,  the  strength  of  chastity,  therefore  it 
could  not  at  all  prevail  upon  him.  Some 
men  cannot  by  any  art  of  hell  be  tempted 
to  be  drunk ;  others  can  no  mote  resist  an 
invitation  to  such  a  meeting,  than  they  can 
refuse  to  die  if  a  dagger  were  drunk  with 
their  heart-blood,  because  their  evil  habits 
made  them  weak  on  that  part.    And  some 
man  that  is  fortifiecf  against  revenge,  it  may 
be,  will  certainly  fall  under  a  temptation  to 
uncleanness:  for  every  temptation  is  great 


or  small  according  as  the  man  is;  and  a 
good  word  will  certainly  lead  some  men  to 
an  action  of  folly,  while  another  will  not 
think  ten  thousand  pounds  a  considerable 
argument  to  make  him  tell  one  single  lie 
against  his  duty  or  his  conscience. 

4.  No  habitual  sin,  that  is,  no  sin  that 
returns  constantly  or  frequently:  that  is 
repented  of  and  committed  again,  and  still 
repented  of,  and  then  again  committed ;  no 
such  sin  is  excusable  with  a  pretence  of 
infirmity:  because  that  sin  is  certainly  noted, 
and  certainly  condemned,  and  therefore  re- 
turns, not  because  of  the  weakness  of  nature, 
but  the  weakness  of  grace :  the  principle  of 
this  is  an  evil  spirit,  an  habitual  aversation 
from  God,  a  dominion  and  empire  of  sin. 
And,  as  no  man,  for  his  inclinations  and 
aptness  to  the  sins  of  the  flesh,  is  to  be  call- 
ed carnal,  if  he  corrects  his  inclinations,  and 
turns  them  into  virtues:  so  no  man  can  be 
called  spiritual  for  his  good  wishes  and  apt 
inclinations  to  goodness,  if  these  inclina- 
tions pass  not  into  acts,  and  these  acts  into 
habits  and  holy  customs,  and  walkings  and 
conversation  with  God.  But  as  natural  con- 
cupiscence corrected  becomes  the  matter  of 
virtue,  so  these  good  inclinations  and  con- 
demnings  of  our  sin,  if  they  be  ineffective 
and  end  in  sinful  actions,  are  the  perfect 
signs  of  a  reprobate  and  unregenerated  state. 

The  sum  is  this  :  an  animal  man,  a  man 
under  the  law,  a  carnal  man,  (for  as  to  this 
they  are  all  one,)  is  sold  under  sin, 'he  is  a 
servant  of  corruption,  he  falls  frequently 
into  the  same  sin  to  which  he  is  tempted, 
he  commends  the  law,  he  consents  to  it  that 
it  is  good,  he  does  not  commend  sin,  he 
does  some  little  things  against  it;  but  they 
are  weak  and  imperfect,  his  lust  is  stronger, 
his  passions  violent  and  unmortified,  his 
habits  vicious,  his  customs  sinful,  and  he 
lives  in  the  regions  of  sin,  and  dies  and 
enters  into  its  portion.  But  a  spiritual  man, 
a  man  that  is  in  the  state  of  grace,  who  is 
born  anew  of  the  Spirit,  that  is  regenerate 
by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  led  by  the 
Spirit,  he  lives  in  the  Spirit,  he  does  the 
works  of  God  cheerfully,  habitually,  vigor- 
ously;  and  although  he  sometimes  slips, 
yet  it  is  but  seldom,  it»is  in  small  instances; 
his  life  is  such,  as  he  cannot  pretend  to  be 
justified  by  works  and  merit,  but  by  mer- 
cy and  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ;  yet  he 
never  sins  great  sins  :  if  he  does,  he  is  for 
that  present  fallen  from  God's  favour:  and 


Serm.  XXVIII.  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


205 


though  possibly  he  may  recover,  (and  the 
smaller  or  seldomer  the  sin  is,  the  sooner 
may  be  his  restitution,)  yet,  for  the  present, 
(I  say,)  he  is  out  of  God's  favour.  But  he 
that  remains  in  the  grace  of  God,  sins  not 
by  any  deliberate,  consultive,  knowing  act : 
he  is  incident  to  such  a  surprise  as  may  con- 
sist with  the  weakness  and  judgment  of  a 
good  man ;  but  whatsoever  is,  or  must  be 
considered,  if  it  cannot  pass  without  con- 
sideration, it  cannot  pass  without  sin,  and 
therefore  cannot  enter  upon  him  while  he 
remains  in  that  state.  For  "  he  that  is  in 
Christ,  in  him  the  body  is  dead  by  reason  of 
sin."  And  the  gospel  did  not  differ  from 
the  law,  but  that  the  gospel  gives  grace  and 
strength  to  do  whatsoever  it  commands: 
which  the  law  did  not :  and  the  greatness 
of  the  promise  of  eternal  life  is  such  an 
argument  to  them  that  consider  it,  that  it 
must  needs  be  of  force  sufficient  to  per- 
suade a  man  to  use  all  his  faculties  and 
all  his  strength,  that  he  may  obtain  it.  God 
exacted  all  upon  this  stock;  God  knew 
this  could  do  every  thing :  "  Nihil  non  in 
hoc  prsesumpsit  Deus,"  said  one.  This 
will  make  a  satyr  chaste,  and  Silenus  to 
be  sober,  and  Dives  to  be  charitable,  and  j 
Simon  Magus  himself  to  despise  reputation, 
and  Saul  to  turn  from  a  persecutor  to  an  | 
apostle.  For  since  God  hath  given  us  rea- 
son to  choose,  and  a  promise  to  exchange 
for  our  temperance,  and  faith,  and  charity, 
and  justice;  for  these,  (I  say,)  happiness, 
exceeding  great  happiness,  that  we  shall  be 
kings,  that  we  shall  reign  with  God,  with 
Christ,  with  all  the  holy  angels  for  ever,  in 
felicity  so  great,  that  we  have  not  now 
capacities  to  understand  it,  our  heart  is  not 
big  enough  to  think  it;  there  cannot  in  the 
world  be  a  greater  inducement  to  engage  us, 
a  greater  argument  to  oblige  u:?.  n  .'o  our 
duty.  God  hath  not  in  heaven  a  bigger 
argument;  it  is  not  possible  any  thing  in 
the  world  should  be  bigger ;  which  because 
the  Spirit  of  God  hath  revealed  to  us,  if  by 
this  strength  of  his  we  walk  in  his  ways, 
and  be  ingrafted  into  his  stock,  and  bring 
forth  his  fruits,  "the  fruits  of  the  Spirit," — 
then  "we  are  in  Christ,"  and  "  Christ  in 
us," — then  we  walk  in  the  Spirit, — and 
"the  Spirit  dwells  in  us," — and  our  portion 
shall  be  there,  where  "  Christ  by  the  Spirit 
nvakelh  intercession  for  us," — that  is,  at  the 
right  hand  of  his  Father,  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen. 


SERMON  XXVIII. 


THE   DESCENDING  AND  ENTAILED  CURSE 
CUT  OFF. 


/  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the 
iniqu  ity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  unto  the 
third  and  fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me  : 

And  showing  mercy  unto  thousands  of  them  thai 
love  me,  and  keep  my  commandments. — Exod. 
xx.  5,  6. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  a  commonwealth 
should  give  pensions  to  orators,  to  dissuade 
men  from  running  into  houses  infected  with 
the  plague,  or  to  entreat  them  to  be  out  of 
love  with  violent  torments,  or  to  create  in 
men  evil  opinions  concerning  famine  or 
painful  deaths  :  every  man  hath  a  sufficient 
stock  of  self-love,  upon  the  strength  of 
which  he  hath  entertained  principles  strong 
enough  to  secure  himself  against  voluntary 
mischiefs,  and  from  running  into  states  of 
deaths  and  violence.  A  man  would  think- 
that  this  I  have  now  said  were  in  all  cases 
certainly  true  ;  and  I  would  to  God  it  were  : 
for  that  which  is  the  greatest  evil,  that 
which  makes  all  evils,  that  which  turns 
good  into  evil,  and  every  natural  evil  into 
a  greater  sorrow,  and  makes  that  sorrow 
lasting  and  perpetual;  that  which  sharp- 
ens the  edge  of  swords,  and  makes  agues 
to  be  fevers,  and  fevers  to  turn  into 
plagues  ;  that  which  puts  stings  into  every 
fly,  and  uneasiness  to  every  trifling  acci- 
dent, and  stings  every  whip  with  scor- 
pions,— you  know  I  must  needs  mean  sin; 
that  evil  men  suffer  patiently,  and  choose 
willingly,  and  run  after  it  greedily,  and  will 
not  suffer  themselves  to  be  divorced  from  it : 
and  therefore,  God  hath  hired  servants  to 
fight  against  this  evil;  he  hath  set  angels 
with  fiery  swords  to  drive  us  from  it,  he 
hath  employed  advocates  to  plead  against 
it,  he  hath  made  laws  and  decrees  against 
it,  he  hath  despatched  prophets  to  warn  us 
of  it,  and  hath  established  an  order  of  men. 
men  of  his  own  family,  and  who  are  fed  at 
his  own  charges, — I  mean  the  whole  order 
of  the  clergy,  whose  office  is  like  watch 
men,  to  give  an  alarm  at  every  approach  of 
sin,  with  as  much  affrightment  as  if  an 
enemy  were  near,  or  the  sea  broke  in  upon 
the  flat  country ;  and  all  this  only  to  per- 
suade men  not  to  be  extremely  miserable, 
for  nothing,  for  vanity,  for  a  trouble,  for  a 
disease:  for  some  sins  naturally  are  dis- 
eases, and  all  others  are  natural  nothings, 
S 


206 


THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF.   Skrm.  XXVIII. 


mere  privations  or  imperfections,  contrary 
to  goodness,  to  felicity,  to  God  himself. 
And  yet  God  hath  hedged  sin  round  about 
with  thorns,  and  sin  of  itself  too  brings 
thorns  ;  and  it  abuses  a  man  in  all  his  capa- 
cities, and  it  places  poison  in  all  those  seats 
and  receptions,  where  he  could  possibly 
entertain  happiness :  for  if  sin  pretend  to 
please  the  sense,  it  doth  first  abuse  it  shame- 
fully, and  then  humours  it:  it  can  only 
feed  an  imposthume;  no  natural,  reasona- 
ble, and  perfective  appetite:  and  besides  its 
own  essential  appendages  and  properties, 
things  are  so  ordered,  that  a  fire  is  kindled 
round  about  us,  and  every  thing  within  us, 
above,  below  us,  and  on  every  side  of  us, 
is  an  argument  against,  and  an  enemy  to 
sin;  and,  for  its  single  pretence,  that  it 
comes  to  please  one  of  the  senses,  one  of 
those  .faculties  which  are  in  us,  the  same 
they  are  in  a  cow,  it  hath  an  evil  so  commu- 
nicative, that  it  doth  not  only  work  like  poi- 
son, to  the  dissolution  of  soul  and  body,  but 
it  is  a  sickness  like  the  plague,  it  infects  all 
our  houses,  and  corrupts  the  air  and  the 
very  breath  of  heaven  :  for  it  moves  God 
first  to  jealousy,  and  that  takes  off  his 
friendship  and  kindness  towards  us ;  and 
then  to  anger,  and  that  makes  him  a  re- 
solved enemy  ;  and  it  brings  evil,  not  only 
upon  ourselves,  but  upon  all  our  relatives, 
upon  ourselves  and  our  children,  even  the 
children  of  our  nephews,  "ad  natos  nato- 
rum,  et  qui  nascentur  ab  illis,"*  to  the 
third  and  fourth  generation.  And  therefore, 
if  a  man  should  despise  the  eye  or  sword  of 
man,  if  he  sins,  he  is  to  contest  with  the 
jealousy  of  a  provoked  God:  if  he  doth  not 
regard  himself,  let  him  pity  his  pretty 
children:  if  he  be  angry,  and  hates  all  that 
he  sees,  and  is  not  solicitous  for  his  child- 
ren, yet  let  him  pity  the  generations  which 
are  yet  unborn;  let  him  not  bring  a  curse 
upon  his  whole  family,  and  suffer  his  name 
to  rot  in  curses  and  dishonours ;  let  not  his 
memory  remain  polluted  with  an  eternal 
stain.  If  all  this  will  not  deter  a  man  from 
sin,  there  is  no  instrument  left  for  that 
man's  virtue,  no  hopes  of  his  felicity,  no 
recovery  of  his  sorrows  and  sicknesses;  but 
he  must  sink  under  the  strokes  of  a  jealous 
God  into  the  dishonour  of  eternal  ages,  and 
the  groan ings  of  a  never-ceasing  sorrow. 

"  God  is  a  jealous  God" — That  is  the  first 
and  great  stroke  he  strikes  against  sin ;  he 

♦  Virgil. 


speaks  after  the  manner  of  men;  and,  in  so 
speaking,  we  know  that  he  is  jealous, — is 
suspicious, — he  is  inquisitive, — he  is  impla- 
cable. 1.  God  is  pleased  to  represent  him- 
self a  person  very  "suspicious,"  both  in 
respect  of  persons  and  things.  For  our 
persons  we  give  him  cause  enough  :  for  we 
are  sinners  from  our  mother's  womb;  we 
make  solemn  vows,  and  break  them  in- 
stantly ;  we  cry  for  pardon,  and  still  renew 
the  sin  ;  we  desire  God  to  try  us  once  more, 
and  we  provoke  him  ten  times  further ;  we 
use  the  means  of  grace  to  cure  us,  and  we 
turn  them  into  vices  and  opportunities  of 
sin ;  we  curse  our  sins,  and  yet  long  for 
them  extremely;  we  renounce  them  pub- 
licly, and  yet  send  for  them  in  private,  and 
show  them  kindness ;  we  leave  little  of- 
fences, but  our  faitfi  and  our  charity  are 
not  strong  enough  to  master  great  ones  ;  and 
sometimes  we  are  shamed  out  of  great  ones, 
but  yet  entertain  little  ones;  or  if  we  dis- 
claim both  yet  we  love  to  remember  them, 
and  delight  in  their  past  actions,  and  bring 
them  home  to  us,  at  least  by  fiction  of 
imagination,  and  we  love  to  be  betrayed  into 
them ;  we  would  fain  have  things  so  or- 
dered by  chance  or  power,  that  it  may  seem 
necessary  to  sin,  or  that  it  may  become  ex- 
cusable, and  dressed  fitly  for  our  own  circum- 
stances; and  for  ever  we  long  after  the 
flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  the  garlic  and  the 
onions:  and  we  do  so  little  esteem  manna, 
the  food  of  angels,  we  so  loathe  the  bread  of 
heaven,  that  any  temptation  will  make  us 
return  to  our  fetters  and  our  bondage.  And 
if  we  do  not  tempt  ourselves,  yet  we  do  not 
resist  a  temptation;  or  if  we  pray  against  it, 
we  desire  not  be  heard ;  and  if  we  be  as- 
sisted, yet  we  will  not  wrork  together  with 
those  assistances ;  so  that  unless  we  be 
forced ,  nothing  will  be  done.  We  are  so  will- 
ing to  perish,  and  so  unwilling  to  be  saved, 
that  we  minister  to  God  reason  enough  to 
suspect  us,  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder 
that  God  is  jealous  of  us.  We  keep  com- 
pany with  harlots  and  polluted  persons;  we 
are  kind  to  all  God's  enemies,  and  love  that 
which  he  hates;  how  can  it  be  otherwise 
but  that  we  should  be  suspected?  Let  us 
make  our  best  of  it,  and  see  if  we  can  re- 
cover the  good  opinion  of  God  ;  for  as  yet 
we  are  but  as  suspected  persons.  2.  And 
therefore  God  is  "inquisitive;"  he  looks 
for  that  which  he  fain  would  never  find; 
God  sets  spies  upon  us;  he  looks  upon  us 
himself  through  the  curtains  of  a  cloud,  and 


Serm.  XXVIII.  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


207 


he  sends  angels  to  espy  us  in  all  our  ways, 
and  permits  the  devil  to  winnow  us  and  to 
accuse  us,  and  erects  a  tribunal  and  wit- 
nesses in  our  own  consciences,  and  he  cannot 
want  information  concerning  our  small- 
est irregularities.  Sometimes  the  devil  ac- 
cuses; but  he  sometimes  accuses  us  falsely, 
either  maliciously  or  ignorantly,  and  we 
stand  upright  in  that  particular  by  inno- 
cence;  and  sometimes  by  penitence;  and 
all  this  while  our  conscience  is  our  friend- 
Sometimes  our  conscience  does  accuse  us 
unto  God  ;  and  then  we  stand  convicted  by 
our  own  judgment.  Sometimes,  if  our  con- 
science acquit  us,  yet  we  are  not  thereby 
justified  ;  for,  as  Moses  accused  the  Jews, 
so  do  Christ  and  his  apostles  accuse  us,  not 
in  their  persons,  but  by  their  works  and  by 
their  words,  by  the  thing  itself,  by  confront- 
ing the  laws  of  Christ  and  our  practices. 
Sometimes  the  angels,  who  are  the  ob- 
servers of  all  our  works,  carry  up  sad  tidings 
to  the  court  of  heaven  against  us.  Thus  two 
angels  were  the  informers  against  Sodom  ; 
but  yet  these  were  the  last ;  for  before  that 
time  the  cry  of  their  iniquity  had  sounded 
loud  and  -sadly  in  heaven.  And  all  this  is 
the  direct  and  proper  effect  of  his  jealousy, 
which  sets  spies  upon  all  the  actions,  and 
watches  the  circumstances,  and  tells  the 
steps,  and  attends  the  business,  the  recrea- 
tions, the  publications,  and  retirements,  of 
every  man,  and  will  not  suffer  a  thought  to 
wander,  but  he  uses  means  to  correct  its 
error,  and  to  reduce  it  to  himself.  For  he 
that  created  us,  and  daily  feeds  us,  he  that 
entreats  us  to  be  happy  with  an  impor- 
tunity so  passionate  as  if  not  we,  but  him- 
self were  to  receive  the  favour;  he  that 
would  part  with  his  only  Son  from  his  bo- 
som and  the  embraces  of  eternity,  and  give 
him  over  to  a  shameful  and  cursed  death 
for  us,  cannot  but  be  supposed  to  love  us 
with  a  great  love,  and  to  own  *s  with  an 
entire  title,  and  therefore,  that  he  would  fain 
secure  us  to  himself  with  an  undivided  pas- 
sion. And  it  cannot  but  be  infinitely  rea- 
sonable ;  for  to  whom  else  should  any  of  us 
belong  but  to  God?"  Did  the  world  create 
us?  or  did  lust  ever  do  us  any  good?  Did 
Satan  ever  suffer  one  stripe  for  our  advan- 
tage ?  Does  not  he  study  all  the  ways  to  ruin 
us  ?  Do  the  sun  or  the  stars  preserve  us  alive  ? 
or  do  we  get  understanding  from  the  angels  ? 
Did  ever  any  joint  of  our  body  knit,  or  our 
heart  ever  keep  one  true  minute  of  a  pulse, 
without  God?  Had  wre  not  been  either 
nothing,  or  worse,  that  is,  infinitely,  eternally 


'miserable,  but  that  God  made  us  capable, 
and  then  pursued  us  with  arts  and  devices 
of  great  mercy  to  force  us  to  be  happy  ? 
Great  reason  therefore  there  is,  that  God 
should  be  jealous  lest  we  take  any  of  our 
[duly  from  him,  who  hath  so  stiangely  de- 
served it  all,  and  give  it  to  a  creature,  or  to 
our  enemy,  who  cannot  be  capable  of  any. 
But,  however,  it  will  concern  us  with  much 
caution  to  observe  our  own  ways,  since  "  we 
are  made  a  spectacle  to  God,  to  angels,  and 
to  men."  God  hath  set  so  many  spies  upon 
us,  the  blessed  angels  and  the  accursed 
devils,  good  men  and  bad  men,  the  eye  of 
heaven,  and  eye  of  that  eye,  God  himself, — 
'all  watching  lest  we  rob  God  of  his  honour, 
and  ourselves  of  our  hopes.  For  by  this 
prime  intention  he  hath  chosen  so  to  get  his 
own  glory,  as  may  best  consist  with  our 
felicity  ;  his  great  design  is  to  be  glorified  in 
our  being  saved.  3.  God's  jealousy  hath  a 
sadder  effect  than  all  this.  For  all  this  is 
for  mercy  ;  but  if  we  provoke  this  jealousy, 
if  he  finds  us  in  our  spiritual  whoredoms, 
he  is  implacable,  that  is,  he  is  angry  with 
us  to  eternity,  unless  we  return  in  time  ;  and 
if  we  do,  it  may  be,  he  will  not  be  appeased 
in  all  instances;  and  when  he  forgives  us, 
he  will  make  some  reserves  of  his  wrath ; 
he  will  punish  our  persons  or  our  estate,  he 
will  chastise  us  at  home  or  abroad,  in  out 
bodies  or  in  our  children  ;  for  he  will  visit 
our  sins  upon  our  children  from  generation  to 
generation  ;  and  if  they  be  made  miserable  for 
our  sins,  they  are  unhappy  in  such  parents  ; 
but  we  bear  the  curse  and  the  anger  of  God, 
even  while  they  bear  his  rod.  "  God  visits 
the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children." 
This  is  the  second  great  stroke  he  strike?, 
against  sin,  and  is  now  to  be  considered. 

That  God  doth  so  is  certain,  because  he 
saith  he  doth ;  and  that  this  is  just  in  him  so 
to  do,  is  also  as  certain  therefore,  because 
he  doth  it.  For  as  his  laws  are  our  mea- 
sures, so  his  actions  and  his  own  will  are  his 
own  measures.  He  that  hath  right  over  all 
things  and  all  persons,  cannot  do  wrong  to 
any  thing.  He  that  is  essentially  just,  (and 
there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  justice,  or 
justice  itself  could  not  be  good,  if  it  did  not 
derive  from  him,)  it  is  impossible  for  him  to 
be  unjust.  But  since  God  is  pleased  to 
speak  after  the  manner  of  men,  it  may  well 
consist  with  our  duty  to  inquire  into  those 
manners  of  consideration,  whereby  we  may 
understand  the  equity  of  God  in  this  pro- 
ceeding, and  to  be  instructed  also  in  our  owi 
[danger  if  we  persevere  in  sin. 


208         THE  ENTAIL  OF  CU 


RSES  CUT  OFF.   Serm.  XXVIII. 


1.  No  man  is  made  a  sinner  by  the  fault 
of  another  man  without  his  own  consent : 
for  to  every  one  God  gives  his  choice,  and 
sets  life  and  death  before  every  of  the 
sons  of  Adam ;  and  therefore,  this  death  is 
not  a  consequent  to  any  sin  but  our  own. 
In  this  sense  it  is  true,  that  if  "the  fathers 
eat  sour  grapes,  the  children's  teeth  shall 
not  be  set  on  edge;"  and  therefore  the  sin 
of  Adam,  which  was  derived  to  all  the 
world,  did  not  bring  the  world  to  any  other 
death  but  temporal,  by  the  intermedial  stages 
of  sickness  and  temporal  infelicities.  And 
it  is  not  said  that  "sin, passed  upon  all  men,'* 
but  "  death;"  and  that  also  no  otherwise  but 
£$>  9  7tdvtf$  quaptov,  "  inasmuch  as  all  men 
have  sinned;"  as  they  have  followed  the 
steps  of  their  father,  so  they  are  partakers  of 
his  death.  And  therefore,  it  is  very  remark- 
able, that  death  brought  in  by  sin  was 
nothing  superinduced  to  man ;  man  only 
was  reduced  to  his  own  natura.  condition, 
from  which  before  Adam's  fall  he  stood  ex- 
empted by  supernatural  favour:  and  there- 
fore, although  the  taking  away  that  extraor- 
dinary grace  or  privilege  was  a  punishment ; 
yet  the  suffering  the  natural  death  was  di- 
rectly none,  but  a  condition  of  his  creation, 
natural,  and  therefore  not  primarily  evil; 
but,  if  net  good,  yet  at  least  indifferent.  And 
the  truth  and  purpose  of  this  observation 
will  extend  itself,  if  we  observe,  that  before 
any  man  died,  Christ  was  promised,  by 
whom  death  was  to  lose  its  sting,  by  whom 
death  did  cease  to  be  an  evil,  and  was,  or 
might  be,  if  we  do  belong  to  Christ  a  state 
of  advantage.  So  that  we,  by  occasion  of 
Adam's  sin,  being  returned  to  our  natural 
certainty  of  dying,  do  still,  even  in  this  very 
particular,  stand  between  the  blessing  and 
the  cursing.  If  we  follow  Christ,  death  is 
our  friend ;  if  we  imitate  the  prevarication 
of  Adam,  then  death  becomes  an  evil ;  the 
condition  of  our  nature  becomes  the  punish- 
ment of  our  own  sin,  not  of  Adam's.  For 
although  his  sin  brought  death  in,  yet  it 
is  only  our  sin  that  makes  death  to  be 
evil.  And  I  desire  this  to  be  observed,  be- 
cause it  is  of  great  use  in  vindicating  the 
Divine  justice  in  the  matter  of  this  question. 
The  material  part  of  the  evil  came  from  our 
father  upon  us  :  but  the  formality  of  it,  the 
sting  and  the  curse,  is  only  by  ourselves. 

2.  For  the  fault  of  others  many  may  be- 
come miserable,  even  all  or  any  of  those 
whose  relation  is  such  to  the  sinner,  that  he 
in  any  sense  may,  by  such  inflictions, 
be  punished,  execrable,  or  oppressed.  In- 


deed it  were  strange,  if,  when  a  plague  were 
in  Ethiopia,  the  Athenians  should  be  in- 
fected ;  or  if  the  house  of  Pericles  were 
visited,  Thucydides  should  die  for  it.  For 
although  there  are  some  evils  which  (as 
Plutarch  saith)  are  "  ansis  et  propagationibus 
praedita,  incredibili  celeritate  in  longinquum 
penetrantia,"  such  which  can  dart  evil 
influence,  as  porcupines  do  their  quills; 
yet  as  at  so  great  distances  the  knowledge  of 
any  confederate  events  must  needs  be  un- 
certain, so  it  is  also  useless,  because  we 
neither  can  join  their  causes,  nor  their 
circumstances,  nor  their  accidents,  into  any 
neighbourhood  of  conjunction.  Relations 
are  seldom  noted  at  such  distances  ;  and  if 
they  were,  it  is  certain  so  many  accidents 
will  intervene,  that  will  outweigh  the  efficacy 
of  such  relations,  that  by  any  so  far  distant 
events  we  cannot  be  instructed  in  any  duty, 
nor  understand  ourselves  reproved  for  any 
fault.  But  when  the  relation  is  nearer, and 
joined  under  such  a  head  and  common 
cause,  that  the  influence  is  perceived,  and 
the  parts  of  it  do  usually  communicate  in 
benefit,  notice,  or  infelicity, — especially  if 
they  relate  to  each  other  as  superior  and 
inferior, — then  it  is  certain  the  sin  is  in- 
fectious; I  mean,  not  only  in  example,  but 
also  in  punishment. 

And  of  this  I  shall  show,  1.  In  what  in- 
stances usually  it  is  so.  2.  For  what  reasons 
it  is  so,  and  justly  so.  3.  In  what  degree, 
and  in  what  cases,  it  is  so.  4.  What  re- 
medies there  are  for  this  evil. 

L  it  is  so  in  kingdoms,  in  churches,  in 
families,  in  political,  artificial,  and  even  in 
accidental  societies. 

When  David  numbered  the  people,  God 
was  angry  with  him;  but  he  punished  the 
people  for  the  crime ;  seventy  thousand  men 
died  of  the  plague.  And  when  God  gave 
to  David  the  "choice  of  three  plagues,  he 
chose  that  of  the  pestilence,  in  which  the 
meanest  of  the  people,  and  such  which  have 
the  least  society  with  the  acts  and  crimes 
of  kings,  are  most  commonly  devoured ; 
whilst  the  powerful  and  sinning  persons,  by 
arts  of  physic,  and  flight,  by  provisions  of 
nature,  and  accidents,  are  more  commonly 
secured.  But  the  story  of  the  kings  of  Israel 
hath  furnished  us  with  an  example  fitted 
with  all  the  stranger  circumstances  in  this 
question.  Joshua  had  sworn  to  the  Gibe- 
onites,  who  had  craftily  secured  their  lives 
by  exchanging  it  for  their  liberties  :  almost 
five  hundred  years  after,  Saul,  in  zeal  to  the 
men  of  Israel  and  Judah,  slew  many  of  them. 


Serm.  XXVIII.  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


209 


After  this  Saul  dies,  and  no  question  was 
made  of  it:  but,  in  the  days  of  David,  there 
was  a  famine  in  the  land  three  years  to- 
gether; and  God,  being  inquired  of,  said,  it 
was  because  of  Saul's  killing  the  Gibeon- 
ites.*  What  had  the  people  to  do  with  their 
king's  fault?  Or,  at  least,  the  people  of 
David  with  the  fault  of  Saul  ?  That  we  shall 
see  anon.  But  see  the  way  that  was  ap- 
pointed to  expiate  the  crime  and  the  calamity. 
David  took  seven  of  Saul's  sons,  and 
hung  them  up  against  the  sun ;  and  after 
that,  God  was  entreated  for  the  land.  The 
story  observes  one  circumstance  more ;  that, 
for  the  kindness  of  Jonathan,  David  spared 
Mephibosheth.  Now  this  story  doth  not 
only  instance  in  kingdoms,  but  in  families 
too.  The  father's  fault  is  punished  upon  the 
sons  of  the  family,  and  the  king's  fault  upon 
the  people  of  his  land ;  even  after  the  death 
of  the  king,  after  the  death  of  the  father. 
Thus  God  visited  the  sin  of  Ahab  partly 
upon  himself,  partly  upon  his  sons  :  "  I  will 
not  bring  the  evil  in  his  days,  but  in  his  son's 
days  will  I  bring  the  evil  upon  his  house. "f 
Thus  did  God  slay  the  child  of  Bathsheba 
for  the  sin  of  his  father  David  :  and  the 
whole  family  of  Eli,  all  his  kindred  of  the 
nearer  lines,  were  thrust  from  the  priesthood, 
and  a  curse  made  to  descend  upon  his 
children  for  many  ages,  "  that  all  the  males 
should  die  young,  and  iu  the  flower  of  their 
youth."  The  boldness  and  impiety  of  Cham 
made  his  posterity  to  be  accursed,  and 
brought  slavery  into  the  world.  Because 
Amalek  fought  with  the  sons  of  Israel  at 
Rephidim,  God  took  up  a  quarrel  against 
the  nation  for  ever.  And,  above  all  exam- 
ples, is  that  of  the  Jews,  who  put  to  death 
the  Lord  of  life,  and  made  their  nation  to  be 
an  anathema  for  ever,  until  the  day  of  resti- 
tution :  "  His  blood  be  upon  us,  and  upon 
our  cnildren."  If  we  shed  innocent  blood, 
if  we  provoke  God  to  wrath,  if  we  oppress 
the  poor,  if  we  "  crucify  the  Lord  of  life 
again,  and  put  him  to  an  open  shame,"  the 
wrath  of  God  will  be  upon  us  and  upon  our 
children,  to  make  us  a  cursed  family;  and 
we  are  the  sinners,  to  be  the  stock  and  ori- 
ginal of  the  curse ;  the  pedigree  of  the  misery 
shall  derive  from  us. 

This  last  instance  went  farther  than  the 
other  of  families  and  kingdoms.  For  not 
only  the  single  families  of  the  Jews  were 
made  miserable  for  their  fathers'  murdering 


*  2  Sam.  xxi.  1. 


27 


t  1  Kings  xxi.  29. 


the  Lord  of  life,  nor  also  was  the  nation  alone 
extinguished  for  the  sins  of  their  rulers,  but 
the  religion  was  removed ;  it  ceased  to  be 
God's  people;  the  synagogue  was  rejected, 
and  her  veil  rent,  and  her  privacies  dis- 
mantled; and  the  gentiles  were  made  to  be 
God's  people,  when  the  Jews'  enclosure 
was  disparked.  I  need  not  further  to  instance 
this  proposition  in  the  case  of  national 
churches ;  though  it  is  a  sad  calamity  that 
is  fallen  upon  all  the  seven  churches  of  Asia, 
to  whom  the  Spirit  of  God  wrote  seven 
epistles  by  St.  John;  and  almost  all  the 
churches  of  Africa,  where  Christ  was  wor- 
shipped, and  now  Mahomet  is  thrust  in  sub- 
stitution, and  the  people  are  servants,  and 
the  religion  is  extinguished;  or,  where  it 
remains,  it  shines  like  the  moon  in  an  eclipse, 
or  like  the  least  spark  of  the  Pleiades,  seen 
but  seldom,  and  that  rather  shining  like  a 
glow-worm  than  a  taper  enkindled  with  a 
beam  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness.  I  shall 
add  no  more  instances  to  verify  the  truth  of 
this,  save  only  I  shall  observe  to  you,  that 
even  there  is  danger  in  being  in  evil  com, 
pany,  in  suspected  places,  in  the  civil  so- 
cieties and  fellowship  of  wicked  men. 

Vetabo,  qui  Cereris  sacrum 
Vulgarit  arcanae.  sub  isdem 

Sit  trabibus.  fragilemque  mecum 
Solvat  phaselum.  Saepe  Diespiter 
Neglectus,  incesto  addidit  integrum. 

Hor.  Od.  3.  2. 

And  it  happened  to  the  mariners  who 
carried  Jonah,  to  be  in  danger  with  a  horrid 
storm,  because  Jonah  was  there,  who  had 
sinned  against  the  Lord.  Many  times  the 
sin  of  one  man  is  punished  by  the  falling 
of  a  house  or  a  wall  upon  him,  and  then  all 
the  family  are  like  to  be  crushed  with  the 
same  ruin  :  so  dangerous,  so  pestilential,  so 
infectious  a  thing  is  sin,  that  it  scatters  the 
poison  of  its  breath  to  all  the  neighbourhood, 
and  makes  that  the  man  ought  to  be  avoided 
like  a  person  infected  with  a  plague. 

Next  I  am  to  consider,  why  this  is  so,  and 
why  it  is  justly  so.  To  this  1  answer,  }. 
Between  kings  and  their  people,  parents 
and  their  children,  there  is  so  great  a  neces- 
situde,  propriety,  and  intercourse  of  nature, 
dominion,  right,  and  possession, — that  they 
are  by  God  and  the  laws  of  nations  reckoned 
as  their  goods  and  their  blessings,  f*  The 
honour  of  a  king  is  in  the  multitude  of  his 
people; — and,  Children  are  a  gift  that 
cometh  of  the  Lord, — and,  Happy  is  that 
man  that  hath  his  quiver  full  of  them : — 
and,  Lo,  thus  shall  the  man  be  blessed  thai 
s  2 


210  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF.   Serm.  XXVIII. 


feareth  the  Lord;  his  wife  shall  like  the 
fruitful  vine  by  the  walls  of  his  house,  his 
children  like  olive-branches  round  about  his 
table." — Now  if  children  be  a  blessing,  then 
to  take  them  away  in  anger  is  a  curse:  and 
if  the  loss  of  flocks  and  herds,  the  burning 
of  houses,  the  blasting  of  fields,  be  a  curse ; 
how  much  greater  is  it  to  lose  our  children, 
and  to  see  God  slay  them  before  our  eyes, 
in  hatred  to  our  persons,  and  detestation  and 
loathing  of  our  baseness !  When  Job's  mes- 
sengers told  him  the  sad  stories  of  fire  from 
heaven,  the  burning  his  sheep,  and  that  the 
Sabeans  had  driven  his  oxen  away,  and  the 
Chaldeans  had  stolen  his  camels;  these 
were  sad  arrests  to  his  troubled  spirit :  but 
it  was  reserved  as  the  last  blow  of  that  sad 
execution,  that,  the  ruins  of  a  house  had 
crushed  his  sons  and  daughters  to  their 
graves.  Sons  and  daughters  are  greater 
blessings  than  sheep  and  oxen  :  they  are 
not  servants  of  profit,  as  sheep  are,  but  they 
secure  greater  ends  of  blessing;  they  pre- 
serve your  names;  they  are  so  many  titles 
of  provision  and  providence;  every  new 
child  is  a  new  title  of  God's  care  of  that 
family  :  they  serve  the  ends  of  honour,  of 
commonwealth  and  kingdoms;  they  are 
images  of  our  souls,  and  images  of  God, 
and  therefore  are  great  blessings ;  and,  by 
consequence,  they  are  great  riches,  though 
they  are  not  to  be  sold  for  money :  and 
surely  he  that  hath  a  cabinet  of  invaluable 
jewels,  will  think  himself  rich,  though  he 
never  sells  them.  "  Does  God  take  care 
for  oxen  ?"  said  our  blessed  Saviour:  much 
more  for  you  :  yea,  all  and  every  one  of 
your  children  are  of  more  value  than 
many  oxen.  When  therefore  God,  for  your 
sins,  strikes  them  with  crookedness,  with 
deformity,  with  foolishness,  with  imperti- 
nent and  caitiff  spirits,  with  .hasty  or  sudden 
deaths;  it  is  a  greater  curse  to  you  than  to  lose 
whole  herds  of  cattle,  of  which,  it  is  certain, 
most  men  would  be  very  sensible.  They 
are  our  goods ;  they  are  our  blessings  from 
God;  therefore  we  are  stricken  when  for 
our  sakes  they  die.  Therefore,  we  may 
properly  be  punished  by  evils  happening  to 
our  relatives. 

2.  But  as  this  is  a  punishment  to  us,  so 
it  is  not  unjust  as  to  them,  though  they  be 
innocent.  For  all  the  calamities  of  this  life 
are  incident  to  the  most  godly  persons  in 
the  world :  and  since  the  King  of  heaven 
and  earth  was  made  a  man  of  sorrows,  it 
cannot  be  called  unjust  or  intolerable,  that 
innocent  persons  should  be  pressed  with 


j  temporal  infelicities;  only  in  such  cases  we 
I  must  distinguish  the  misery  from  the  pu- 
J  nishment :  for  that  all  the  world  dies  is  a 
punishment  of  Adam's  sin  ;  but  it  is  no  evil 
to  those  single  persons  that  64  die  in  the 
!  Lord,"  for  they  are  blessed  in  their  death. 
Jonathan  was  killed  the  same  day  with  his 
father  the  king ;  and  this  was  a  punishment 
to  Saul  indeed,  but  to  Jonathan  it  was  a 
blessing:  for  since  God  had  appointed  the 
;  kingdom  to  his  neighbour,  it  was  more  ho- 
1  nourable  for  him  to  die  fighting  the  Lord's 
battle,  than  to  live  and  see  himself  the 
lasting  testimony  of  God's  curse  upon  his 
I  father,  who  lost  the  kingdom  from  his  fa- 
j  mily  by  his  disobedience.    That  death  is  a 
blessing,  which  ends  an  honourable  and 
prevents  an  inglorious  life.    And  our  child- 
ren, it  may  be,  shall  be  sanctified  by  a 
sorrow,  and  purified  by  the  fire  of  affliction, 
and  they  shall  receive  the  blessing  of  it; 
but  it  is  to  their  fathers  a  curse,  who  shall 
wound  their  own  hearts  with  sorrow,  and 
cover  their  heads  with  a  robe  of  shame,  for 
bringing  so  great  evil  upon  their  house. 

3.  God  hath  many  ends  of  providence  to 
serve  in  this  dispensation  of  his  judgments. 
1.  He  expresses  the  highest  indignation 
against  sin,  and  makes  his  examples  lasting, 
communicative,  and  of  great  effect ;  it  is  a 
little  image  of  hell ;  and  we  shall  the  less 
wonder  that  God  with  the  pains  of  eternity 
punishes  the  sins  of  time,  when  with  our 
eyes  we  see  him  punish  a  transient  action 
with  a  lasting  judgment.  2.  It  arrests  the 
spirits  of  men,  and  surprises  their  loosenesses, 
and  restrains  their  gaiety,  when  we  observe 
that  the  judgments  of  God  find  us  out  in  all 
relations,  and  turn  our  comforts  into  sadness, 
and  make  our  families  the  scene  of  sorrows, 
and  we  can  escape  him  no  where ;  and  by  sin 
are  made  obnoxious  not  alone  to  personal 
judgments,  but  are  made  like  the  fountains 
of  the  Dead  sea,  springs  of  thelake  of  Sodom  ; 
instead  of  refreshing  our  families  with  bless- 
ings, we  leave  them  brimstone,  and  drought, 
and  poison,  and  an  evil  name,  and  the  wrath 
of  God,  and  a  treasure  of  wrath,  and  their 
fathers'  sins  for  their  portion  and  inheritance. 
Naturalists  say,  that  when  the  leading  goats 
in  the  Greek  islands  have  taken  an  "eryn- 
gus,"  or  sea  holly,  into  their  mouths,  all 
the  herd  will  stand  still,  till  the  herdsman 
comes  and  forces  it  out,  as  apprehending  the 
evil  that  will  come  to  them  all,  if  any  of  them, 
especially  their  principals,  taste  an  unwhole 
some  plant.  And,  indeed,  it  is  of  a  general 
concernment,  that  the  master  of  a  family,  or 


Serm.  XXVIII.  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


211 


the  prince  of  a  people,  from  whom,  as  from 
a  fountain,  many  issues  do  derive  upon  their 
relatives,  should  be  springs  of  health,  and 
sanctity,  and  blessing.    It  is  a  great  right 
and  propriety  that  a  king  hath  in  his  people, 
or  a  father  in  his  children,  that  even  their 
sins  can  do  these  a  mischief,  not  only  by  a 
direct  violence,  but  by  the  execution  of  God's 
wrath.    God  hath  made  strange  bands  and 
vessels,  or  channels  of  communication  be- 
tween them,  when  even  the  anger  of  God 
shall  be  conveyed  by  the  conduits  of  such 
relations.    That  would  be  considered.  It 
binds  them  nearer  than  our  new  doctrine 
will  endure.    But  it  also  binds  us  to  pray 
for  them,  and  for  their  holiness,  and  good 
government,  as  earnestly  as  we  would  to  be 
delivered  from  death,  or  sickness,  or  poverty, 
or  war,  or  the  wrath  of  God  in  any  instance. 
3.  This  also  will  satisfy  the  fearfulness  of 
such  persons,  who  think  the  evil  properous, 
and  call  the  proud  happy.    No  man  can  be] 
called  happy  till  he  be  dead  ;  nor  then  neither,  j 
if  he  lived  viciously.    Look  how  God  han-  j 
dies  him  in  his  children,  in  his  family,  in  his  ! 
grandchildren  :  and  as  it  tells  that  genera-  j 
tion  which  sees  the  judgment,  that  God  was  | 
all  the  while  angry  with  him ;  so  it  supports  j 
the  spirits  of  men  in  the  interval,  and  enter-  i 
tains  them  with  the  expectation  of  a  certain 
hope  :  for  if  I  do  not  live  to  see  his  sin  pu-  j 
nished,  yet  his  posterity  may  find  themselves  j 
accursed,  and  feel  their  father's  sins  in  their 
own  calamity  ;  and  the  expectation  or  belief  I 
of  that  may  relieve  my  oppression  and  ease 
my  sorrows,  while  I  know  that  God  will  bear ' 
my  injury  in  a  lasting  record,  and  when  I 
have  forgot  it,  will  bring  it  forth  to  judgment. 
The  Athenians  were  highly  pleased  when 
they  saw  honours  done  to  the  posterity  of  j 
Cimon,  a  good  man  and  a  rare  citizen,  but' 
murdered  for  being  wise  and  virtuous  :  and  i 
when  at  the  same  time  they  saw  a  decree  | 
of  banishment  pass  against  the  children  of 
Lacharis  and  Aristo,  they  laid  their  hands 
upon  their  mouths,  and  with  silence  did  ad- 
mire the  justice  of  the  Power  above. 

The  sum  of  this  is,  that,  in  sending  evils 
upon  the  posterity  of  evil  men,  God  serves 
many  ends  of  providence,  some  of  wisdom,1 
some  of  mercy,  some  of  justice,  and  contra-' 
diets  none.  For  the  evil  of  tr.e  innocent  son 
is  the  father's  punishment  upon  the  stock  of 
his  sin,  and  his  relation  ;  but  the  sad  accident 
happens  to  the  son  upon  the  score  of  nature, 
and  many  ends  of  providence  and  mercy.  To 
which  I  add,  that  if  any,  even  the  greatest 
temporal  evil,  may  fall  upon  a  man  j  as  blind- 


ness did  upon  the  blind  man,  in  the  gospel, 
when  "neither  he  nor  his  parents  have  sin- 
ned ;"  much  more  may  it  do  so,  when  his 
parents  have  though  he  have  not.  For  there 
is  a  nearer  or  more  visible  commensuration 
of  justice  between  the  parent's  sin  and  the 
son's  sickness,  than  between  the  evil  of  the 
son  and  the  innocence  of  the  father  and 
son  together.  The  dispensation  therefore  is 
righteous  and  severe. 

3.  I  am  now  to  consider  in  what  degree 
and  in  what  cases  this  is  usual,  or  to  be  ex- 
pected. It  is  in  the  text  instanced  in  the 
matter  of  worshipping  images.  God  is  so 
jealous  of  his  honour,  that  he  will  not  suffer 
an  image  of  himself  to  be  made,  lest  the 
image  dishonour  the  substance;  nor  any 
image  of  a  creature  to  be  worshipped,  though 
with  a  less  honour,  lest  that  less  swell  up 
into  a  greater.  And  he  that  is  thus  jealous 
of  his  honour,  and  therefore  so  instances  it, 
is  also  very  curious  of  it  in  all  other  parti- 
culars: and  though  to  punish  the  sins  of 
fathers  upon  the  children  be  more  solemnly 
threatened  in  this  sin  only,  yet  we  find  it 
inflicted  indifferently  in  any  other  great  sin, 
as  appears  in  the  former  precedents. 

This  one  thing  I  desire  to  be  strictly  ob- 
served ;  that  it  is  with  much  error  and  great 
indiligence  usually  taught  in  this  question, 
that  the  wrath  of  God  descends  from  fathers 
to  children,  only  in  case  the  children  imitate 
and  write  after  their  fathers'  copy  ;  supposing 
these  words — "  of  them  that  hate  me" — to 
relate  to  the  children.  But  this  is  expressly 
against  the  words  of  the  text,  and  the  ex- 
amples of  the  thing.  God  afflicts  good  child- 
ren of  evil  parents  for  their  fathers'  sins; 
and  the  words  are  plain  and  determinate, 
God  visits  the  sins  of  the  fathers  "  in  tertiam 
et  quartam  generationem  eorum  qui  oderunt 
me,"  "to  the  third  generation  of  them,  of 
those  fathers  that  hate  me, "  that  is,  upon 
the  great-grandchildren  of  such  parents.  So 
that  if  the  great-grandfathers  be  haters  of 
God  and  lovers  of  iniquity,  it  may  entail  a 
curse  upon  so  many  generations,  though  the 
children  be  haters  of  their  father's  hatred, 
and  lovers  of  God.  And  this  hath  been  ob- 
served even  by  wise  men  among  the  heathens, 
whose  stories  tell  that  Antigonus  was  pu- 
nished for  the  tyranny  of  his  father  Demetrius, 
Phyleus  for  his  father  Augeas,  pious  and 
wise  Nestor  for  his  father  Neleus  :  and  it  was 
so  in  the  case  of  Jonathan,  who  lost  the 
kingdom  and  his  life  upon  the  stock  of  his 
father's  sins ;  and  the  innocent  child  of  David 
was  slain  by  the  anger  of  God,  not  against 


212  THE  ENTAIL  OF  C 


URSES  CUTOFF.   Serm.  XXIX. 


the  child,  who  never  had  deserved  it,  but  the 
father's  adultery.  I  need  not  here  repeat  what 
I  said  in  vindication  of  the  Divine  justice  ; 
but  I  observed  this,  to  represent  the  danger 
of  a  sinning  father  or  mother,  when  it  shall 
so  infect  the  family  with  curses,  that  it  shall 
ruin  a  wise  and  innocent  son  ;  and  that  vir- 
tue and  innocence,  which  shall  by  God  be 
accepted  as  sufficient  through  the  Divine 
mercy  to  bring  the  son  to  heaven,  yet,  it  may 
be,  shall  not  be  accepted  to  quit  him  from 
feeling  the  curse  of  his  father's  crime  in  a 
load  of  temporal  infelicities  :  and  who  but  a 
villain  would  ruin  and  undo  a  wise,  a  vir- 
tuous, and  his  own  son  ?  But  so  it  is  in  all 
the  world.  A  traitor  is  condemned  to  suffer 
death  himself,  and  his  posterity  are  made 
beggars  and  dishonourable  ;  his  escutcheon 
is  reversed,  his  arms  of  honour  are  extin- 
guished, the  nobleness  of  his  ancestors  is 
forgotten  ;  but  his  own  sin  is  not,  while  men, 
by  the  characters  of  infamy,  are  taught  to  ! 
call  that  family  accursed  which  had  so  base 
a  father.  Tiresias  was  esteemed  unfortunate, 
because  he  could  not  see  his  friends  and  child- 
ren :  the  poor  man  was  blind  with  age. 
But  Athamas  and  Agave  were  more  mise- 
rable, who  did  see  their  children,  and  took 
them  for  lions  and  stags :  the  parents  were 
miserably  frantic.  But  of  all,  they  deplored 
the  misery  of  Hercules,  who,  when  he  saw 
his  children,  took  them  for  enemies,  and  en- 
deavoured to  destroy  them.  And  this  is  the 
case  of  all  vicious  parents.  That  "  a  man's 
enemies  were  they  of  his  own  house,"  was 
accounted  a  great  calamity:  but  it  is  worse 
when  we  love  them  tenderly  and  fondly,  and 
yet  do  them  all  the  despite  we  wish  to  ene- 
mies. But  so  it  is,  that  in  many  cases  we 
do  more  mischief  to  our  children,  than  if  we 
should  strangle  them  when  they  are  newly 
taken  from  their  mother's  knees,  or  tear  them 
in  pieces  as  Medea  did  her  brother  Absyrtus. 
For  to  leave  them  to  inherit  a  curse,  to  leave 
them  to  an  entailed  calamity,  a  misery,  a 
disease,  the  wrath  of  God  for  an  inheritance, 
that  it  may  descend  upon  them,  and  remark 
the  family  like  their  coat  of  arms;  is  to  be 
the  parent  of  evil,  the  ruin  of  our  family,  the  j 
causes  of  mischief  to  them  who  ought  to  be 
dearer  to  us  than  our  own  eyes.  And  let  us 
remember  this  when  we  are  tempted  to  pro- 
voke the  jealous  God ;  let  us  consider,  that 
his  anger  hath  a  progeny,  and  a  descending 
line,  and  it  may  break  out  in  the  days  of  our 
nephews.  A  Greek  woman  was  accused  of 
adultery,  because  she  brought  forth  a  blacka- 
moor ;  and  could  not  acquit  herself,  till  she  | 


had  proved  that  she  had  descended  in  the 
fourth  degree  from  an  Ethiopian :  her  great- 
grandfather was  a  Moor.  And  if  naturalists 
say  true,  that  nephews  are  very  often  liker 
to  their  grandfathers  than  to  their  fathers,  we 
see  that  the  semblance  of  our  souls,  and 
the  character  of  the  person,  is  conveyed  by 
secret  and  undiscernible  conveyances.  Na- 
tural production  conveys  original  sin;  and 
therefore,  by  the  channels  of  the  body,  it  is 
not  strange  that  men  convey  an  hereditary 
sin.  And  lustful  sons  are  usually  bora  to 
satyrs  ;  and  monsters  of  intemperance  to 
drunkards  :  and  there  are  also  hereditary 
diseases  ;  which  if  in  the  fathers  they  were 
effects  of  their  sin,  as  it  is  in  many  cases,  it 
is  notorious  that  the  father's  sin  is  punished, 
and  the  punishment  conveyed  by  natural  in- 
struments. So  that  it  cannot  be  a  wonder, 
but  it  ought  to  be  a  huge  afirightment  from 
;  a  state  of  sin  ;  if  a  man  can  be  capable  of  so 
much  charity  as  to  love  himself  in  his  own 
person,  or  in  the  images  of  his  nature,  and 
heirs  of  his  fortunes,  and  the  supports  of  his 
family,  in  the  children  that  God  hath  given 
him.  Consider  therefore  that  you  do  not 
only  act  your  own  tragedies  when  you  sin, 
but  you  represent  and  effect  the  fortune  of 
your  children ;  you  slay  them  with  your  own 
barbarous  and  inhuman  hands.  Only  be 
pleased  to  compare  the  variety  of  estates, 
of  your  own  and  your  children.  If  they  on 
earth  be  miserable  many  times  for  their 
father's  sins,  how  great  a  state  of  misery  is 
that  in  hell  which  they  suffer  for  their  own! 
And  how  vile  a  person  is  that  father  or 
mother,  who  for  a  little  money,  or  to  please 
a  lust,  will  be  a  parricide,  and  imbrue  his 
hands  in  the  blood  of  his  own  children ! 


SERMON  XXIX. 

PART  II. 

4.  I  am  to  consider  what  remedies  there 
are  for  sons  to  cut  off  this  entail  of  curses ; 
'  and  whether,  and  by  what  means,  it  is  pos- 
sible for  sons  to  prevent  the  being  punished 
for  their  fathers7  sins.  And  since  this  thing 
is  so  perplexed  and  intricate,  hath  so  easy 
an  objection,  and  so  hard  an  answer,  looks 
so  like  a  cruelty,  and  so  unlike  a  justice 
(though  it  be  infinitely  just,  and  very  severe,, 
and  a  huge  enemy  to  sin);  it  cannot  be 
thought  but  that  there  are  not  only  ways  left 
1  to  reconcile  God's  proceeding  to  the  strict 


Serm.  XXIX.  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


2)3 


Tules  of  juslice,  but  also  the  condition  of  I  father's  vice,  for  ministering  to  his  vanity, 
man  to  the  possibilities  of  God's  usual  mer-  he  is  disposed  not  only  to  a  judgment  for  his 
cies.    One  said  of  old,  "  Ex  tartidate  si  Dii1  own  prodigality,  but  also  to  the  curse  of  his 


sontes  practereant,  et  insontes  plectant,  jus- 
titiam  suam  non  sic  recte  resarciunt:"  "  If 
God  be  so  slow  to  punish  the  guilty,  that  the 


father's  avarice. 

2.  The  son  may  inherit  the  father's  wick- 
edness by  imitation  and  direct  practice ;  and 


punishment  be  deferred  till  the  death  of  the!  then  the  curse  is  like  to  come  to  purpose  ;  a 
guilty  person  ;  and  that  God  shall  be  forced  curse  by  accumulation,  a  treasure  of  wrath  : 
to  punish  the  innocent,  or  to  let  the  sin  quite !  and  then  the  children,  as  they  arrive  to  the 
escape  unpunished;  it  will  be  something |  height  of  wickedness  by  a  speedy  passage, 

as  being  thrust  forward  by  an  active  exam- 
ple, by  countenance,  by  education,  by  a  sel- 
dom restraint,  by  a  remiss  discipline  :  so  they 
ascertain  a  curse  to  the  family,  by  being  a 
can  find  how  to  reconcile  this  to  God's  mercy  perverse  generation,  a  family  set  up  in  op- 
too,  or  can  learn  how  it  may  be  turned  into'  position  against  God,  by  continuing  and  in- 
a  mercy,  wTe  need  to  take  no  other  care,  but  creasing  the  provocation. 


hard  to  join  that  justice  with  mercy,  or  to 
join  that  action  with  justice."  Indeed,  it 
will  seem  strange,  but  the  reason  of  its  jus- 
tice I  have  already  discoursed  :  if  now  we 


that,  for  our  own  particular,  we  take  heed 
we  never  tempt  God's  anger  upon  our  fa- 
milies, and  that  by  competent  and  apt  in- 
struments we  endeavour  to  cancel  the  de- 
cree, if  it  be  gone  out  against  our  families ; 
for  then  we  make  use  of  that  severity  which 
God  intended;  and  ourselves  shall  be  re- 
freshed in  the  shades,  and  by  the  cooling 
brooks  of  the  Divine  mercy,  even  then  when 
we  see  the  wrath  of  God  breaking  out  upon 
the  families  round  about  us. 

First ;  the  first  means  to  cut  off  the  entail 
of  wrath  and  cursings  from  a  family  is,  for 
the  sons  to  disavow  those  signal  actions  of 


3.  Sons  inherit  their  fathers' crimes  by  re- 
ceiving and  enjoying  the  purchases  of  their 
rapine,  injustice,  and  oppression,  by  rising 
upon  the  ruin  of  their  fathers'  souls,  by  sit- 
ting warm  in  the  furs  which  their  fathers 
stole,  and  walking  in  the  grounds  which  are 
watered  with  the  tears  of  oppressed  orphans 
and  widows.  Now,  in  all  these  cases,  the 
rule  holds.  If  the  son  inherits  the  sin,  he 
cannot  call  it  unjust  if  he  inherits  also  his 
father's  punishment.  But,  to  rescind  the 
fatal  chain,  and  break  in  sunder  the  line  of 
God's  anger,  a  son  is  tied  in  all  these  cases 
to  disavow  his  father's  crime.    But  because 


impiety,  in  which  their  fathers  were  deeply  the  cases  are  several,  he  must  also  in  several 
guilty,  and  by  which  they  stained  great  parts  manners  do  it. 

of  their  life,  or  have  done  something  of  very  1.  Every  man  is  bound  not  to  glory  in,  or 
great  unworlhiness  and  disreputation.    "  Si  j  speak  honour  of,  the  powerful  and  unjust 


quis  paterni  vitii,  nascitur  hares,  nascitur  et 
pcence  ;"  "  The  heir  of  his  father's  wicked- 
ness is  the  heir  of  his  father's  curse."  And 
a  son  comes  to  inherit  a  wickedness  from 
his  father  three  ways. 


actions  of  his  ancestors  :  but  as  all  the  sons 
of  Adam  are  bound  to  be  ashamed  of  that 
original  stain,  which  they  derived  from  the 
loins  of  their  abused  father,  they  must  be 
humbled  in  it,  they  must  deplore  it  as  an 


1.  By  approving,  or  any  ways  consenting  evil  mother,  and  a  troublesome  daughter ;  so 
to  his  father's  sin  :  as  by  speaking  of  it  with- 1  must  children  account  it  amongst  the  crosses 
out  regret  or  shame  ;  by  pleasing  himself  in  j  of  their  family,  and  the  stains  of  their  honour, 
the  story  ;  or  by  having  an  evil  mind,  apt  to  |  that  they  passed  through  so  impure  chan- 
counsel  or  do  the  like,  if  the  same  circum- 
stances should  occur.  For  a  son  may  con- 
tract a  sin,  not  only  by  derivation  and  the 
contagion  of  example,  but  by  approbation ;  not 
only  by  a  corporal,  but  by  a  virtual  contract ; 
not  only  by  transcribing  an  evil  copy,  but  by 
commending  it :  and  a  man  may  have  "  ani- 
mum  leprosum  in  cute  munda,"  w  a  leprous 
and  a  polluted  mind,  even  for  nothing,  even 
for  an  empty  and  ineffective  lust.  An  evil 
mind  may  contract  the  curse  of  an  evil  ac- 
tion.   And  though  the  son  of  a  covetous 


nels,  that  in  the  sense  of  morality  as  wrll 
as  nature  they  can  "  say  to  corruption,  Thou 
art  my  father,  and  to  rottenness,  Thou  art 
my  mother."  I  do  not  say  that  sons  are 
bound  to  publish  or  declaim  against  their 
fathers'  crimes,  and  to  speak  of  their  shame 
in  piazzas  and  before  tribunals;  that  indeed 
were  a  sure  way  to  bring  their  fathers'  sins 
upon  their  own  heads,  by  their  own  faults. 
No :  like  Shem  and  Japhet,  they  must  go 
backward,  and  cast  a  veil  upon  their  naked- 
ness and  shame,  lest  they  bring  the  curse  of 


father  prove  a  prodigal ;  yet,  if  he  loves  his  their  fathers'  angry  dishonour  upon  their 


214  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF.  Serm.  XXIX. 


own  impious  and  unrelenting  heads.  Noah's 
drunkenness  fell  upon  Ham's  head,  because 
he  did  not  hide  the  openness  of  his  father's 
follies :  he  made  his  father  ridiculous ;  but 
did  not  endeavour  either  to  amend  the  sin, 
or  to  wrap  the  dishonour  in  a  pious  cover- 
ing. He  that  goes  to  disavow  his  father's 
sin  by  publishing  his  shame,  hides  an  ill 
face  with  a  more  ugly  visor,  and  endeavours 
by  torches  and  fantastic  lights  to  quench  the 
burning  of  that  house  which  his  father  set 
on  fire  :  these  fires  are  to  be  smothered,  and 
so  extinguished.  I  deny  not,  but  it  may  be- 
come the  piety  of  a  child  to  tell  a  sad  story, 
to  mourn,  and  represent  a  real  grief  for  so 
great  a  misery,  as  is  a  wicked  father  or  mo- 
ther :  but  this  is  to  be  done  with  a  tender- 
ness as  nice  as  we  would  dress  an  eye  withal : 
it  must  be  only  with  designs  of  charity,  of 
counsel,  of  ease,  and  with  much  prudence, 
and  a  sad  spirit.  These  things  being  secured, 
that  which  in  this  case  remains,  is  that  in  all 
intercourses  between  God  and  ourselves  we 
disavow  the  crime. 

Children  are  bound  to  pray  to  God  to  sanc- 
tify, to  cure,  to  forgive  their  parents  :  and 
even,  concerning  the  sins  of  our  forefathers, 
the  church  hath  taught  us  in  her  litanies, 
to  pray  that  God  would  be  pleased  to  for- 
give them,  so  that  neither  we,  nor  they,  may 
sink  under  the  wrath  of  God  for  them  :  te  Re- 
member not,  Lord,  our  offences,  nor  the  of- 
fences of  our  forefathers,  neither  take  thou 
vengeance  of  our  sins :"  ours,  in  common 
and  conjunction.  And  David  confessed  to 
God,  and  humbled  himself  for  the  sins  of  his 
ancestors  and  decessors  :  "  Our  fathers  have 
done  amiss,  and  dealt  wickedly ;  neither 
kept  they  thy  great  goodness  in  remem- 
brance, but  were  disobedient  at  the  sea,  even 
at  the  Red  sea."  So  did  good  king  Josiah : 
"  Great  is  the  wrath  of  the  Lord,  which  is 
kindled  against  us,  because  our  fathers  have 
not  hearkened  unto  the  words  of  this  book."* 
But  this  is  to  be  done  between  God  and  our- 
selves; or,  if  in  public,  then  to  be  done  by 
general  accusation  ;  that  God  only  may  read 
our  particular  sorrows  in  the  single  shame 
of  our  families,  registered  in  our  hearts,  and 
represented  to  him  with  humiliation,  shame, 
and  a  hearty  prayer. 

2.  Those  curses,  which  descend  from  the 
fathers  to  the  children  by  imitation  of  the 
crimes  of  their  progenitors,  are  to  be  cut  off 
by  special  and  personal  repentance  and 
prayer,  as  being  a  state  directly  opposite  to 


that  which  procured  the  curse  :  and  if  the 
sons  be  pious,  or  return  to  an  early  and  se- 
vere course  of  holy  living,  they  are  to  be  re- 
medied as  other  innocent  and  pious  persons 
are,  who  are  sufferers  under  the  burdens  of 
thei^  relatives,  whom  I  shall  consider  by  and 
by.  Only  observe  this;  that  no  public  or 
imaginative  disavowings,  no  ceremonial  and 
pompous  rescission  of  our  fathers'  crimes, 
can  be  sufficient  to  interrupt  the  succession 
of  the  curse,  if  the  children  do  secretly  prac- 
tise or  approve  what  they  in  pretence  or 
ceremony  disavow.  And  this  is  clearly 
proved;  and  it  will  help  to  explicate  that 
difficult  saying  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  **  Wo 
unto  you,  for  ye  build  the  sepulchres  of  the 
prophets,  and  your  fathers  killed  them. 
Truly  ye  bear  witness  that  ye  allow  the  deeds 
of  your  fathers  ;  for  they  killed  them,  and 
ye  build  their  sepulchres  :"*  that  is,  the 
Pharisees  were  huge  hypocrites,  and  adorned 
the  monuments  of  the  martyr-prophets,  and 
in  words  disclaimed  their  fathers'  sin,  but  in 
deeds  and  design  they  approved  it;  1.  Be- 
cause they  secretly  wished  all  such  persons 
dead  ;  "  colebant  mortuos,  quos  nollent  su- 
perstites."  In  charity  to  themselves  some  men 
wish  their  enemies  in  heaven,  and  would  be 
at  charges  for  a  monument  for  them,  that 
their  malice,  and  their  po  ver,  and  their 
bones,  might  rest  in  the  same  grave,  and 
yet  that  wish  and  that  expense  is  no  testi- 
mony of  their  character,  but  of  their  anger. 
2.  These  men  were  willing  that  the  monu- 
ments of  those  prophets  should  remain,  and 
be  a  visible  affrightment  to  all  such  bold  per- 
sons and  severe  reprehenders  as  they  were; 
and  therefore  they  buiided  their  sepulchres 
to  be  as  beacons  and  publications  of  dan- 
ger to  all  honest  preachers.  And  this  was 
the  account  St.  Chrysostom  gave  of  the 
place.  3.  To  which  also  the  circumstances 
of  the  place  concur.  For  they  only  said, 
"  If  they  had  lived  in  their  fathers'  days, 
they  would  not  have  done  as  they  did  ;"f  but 
it  is  certain  they  approved  it,  because  they 
pursued  the  same  courses;  and,  therefore, 
our  blessed  Savour  calls  them  yevtav  urtoxtU- 
vovaav,  not  only  the  children  of  them  that  did 
kill  the  prophets,  but  "  a  killing  generation ;" 
the  sin  also  descends  upon  you,  for  ye  have 
the  same  killing  mind  :  and  although  you 
honour  them  thatare  dead,  and  cannot  shame 
you ;  yet  you  design  the  same  usages  against 
them  that  are  alive,  even  against  the  Lord 
of  the  prophets,  against  Christ  himself,  whom 


*  2  Kings  xxii.  13. 


Serm.XXIX.  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


215 


ye  will  kill.  And  as  Dion  said  of  Cara- 
calla,  Uoiot,  roes  aya^otj  dvhp&Giv  axOo/xevoi, 
TLfxav  twa$  avtiov  artodavovtas  irCKatti-to,  "  The 
man  was  troublesome  to  all  good  men  when 
they  were  alive,  but  did  them  honour  when 
they  were  dead  ;"*  and  when  Herod  had 
killed  Arislobulus,  yet  he  made  him  a  most 
magnificent  funeral:  so,  because  the  Phari- 
sees were  of  the  same  humour,  therefore 
our  blessed  Saviour  bids  them  "to  fill  up 
the  measure  of  their  fathers'  iniquity  ;"f  for 
they  still  continued  the  malice,  only  they 
painted  it  over  with  a  pretence  of  piety,  and 
of  disavowing  their  fathers'  sin;  which  if 
they  had  done  really,  their  being  children  of 
persecutors,  much  less  the  "  adorning  of  the 
prophets'  sepulchres"  could  not  have  been 
just  cause  of  a  wo  from  Christ ;  this  being  an 
act  of  piety,  and  the  other  of  nature,  inevi- 
table and  not  chosen  by  them,  and  therefore 
not  chargeable  upon  them.  He  therefore  i 
that  will  to  real  purposes  disavow  his  fa- 
ther's crimes,  must  do  it  heartily,  and  hum- 
bly, and  charitably,  and  throw  off  all  affec- 
tions to  the  like  actions.  For  he  that  finds 
fault  with  his  father  for  killing  Isaiah  or  Je- 
remy, and  himself  shall  kill  Aristobulus  and 
John  the  Baptist ;  he  that  is  angry  because 
the  old  prophets  were  murdered,  and  shall 
imprison  and  beggar  and  destroy  the  new 
ones;  he  that  disavows  the  persecution  in 
the  primitive  times  and  honours  the  memory 
of  the  dead  martyrs,  and  yet  every  day  makes 
new  ones  ;  he  that  blames  the  oppression  of 
the  country  by  any  of  his  predecessors,  and 
yet  shall  continue  to  oppress  his  tenants,  and 
all  that  are  within  his  gripe ;  that  man  can- 
not hope  to  be  eased  from  the  curse  of  his  j 
father's  sins  :  he  goes  on  to  imitate  them, 
and,  therefore,  to  fill  up  their  measure,  and 
to  heap  up  a  full  treasure  of  wrath. 

3.  But,  concerning  the  third,  there  is  yet  j 
more  difficulty.  Those  sons  that  inherit 
their  fathers'  sins  by  possessing  the  price  of  j 
their  fathers'  soul,  that  is,  by  enjoying  the 
goods  gotten  by  their  fathers'  rapine,  may 
certainly  quit  the  inheritance  of  the  curse, 
if  they  quit  the  purchase  of  the  sin,  that  is, 
if  they  pay  their  fathers'  debts  :  his  debts  of 
contract  and  his  debts  of  justice;  his  debts 
of  intercourse,  and  his  debts  of  oppression. 
I  do  not  say  that  every  man  is  bound  to  re- 
store all  the  lands  which  his  ancestors  have 
unjustly  snatched :  for  when  by  law  the 
possession  is  established,  though  the  grand- 
father entered  like  a  thief,  yet  the  grand- 


*  Reimar. 


t  Matt  xjuii.  32. 


child  is  "  bonae  fidei"  possessor,  and  may 
enjoy  it  justly ;  and  the  reasons  of  this  are 
great  and  necessary  ;  for  the  avoiding  eter- 
nal suits,  and  perpetual  diseases  of  rest  and 
conscience  ;  because  there  is  no  estate  in  the 
world. that  could  be  enjoyed  by  any  man 
honestly,  if  posterity  were  bound  to  make 
restitution  of  all  the  wrongs  done  by  their 
progenitors.  But  although  the  children  of 
the  far-removed  lines  are  not  obliged  to  re- 
stitution, yet  others  are ;  and  some  for  the 
same,  some  for  other  reasons. 

1.  Sons  are  tied  to  restore  what  their 
fathers  did  usurp,  or  to  make  agreement 
and  an  acceptable  recompense  for  it,  if  tiie 
case  be  visible,  evident,  and  notorious,  and 
the  oppressed  party  demands  it :  because  in 
this  case  the  law  hath  not  settled  the  pos- 
session in  the  new  tenant ;  or  if  a  judge  hath, 
it  is  by  injury;  and  there  is  yet  no  collateral 
accidental  title  transferred  by  long  posses- 
sion, as  it  is  in  other  cases :  and  there- 
fore, if  the  son  continues  to  oppress  the 
same  person  whom  his  father  first  injured, 
he  may  well  expect  to  be  the  heir  of  his 
father's  curse,  as  well  as  of  his  cursed  pur- 
chase. 

2.  Whether  by  law  and  justice,  or  not, 
the  person  be  obliged,  nay,  although  by  all 
the  solemnities  of  law  the  unjust  purchase 
be  established,  and  that  in  conscience  the 
grandchildren  be  not  obliged  to  restitution  in 
their  own  particulars,  but  may  continue  to 
enjoy  it  without  a  new  sin  ;  yet  if  we  see  a 
curse  descending  upon  the  family  for  the  old 
oppression  done  in  the  days  of  our  grand- 
fathers, or  if  we  probacy  suspect  that  to  be 
the  cause ;  then,  if  we  make  restitution,  we 
also  most  certainly  remove  the  curse,  be- 
cause we  take  away  the  matter  upon  which 
the  curse  is  grounded.  I  do  not  say ,  we  sin , 
if  we  do  not  restore ;  but  that,  if  we  do  not, 
we  may  still  be  punished.  The  reason  of 
this  is  clear  and  visible:  for  as  without  our 
faults,  in  many  cases,  we  may  enjoy  those 
lands  which  our  forefathers  got  unjustly  ;  so 
without  our  faults  we  may  be  punished  for 
them.  For  as  they  have  transmitted  the 
benefit  to  us,  it  is  but  reasonable  we  should 
suffer  the  appendant  calamity.  If  we  re- 
ceive good,  we  must  also  venture  the  evil 
that  comes  along  with  it.  "  Res  transit  cum 
suo  onere:"  "All  lands  and  possessions 
pass  with  their  proper  burdens."  And  if 
any  of  my  ancestors  was  a  tenant,  and  a 
servant,  and  held  his  lands  as  a  villain  to  his 
lord ;  his  posterity  also  must  do  so,  though 
accidentally  they  become  noble.    The  case  i?> 


216  THE  ENTAIL  OF  C 


URSES  CUT  OFF.  Serm.  XXIX. 


the  same.  If  my  ancestors  entered  unjustly, 
there  is  a  curse  and  a  plague  that  is  due  to 
that  oppression  and  injustice;  and  that  is 
"  the  burden  of  the  land,"  and  it  descends 
all  along  with  it.  And  although  I,  by  the 
consent  of  laws,  am  a  just  possessor,  yet  I 
am  obliged  to  the  burden  that  comes  with 
the  land  :  I  am  indeed  another  kind  of  per- 
son than  my  grandfather ;  he  was  a  usurper, 
but  I  am  a  just  possessor ;  but,  because  in 
respect  of  the  land  this  was  but  an  accidental 
change,  therefore  I  still  am  liable  to  the  bur- 
den, and  the  curse  that  descends  with  it. 
But  the  way  to  take  off  the  curse  is  to  quit 
the  title:  and  yet  a  man  may  choose.  It 
may  be,  to  lose  the  land  would  be  the  bigger 
curse  :  but,  if  it  be  not,  the  way  is  certain 
how  you  may  be  rid  of  it.  There  was  a 
custom  among  the  Greeks,  that  the  children 
of  them  that  died  of  consumptions  or  drop- 
sies, all  the  while  their  fathers'  bodies  were 
burning  on  their  funeral  piles,  did  sit  with 
their  feet  in  cold  water,  hoping  that  such  a 
lustration  and  ceremony  would  take  off  the 
lineal  and  descending  contagion  from  the 
children.  I  know  not  what  cure  they  found 
by  their  superstition  :  but  we  may  be  sure, 
that  if  we  wash  (not  our  feet,  but)  our 
hands  of  all  the  unjust  purchases  which  our 
fathers  have  transmitted  to  us,  their  hy- 
dropic thirst  of  wealth  shall  not  transmit  to 
us  a  consumption  of  estate,  or  any  other 
curse.  But  this  remedy  is  only  in  the  mat- 
ter of  injury  or  oppression,  not  in  the  case  of 
other  sins ;  because  other  sins  were  tran- 
sient ;  and,  as  the  guilt  did  not  pass  upon  the 
children,  so  neither  did  the  exterior  and  per- 
manent effect :  and,  therefore,  in  other  sins 
(in  case  they  do  derive  a  curse)  it  cannot  be 
removed,  as  in  the  matter  of  unjust  posses- 
sion it  may  be ;  whose  effect  (we  may  so 
order  it)  shall  no  more  stick  to  us,  than  the 
guilt  of  our  fathers'  personal  actions. 

The  sum  is  this :  as  kingdoms  use  to  ex- 
piate the  faults  of  others  by  acts  of  justice; 
and  as  churches  use  to  "remove  the  accurs- 
ed thing"  from  sticking  to  the  communities 
of  the  faithful,  and  the  sins  of  Christians 
from  being  required  of  the  whole  congrega- 
tion, by  excommunicating  and  censuring 
the  delinquent  persons ;  so  the  heirs  and 
sons  of  families  are  to  remove  from  their 
house  the  curse  descending  from  their  fa- 
thers' loins — 1 .  by  acts  of  disavowing  the 
sins  of  their  ancestors ;  2.  by  praying  for 
pardon ;  3.  by  being  humble  for  them ;  4. 
by  renouncing  the  example ;  and,  5.  quit- 


ting the  affection  of  the  crimes ;  6.  by  not 
imitating  the  actions  in  kind,  or  in  sem- 
blance and  similitude ;  and  lastly,  7.  by 
refusing  to  rejoice  in  the  ungodly  purchases, 
in  which  their  fathers  did  amiss,  and  dealt 
wickedly. 

Secondly ;  but,  after  all  this,  many  cases 
do  occur,  in  which  we  find  that  innocent 
sons  are  punished.  The  remedies  I  have 
already  discoursed  of,  are  for  such  children, 
who  have,  in  some  manner  or  other,  con- 
tracted and  derived  the  sin  upon  themselves: 
but  if  we  inquire  how  those  sons — who  have 
no  intercourse  or  affinity  with  their  fathers' 
sins,  or  whose  fathers'  sins  were  so  transient 
that  no  benefit  or  effect  did  pass  upon  their 
posterity — may  prevent,  or  take  off,  the  curse 
that  lies  upon  their  family  for  their  fathers' 
faults ;  this  will  have  some  distinct  consider- 
ations. 

1.  The  pious  children  of  evil  parents  are 
to  stand  firm  upon  the  confidence  of  the 
Divine  grace  and  mercy,  and  upon  that  per- 
suasion to  begin  to  work  upon  a  new  stock. 
For  it  is  as  certain,  that  he  may  derive  a 
blessing  upon  his  posterity,  as  that  his  pa- 
rents could  transmit  a  curse :  and  if  any 
man  by  piety  shall  procure  God's  favour 
to  his  relatives  and  children,  it  is  certain  that 
he  hath  done  more  than  to  escape  the  pu- 
nishment of  his  father's  follies.  "  If  sin 
doth  abound,"  and  evils  by  sin  are  derived 
from  his  parents;  "much  more  shall  grace 
superabound,"  and  mercy  by  grace.  If  he 
was  in  danger  from  the  crimes  of  others, 
much  rather  shall  he  be  secured  by  his  own 
piety.  For  if  God  punishes  the  sins  of  the 
fathers  to  four  generations;  yet  he  rewards 
the  piety  of  fathers  to  ten,  to  hundreds, 
and  to  thousands.  Many  of  the  ancestors 
of  Abraham  were  persons  not  noted  for  re- 
ligion, but  suffered  in  the  public  impiety 
and  almost  universal  idolatry  of  their  ages : 
and  yet  all  the  evils  that  could  thence  de- 
scend upon  the  family,  were  wiped  off;  and 
God  began  to  reckon  with  Abraham  upon  a 
new  stock  of  blessings  and  piety;  and  he 
was,  under  God,  the  original  of  so  great  a 
blessing,  that  his  family,  for  fifteen  hundred 
years  together,  had  from  him  a  title  to  many 
favours;  and  whatever  evils  did  chance  to 
them  in  the  descending  ages,  were  but  single 
evils  in  respect  of  that  treasure  of  mercies, 
which  the  father's  piety  had  obtained  to  the 
whole  nation.  And  it  is  remarkable  to  ob- 
serve, how  blessings  did  stick  to  thenv 
for  their  fathers'  sakes,  even  whelhsr  they 


Serm.  XXIX.  THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


217 


would  or  not.  For,  first,  his  grandchild :  Paul,  •*  As  touching  the  election,  they  are 
Esau  proved  a  naughty  man,  and  he  lost  j  beloved  for  the  fathers' sakes." 
the  great  blessing  which  was  entailed  upon  I  insist  the  longer  upon  this  instance,  that 
the  family;  but  he  got,  not  a  curse,  but  all  may  remonstrate  how  great,  and  how  sure, 
less  blessing ;  and  yet,  because  he  lost  a  I  and  how  preserving  mercies  a  pious  father 
greater  blessing,  God  excluded  him  from  be-  of  a  family  may  derive  upon  his  succeeding 
ing  reckoned  in  the  elder  line:  for  God,  fore-  'generations  :  and  if  we  do  but  tread  in  the 


seeing  the  event,  so  ordered  it,  that  he  should 
first  lose  his  birthright,  and  then  lose  the 
blessing ;  for  it  was  to  be  certain,  the  family 
must  be  reckoned  for  prosperous  in  the  proper 
line,  and  yet  God  blessed  Esau  into  a  great 
nation,  and  made  him  the  father  of  many 
princes.    Now  the  line  of  blessing  being 
reckoned  in  Jacob,  God  blessed  his  family 
strangely,  and  by  miracle,  for  almost  five 
generations.    He  brought  them  from  Egypt 
by  mighty  signs  and  wonders :  and  when 
for  sin  they  all  died  in  their  way  to  Canaan, 
two  only  excepted,  God  so  ordered  it,  that 
they  were  all  reckoned  as  single  deaths ; 
the  nation  still  descended,  like  a  river,  whose 
waters  were  drunk  up  for  the  beverage  of 
an  army,  but  still  it  keeps  its  name  and 
current,  and  the  waters  are  supplied  by 
showers,  and  springs,  and  providence.  Af- 
ter this,  iniquity  still  increased,  and  then 
God  struck  deeper,  and  spread  curses  upon 
whole  families ;  he  translated  the  priesthood 
from  line  to  line,  he  removed  the  kingdom 
from  one  family  to  another :  and  still  they 
sinned  worse;  and  then  we  read  that  God 
smote  almost  a  whole  tribe;  the  tribe  of 
Benjamin  was  almost  extinguished  about 
the  matter  of  the  Levite's  concubine;  but 
still  God  remembered  his  promise,  which 
he  made  with  their  forefathers,  and  that 
breach  was  made  up.    After  this  we  find 
a  greater  rupture  made,  and  ten  tribes  fell 
into  idolatry,  and  ten  tribes  were  carried 
captives  into  Assyria,  and  never  came  again : 
but  still  God  remembered  his  covenant  with 
Abraham,  and  left  two  tribes.    But  they 
were  restless  in  their  provocation  of  the 
God  of  Abraham ;  and  they  also  were  car- 
ried captive:  but  still  God  was  the  God  of  I 
their  fathers,  and  brought  them  back,  and 
placed  them  safe,  and  they  grew  again  into 
a  kingdom,  and  should  have  remained  for 
ever,  but  that  they  killed  one  that  was 
greater  than  Abraham,  even  the  Messias ; 
and  then  they  were  rooted  out,  and  the  old 
covenant  cast  off,  and  God  delighted  no 
more  to  be  called  "the  God  of  Abraham," 
but  the  "  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
As  long  as  God  kept  that  relation,  so  long 


footsteps  of  our  father  Abraham,  we  shall 
inherit  as  certain  blessings.  But  then,  I 
pray,  add  these  considerations. 

2.  If  a  great  impiety  and  a  clamorous 
wickedness  hath  stained  the  honour  of  a  fa- 
mily, and  discomposed  its  title  to  the  Divine 
mercies  and  protection,  it  is  not  an  ordinary 
piety  that  can  restore  this  family.    An  ordi- 
nary even  course  of  life,  full  of  sweetness 
and  innocence,  will  secure  every  single  per- 
son in  his  own  eternal  interest:  but  that 
piety,  which  must  be  a  spring  of  blessings, 
and  communicative  to  others,  that  must 
plead  against  the  sins  of  their  ancestors 
and  begin  a  new  bank  of  mercies  for  thei 
relatives ;  that  must  be  a  great  and  excellent, 
a  very  religious  state  of  life.    A  small  pen- 
sion will  maintain  a  single  person :  but  he 
that  hath  a  numerous  family,  and  many  to 
provide  for,  needs  a  greater  providence  of 
God,  and  a  bigger  provision  for  their  main- 
tenance :  and  a  small  revenue  will  not  keep 
up  the  dignity  of  a  great  house ;  especially 
if  it  be  charged  with  a  great  debt.    And  this 
is  the  very  state  of  the  present  question. 
That  piety  that  must  be  instrumental  to  take 
off  the  curse  imminent  upon  a  family,  to 
bless  a  numerous  posterity,  to  secure  a  fair 
condition  to  many  ages,  and  to  pay  the  debts 
of  their  fathers'  sins,  must  be  so  large,  as 
that,  all  necessary  expenses  and  duties  for 
his  own  soul  being  first  discharged,  it  may 
be  remarkable  in  great  expressions,  it  may 
be  exemplary  to  all  the  family,  it  may  be  of 
universal  efficacy,  large  in  the  extension  of 
parts,  deep  in  the  intention  of  degrees  :  and 
then,  as  the  root  of  a  tree  receives  nourish- 
ment not  only  sufficient  to  preserve  its  own 
life,  but  to  transmit  a  plastic  juice  to  the  trunk 
of  the  tree,  and  from  thence  to  the  utmost 
branch  and  smallest  germ  that  knots  in  the 
most  distant  part;  so  shall  the  great  and  ex- 
emplary piety  of  the  father  of  a  family  not 
only  preserve  to  the  interest  of  his  own 
soul  the  life  of  grace  and  hopes  of  glory, 
but  shall  be  a  quickening  spirit,  active  and 
communicative  of  a  blessing,  not  only  to 
the  trunk  of  the  tree,  to  the  body  and  right- 
ly-descending line,  but  even  to  the  collateral 


for  the  fathers'  sakes  they  had  a  title  and  an  i  branches,  to  the  most  distant  relatives,  and 
inheritance  to  a  blessing :  for  so  saith  St.  all  that  shall  claim  a  kindred  shall  have  a 
28  T 


218 


THE  ENTAIL  OF  C 


URSES  CUT  OFF.Serm.  XXIX. 


title  to  a  blessing.  And  this  was  the  way 
that  was  prescribed  to  the  family  of  Eli, 
upon  whom  a  sad  curse  was  entailed,  that 
there  should  not  be  an  old  man  of  the  fa- 
mily for  ever,  and  that  they  should  be  beg- 
gars, and  lose  the  office  of  priesthood :  by 
the  counsel  of  R.  Johanan,  the  son  of  Zac- 
cheus,  all  the  family  betook  themselves  lo  a 
great,  a  strict,  and  a  severe  religion ;  and 
God  was  entreated  to  revoke  his  decree,  to 
be  reconciled  to  the  family,  to  restore  them 
to  the  common  condition  of  men,  from 
whence  they  stood  separate  by  the  displeas- 
ure of  God  against  the  crime  of  Eli,  and 
his  sons  Hophni  and  Phineas.  This  course 
is  sure  either  to  take  off  the  judgment,  or  to 
change  it  into  a  blessing;  to  take  away  the 
rod,  or  the  smart  and  evil  of  it;  to  convert 
the  punishment  into  a  mere  natural  or  hu- 
man chance,  and  that  chance  to  the  oppor- 
tunity of  a  virtue,  and  that  virtue  to  the 
occasion  of  a  crown. 

3.  It  is  of  great  use  for  the  securing  of 
families,  that  every  master  of  a  family  order 
his  life  so,  that  his  piety  and  virtue  be 
as  communicative  as  is  possible;  that  is, 
that  he  secure  the  religion  of  his  whole 
family  by  a  severe  supervision  and  animad- 
version, and  by  cutting  off  all  those  unpro- 
fitable and  hurtful  branches  which  load  the 
tree,  and  hinder  the  growth  and  stock,  and 
disimprove  the  fruit,  and  revert  evil  juice 
lo  the  very  root  itself.  Calvisius  Sabinus 
laid  out  vast  sums  of  money  upon  his  ser- 
vants to  stock  his  house  with  learned  men ; 
and  brought  one  that  could  recite  all  Homer 
by  heart,  a  second  that  was  ready  at  Hesiod, 
— *a  third,  at  Pindar, — and  for  every  of  the 
lyrics,  one ;  having  this  fancy,  that  all  that 
learning  was  his  own,  and  whatsoever  his 
servants  knew  made  him  so  much  the  more 
skilful.  .It  was  noted  in  the  man  for  a  rch 
and  prodigal  folly  :  but  if  he  had  changed 
his  instance,  and  brought  none  but  virtuous 
servants  into  his  house,  he  might  better 
have  reckoned  his  wealth  upon  their  stock, 
and  the  piety  of  his  family  might  have 
helped  to  bless  him,  and  to  have  increased 
the  treasure  of  the  master's  virtue.  Every 
man  that  would  either  cut  off  the  title  of 
an  old  curse,  or  secure  a  blessing  upon  a 
new  stock,  must  make  virtue  as  large  in  the 
fountain  as  he  can,  that  it  may  the  sooner 
waler  all  his  relatives  with  fruitfulness  and 
blessings.  And  this  was  one  of  the  things 
that  God  noted  in  Abraham,  and  blessed 
his  family  for  it,  and  his  posterity:  "I  know 
that  Abraham  will  leach  his  sons  to  fear 


me."  When  a  man  teaches  his  family  to 
know  and  fear  God,  then  he  scatters  a  bless- 
ing round  about  his  habitation.  And  this 
helps  to  illustrate  the  reason  of  the  thing, 
as  well  as  to  prove  its  certainty.  We  hear 
it  spoken  in  our  books  of  religion,  that  the 
faith  of  the  parents  is  imputed  to  their  child- 
ren to  good  purposes,  and  that  a  good 
husband  sanctifies  an  ill  wife,  and  "a  be- 
lieving wife  an  unbelieving  husband;  and 
either  of  them  makes  the  children  to  be 
sanctified,  "else  they  were  unclean  and  un- 
holy;" that  is,  the  very  designing  children 
to  the  service  of  God  is  a  sanctification  ot 
them ;  and  therefore  St.  Jerome  calls  Chris- 
tian children  "candidates  fidei  Christianae." 
And  if  this  very  designation  of  them  makes 
them  holy,  that  is,  acceptable  to  God,  en- 
titled to  the  promises,  partakers  of  the  cove- 
nant, within  the  condition  of  sons ;  much 
more  shall  it  be  effectual  to  greater  bless- 
ings, when  the  parents  take  care  that  the 
children  shall  be  actually  pious,  full  of 
sobriety,  full  of  religion ;  then  it  becomes  a 
holy  house,  a  chosen  generation,  an  elect 
family;  and  then  there  can  no  evil  happen 
to  them,  but  such  which  will  bring  them 
nearer  to  God;  that  is,  no  cross,  but  the 
cross  of  Christ;  no  misfortune,  but  that 
which  shall  lead  them  to  felicity ;  and  if 
any  semblance  of  a  curse  happens  in  the 
generations,  it  is  but  like  the  anathema  of 
a  sacrifice;  not  an  accursed,  but  a  devoted 
thing;  for  so  the  sacrifice,  upon  whose  neck 
the  priest's  knife  doth  fall,  is  so  far  from 
being  accursed,  that  it  helps  to  get  a  bless- 
ing to  all  that  join  in  the  oblation.  So 
every  misfortune,  that  shall  discompose  the 
ease  of  a  pious  and  religious  family,  shall 
but  make  them  fit  to  be  presented  unto 
God;  and  the  rod  of  God  shall  be  like  the 
branches  of  fig-trees,  bitter  and  sharp  in 
themselves,  but  productive  of  most  delicious 
fruit.  No  evil  can  curse  the  family  whose 
stock  is  pious,  and  wThose  "branches  are 
holiness  to  the  Lord."  If  any  leaf  or  any 
boughs  shall  fall  untimely,  God  shall  gather 
them  up,  and  place  them  in  his  temple,  or 
at  the  foot  of  his  throne ;  and  that  family 
must  needs  be  blessed,  whom  infelicity 
itself  cannot  make  accursed. 

4.  If  a  curse  be  feared  to  descend  upon  a 
family  for  the  fault  of  their  ancestors,  pious 
sons  have  yet  another  way  to  secure  them- 
selves, and  to  withdraw  the  curse  from  the 
family,  or  themselves  from  the  curse ;  and 
that  is,  by  doing  some  very  great  and  illus- 
trious act  of  piety,  an  action,  "  in  gradu  he- 


Serm.  XXIX.   THE  ENTAIL  OF  CURSES  CUT  OFF. 


219 


roico,"  as  Aristotle  calls  it,  "  an  heroical  and  his  fastings  are  a  load  to  him,  and  his 

sins  are  not  so  perfectly  renounced  or  hated 
as  they  ought, — the  parts  of  repentance, 
which  are  left  unfinished,  do  sometimes  fall 
upon  the  heads  or  upon  the  fortunes  of  the 
rather  to  be  pleased  with  the  relatives  of  the  :  children.    I  do  not  say  this  is  regular  and 


action."  If  there  should  happen  to  be  one 
martyr  in  a  family,  it  would  reconcile  the 
whole  kindred  to  God,  and  make  him,  who 
is  more  inclined  to  mercy  than  severity, 


martyr,  than  to  continue  to  be  angry  with 
the  nephews  of  a  deceased  sinner.  I  can- 
not insist  long  upon  this  ;  but  you  may  see 
it  proved  by  one  great  instance  in  the  case 
of  Phineas,  who  killed  an  unclean  prince, 
and  turned  the  wrath  of  God  from  his  people. 
He  was  zealous  for  God  and  for  his  country- 
men, and  did  an  heroical  action  of  zeal: 
"  Wherefore  "  (saith  God)  "  behold  I  give 


certain  ;  but  sometimes  God  deals  thus  ;  for 
this  thing  hath  been  so,  and  therefore  it  may 
be  so  again.  We  see  it  was  done  in  the 
case  of  Ahab ;  he  "  humbled  himself,  and 
went  softly,  and  lay  in  sackcloth,"  and 
called  for  pardon,  and  God  took  from  him  a 
judgment  which  was  falling  heavily  upon 
him ;  but  we  all  know  his  repentance  was 
imperfect  and  lame  ;  the  same  evil  fell  upon 


unto  him  my  covenant  of  peace,  and  he  shall  j  his  sons  5  for  so  said  God:  "I  will  bring 
have  it,  and  his  seed  after  him;  even  the  1  the  evil  upon  his  house  in  his  son's  days." 


covenant  of  an  everlasting  priesthood ;  be- 
cause he  was  zealous  for  his  God,  and 
made  an  atonement  for  the  children  of 
Israel."  Thus  the  sons  of  Rechab  obtained 
the  blessing  of  an  enduring  and  blessed 
family,  because  they  were  most  strict  and 
religious  observers  of  their  father's  precepts, 
and  kept  them  after  his  death,  and  abstained 
from  wine  for  ever ;  and  no  temptation 
could  invite  them  to  taste  it ;  for  they  had 
as  great  reverence  to  their  father's  ashes,  as, 
being  children,  they  had  to  his  rod  and  to 
his  eyes.  Thus  a  man  may  turn  the  wrath 
of  God  from  his  family,  and  secure  a  bless- 
ing for  posterity,  by  doing  some  great  noble 
acts  of  charity  ;  or  a  remarkable  chastity  like 
that  of  Joseph :  or  an  expensive,  an  affec- 
tionate religion  and  love  to  Christ  and  his 
servants,  as  Mary  Magdalen  did.  Such 
things  as  these,  which  are  extraordinary 


Leave  no  arrears  for  thy  posterity  to  pay  ; 
but  repent  with  an  integral,  a  holy,  and 
excellent  repentance,  that  God  being  recon- 
ciled to  thee  thoroughly,  for  thy  sake  also 
he  may  bless  thy  seed  after  thee. 

And,  after  all  this,  add  a  continual,  a  fer- 
vent, a  hearty,  a  never-ceasing  prayer  for 
thy  children,  ever  remembering,  when  they 
beg  a  blessing,  that  God  hath  put  much  of 
their  fortune  into  your  hands ;  and  a  transient 
formal  "  God  bless  thee,"  will  not  outweigh 
the  load  of  a  great  vice,  and  the  curse  which 
scatters  from  thee  by  virtual  contact,  and  by 
the  channels  of  relation,  if  thou  beest  a 
vicious  person  :  nothing  can  issue  from  thy 
fountain  but  bitter  waters.  And,  as  it  were 
a  great  impudence  for  a  condemned  traitor 
to  beg  of  his  injured  prince  a  province  for 
his  son  for  his  sake;  so  it  is  an  ineffective 
blessing  we  give  our  children,  when  we  beg 


egressions  and  transvolations  bevond  the  i  for  them  what  we  have  no  title  to  for  our- 


ordinary  course  of  an  even  piety,  God  loves 
to  reward  with  an  extraordinary  favour ; 
and  gives  them  testimony  by  an  extra-regu- 
lar blessing. 

One  thing  more  I  have  to  add  by  way  of 
advice ;  and  that  is,  that  all  parents  and 
fathers  of  families,  from  whose  loins  a  bless- 
ing or  a  curse  usually  does  descend,  be  very 
careful,  not  only  generally  in  all  the  actions 
of  their  lives,  (for  that  I  have  already  press- 
ed,) but  particularly  in  the  matter  of  repent- 
ance ;  that  they  be  curious  that  they  finish 
it,  and  do  it  thoroughly  ;  for  there  are  cer- 
tain vatapruara  fittavolas,  "leavings  of  re- 
pentance," which  make  that  God's  anger  is 
taken  from  us  so  imperfectly  ;  and  although 
God,  for  his  sake  who  died  for  us,  will  par- 
don a  returning  sinner,  and  bring  him  to 
heaven  through  tribulation  and  a  fierv  trial : 


selves ;  nay,  when  we  can  convey  to  them 
nothing  but  a  curse.  The  prayer  of  a  sin- 
ner, the  unhallowed  wish  of  a  vicious  pa- 
rent, is  but  a  poor  donative  to  give  to  a  child 
who  sucked  poison  from  his  nurse,  and 
derives  cursing  from  his  parents.  They  are 
punished  with  a  double  torture  in  the  shame 
and  pain  of  the  damned,  who,  dying  ene- 
mies to  God,  have  left  an  inventory  of  sins 
and  wrath  to  be  divided  amongst  their  child- 
ren. But  they  that  can  truly  give  a  bless- 
ing to  their  children,  are  such  as  live  a 
blessed  life,  and  pray  holy  prayers,  and  per- 
form an  integral  repentance,  and  do  sepa- 
rate from  the  sins  of  their  progenitors,  and 
do  illustrious  actions,  and  begin  the  blessing 
of  their  family  upon  a  new  stock.  For  as 
from  the  eyes  of  some  persons  there  shoots 
forth  an  evil  influence,  and  some  have  an 


yet, — when  a  man  is  weary  of  his  sorrow, ;  evil  eye,  and  are  infectious,  some  look 


220  THE  INVALIDITY  OF  A  LATE  Skrm.  XXX. 


healthfully  as  a  friendly  planet,  and  inno- 
cent as  flowers:  and  as  some  fancies  convey 
private  effects  to  confederate  and  allied 
bodies ;  and  between  the  very  vital  spirits 
of  friends  and  relatives  there  is  a  cogna- 
tion, and  they  refresh  each  other  like  social 
plants ;  and  a  good  man  is  a  *  friend  to 
every  good  man;  and  (they  say)  that  a 
usurer  knows  a  usurer,  and  one  rich  man 
another,  there  being  by  the  very  manners  of 
men  contracted  a  similitude  of  nature,  and  a 
communication  of  effects  :  so  in  parents  and 
their  children  there  is  so  great  a  society  of 
nature  and  of  manners,  of  blessing  and 
cursing,  that  an  evil  parent  cannot  perish 
in  a  single  death;  and  holy  parents  never 
eat  their  meal  of  blessing  alone,  but  they 
make  the  room  shine  like  the  fire  of  a  holy 
sacrifice  ;  and  a  father's  or  a  mother's  piety 
makes  all  the  house  festival  and  full  of  joy 
from  generation  to  generation.  Amen. 


SERMON  XXX. 

THE  INVALIDITY  OF  A  LATE  OR  DEATH-BED 
REPENTANCE. 

PART  I  . 

Give  glory  to  the  Lord  your  God,  before  he  cause 
darkness,  and  before  your  feet  stumble  upon  the 
dark  mountains,  and,  while  ye  look  for  light,  (or, 
lest  v)hile  ye  look  for  light,)  he  shall  turn  it  into 
the  shadow  of  death,  and  make  it  gross  darkness. 
— Jeremiah  xiii.  16. 

God  is  the  eternal  fountain  of  honour  and 
the  spring  of  glory  ;  in  him  it  dwells  essen- 
tially, from  him  it  derives  originally ;  and 
when  an  action  is  glorious,  or  a  man  is 
honourable,  it  is  because  the  action  is  pleas- 
ing to  God,  in  the  relation  of  obedience  or 
imitation,  and  because  the  man  is  honoured 
by  God,  and  by  God's  vicegerent:  and 
therefore,  God  cannot  be  dishonoured,  be- 
cause all  honour  comes  from  himself;  he 
cannot  but  be  glorified,  because  to  be  him- 
self is  to  be  infinitely  glorious.  And  yet  he 
is  pleased  to  say,  that  our  sins  dishonour 
him,  and  our  obedience  does  glorify  him. 
But  as  the  sun,  the  great  eye  of  the  world, 
prying  into  the  recesses  of  rocks  and  the 
hollownesses  of  valleys,  receives  species  or 
visible  forms  from  these  objects,  but  he  be- 


*  AtdyAva  ovv  «  toutoiv  ztx'iA  'ices  h  <tyct&ol  w<r// 
»  <T  d^«T«  (AcvifAcr. — Arist. 


holds  them  only  by  that  light  which  proceeds 
from  himself:  so  does  God,  who  is  the  light 
of  that  eye ;  he  receives  reflexes  and  returns 
from  us,  and  these  he  calls  "  glorifications  " 
of  himself,  but  they  are  such  which  are  made 
so  by  his  own  gracious  acceptation.  For 
God  cannot  be  glorified  by  any  thing  but  by 
himself,  and  by  his  own  instruments,  which 
he  makes  as  mirrors  to  reflect  his  own 
excellency  ;  that  by  seeing  the  glory  of  such 
emanations,  he  may  rejoice  in  his  own 
works,  because  they  are  images  of  his  in- 
finity. Thus  when  he  made  the  beauteous 
frame  of  heaven  and  earth,  he  rejoiced  in  it, 
and  glorified  himself ;  because  it  was  the 
glass  in  which  he  beheld  his  wisdom  and 
almighty  power.  And  when  God  destroyed 
the  old  world,  in  that  also  he  glorified  him- 
self ;  for  in  those  waters  he  saw  the  image 
of  his  justice, — they  were  the  looking-glass 
for  that  attribute  ;  and  God  is  said  "  to  laugh 
at"  and  rejoice  in  the  destruction  of  a  sin- 
ner, because  he  is  pleased  with  the  economy 
of  his  own  laws,  and  the  excellent  propor- 
tions he  hath  made  of  his  judgments  conse- 
quent to  our  sins.  But,  above  all,  God 
rejoiced  in  his  holy  Son;  for  he  was  the 
image  of  the  Divinity,  "  the  character  and 
express  image  of  his  person ;"  in  him  he 
beheld  his  own  essence,  his  wisdom,  his 
power,  his  justice,  and  his  person;  and  he 
was  that  excellent  instrument  designed  from 
eternal  ages  to  represent,  as  in  a  double 
mirror,  not  only  the  glories  of  God  to  him- 
self, but  also  to  all  the  world  ;  and  he  glori- 
fied God  by  the  instrument  of  obedience,  in 
which  God  beheld  his  own  dominion  and 
the  sanctity  of  his  laws  clearly  represented ; 
and  he  saw  his  justice  glorified,  when  it  was 
fully  satisfied  by  the  passion  of  his  Son  : 
and  so  he  hath  transmitted  to  us  a  great 
manner  of  the  d-ivine  glorification,  being  be- 
come to  us  the  author  and  example  of  giving 
glory  to  God  after  the  manner  of  men,  that 
is,  by  well-doing  and  patient  suffering,  by 
obeying  his  laws  and  submitting  to  his 
power,  by  imitating  his  holiness  and  con- 
fessing his  goodness,  by  remaining  innocent 
or  becoming  penitent ;  for  this  also  is  called 
in  the  text  "  giving  glory  to  the  Lord  our 
God." 

For  he  that  hath  dishonoured  God  by  sins, 
that  is,  hath  denied,  by  a  moral  instrument 
of  duty  and  subordination,  to  confess  the 
glories  of  his  power,  and  the  goodness  of 
his  laws,  and  hath  dishonoured  and  despised 
his  mercy,  which  God  intended  as  an  in- 
strument of  our  piety,  hath  no  better  way 


Serm.  XXX.        OR  DEATH-BE 

to  glorify  God,  than  by  returning  to  his 
duty,  to  advance  the  honour  of  the  Divine 
attributes,  in  which  he  is  pleased  to  com- 
municate himself,  and  to  have  intercourse 
with  man  He  that  repents,  confesses  his 
own  error,  and  the  righteousness  of  God's 
laws, — and  by  judging  himself  confesses 
that  he  deserves  punishment, — and  there- 
fore, that  God  is  righteous  if  he  punishes 
him:  and,  by  returning,  confesses  God  to 
be  the  fountain  of  felicity,  and  the  founda- 
tion of  true,  solid,  and  permanent  joys, 
saying  in  the  sense  and  passion  of  the  disci- 
ples, "Whither  shall  we  go  ?  for  thou  hast 
the  words  of  eternal  life:"  and,  by  hum- 
bling himself,  exalts  God,  by  making  the 
proportions  of  distance  more  immense  and 
vast.  And  as  repentance  does  contain  in  it 
all  the  parts  of  holy  life,  which  can  be  per- 
formed by  a  returning  sinner  (all  the  acts 
and  habits  of  virtue  being  but  parts,  or  in- 
stances, or  effects  of  repentance);  so  all  the 
actions  of  a  holy  life  do  constitute  the  mass 
and  body  of  all  those  instruments,  whereby 
God  is  pleased  to  glorify  himself.  For  if 
God  is  glorified  in  the  sun  and  moon,  in  the 
rare  fabric  of  the  honeycombs,  in  the  disci- 
pline of  bees,  in  the  economy  of  pismires, 
in  the  little  houses  of  birds,  in  the  curiosity 
of  an  eye,  God  being  pleased  to  delight  in  i 
those  little  images  and  reflexes  of  himself  j 
from  those  pretty  mirrors,  which,  like  a 
crevice  in  the  wall,  through  a  narrow  per- 
spective, transmit  the  species  of  a  vast  ex- 
cellency :  much  rather  shall  God  be  pleased 
to  behold  himself  in  the  glasses  of  our  obe- 
dience, in  the  emissions  of  our  will  and 
understanding;  these  being  rational  and  apt 
instruments  to  express  him,  far  better  than 
the  natural,  as  being  nearer  communications 
of  himself. 

But  I  shall  no  longer  discourse  of  the 
philosophy  of  this  expression  :  certain  it  is, 
that  in  the  style  of  Scripture,  repentance  is 
the  great  "glorification  of  God;"  and  the 
prophet,  by  calling  the  people  to  "give  God 
glory,"  calls  upon  them  "to  repent,"  and 
so  expresses  both  the  duty  and  the  event 
of  it;  the  event  being  "glory  to  God  on 
high,  peace  on  earth,  and  good-will  to- 
wards men"  by  the  sole  instrument  of 
repentance.  And  this  was  it  which  Joshua 
said  to  Achan,  "Give,  I  pray  thee,  glory 
to  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  and  make  con- 
fession unto  him:"*  that  one  act  of  re- 


D  REPENTANCE.  221 

pentance  is  one  act  of  glorifying  God.  And 
this  David  acknowledged;  "Against  thee 
only  have  I  sinned  :  sut  tu  justificeris,'  that 
thou  mightest  be  justified  or  cleared:"*  that 
is,  that  God  may  have  the  honour  of  being 
righteous,  and  we  the  shame  of  receding 
from  so  excellent  a  perfection;  or,  as  St. 
Paul  quotes  and  explicates  the  place,  u  Let 
God  be  true  and  every  man  a  liar;  as  it  is 
written,  that  thou  mightest  be  justified  in 
thy  sayings,  and  mightest  overcome  when 
thou  art  judged. "f  But  to  clear  the  sense 
of  this  expression  of  the  prophet,  observe 
the  words  of  St.  John ;  "  And  men  were 
scorched  with  great  heat,  and  blasphemed 
I  the  name  of  God,  who  hath  power  over 
those  plagues :  and  they  repented  not  to 
give  him  glory. "4: 

So  that  having  strength  and  reason  from 
these  so  many  authorities,  I  may  be  free  to 
read  the  words  of  my  text  thus :  "  Repent 
of  all  your  sins,  before  God  cause  dark- 
ness, and  before  your  feet  stumble  upon  the 
dark  mountains."  And  then  we  have  here 
the  duty  of  repentance,  and  the  time  of  its 
performance.  It  must  be  fiatdvoia  tvatupoj, 
"  a  seasonable  and  timely  repentance,"  a 
repentance  which  must  begin  before  our 
darkness  begin,  a  repentance  in  the  day- 
time: "ut  dum  dies  est,  operemini,"  "  that 
ye  may  work  while  it  is  to-day  :"  lest,  if 
we  "stumble  upon  the  dark  mountains," 
that  is,  fall  into  the  ruins  of  old  age,  which 
makes  a  broad  way  narrow,  and  a  plain 
way  to  be  a  craggy  mountain ;  or  if  we 
stumble  and  fall  into  our  last  sickness,  in- 
stead of  health  God  send  us  to  our  grave, — 
and  instead  of  light  and  salvation,  which 
we  then  confidently  look  for,  he  make  our 
state  to  be  outer  darkness,  that  is,  misery 
irremediable,  misery  eternal. 

This  exhortation  of  the  prophet  was  al 
ways  full  of  caution  and  prudence;  but  now 
it  is  highly  necessary  ;  since  men,  who  are 
so  clamorously  called  to  repentance,  that 
they  cannot  avoid  the  necessity  of  it,  yet, 
that  they  may  reconcile  an  evil  life  with 
the  hopes  of  heaven,  have  crowded  this 
duty  into  so  little  room,  that  it  is  almost 
strangled  and  extinct ;  and  they  have  lopped 
off  so  many  members,  that  they  have  re- 
duced the  whole  body  of  it  to  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  little  finger,  sacrificing  their 
childhood  to  vanity,  their  youth  to  lust  and 
to  intemperance,  their  manhood  to  ambi- 


Joshua  vii.  19. 


*  Psal.  li.  4.    t  Rom.  iii.  4.    tRev.  xvi.  9. 
t2 


222 


THE  INVALIDITY  OF  A  LATE        Serm.  XXX. 


tion  and  rage,  pride  and  revenge,  secular 
desires,  and  unholy  actions;  and  yet  still 
further,  giving  their  old  age  to  covetousness 
and  oppression,  to  the  world  and  the  devil: 
and,  after  all  this,  what  remains  for  God 
and  for  religion  ?  Oh,  for  that  they  will  do 
well  enough :  upon  their  death-bed  they 
will  think  a  few  godly  thoughts,  they  will 
send  for  a  priest  to  minister  comfort  to 
them,  they  will  pray  and  ask  God  forgive- 
ness, and  receive  the  holy  sacrament,  and 
leave  their  goods  behind  them,  disposing 
them  to  their  friends  and  relatives,  and 
some  dole  and  issues  of  the  alms-basket  to 
the  poor;  and  if  after  all  this  they  die 
quietly,  and  like  a  lamb,  and  be  canonized 
by  a  bribed  flatterer  in  a  funeral  sermon, 
they  make  no  doubt  but  they  are  children 
of  the  kingdom,  and  perceive  not  their  folly, 
till,  without  hope  of  remedy,  they  roar  in 
their  expectations  of  a  certain  but  a  horrid 
eternity  of  pains.  Certainly  nothing  hath 
made  more  ample  harvests  for  the  devil,  than 
the  deferring  of  repentance  upon  vain  confi- 
dences, and  lessening  it  in  the  extension 
of  parts  as  well  as  intention  of  degrees, 
while  we  imagine  that  a  few  tears  and  scat- 
terings of  devotion,  are  enough  to  expiate 
the  baseness  of  a  fifty  or  threescore  years' 
impiety.  This  I  shall  endeavour  to  cure,  by 
showing  what  it  is  to  repent,  and  that  re- 
pentance implies  in  it  the  duty  of  a  life,  or 
of  many  and  great,  of  long  and  lasting 
parts  of  it;  and  then,  by  direct  arguments, 
showing  that  repentance  put  off  to  our 
death-bed,  is  invalid  and  ineffectual,  sick, 
languid,  and  impotent,  like  our  dying  bo- 
dies and  disabled  faculties. 

1.  First,  therefore,  repentance  implies  a 
deep  sorrow,  as  the  beginning  and  intro- 
duction of  this  duty  :  not  a  superficial  sigh 
or  tear,  not  a  calling  ourselves  sinners  and 
miserable  persons :  this  is  far  from  that 
"godly  sorrow  that  worketh  repentance;" 
and  yet  I  wish  there  were  none  in  the 
world,  or  none  amongst  us,  who  cannot 
remember  that  ever  they  have  done  this 
little  towards  the  abolition  of  their  multi- 
tudes of  sins :  but  yet,  if  it  were  not  a 
hearty,  pungent  sorrow,  a  sorrow  that  shall 
break  the  heart  in  pieces,  a  sorrow  that 
shall  so  irreconcile  us  to  sin,  as  to  make  us 
rather  choose  to  die  than  to  sin,  it  is  not  so 
much  as  the  beginning  of  repentance.  But 
in  Holy  Scripture,  when  the  people  are 
called  to  repentance,  and  sorrow  (which  is 
ever  the  prologue  to  it)  marches  sadly,  and 
first  opens  the  scene,  it  is  ever  expressed  to 


be  great,  clamorous,  and  sad :  it  is  called 
"  a  weeping  sorely"  in  the  next  verse  after 
my  text;  "a  weeping  with  the  bitternees  of 
heart ;"  "  a  turning  to  the  Lord  with  weep- 
ing, fasting,  and  mourning;"*  "a  weeping 
day  and  night;"  the  "sorrow  of  heart;" 
the  "breaking  of  the  spirit;"  the  "mourn- 
ing like  a  dove,"  and  "  chattering  like  a 
swallow."f  And  if  we  observe  the  threnes 
and  sad  accents  of  the  prophet  Jeremy, 
when  he  wept  for  the  sins  of  his  nation  ; 
the  heart-breakings  of  David,  when  he 
mourned  for  his  adultery  and  murder;  and 
the  bitter  tears  of  St.  Peter,  when  he  wash- 
ed off  the  guilt  and  baseness  of  his  fall, 
and  the  denying  his  master;  we  shall  be 
sufficiently  instructed  in  this  "pra?ludium" 
or  " introduction"  to  repentance;  and  that 
it  is  not  every  breath  of  a  sigh,  or  moisture 
of  a  tender  eye,  not  every  crying  "  Lord 
have  mercy  upon  me,"  that  is  such  a  sor- 
row, as  begins  our  restitution  to  the  state  of 
grace  and  Divine  favour;  but  such  a  sor- 
row, that  really  condemns  ourselves,  arid 
by  an  active  effectual  sentence,  declares  us 
worthy  of  stripes  and  death,  of  sorrow  and 
eternal  pains,  and  willingly  endures  the  first 
to  prevent  the  second ;  and  weeps,  and 
mourns,  and  fasts,  to  obtain  of  God  but  to 
admit  us  to  a  possibility  of  restitution.  And 
although  all  sorrow  for  sins  hath  not  the 
same  expression,  nor  the  same  degree  of 
pungency  and  sensitive  trouble,  which  dif- 
fers according  to  the  temper  of  the  body, 
custom,  the  sex,  and  accidental  tenderness  ;J 
yet  it  is  not  a  godly  sorrow,  unless  it  really 
produce  these  effects:  that  is,  1.  that  it 
makes  us  really  to  hate,  and  2.  actually  to 
decline  sin ;  and  3.  produce  in  us  a  fear  of 
God's  anger,  a  sense  of  the  guilt  of  his 
displeasure;  and  4.  then  such  consequent 
trouble  as  can  consist  with  such  apprehen- 
sion of  the  Divine  displeasure:  which,  if 
it  express  not  in  tears  and  hearty  com- 
plaints, must  be  expressed  in  watchings 
and  strivings  against  sin  ;  in  confessing  the 
goodness  and  justice  of  God  threatening  or 
punishing  us;  in  patiently  bearing  the  rod 
of  God:  in  confession  of  our  sins;  in  accu- 
sation of  ourselves;  in  perpetual  begging  of 
pardon,  and  mean  and  base  opinions  of  our- 
selves; and  in  all  the  natural  productions 
from  these,  according  to  our  temper  and  con- 
stitution :  it  must  be  a  sorrow  of  the  reason- 
able faculty,  the  greatest  in  its  kind :  and  if 
it  be  less  in  kind,  or  not  productive  of  these 

*  Kztk.  xxvii.  31.  t  Joel  ii.  13. 

t  See  Ruleof  H.  Living,  D.  of  Repentance,  p.  494. 


Serm.XXX.     OR  DEATH-BED  REPENTANCE. 


223 


effects,  it  is  not  a  godly  sorrow,  nor  the 
"  exordium"  of  repentance. 

But  I  desire  that  it  be  observed  that  sor- 
row for  sins  is  not  repentance;  not  that  duty 
which  gives  glory  to  God,  so  as  to  obtain  of 
him  that  he  will  glorify  us.  Repentance  is 
a  great  volume  of  duty;  and  godly  sorrow 
is  but  the  frontispiece  or  title-page;  it  is  the 
harbinger  or  first  introduction  to  it:  or,  if 
you  will  consider  it  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul, 
"  Godly  sorrow  worketh  repentance  :"#  sor- 
row is  the  parent,  and  repentance  is  the 
product.  And,  therefore,  it  is  a  high  piece 
of  ignorance  to  suppose,  that  a  crying  out 
and  roaring  for  our  sins  upon  our  death- 
bed can  reconcile  us  to  God :  our  crying  to 
God  must  be  so  early  and  so  lasting,  as  to 
be  able  to  teem  and  produce  such  a  daughter, 
which  must  live  long,  and  grow  from  an 
embryo  to  an  infant,  from  infancy  to  child- 
hood, from  thence  to  the  fulness  of  the  sta- 
ture of  Christ ;  and  then  it  is  a  holy  and  a 
happy  sorrow.  But  if  it  be  a  sorrow  only 
of  a  death-bed,  it  is  a  fruitless  shower;  or 
like  the  rain  of  Sodom,  not  the  beginning 
of  repentance,  but  the  kindling  of  a  flame,  I 
the  commencement  of  an  eternal  sorrow.1 
For  Ahab  had  a  great  sorrow,  but  it  wrought  j 
nothing  upon  his  spirit;  it  did  not  reconcile 
his  affections  to  his  duty,  and  his  duty  to 
God.  Judas  had  so  great  a  sorrow  for  be- 
traying the  innocent  blood  of  his  Lord,  that 
it  was  intolerable  to  his  spirit,  and  he  "burst 
in  the  middle."  And  if  mere  sorrow  be  re- 
pentance, then  hell  is  full  of  penitents;  for 
w  there  is  weeping,  and  wailing,  and  gnash- 
ing of  teeth,  for  evermore." 

Let  us,  therefore,  beg  of  God,  as  Caleb's 
daughter  did  of  her  father;  "Dedisti  mi- 
ni terram  aridam,  da  etiam  et  irriguam," 
"Thou  hast  given  me  a  dry  land,  give  me 
also  a  land  of  waters,  a  dwelling-place  in 
tears,  rivers  of  tears:"  Ut,  quoniam  non 
sumus  digni  oculos  orando  ad  coelum  levare, 
at  simus  digni  oculos  plorando  caecare,"  as 
St.  Austin's  expression  is  ;  "  That  because 
we  are  not  worthy  to  lift  up  our  eyes  to 
heaven  in  prayer,  yet  we  may  be  worthy 
to  weep  our  eyes  blind  for  sin." — The 
meaning  is,  that  we  beg  sorrow  of  God, 
such  a  sorrow  as  may  be  sufficient  to 
quench  the  flames  of  lust,  and  surmount 
the  hills  of  our  pride,  and  may  extinguish 
our  thirst  of  covetousness  ;  that  is,  a  sorrow  \ 
that  shall  be  an  effective  principle  of  arm- 1 
ing  all  our  faculties  against  sin,  and  heartily  j 

*2  Cor.  vii.  10.  \ 


setting  upon  the  work  of  grace,  and  the  per- 
severing labours  of  a  holy  life.  I  shall  only 
add  one  word  to  this :  that  our  sorrow  for  sin 
is  not  to  be  estimated  by  our  tears  and  our 
sensible  expressions,  but  by  our  active  hatred 
and  dereliction  of  sin ;  and  is  many  times 
unperceived  in  outward  demonstration.  It 
is  reported  of  the  mother  of  Peter  Lom- 
bard, Gratian,  and  Comestor,  that  she  hav- 
ing had  three  sons  begotten  in  unhallowed 
embraces,  upon  her  death-bed  did  omit  the 
recitation  of  those  crimes  to  her  confessor ; 
adding  this  for  apology,  that  her  three  sons 
proved  persons  so  eminent  in  the  church, 
that  their  excellence  was  abundant  recom- 
pense for  her  demerit;  and  therefore,  she 
could  not  grieve  because  God  had  glorified 
himself  so  much  by  three  instruments  so 
excellent;  and  that  although  her  sin  had 
abounded,  yet  God's  grace  did  superabound. 
Her  confessor  replied,  "At  dole  saltern, 
quod  dolere  non  possis,"  "  Grieve  that 
thou  canst  not  grieve."  And  so  must  Ave 
always  fear,  that  our  trouble  for  sin  is  not 
great  enough,  that  our  sorrow  is  too  remiss, 
that  our  affections  are  indifferent:  but  we 
can  only  be  sure  that  our  sorrow  is  a  godly 
sorrow,  when  it  worketh  repentance:  that 
is,  when  it  makes  us  hate  and  leave  all  our 
sin,  and  take  up  the  cross  of  patience  and 
penance;  that  is,  confess  our  sin,  accuse 
ourselves,  condemn  the  action  by  hearty 
sentence  :  and  then,  if  it  hath  no  other  ema- 
nation but  fasting  and  prayer  for  its  pardon, 
and  hearty  industry  towards  its  abolition, 
our  sorrow  is  not  reproveable. 

2.  For  sorrow  alone  will  not  do  it :  there 
must  follow  a  total  dereliction  of  our  sin ; 
and  this  is  the  first  part  of  repentance.  Con- 
cerning which  I  consider,  that  it  is  a  sad 
mistake  amongst  many  that  do  some  things 
towards  repentance,  that  they  mistake  the 
first  addresses  and  instruments  of  this  part 
of  repentance  for  the  whole  duty  itself.  Con- 
fession of  sins  is  in  order  to  the  dereliction 
of  them :  but  then  confession  must  not  be 
like  the  unlading  of  a  ship  to  take  in  new 
stowage;  or  the  vomits  of  intemperance, 
which  ease  the  stomach  that  they  may  con- 
tinue the  merry  meeting.  But  such  a  con- 
fession is  too  frequent,  in  which  men  either 
comply  with  custom,  or  seek  to  ease  a  pre- 
sent load  or  gripe  of  conscience,  or  are  will- 
ing to  dress  up  their  souls  against  a  festival, 
or  hope  for  pardon  upon  so  easy  terms : 
these  are  but  retirings  back  to  leap  the  far- 
ther into  mischief;  or  but  approaches  to  God 
with  the  .ips.    No  confession  can  be  of  any 


224 


THE  INVALIDITY  OF  A  LATE        Serm.  XXX. 


use,  but  as  it  is  an  instrument  of  shame  to 
the  person,  of  humiliation  to  the  man,  and 
dereliction  of  the  sin ;  and  receives  its  re- 
compense but  as  it  adds  to  these  purposes : 
all  other  is  like  "  the  bleating  of  the  calves 
and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen,"  which  Saul 
reserved  after  the  spoil  of  Agag ;  they  pro- 
claim the  sin,  but  do  nothing-  towards  its 
cure ;  they  serve  God's  end  to  make  us 
justly  to  be  condemned  out  of  our  own 
mouths,  but  nothing  at  all  towards  our  ab- 
solution. Nay,  if  we  proceed  further  to  the 
greatest  expressions  of  humiliation;  (parts 
of  which,  I  reckon  fasting,  praying  for  par- 
don, judging  and  condemning  of  ourselves 
by  instances  of  a  present  indignation  against 
a  crime;)  yet  unless  this  proceed  so  far  as 
to  a  total  deletion  of  the  sin,  to  the  extirpa- 
tion of  every  vicious  habit,  God  is  not  glo- 
rified by  our  repentance,  nor  we  secured  in 
our  eternal  interest.  Our  sin  must  be  brought 
to  judgment,  and,  like  Antinous  in  Homer, 
laid  in  the  midst,  as  the  sacrifice  and  the 
cause  of  all  the  mischief. 

This  is  the  murderer,  this  is  the  "  Achan," 
this  is  "  he  that  troubles  Israel let  the  sin 
be  confessed  and  carried  with  the  pomps 
and  solemnities  of  sorrow  to  its  funeral,  and 
so  let  the  murderer  be  slain.  But  if  after 
all  the  forms  of  confession  and  sorrow,  fast- 
ing and  humiliation,  and  pretence  of  doing 
the  will  of  God,  we  "  spare  Agag  and  the 
fattest  of  the  cattle,"  our  delicious  sins, — 
and  still  leave  an  unlawful  king  and  a  tyrant 
sin  to  reign  in  our  mortal  bodies,  we  may 
pretend  what  we  will  towards  repentance, 
but  we  are  no  better  penitents  than  Ahab ; 
no  nearer  to  the  obtaining  of  our  hopes  than 
Esau  was  to  his  birthright,  f.'  for  whose  re- 
pentance there  was  no  place  left,  though  he 
sought  it  carefully  with  tears." 

3.  Well,  let  us  suppose  our  penitent  ad- 
vanced thus  far,  as  that  he  decrees  against 
all  sin,  and  in  his  hearty  purposes  resolves 
to  decline  it,  as  in  a  severe  sentence  he  hath 
condemned  it  as  his  betrayer  and  his  mur- 
derer ;  yet  we  must  be  curious  (for  now  only 
the  repentance  properly  begins)  that  it  be 
not  only  like  the  springings  of  the  thorny  or 
high-way  ground,  soon  up  and  soon  down  : 
for  some  men,  when  a  sadness  or  an  un- 
handsome accident  surprises  them,  then 
they  resolve  against  their  sin;  but  like  the 
goats  in  Aristotle,  they  give  their  milk  no 
longer  than  they  are  stung;  as  soon  as  the 


thorns  are  removed,  these  men  return  to 
their  first  hardness,  and  resolve  then  to  act 
their  first  temptation.  Others  there  are  who 
never  resolve  against  a  sin,  but  either  when 
they  have  no  temptation  to  it,  or  when  their 
appetites  are  newly  satisfied  with  it;  like 
those  who  immediately  after  a  full  dinner 
resolve  to  fast  at  supper,  and  they  keep  it 
till  their  appetite  returns,  and  then  their  re- 
solution unties  like  the  cords  of  vanity,  or 
the  gossamer  against  the  violence  of  the 
northern  wind.    Thus  a  lustful  person  fills 
all  the  capacity  of  his  lust;  and  when  he  is 
wearied,  and  the  sin  goes  off  with  unquiet- 
ness  and  regret,  and  the  appetite  falls  down 
like  a  horse-leech,  when  it  is  ready  to  burst 
with  putrefaction,  and  an  unwholesome 
plethory,  then  he  resolves  to  be  a  good  man, 
and  could  almost  vow  to  be  a  hermit;  and 
hates  his  lust,  as  Amnon  hated  his  sister 
Tamar,  just  when  he  had  newly  acted  his 
unworthy  rape  :  but  the  next  spring-tide  that 
comes,  every  wave  of  the  temptation  makes 
an  inroad  upon  the  resolution,  and  gets 
ground,  and  prevails  against  it,  more  than 
his  resolution  prevailed  against  his  sin. 
How  many  drunken  persons,  how  many 
swearers,  resolve  daily  and  hourly  against 
their  sins,  and  yet  act  them  not  once  the  less 
for  all  their  infinite  heap  of  shamefully-re- 
treating purposes!     That  resolution  that 
begins  upon  just  grounds  of  sorrow  and 
severe  judgment,  upon  fear  and  love,  that  is 
made  in  the  midst  of  a  temptation,  that  is 
inquisitive  into  all  the  means  and  instru- 
ments of  the  cure,  that  prays  perpetually 
against  a  sin,  that  watches  continually 
against  a  surprise,  and  never  sinks  into  it  by 
deliberation ;  that  fights  earnestly,  and  car- 
ries on  the  war  prudently,  and  prevails,  by 
a  never-ceasing  diligence,  against  the  temp- 
tation ;  that  only  is  a  pious  and  well- begun 
repentance.    They  that  have  their  fits  of  a 
quartan,  well  and  ill  for  ever,  and  think 
themselves  in  perfect  health  when  the  ague 
is  retired  till  its  period  returns,  are  danger- 
ously mistaken.    Those  intervals  of  imper- 
fect and  fallacious  resolution  are  nothing 
but  states  of  death:  and  if  a  man  should 
depart  this  world  in  one  of  those  godly  fits, 
as  he  thinks  them,  he  is  no  nearer  to  obtain 
his  blessed  hope,  than  a  man  in  the  stone- 
colic  is  to  health  when  his  pain  is  eased  for 
the  present,  his  disease  still  remaining,  and 
threatening  an  unwelcome  return.  That 
resolution  only  is  the  beginning  of  a  holy 
repentance,  which  goes  forth  into  act,  and 
whose  acts  enlarge  into  habits,  and  whose 


Serm.  XXX. 


OR  DEATH-BED  REPENTANCE. 


225 


habits  are  productive  of  the  fruits  of  a  holy 
life. 

From  hence  we  are  to  take  our  estimate, 
whence  our  resolutions  of  piety  must  com- 
mence. He  that  resolves  not  to  live  well, 
till  the  time  comes  that  he  must  die,  is  ridi- 
culous in  his  great  design,  as  he  is  imperti- 
nent in  his  intermedial  purposes,  and  vain 
in  his  hope.  Can  a  dying  man  to  any  real 
effect  resolve  to  be  chaste  ?  For  virtue  must 
be  an  act  of  election,  and  chastity  is  the 
contesting  against  a  proud  and  an  imperious 
lust, active  flesh,  and  insinuating  temptation. 
And  what  doth  he  resolve  against,  who  can 
no  more  be  tempted  to  the  sin  of  unchastity, 
than  he  can  return  back  again  to  his  youth 
and  vigour?  And  it  is  considerable,  that 
since  all  the  purposes  of  a  holy  life  which  a 
dying  man  can  make,  cannot  be  reduced  to 
act;  by  what  law,  or  reason,  or  covenant, 
or  revelation,  are  we  taught  to  distinguish 
the  resolution  of  a  dying  man  from  the  pur- 
poses of  a  living  and  vigorous  person  ? 
Suppose  a  man  in  his  youth  and  health, 
moved  by  consideration  of  the  irregularity 
and  deformity  of  sin,  the  danger  of  its  pro- 
ductions, the  wrath  and  displeasure  of  Al- 
mighty God,  should  resolve  to  leave  the 
puddles  of  impurity,  and  walk  in  the  paths 
of  iighteousness ;  can  this  resolution  alone 
put  him  into  the  state  of  grace  ?  Is  he  ad- 
mitted to  pardon  and  the  favour  of  God, 
before  he  hath  in  some  measure  performed 
actually,  what  he  so  reasonably  hath  re- 
solved? By  no  means.  For  resolution  and 
purpose  is,  in  its  own  nature  and  constitu- 
tion, an  imperfect  act,  and  therefore  can 
signify  nothing  without  its  performance  and 
consummation.  It  is  as  a  faculty  is  to  the 
act,  as  spring  is  to  the  harvest,  as  seed-time 
is  to  the  autumn,  as  eggs  are  to  birds,  or  as 
a  relative  is  to  its  correspondent:  nothing 
without  it.  And  can  it  be  imagined,  that  a 
resolution  in  our  health  and  life  shall  be  in- 
effectual without  performance?  and  shall  a 
resolution  barely  such,  do  any  good  upon 
our  death-bed  ?  Can  such  purposes  prevail 
against  a  long  impiety  rather  than  against  a 
young  and  a  newly-begun  state  of  sin? 
Will  God  at  an  easier  rate  pardon  the  sins 
of  fifty  or  sixty  years,  than  the  sins  of  our 
youth  only,  or  the  iniquity  of  five  years,  or 
ten?  *If  a  holy  life  be  not  necessary  to  be 
lived,  why  shall  it  be  necessary  to  resolve 
to  live  it?  But  if  a  holy  life  be  necessary, 
then  it  cannot  be  sufficient  merely  to  resolve 
it,  unless  this  resolution  go  forth  in  an  actual 
and  real  service.  Vain  therefore  is  the  hope 
29 


j  of  those  persons,  who  either  go  on  in  tricir  sin3 
I  before  their  last  sickness,  never  thinking  to 
return  into  the  ways  of  God,  from  whence 
they  have  wandered  all  their  life,  never  re- 
I  newing  their  resolutions  and  vows  of  noly 
living:  or  if  they  have,  yet  their  purposes 
|  are  for  ever  blasted  with  the  next  violent 
i  temptation.    More  prudent  was  the  prayer 
of  David  ;  "  Oh  spare  me  a  little,  that  I  may 
recover  my  strength,  before  I  go  hence  and 
be  no  more  seen."    And  something  like  it 
was  the  saying  of  the  emperor  Charles  the 
Fifth;  "Inter  vitae  negotia  et  mortis  diem 
oportet  spatium  intercedere."  Whenever 
our  holy  purposes  are  renewed,  unless  God 
gives  us  time  to  act  them,  to  mortify  and 
subdue  our  lusts,  to  conquer  and  subdue  the 
whole  kingdom  of  sin,  to  rise  from  our  grave, 
j  and  be  clothed  with  nerves  and  flesh  and  a 
i  new  skin,  to  overcome  our  deadly  sicknesses, 
and  by  little  and  little  to  return  to  health  and 
j  strength  ;  unless  we  have  grace  and  time  to 
do  all  this,  our  sins  will  lie  down  with  us  in 
our  graves.    For  when  a  man  hath  con- 
tracted a  long  habit  of  sin,  and  it  hath  been 
'growing  upon  him  ten  or  twenty,  forty  or 
j  fifty  years,  whose  acts  he  hath  daily  or 
I  hourly  repeated,  and  they  are  grown  to  a 
j  second  nature  to  him, — and  have  so  pre- 
vailed upon  the  ruins  of  his  spirit,  that  the 
man  is  taken  captive  by  the  devil  at  his  will, 
he  is  fast  bound,  as  a  slave  tugging  at  the 
oar;  that  he  is  grown  in  love  with  his  fet- 
,  ters,  and  longs  to  be  doing  the  work  of  sin : — 
is  it  likely  that  after  all  this  progress  and 
,  growth  in  sin  (in  the  ways  of  which  he 
j  runs  fast  without  any  impediment) ;  is  it,  I 
j  say,  likely,  that  a  few  days  or  weeks  of  sick- 
;  ness  can  recover  him?    The  special  hin- 
;  derances  of  that  state  I  shall  afterward  con 
j  sider.    But,  can  a  man  supposed  so  prompt 
j  to  piety  and  holy  living,  a  man,  I  mean, 
I  that  hath  lived  wickedly  a  long  time  toge- 
I  ther,  can  he  be  of  so  ready  and  active  a 
j  virtue  upon  the  sudden,  as  to  recover,  in  a 
month  or  a  week,  what  he  haih  been  undo- 
ing in  twenty  or  thirty  years?  Is  it  so  easy 
to  build,  that  a  weak  and  infirm  person, 
bound  hand  and  foot,  shall  be  able  to  build 
j  more  in  three  days  than  was  a-building- 
I  above  forty  years.    Christ  did  it  in  a  figura- 
tive 6ense  ;  but  in  this,  it  is  not  in  the  power 
j  of  any  man  so  suddenly  to  be  recovered 
j  from  so  long  a  sickness.    Necessary  there- 
fore it  is  that  all  these  instruments  of  our 
conversion, — confession  cf  sins, — praying 
I  for  their  pardon, — and  resolution  to  lead  a 
'  new  life, — should  begin  "  before  our  fee& 


226 


THE  INVALIDITY  OP  A  LATE 


Serm.  XXX. 


stumble  upon  the  dark  mountains;"  lest  we 
leave  the  work  only  resolved  upon  to  be 
begun,  which  it  is  necessary  we  should  in 
many  degrees  finish,  if  ever  we  mean  to 
escape  the  eternal  darkness.  "  For  that  we 
should  actually  abolish  the  whole  body  of 
sin  and  death, — that  we  should  crucify  the 
old  man  with  his  lusts, — that  we  should  lay 
aside  every  weight,  and  the  sin  that  doth  so 
easily  beset  us, — that  we  should  cast  away 
the  works  of  darkness,  that  we  should  awake 
from  sleep,  and  arise  from  death, — that  we 
should  redeem  the  time, — that  we  should 
cleanse  our  hands  and  purify  our  hearts, — 
that  we  should  have  escaped  the  corruption 
(all  the  corruption)  that  is  in  the  whole 
world  through  lust, — that  nothing  of  the  old 
leaven  should  remain  in  us, — but  that  we 
be  wholly  a  new  lump,  thoroughly  trans- 
formed and  changed  in  the  image  of  our 
mind — these  are  the  perpetual  precepts 
of  the  Spirit,  and  the  certain  duty  of  man: 
and  that  to  have  all  these  in  purpose  only, 
is  merely  to  no  purpose,  without  the  actual 
eradication  of  every  vicious  habit;  and  the 
certain  abolition  of  every  criminal  adher- 
ence, is  clearly  and  dogmatically  decreed 
every  where  in  the  Scripture.  "  For"  (they 
am  the  words  of  St.  Paul)  "  they  that  are 
Christ's,  have  crucified  the  flesh,  with  the 
affections  and  lusts  the  work  is  actually 
done,  and  sin  is  dead  or  wounded  mortally, 
before  they  can  in  any  sense  belong  to 
Christ,  to  be  a  portion  of  his  inheritance: 
and,  "  He  that  is  in  Christ,  is  a  new  crea- 
iare."t  For  "in  Christ  Jesus  nothing  can 
avail  but  a  new  creature;"];  nothing  but  a 
"  beeping  of  the  commandments  of  God."§ 
Not  -all  onr  tears,  though  we  should  weep 
like  David  and  his  men  at  Ziklag,  "  till  they 
could  weep  no  more,"  or  the  women  of 
"  Raman,""  or  like  "  the  weeping  in  the 
valley  of  Hinnorn,"  could  suffice,  if  we 
retain  the  affection  to  any  one  sin,  or  have 
any  unrepented  of,  or  unmodified.  It  is 
true,  that  '*a  contrite  and  a  broken  heart 
God  will  not  despise  f*  no,  he  will  not.  For 
if  it  be  a  hearty  and  permanent  sorrow,  it  is 
an  excellent  beginning  of  repentance;  and 
God  will  to  a  timely  sorrow  give  the  grace 
of  repentance ;  he  will  not  give  pardon  to 
sorrow  alone ;  but  that  which  ought  to  be 
the  proper  effect  of  sorrow,  that  God  shall 
give.  He  shall  then  open  the  gates  of  mercy, 
and  admit  you  to  a  possibility  of  restitutio!. : 


*  Gal.  v.  24.  t  Gal.  vi.  15. 

t  Gal.  r.  6  $  l  Cor.  vii.  19. 


so  that  you  may  be  within  the  covenant  of 
repentance,  which  if  you  actually  perform, 
you  may  expect  God's  promise.  And  in 
this  sense  confession  will  obtain  our  pardon, 
and  humiliation  will  be  accepted,  and  our 
holy  purposes  and  pious  resolutions  shall 
be  accounted  for;  that  is,  these  being  the 
first  steps  and  addresses  to  that  part  of  je- 
pentance  which  consists  in  the  abolition  of 
sins,  shall  be  accepted  so  far  as  to  procure 
so  much  of  the  pardon,  to  do  so  much  of  the 
work  of  restitution,  that  God  will  admit  the 
returning  man  to  a  further  degree  of  emend- 
ation, to  a  nearer  possibility  of  working  out 
his  salvation.  But  then,  if  this  sorrow,  and 
confession,  and  these  strong  purposes,  begin 
then  when  our  life  is  declined  towards  the 
west,  and  is  now  ready  to  set  in  darkness 
and  a  dismal  night;  because  of  themselves 
they  could  not  procure  an  admission  to  re- 
pentance, not  at  all  to  pardon  and  plenary 
absolution,  by  showing  that  on  our  death- 
bed ihese  are  too  late  and  ineffectual,  they 
call  upon  us  to  begin  betimes,  when  these 
imperfect  acts  may  be  consummate  and  per- 
fect, in  the  actual  performing  those  parts  of 
holy  life,  to  which  they  were  ordained  in 
the  nature  of  the  thing  and  the  purposes  of 
God. 

4.  Lastly,  suppose  all  this  be  done,  and 
that  by  a  long  course  of  strictness  and  se- 
verity, mortification  and  circumspection,  we 
have  overcome  all  our  vicious  and  baser 
habits,  contracted  and  grown  upon  us  like 
the  ulcers  and  evils  of  a  long  surfeit,  and 
that  we  are  clean  and  swept;  suppose  that 
he  hath  wept  and  fasted,  prayed  and  vowed 
to  excellent  purposes  ;  yet  all  this  is  but  the 
one  half  of  repentance:  (so  infinitely  mis- 
taken is  the  world,  to  think  any  thing  to  be 
enough  to  make  up  repentance  :)  but  to  re- 
new us,  and  restore  us  to  the  favour  of  God, 
there  is  required  far  more  than  What  hath  been 
yet  accounted  for.  See  it  in  the  second  of  St. 
Peter,  chap.  i.  verse  4,  5.  "  Having  escaped 
the  corruption  that  is  ;'a  the  world  through 
lust:  and  besides  this,  giving  all  dil:gence, 
add  to  your  faith  virtue,  to  virtue  know- 
ledge, to  knowledge  temperance,  to  temper- 
ance patience,  and  so  on,  to  godliness,  to 
brotherly  kindness,  and  to  charity  :  these 
things  must  be  in  you  and  abound."  This 
is  the  sum  total  of  repentance :  we  must  not 
only  have  overcome  sin,  but  we  must  after 
great  diligence  have  acquired  the  habits  of 
all  those  Christian  graces,  which  are  neces- 
sary in  the  transaction  of  our  affairs,  in  all 
relations  to  God  and  our  neighbour,  and 


Serm.  XXX. 


OR  DEATH-BED  REPENTANCE. 


227 


our  own  persons.  It  is  not  enough  to  say. 
"  Lord,  I  thank  thee,  I  am  no  extortioner, 
no  adulterer,  not  as  this  publican  ;"  all  the 
reward  of  such  a  peniient  is,  that  when  he 
hath  escaped  the  corruption  of  the  world, 
he  hath  also  escaped  those  heavy  judgments 
which  threatened  his  ruin. 

"  Nec  furtum  feci,  nec  fugi,"  si  mihi  dicat 
Servus  >  "  Habes  pretium  ;  loris  non  ureris,"  aio  ; 
"  Non  hominem  occidi :" — Non  pa9ces  in  cruce 
corvos.  Hor. 

"  If  a  servant  have  not  robbed  his  master, 
nor  offered  to  fly  from  his  bondage,  he  shall 
escape  the  4  furca,'  his  flesh  shall  not  be  ex- 
posed to  birds  or  fishes  ;"  but  this  is  but  the 
reward  of  innocent  slaves.  It  may  be,  we 
have  escaped  the  rod  of  the  exterminating 
angel,  when  our  sins  are  crucified  ;  but  we 
shall  never  "enter  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord," 
unless  after  Ave  have  "  put  off  the  old  man 
with  his  affections  and  lusts,"  we  also  "put 
on  the  new  man  in  righteousness  and  holi- 
ness of  life."*  And  this  we  are  taught 
in  most  plain  doctrine  by  St.  Paul :  "Let  us 
lay  aside  the  weight  that  doth  so  easily  be- 
set us;"  that  is  the  one  half:  and  then 
i.  follows.  "Let  us  run  with  patience  the 
racp  that  is  set  before  us."  These  are  the 
"fruits  meet  for  repentance,"  spoken  of  by 
St.  John  Baptist;  that  is,  when  we  renew 
our  first  undertaking  in  baptism,  and  return 
to  our  courses  of  innocence. 

Parous  Deorum  cultor  et  infrequens, 
Insanientis  dum  sapientiae 

Consultus  erro,  nunc  retrorsum 
Vela  dare,  atque  iterare  cursus 

Cogor  relictos.  Hor. 

The  sense  of  which  words  is  well  given  us 
by  Sr.  John  ;  "Remember  whence  thou  art 
fallen  ;  repent,  and  do  thy  first  works. "f 
For  all  our  hopes  of  heaven  rely  upon  that 
covenant  which  God  made  with  us  in  bap 
tisrn ;  which  is,  "  That  being  redeemed 
from  our  vain  conversation,  we  should  serve 
him  in  holiness  and  righteousness  all  our 
days."  Now  when  any  of  us  hath  prevari- 
cated our  part  of  the  covenant,  we  must  re- 
irn  to  that  state,  and  redeem  the  inter- 
medial time  spent  in  sin,  by  our  doubled 
industry  in  the  ways  of  grace:  we  must  be 
reduced  to  our  first  estate,  and  make  some 
proportionable  returns  of  duty  for  our  sad 
omissions,  and  great  violations  of  our  bap- 
tismal vow.    For   God  having  made  no 


Heb  xii. 


t  Rev.  ii.  5. 


covenant  with  us  but  that  which  is  consign- 
ed in  baptism  ;  in  the  same  proportion  in 
which  we  retain  or  return  to  that,  in  the 
same  we  are  to  expect  the  pardon  of  our 
sins,  and  all  the  other  promises  evangelical ; 
but  no  otherwise,  unless  we  can  show  a 
new  gospel,  or  be  baptized  again  by  God's 
appointment.  He,  therefore,  that  by  a  long 
habit,  by  a  state  and  continued  course  of  sin, 
hath  gone  so  far  from  his  baptismal  purity, 
as  that  he  hath  nothing  of  the  Christian  left 
upon  him  but  his  name  ;  that  man  hath 
much  to  do  to  make  his  garments  clean,  to 
purify  his  soul,  to  take  off  all  the  stains  of 
sin,  that  his  spirit  may  be  presented  pure  to 
the  eyes  of  God,  who  beholds  no  impurity. 
It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  cure  a  long-con- 
tracted habit  of  sin.  Let  any  intemperate 
person  but  try  in  hisown  instanceof  drunken- 
ness ;  or  the  swearer,  in  the  sweetening  his 
I  unwholesome  language  :  but  then  so  lo  com- 
!  mand  his  tongue  that  he  never  swear,  but 
that  his  speech  be  prudent,  pious,  and  apt 
to  edify  the  hearer,  or  in  some  sense  to  glori- 
fy God  ;  or  to  become  temperate,  to  have 
got  a  habit  of  sobriety,  or  chastity,  or  hu- 
mility, is  the  work  of  a  life.  And  if  we  do 
but  consider  that  he  that  lives  well  from  his 
younger  years,  or  takes  up  at  the  end  of  his 
youthful  heats,  and  enters  into  the  courses 
of  a  sober  life  early,  diligently,  and  vigor- 
ously, shall  find  himself,  after  the  studies 
and  labours  of  twenty  or  thirty  years'  piety, 
but  a  very  imperfect  person,  many  degrees 
of  pride  left  unrooted  up,  many  inroads  of 
intemperance  or  beginnings  of  excess,  much 
indevotion  and  backwardness  in  religion, 
many  temptations  to  contest  against,  and 
some  infirmities  which  he  shall  never  sav 
he  hath  mastered ;  we  shall  find  the  work 
of  a  holy  life  is  not  to  be  deferred  till  our 
!  days  are  almost  done,  till  our  strengths  are 
!  decayed,  our  spirits  are  weak,  and  our  lust 
'  strong,  our  habits  confirmed,  and  our  long- 
j  ings  after  sin  many  and  impotent :  for  what 
i  is  very  hard  to  be  done,  and  is  always  done 
,  imperfectly  ,  when  there  is  length  of  time, 
and  a  less  work  to  do,  and  more  abilities  to 
do  it  withal ;  when  the  time  is  short,  and 
almost  expired,  and  the  work  made  difficult 
and  vast,  and  the  strengths  weaker,  and  the 
faculties  are  disabled,  will  seem  little  less 
than  absolutely  impossible.  I  shall  end  this 
general  consideration  with  the  question  of 
the  apostle  :  "If  the  righteous  scarcely  be 
saved,"  if  it  be  so  difficult  to  overcome  oui 
sins,  and  obtain  virtuous  habits  ;  difficult  1 
say,  to  a  righteous,  a  sober,  and  well-living 


223 


THE  INVALIDITY  OF  A   LATE       Serm.  XXXI. 


person, — "  where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the 
sinner  appear?"  what  shall  become  of  him, 
who  by  his  evil  life,  hath  not  only  removed 
himself  from  the  affections,  but  even  from 
the  possibilities  of  virtue? — He  that  hath 
lived  in  sin,  will  die  in  sorrow. 


SERMON  XXXI. 

PART  II. 

But  I  shall  pursue  this  great  and  neces- 
sary truth,  First,  by  showing  what  parts 
find  ingredients  of  repentance  are  assigned, 
when  it  is  described  in  Holy  Scripture : 
Secondly,  by  showing  the  necessities,  the 
absolute  necessities,  of  a  holy  life,  and  what 
it  means  in  Scripture  to  ■*  live  holily :" 
Thirdly,  by  considering  what  directions  or 
intimations  we  have  concerning  the  last 
time  of  beginning  to  repent;  and  what  is 
the  longest  period  that  any  man  may  ven- 
ture with  safety.  And  in  the  prosecution 
of  these  particulars,  we  shall  remove  the 
objections,  those  aprons  of  fig-leaves,  which 
men  use  for  their  shelter  to  palliate  their 
sin,  and  to  hide  themselves  from  that  from 
which  no  rocks  or  mountains  shall  protect 
them,  though  they  fall  upon  them  ;  that  is, 
the  wrath  of  God. 

First,  That  repentance  is  not  only  an 
rsbolition  and  extinction  of  the  body  of  sin,  a 
bringing  it  to  the  altar,  and  slaying  it  be- 
fore God  and  all  the  people  ;  but  that  we 
must  ako  zpvzbv  xspau  nsptxivsiv,  (C  mingle 
gold  and  rich  presents,"  the  oblation  of 
.good  worlts  and  holy  habits  with  the  sa- 
crifice, I  have  already  proved  :  but  now  if 
we  will  see  repentance  in  its  stature  and  in- 
tegrity of  constitution  described,  we  shall 
find  it  to  be  the  one-half  of  all  that  which 
God  requires  of  Christians.  Faith  and  re- 
pentance are  the  whole  duty  of  a  Christian. 
Faith  is  a  sacrifice  of  the  understanding  to 
God;  repentance  sacrifices  the  whole  will : 
that  gives  the  knowing  ;  this  gives  us  all  the 
:!esiring  faculties  :  that  makes  us  disciples  ; 
this  makes  us  servants  of  the  holy  Jesus. 
Nothing  else  was  preached  by  the  apostles, 
nothing  was  enjoined  as  the  duty  of  man, 
nothing  else  did  build  up  the  body  of  Chris- 
tian religion.  So  that  as  faith  contains  all 
that  knowledge  which  is  necessary  to  salva- 
tion ;  so  repentance  comprehends  in  it  all  the 
whole  practice  and  working  duty  of  a  re- 
turning Christian.    And  this  was  the  sum 


total  of  all  that  St.  Paul  preached  to  the 
gentiles,  when,  in  his  fa  ewell-sermon  to 
the  bishops  and  priests  of  Ephesus,  he  pro- 
fessed that  he  "  kept  back  nothing  that  was 
profitable"  to  them;*  and  yet  it  was  all 
nothing  but  this,  "  repentance  towards  God, 
and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  So 
that  whosoever  believes  in  Jesus  Christ  and 
repents  towards  God,  must  make  his  ac- 
counts according  to  this  standard,  that  is,  to 
believe  all  that  Christ  taught  him,  and  to  do 
all  that  Christ  commanded.  And  this  is  re- 
marked in  St.  Paul's  catechism, f  where  he 
gives  a  more  particular  catalogue  of  funda- 
mentals: he  reckons  nothing  but  sacraments 
and  faith ;  of  which  he  enumerates  two 
principal  articles,  "resurrection  of  the  dead, 
and  eternal  judgment."  Whatsoever  is 
practical,  all  the  whole  duty  of  man,  the 
practice  of  all  obedience,  is  called  **  repent- 
ance from  dead  works  :"  which,  if  we  ob- 
serve the  singularity  of  the  phrase,  does  not 
mean  **  sorrow ;"  for  sorrow  from  dead 
works,  is  not  sense ;  but  it  must  mean 
"  mutationem  status,"  a  conversion  from 
dead  works,  which  (as  in  all  motions)  sup- 
poses two  terms;  from  dead  works  to  living 
works  ;  from  "  the  death  of  sin"  to  "  the 
life  of  righteousness." 

I  will  add  but  two  places  more,  out  of 
each  Testament  one  ;  in  which,  I  suppose, 
you  may  see  every  lineament  of  this  great 
duty  described,  that  you  may  no  longer 
mistake  a  grasshopper  for  an  eagle ;  sorrow 
and  holy  purposes,  for  the  entire  duty  of  re- 
pentance. In  Ezekiel  xviii.  21,  you  shall 
find  it  thus  described :  "  But  if  the  wicked 
will  turn  from  all  his  sins  that  he  hath  com- 
mitted, and  keep  all  my  statutes,  and  do  that 
which  is  lawful  and  right,  he  shall  surely 
live,  he  shall  not  die."  Or,  as  it  is  more 
fully  described  in  Ezekiel  xxxiii.  14,  "  When 
I  say  unto  the  wicked,  Thou  shalt  surely 
die:  if  he  turn  from  his  sin,  and  do  that 
which  is  lawful  and  right;  if  the  wicked 
restore  the  pledge,  give  again  that  he  hath 
robbed,  walk  in  the  statutes  of  life  without 
committing  iniquity  ;  he  shall  surely  live, 
he  shall  not  die."  Here  only  is  the  con- 
dition of  pardon  ;  to  leave  all  your  sins,  to 
keep  all  God's  statutes,  to  walk  in  them,  to 
abide,  to  proceed,  and  make  progress  in 
them  ;  and  this,  without  the  interruption  by 
a  deadly  sin, — "without  committing  ini- 
quity,*'— to  make  restitution  of  all  the 
wrongs  he  hath  done,  all  the  unjust  money 


*  Acts  xx.  21.  t  Heb.  vi.  1. 


Serm.  XXXI. 


OR  DEATH-BED  REPENTANCE. 


229 


he  hath  taken,  all  the  oppressions  he  hath 
committed,  all  that  must  be  satisfied  for,  and 
repaid  according  to  our  ability  :  we  must 
make  satisfaction  for  all  injury  to  our  neigh- 
bour's fame,  all  wrongs  done  to  his  soul ; 
he  must  be  restored  to  that  condition  of  good 
things  thou  didst  in  any  sense  remove  him 
from ;  when  this  is  done  according  to  thy 
utmost  power,  then  thou  hast  repented 
truly,  then  thou  hast  a  title  to  the  promise  : 
"  Thou  shah  surely  live,  thou  shalt  not  die," 
for  thy  old  sins  thou  hast  formerly  com- 
mitted. Only  be  pleased  to  observe  this  one 
thing  ;  that  this  place  of  Ezekiel  is  it  which 
is  so  often  mistaken  for  that  common  say- 
ing, **'  At  what  time  soever  a  sinner  repents 
him  of  his  sins  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart, 
I  will  put  all  his  wickedness  out  of  my  re- 
membrance, saith  the  Lord."  For  although 
"at  what  time  soever  a  sinner  does  repent," 
as  repentance  is  now  explained,  God  will 
forgive  him, — and  that  repentance,  as  it  is 
now  stated,  cannot  be  done  "  at  what  time 
soever,"  not  upon  a  man's  death-bed  ;  yet 
there  are  no  such  words  in  the  whole  Bible, 
nor  any  nearer  to  the  sense  of  them,  than 
the  words  I  have  now  read  to  you  out  of  the 
prophet  Ezekiel.  Let  that,  therefore,  no 
more  deceive  you,  or  be  made  a  colour  to 
countenance  a  persevering  sinner,  or  a  death- 
bed penitent. 

Nt-ither  is  the  duty  of  repentance  to  be 
bought  at  an  easier  rate  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. You  may  see  it  described  in  2  Cor. 
vii.  10,  11.  "Godly  sorrow  worketh  repent- 
ance." Well!  but  what  is  that  repentance 
which  is  so  wrought  ?  This  it  is  :  "  Behold 
this  self-same  thing  that  ye  sorrowed  after  a 
godiy  sort,  what  carefulness  it  wrought  in 
you,  yea,  what  clearing  of  yourselves,  yea, 
what  indignation,  yea,  what  fear,  yea,  what 
vehement  desire,  yea.  what  zeal,  yea,  what 
revenge!"  These  are  the  fruits  of  that 
sorrow  that  !i  effectual;  these  are  the  parts 
of  repentance  :  "  clearing  ourselves  "  of  all 
that  is  past,  and  great  "  carefulness"  for  the 
future;  "anger"  at  ourselves  for  our  old 
sins,  and  "fear"  lest  we  commit  the  like 
again ;  "  vehement  desires"  of  pleasing 
God,  and  "  zeal"  of  holy  actions,  and  "  a 
revenge"  upon  ourselves  for  our  sins,  called 
by  St.  Paul,  in  another  place,  "a  judging 
ourselves,  lest  we  be  judged  of  the  Lord."* 
And  in  pursuance  of  this  truth,  the  primitive 
church  did  not  admit  a  sinning  person  to  the 

•  1  Cor.  xi.  31. 


public  communions  with  the  faithful,  till, 
besides  their  sorrow,  they  had  spent  some 
years  in  an  dyaflofpyta,  in  "  doing  good 
works,"  and  holy  living;  and  especially  in 
suGh  actions  which  did  contradict  thai 
wicked  inclination,  which  led  them  into 
those  sins,  whereof  they  weFe  now  admitted 
to  repent.  And  therefore,  we  find  that  they 
stood  in  the  station  of  penitents  seven  years, 
thirteen  years,  and  sometimes  till  their  death, 
before  they  could  be  reconciled  to  the  peace 
of  God  and  his  holy  church. 


Scelerum  si  bene  paenitet, 


Eradenda  cupidinis 

Fravi  sunt  elementa;  et  tenera?  nimis 
Mentes  asperioribus 

Formandae  studiis.    Hor.  L  3.  od.  24. 

Repentance  is-  the  institution  of  a  philo- 
sophical and  severe  lifer  an  utter  extirpation 
j  of  all  unreasonableness  and  impiety,  and  an 
j  address  to,  and  a  final  passing  through,  all 
the  parts  of  holy  living. 

Now  consider,  whether  this  be  imaginable 
or  possible  to  be  done  upon  our  death-bed, 
when  a  man  is  frightened  into  an  involun- 
tary, a  sudden,  and  unchosen  piety.  'O 
/usTai'oCjv  ov  $0,39  tCjv  tvavtiuv  trjv  rov  xaxov 
rtpaJ-iv  alprta(t(u,  saith  Hierocles.*  He  that 
never  repents  till  a  violent  fear  be  upon 
him,  till  he  apprehend  himself  to  be  in  the 
jaws  of  death,  ready  to  give  up  his  unready 
and  unprepared  accounts,  till  he  sees  the 
Judge  sitting  in  all  the  addresses  of  dread- 
fulness  and  majesty,  just  now,  as  he  be- 
lieves, ready  to  pronounce  that  fearful  and 
intolerable  sentence  of,  "  Go,  ye  cursed, 
into  everlasting  fire;"  this  man  does  nothing 
for  the  love  of  God,  nothing  for  the  love  of 
virtue  :  it  is  just  as  a  condemned  man  re- 
pents that  he  was  a  traitor;  but  repented 
not  till  he  was  arrested,  and  sure  to  die: 
such  a  repentance  as  this  may  still  consist 
with  as  great  an  affection  to  sin  as  ever  he 
had  ;  f  and,  it  is  no  thanks  to  him,  if,  when 
the  knife  is  at  his  throat,  then  he  gives  good 
words  and  flatters.  But,  suppose  this  man 
in  his  health,  and  in  the  midst  of  all  his  lust, 
it  is  evident  that  there  are  some  circum- 
stances of  action,  in  which  the  man  would 
have  refused  to  commit  his  most  pleasing 
sin.  Would  not  the  son  of  Tarquin  have 
refused  to  ravish  Lucretia,  if  Junius  Brutus 
had  been  by  him?    Would  the  impurest 


fXiKH  TQU  £Wc  H  rrpoTH  T!tPA7KtU» .  HlEROCLES. 

t  See  Life  of  Jesus,  Disc,  of  Repentance,  part  3. 

u 


230 


THE  INVALIDITY  OF  A   LATE        Serm.  XXXI. 


person  in  the  world  act  his  lust  in  the 
market-place?  or  drink  off  an  intemperate 
goblet,  if  a  dagger  were  placed  at  his  throat? 
In  these  circumstances  their  fear  would 
make  them  declare  against  the  present  act- 
ing their  impurities.  But  does  this  cure  the 
intemperance  of  their  affections  ?  Let  the 
impure  person  retire  to  his  closet,  and  Ju- 
nius Brutus  be  engaged  in  a  far-distant  war, 
and  the  dagger  be  taken  from  the  drunkard's 
throat,  and  the  fear  of  shame,  or  death,  or 
judgment,  be  taken  from  them  all ;  and  they 
shall  no  more  resist  their  temptation,  than 
they  could  before  remove  their  fear  :  and 
you  may  as  well  judge  the  other  persons 
holy,  and  haters  of  their  sin,  as  the  man 
upon  his  death-bed  to  be  penitent;  and 
rather  they  than  he,  by  how  much  this 
man's  fear,  the  fear  of  death,  and  of  the 
infinite  pains  of  hell,  the  fear  of  a  provoked 
God,  and  an  angry  eternal  Judge,  are  far 
greater  than  the  apprehensions  of  a  public 
shame,  or  an  abused  husband,  or  the  poniard 
of  an  angry  person.  These  men  then  sin 
not,  because  they  dare  not;  they  are  flight- 
ed from  the  act,  but  not  from  the  affection  ; 
which  is  not  to  be  cured  but  by  discourse, 
and  reasonable  acts,  and  human  considera- 
tions; of  which  that  man  is  not  naturally 
capable,  who  is  possessed  with  the  greatest 
fear,  the  fear  of  death  and  damnation.  If 
there  had  been  time  to  cure  his  siu,  and  to 
live  the  life  of  grace,  I  deny  not  but  God 
might  have  begun  his  conversion  with  so 
great  a  fear,  that  he  should  never  have 
wiped  off  its  impression  :*  but  if  the  man 
dies  then,  dies  when  he  only  declaims 
against  and  curses  his  sin,  as  being  the 
author  of  his  present  fear  and  apprehended 
calamity  ;  it  is  very  far  from  reconciling  him 
to  God  or  hopes  of  pardon,,  because  it  pro- 
ceeds from  a  violent,!  unnatural,  and  an  in- 
tolerable cause  ;  no  act  of  choice,  or  virtue, 
but  of  sorrow,  a  deserved  sorrow,  and  a 
miserable,  unchosen,  unavoidable  fear; 

 nioriensque  recepit 

Quas'nollet  viciurus  aquas.  

He  curses  sin  upon  his  death-bed,  and 
makes  a  panegyric  of  virtue,  which  in  his 
life-time,  he  accounted  folly,  and  tiouble, 
ar.d  needless  vexation. 

Quae  mens  est  hodie.cur  eadem  non  puero  fuit, 
Vel  Cur  his  anitnis  incolumes  non  redeuut  genae? 

Hob.  I.  4.  od.  10. 

*  Oogimur  a  (metis  animum  suspendere  rebus  ; 

Atque  ui  vivamus,  vivere  destnimits. 

Cornel.  Gal. 

t  Nec  ad  rein  pertinet  ubi  inciperet.  quod  pla- 
cuerat  ut  lieret. 


I  shall  end  this  first  consideration  with  a 
plain  exhortation  ;  that,  since  repentance  is 
a  duty  of  so  great  and  giant-like  bulk,  let  no 
man  crowd  it  up  into  so  narrow  room,  as 
that  it  be  strangled  in  its  birth  for  want  of 
time  and  air  to  breathe  in  :  let  it  not  be  put 
off  to  that  time  when  a  man  hath  scarce 
time  enough  to  reckon  all  those  particular 
duties,  which  make  up  the  integrity  or  its 
constitution.  Will  any  man  hunt  the  wild 
boar  in  his  garden,  or  bait  a  bull  in  his 
closet?  Will  a  woman  wrap  her  child  in 
her  handkerchief,  or  a  father  send  his  son  to 
school  when  he  is  fifty  years  old?  These 
are  indecencies  of  providence,  and  the  in- 
strument contradicts  the  end :  and  this  is 
our  case.  There  is  no  room  for  repentance, 
no  time  to  act  all  its  essential  paits;  and 
a  child,  who  hath  a  great  way  to  go  before 
he  be  wise,  may  defer  his  studies,  and 
hope  to  become  learned  in  his  old  age,  and 
upon  his  death-bed ;  as  well  as  a  vicious 
person  may  think  to  recover  from  all  his 
ignorances  and  prejudicate  opinions,  from 
all  his  false  principles  and  evil  customs, 
from  his  wicked  inclinations  and  ungodly 
habits,  from  his  fondness  of  vice  and  detes- 
tations of  virtue,  from  his  promptness  to  sin 
and  unwillingness  to  grace,  from  his  spiritual 
deadness  and  strong  sensuality,  upon  his 
death-bed,  (I  say,)  when  he  hath  no  natural 
strength,  and  as  little  spiritual;  when  he  is 
criminal  and  impotent,  hardened  in  his  vice 
and  soft  in  his  fears,  full  of  passion  and 
empty  of  wisdom;  when  he  is  sick,  and 
amazed,  and  timorous,  and  confounded,  and 
impatient,  and  extremely  miserable. 

And  now  when  any  of  you  is  tempted  to 
commit  a  sin,  remember  that  sin  will  ruin 
you,  unless  you  repent  of  it.  But  this,  you 
say,  is  no  news,  and  so  far  from  affrighting 
you  from  sin,  that  (God  knows)  it  makes 
men  sin  the  rather.  For,  therefore,  they 
venture  to  act  the  present  temptation,  be- 
cause they  know,  if  they  repent,  God  will 
forgive  them ;  and  therefore,  they  resolve 
upon  both,  to  sin  now,  and  repent  hereafter. 

Against  this  folly  I  shall  not  oppose  the 
consideration  of  their  danger,  and  that  they 
neither  know  how  long  they  shall  live,  nor 
whether  they  shall  die  or  not  in  this  very 
act  of  sin  ;  though  this  consideration  is  very 
material,  and  if  they  should  die  in  it,  or  be- 
fore it  is  washed  off,  they  perish  :  but  1 
consider  these  things.  1.  That  he  that  re- 
solves to  sin  upon  a  resolution  to  repent,  by 
every  act  of  sin  makes  himself  more  incapa- 
ble of  repenting  by  growing  more  in  love 


Serm.  XXXI. 


OR  DEATH-BED  REPENTANCE. 


231 


with  sin,  by  remembering  its  pleasures,  by 
serving  it  once  more,  and  losing  one  degree 
more  of  the  liberty  of  our  spirit.  And  if 
you  resolve  to  sin  now,  because  it  is  pleas- 
ant, how  do  you  know  that  your  appetite 
will  alter  ?  Will  it  not  appear  pleasant  to 
you  next  week,  and  the  next  week  after 
that,  and  so  for  ever  ?  And  still  you  sin, 
and  still  you  will  repent ;  that  is,  you  will 
repent  when  the  sin  can  please  you  no 
longer ;  for  so  long  as  it  can  please  you,  so 
long  you  are  tempted  not  to  repent,  as  well 
as  now  to  act  the  sin :  and  the  longer  you 
lie  in  it,  the  more  you  will  love  it.  So  that 
it  is  in  effect  to  say,  I  love  my  sin  now,  but 
1  will  hereafter  hate  it ;  only  1  will  act  it  a 
while  longer,  and  grow  more  in  love  with  it, 
and  then  I  will  repent ;  that  is,  then  I  will  be 
sure  to  hate  it,  when  I  shall  most  love  it. 
'2.  To  repent,  signifies  to  be  sorrowful,  to  be 
ashamed,  and  to  wish  it  had  never  been 
done.  And  then  see  the  folly  of  this  tempta- 
tion ;  I  would  not  sin,  but  that  I  hope  to  re- 
peat of  it :  that  is,  I  would  not  do  this  thing, 
but  that  I  hope  to  be  sorrowful  fcr  doing  it, 
and  I  hope  to  come  to  shame  for  it,  heartily 
to  be  ashamed  of  my  doings,  and  I  hope  to 
be  in  that  condition,  that  I  would  give  all 
the  world  I  had  never  done  it ;  that  is,  I 
hope  to  feel  and  apprehend  an  evil  infinitely 
greater  than  the  pleasures  of  my  sin.  And 
are  these  arguments  fit  to  move  a  man  to 
sin  ?  What  can  affright  a  man  from  it,  if 
these  invite  him  to  it  1  It  is  as  if  a  man 
should  invite  one  to  be  a  partner  of  his 
treason,  by  telling  him,  If  you  will  join  with 
me,  you  shall  have  all  these  effects  by  it ; 
you  shall  be  tanged,  drawn,  and  quartered, 
and  your  blood  shall  be  corrupted,  and  your 
estate  forfeited,  and  you  shall  have  many 
uther  reasons  to  wish  you  had  never  done  it. 
He  that  should  use  this  rhetoric,  in  earnest, 
might  well  be  accounted  a  madman  ;  this  is 
to  scare  a  man,  not  to  allure  him  :  and  so  is 
the  other  when  we  understand  it  truly.  3. 
For  I  consider,  he  that  repents,  wishes  he 
had  never  done  that  sin.  Now  I  ask,  does 
he  wish  so  upon  reason,  or  without  reason  ? 
Surelv,  if  he  may,  when  he  hath  satisfied 
his  lust,  ask  God  pardon,  and  be  admitted 
upon  as  easv  terms  for  the  time  to  come,  as 
if  he  had  not  done  the  sin,  he  hath  no  reason 
to  be  sorrowful,  or  wish  he  had  not  done  it. 
For  though  he  hath  done  it,  and  pleased  him- 
self by  "  enjoying  the  pleasure  of  sin  for 
that  season,"  yet  all  is  well  again  ;  and  let 
him  only  be  careful  now,  and  there  is  nd 
hurt  done,  his  pardon  is  certain.    How  can 


'  any  man,  that  understands  the  reason  of  his 
actions  and  passions,  wish  that  he  had  never 
done  that  sin  in  which  then  he  had  pleasure, 
and  now  he  feels  no  worse  inconvenience. 
But  he  that  truly  repents,  wishes  and  would 

I  give  all  the  world  he  had  never  done  it ; 
surely  then  his  present  condition  in  respect 
of  his  past  sin  hath  some  very  great  evil  in 

j  it,  why  else  should  he  be  so  much  troubled? 

:  True,  and  this  it  is.    He  that  hath  com- 

|  mitted  sins  after  baptism,  is  fallen  out  of  the 
favour  of  God,  is  tied  to  hard  duty  for  the 
lime  to  come,  to  cry  vehemently  unto  Gud, 
to  call  night  and  day  for  pardon,  to  be  in 
great  fear  and  tremblings  of  heart,  lest  God 
should  never  forgive  him,  lest  God  will  never 
take  off  his  sentence  of  eternal  pains:  and 
in  this  fear,  and  in  some  degrees  of  it,  be 
will  remain  all  the  days  of  his  life ;  and  if 
he  hopes  to  be  quit  of  that,  yet  he  knows 

\  not  how  many  degrees  of  God's  anger  still 
hang  over  his  head  ;  how  many  sad  miseries 
shall  afflict,  and  burn  and  purify  him  in  this 

;  world,  with  a  sharpness  so  poignant  as  to 
divide  the  marrow  from  the  bones  :  and  for 

!  these  reasons,  as  a  considering  man  that 

:  knows  what  it  is  to  repent,  wishes  with  his 
soul  he  had  never  sinned,  and,  therefore, 
grieves  in  proportion  to  his  former  crimes, 
and  present  misery,  and  future  danger. 
And  now  suppose  that  you  can  repent 

'  when  you  will,  that  is,  that  you  can  grieve 

I  when  you  will; — though  no  man  can  do  it, 

■  no  man  can  grieve  when  he  please,  though 
he  could  shed  tears  when  he  list,  he  cannot 

|  grieve  without  a  real  or  apprehended  feli- 
city :  but  suppose  it ; — and  that  he  can  fear 
when  he  please,  and  that  he  can  love  when 

,  he  please,  or  what  he  please  ;  that  is,  sup- 
pose a  man  be  able  to  say  to  his  palate, 
Though  I  love  sweetmeats,  yet  to-morrow 
will  I  hate  and  loathe  them,  and  believe 
them  bitter  and  distasteful  things  ;  suppose, 
I  say,  all  these  impossibilities ;  yet  since  re- 
pentance does  suppose  a  man  to  be  in  a  state 
of  such  real  misery,  that  he  hath  reason  to 

;  curse  the  day  in  which  he  sinned,  is  this  a 
fit  argument  to  invite  a  man  that  is  in  his 
wits  to  sin  ?  to  sin  in  hope  of  repentance? 
as  if  danger  of  falling  into  hell,  and  fear 
of  the  Divine  anger,  and  many  degrees  of 
the  Divine  judgments,  and  a  lasting  sorrow, 
and  a  perpetual  labour,  and  a  never-ceasing 
trembling,  and  a  troubled  conscience,  and  a 
sorrowful  spirit,  were  fit  things  to  be  desired 

,  or  hoped  for. 

The  sum  is  this  :  he  that  commits  sins 
shall  perish  eternally,  if  he  never  does  re- 


232 


THE  INVALIDITY  OF  A  LATE 


Skrm.  XXXI. 


pent,  and  yet  untimely,  he  is  not  the  bet- 
ter; and  if  ne  does  not  repent  with  an 
entire,  a  perfect,  and  complete  repentance, 
he  is  not  the  better.  But  if  he  does,  yet  re- 
pentance is  a  duty  full  of  fears,  and  sorrow, 
and  labour;  a  vexation  to  the  spirit;  an  af- 
flictive, penal,  or  punitive  duty;  a  duty 
which  suffers  for  sin,  and  labours  for  grace, 
which  abides  and  suffers  little  images  of 
hell  in  the  way  to  heaven  :  and  though  it  be 
the  only  way  to  felicity,  yet  it  is  beset  with 
thorns  and  daggers  of  sufferance,  and  with 
rocks  and  mountains  of  duty.  Let  no  man 
therefore  dare  tc  sin  upon  the  hopes  of  re- 
pentance :  for  he  is  a  fool  and  a  hypocrite, 
lhat  now  chooses  and  approves  what  he 
knows  hereafter  he  must  condemn. 

2.  The  second  general  consideration  is,  the 
necessity,  the  absolute  necessity,  of  holy 
living.  God  hath  made  a  covenant  with  us, 
that  we  must  give  up  ourselves,  "  bodies" 
and  souls,  not  a  dying,  but  "a  living"  and 
healthful  "sacrifice."*  He  Ivath  forgiven 
all  our  old  sins,  and  we  have  bargained  to 
quit  them,  from  the  time  that  we  first  come 
to  Christ,  and  give  our  names  to  him,  and 
to  keep  all  his  commandments.  We  have 
taken  the  sacramental  oath,  like  that  of  the 
old  Roman  militia,  it£i$apzri'itiv,  xai  toirSEtv 
ro  r(i->oatatt6f.Lsvov  vrio  twv  apxovtcoi  xata  8vva- 
ptv,we  must  "believe,"  and  "  obey,"  and 
"  do  all  that  is  commanded  us,"  and  keep 
our  station,  and  fight  against  the  flesh,  the 
world,  and  the  devil,  not  to  throw  away  our 
military  girdle  ;  and  we  are  to  do  what  is 
bidden  us,  or  to  die  for  it,  even  all  that  is 
bidden  us,  "  according  to  our  power."  For, 
pretend  not  that  God's  commandments  are 
impossible.  It  is  dishonourable  to  think 
God  enjoins  us  to  do  more  than  he  enables 
us  to  do  ;  and  it  is  a  contradiction  to  say  we 
cannot  do  ail  that  we  can;  and  "through 
Christ  which  strengthens  me,  I  can  do  all 
things,"  saith  St.  Paul.  However,  we  can 
do  to  the  utmost  of  our  strength,  and  beyond 
thnt  we  cannot  take  thought;  impossibilities 
enter  not  into  deliberation  ;  but,  according  to 
our  abilities  and  natural  powers,  assisted  by 
God's  grace,  so  God  hath  covenanted  with 
us  to  live  a  holy  life.  "  For  in  Christ 
Jesus,  nothing  availeth  but  a  new  creature, 
nothing  but  faith  working  by  charity,  no- 
thing but  keeping  the  commandments  of 
God."  They  are  all  the  words  of  St.  Paul 
before  quoted  ;  to  which  he  adds,  "  and  as 


many  as  walk  according  to  this  rule,  peace 
be  on  them  and  mercy."  This  is  the  cove- 
nant, "  they  are  the  Israel  of  God  ;"  upon 
those  "  peace  and  mercy"  shall  abide.  If 
they  become  a  new  creature,  wholly  trans 
formed  in  the  image  of  their  mind;"  if  they 
have  faith,  and  this  faith  be  an  operative 
working  faith,  a  faith  lhat  produces  a  holy 
life,  "  a  faith  that  works  by  charity  ;"  if  they 
"  keep  the  commandments  of  God,"  then 
they  are  within  the  covenant  of  mercy,  but 
not  else:  for  "  in  Christ  Jesus  nothing  else 
availeth."  To  the  same  purpose  are  those 
words,  (Heb.  xii.  14.)  "  Follow  peace  with 
all  men,  and  holiness,  without  which  no 
man  shall  see  the  Lord."  "  Peace  with  all 
men"  implies  both  justice  and  charity,  with- 
out which  it  is  impossible  to  preserve  peace  ; 
"  holiness"  implies  all  our  duty  towards 
God,  universal  diligence;  and  this  must  be 
"followed,"  that  is,  pursued  with  diligence, 
in  a  lasting  course  of  life  and  exercise:  and 
without  this  we  shall  never  see  the  face  of 
God.  I  need  urge  no  more  authorities  to 
this  purpose ;  these  two  are  as  certain  and 
convincing  as  two  thousand  :  and  since  thus 
much  is  actually  required,  and  is  the  condi- 
tion of  the  covenant ;  it  is  certain  that  sor- 
row for  not  having  done  what  as  commanded 
to  be  done,  and  a  purpose  to  do  what  is  ne- 
cessary to  be  actually  performed,  will  not 
acquit  us  before  the  righteous  judgment  of 
God.  "  For  the  grace  of  God  hath  ap- 
peared to  all  men,  teaching  us,  that  denying 
ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should 
live  godly,  justly,  and  soberly,  in  this  present 
world."  For  upon  these  terms  alone  we 
must  "  look  for  the  blessed  hope,  and  glo- 
rious appearing  of  the  great  God,  and  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ."*  I  shall  no  longer 
insist  upon  this  particular,  but  only  pro- 
pound it  to  your  consideration.  To  what 
purpose  are  all  those  commandments  in 
Scripture,  of  every  page  almost  in  it,  of 
living  holily,  and  according  to  the  command- 
ments of  God, — of  adorning  the  gospel  of 
God, — of  walking  as  in  the  day, — of  walk- 
ing in  light, — of  pure  and  undefiled  re- 
ligion,— of  being  holy  as  God  is  holy, — of 
being  humble  and  meek,  as  Christ  is  hum- 
ble,— of  putting  on  the  Lord  Jesus, — of 
living  a  spiritual  life, — but  lhat  it  is  the  pur- 
pose of  God,  and  the  intention  and  design 
of  Christ  dying  for  us,  and  the  covenant 
made  with  man,  that  we  should  expect 


♦  Tit.  ii.  11,  12. 


Serm.  XXXI.        OR  DEATH-BED  REPENTANCE. 


233 


heaven  upon  no  other  terms  in  the  world,  I  very  things  of  themsehe*  to  men  are  a  very 
but  of  a  holy  life,  in  the  failh  and  obedience  great  felicity,  and  necessary  to  his  present 
of  the  Lord  Jesus?  well-being, — shall  we  think  this  to  be  a  load. 

Now  if  a  vicious  person,  when  he  comes  and  an  insufferable  burden?  and  that  heaven 


to  the  latter  end  of  his  days,  one  that  hath 
lived  a  wicked,  ungodly  life,  can,  for  any 
thing  he  can  do  upon  his  death-bed,  be  said 
to  live  a  holy  life;  then  his  hopes  are  not  des- 
perate :  but  he  that  hopes  upon  this  only, 
for  which  God  hath  made  him  no  promise. 


is  so  little  a  purchase  at  that  price,  .hat  God 
in  mere  justice  will  take  a  death-bed  sigh  or 
groan,  and  a  few  unprofitable  tears  and  pro 
mises,  in  exchange  for  all  our  duty?  Strange 
it  should  be  so  ;  but  stranger,  that  any  man 
should  rely  upon  such  a  vanity,  when  from 


1  must  say  of  him  as  Galen  said  of  con-  i  God's  word  he  hath  nothing  to  warrant  such 
srumptive  persons,  rH  h"Uov  L\itC£ovfjip,  tairv; 1  a  confidence.  But  these  men  do  like  the 
naxxov  xcuews  Egoiiat,  "The  more  they  hope,  tyrant  Dionysius,  who  stole  from  Apollo  his 
the  worse  they  are:"  and  the  relying  upon  golden  cloak,  and  gave  him  a  cloak  of  Area- 
such  hopes  is  an  approach  to  the  grave  and  dian  homespun,  saying,  that  this  was  lighter 

in  summer  and  warmer  in  winter.  These 
men  sacrilegiously  rob  God  of  the  service 
of  all  their  golden  days,  and  serve  him  in 
their  hoary  head,  in  their  furs  and  grave- 
clothes,  and  pretend  that  this  late  service  is 
more  agreeable  to  the  Divine  mercy  on  on** 
side,  and  human  infirmity  on  the  other,  and 


a  sad  eternity. 

Peleos  et  Priaini  transit,  vcl  Nestoris  aetas, 

Et  fuerat  serum  jam  tibi  desinere. 
Eja  aire,  rumpe  moras  ;  qui)  te  spectabimus  usque  1 

Dum.  quid  sis  dubitas,  jam  potes  esse  nihil. 

Mart.  I.  1  ep.  24. 

And  dow  it  will  be  a  vain  question  to  ask, 
whether  or  not  God  can  save  a  dying  man  so  dispute  themselves  into  an  irrecoverable 
that  repents  after  a  vicious  life.  For  it  is  condition  ;  having  no  other  ground  to  relv 
true  God  can  do  it  if  he  please,  and  he  "  can  jupon  a  death-bed  or  late-begun  repentance, 
raise  children  to  Abraham  out  of  the  stones,"  j  but  because  they  resolve  to  enj  oy  the  pleas- 
and  he  can  make  ten  thousand  worlds,  if  he  ures  of  sin  :  and  for  heaven,  they  will  put 
sees  good  ;  and  he  can  do  what  he  list,  and  !  that  to  the  venture  of  an  after-game.  These 
he  can  save  an  ill-living  man  though  he  ne-  jmen  sow  in  the  flesh,  and  would  reap  in  the 
ver  repent  at  all,  so  much  as  upon  his  death- 
bed :  all  this  he  can  do.  But  God's  power 
is  no  ingredient  into  this  question  :  we  are 
never  the  better  that  God  can  do  it,  unless  he 


Spirit;  live  to  the  devil,  and  die  to  God: 
and  therefore,  it  is  but  just  in  God  that  their 
hopes  should  be  desperate,  and  their  craft 
be  folly,  and  their  condition  be  the  unex- 
also  will:  and  whether  he  will  or  not,  we  j  peeled,  unfeared  inheritance  of  an  eternal 
are  to  learn  from  himself,  and  what  he  hath  sorrow. 


declared  to  be  his  will  in  Holy  Scripture. 
Nay,  since  God  hath  said,  that  "without 
actual  holiness  no  man  shall  see  God,"  God 


3.  Lastly  ;  our  last  inquiry  is  into  the  time, 
the  last  or  latest  time  of  beginning  our  re- 
pentance.  Must  a  man  repent  a  year  or  two, 


*>y  his  own  will  hath  resirained  his  power  ;  jor  seven  years,  or  ten,  or  twenty,  before  his 
:md  though  absolutely  he  can  do  all  things, !  death  ?  or  what  is  the  last  period,  after  which 
yet  he  cannot  do  against  his  own  word.  '  all  repentance  will  be  untimely  and  inefTec- 
And,  indeed,  the  rewards  of  heaven  are  so  tual?  To  this  captious  question  I  have 
great  and  glorious,  and  Christ's  "burden  is  many  things  to  oppose.  1.  We  have  eo- 
so  light,  his  yoke  is  so  easy,"  that  it  is  a  |tered  into  covenant  with  God,  to  serve  him 
shameless  impudence  to  expect  so  great 1  from  the  day  of  our  baptism  to  the  day  of 
glories  at  a  less  rate  than  so  little  a  service,  |  our  death.  He  hath  u  sworn  this  oath  to 
at  a  lower  rate  than  a  holy  life.  It  cost  the  1  us,  that  he  would  grant  unto  us,  that  we. 
eternal  Son  of  God  his  life's  blood  to  obtain  j  being  delivered  from  fear  of  our  enemies, 
heaven  for  us  upon  that  condition:  and  who  might  serve  him  without  fear,  in  holiness 
then  shall  die  again  for  us,  to  get  heaven  'and  righteousness  before  him,  all  the  days 
for  us  upon  easier  conditions  ?  What  would  of  our  life."*  Now  although  God  will  not 
you  do,  if  God  should  command  you  to  kill  fe&p&foj*  xal  mnp  &&wutf  £*itau£<W 
your  eldest  son,  or  to  work  in  the  mines  for  ^u,  <<  forget  our  infirmities,"  but  pass  by  the 
a  thousand  years  together,  or  to  fast  all  thy  weaknesses  of  an  honest,  a  watchful,  and 
life-time  with  bread  and  water?  were  not  industrious  person;  yet  the  covenant  he 
heaven  a  great  bargain  even  after  all  this  ?  makes  with  us,  is  from  the  day  of  our  first 

And  when  God  requires  nothing  of  us  but  j  .  .  

to  live  soberlv,  justlv,  and  godly, — which  j  *  Luke  i  73  74 

30  v  2  ' 


234 


THE  INVALIDTY  OF  A  LATE      Serm.  XXXI. 


voluntary  profession  to  our  grave ;  and  ac- 
cording as  we  by  sins  retire  from  our  first  un- 
dertaking, so  our  condition  is  insecure :  there 
is  no  other  covenant  made  with  us,  no  new 
beginnings  of  another  period  ;  but  if  we  be  re- 
turned, and  sin  be  cancelled,  and  grace  be 
actually  obtained,  then  we  are  in  the  first 
condition  of  pardon  :  but  because  it  is  un- 
certain when  a  man  can  have  mastered  his 
vices,  and  obtained  the  graces,  therefore  no 
man  can  tell  any  set  time  when  he  must 
begin.  2.  Scripture,  describing  the  duty  of 
repenting  sinners,  names  no  other  time  but 
"  to-day  :"  "  to-day  if  ye  will  hear  his  voice, 
harden  not  ycur  hearts."  3.  The  duty  of  a 
Christian  is  described  in  Scripture  to  be  such 
as  requires  length  of  time,  and  a  continual 
industry.  "Let  us  run  with  patience  the 
race  that  is  set  before  us  :"*  and  "  consider 
him  that  endured  such  contradiction  of  sin- 
ners, against  himself,  lest  ye  be  wearied  and 
faint  in  your  minds."  So  great  a  prepara- 
tion is  not  for  the  agony  and  contention  of 
an  nour,  or  a  day,  or  a  week,  but  for  the 
whole  life  of  a  Christian,  or  for  great  parts 
of  its  abode.  4.  There  is  a  certain  period 
and  time  set  for  our  repentance,  and  beyond 
that  all  our  industry  is  ineffectual.  There 
is  a  "  day  of  visitation,  our  own  day  ;"  and 
there  is  "  a  day  of  visitation,"  that  is  "  God's 
day."  This  appeared  in  the  case  of  Jerusa- 
lem :  "  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  if  thou 
hadst  known  the  time  of  thy  visitation,  at 
least  in  this  thy  day."  Well,  they  neglected 
it;  and  then  there  was  a  time  of  God's 
visitation,  which  was  "  his  day,"  called  in 
Scripture  ''the  day  of  the  Lord ;"  and  be- 
cause they  had  neglected  their  own  day, 
they  fell  into  inevitable  ruin  :  no  repent- 
ance.could  have  prevented  their  final  ruin. 
And  this  which  was  true  in  a  nation,  is  also 
clearly  affirmed  true  in  the  case  of  single 
persons.  "  Look  diligently,  lest  any  fail  of 
the  grace  of  God  ;  lest  there  be  any  person 
among  you  as  Esau,  who  sold  his  birth- 
right, and  afterwards,  when  he  would  have 
inherited  the  blessing,  he  was  rejected  ;  for 
tie  found  no  place  for  his  repentance,  though 
ae  sought  it  carefully  with  tears."f  Esau 
'•iad  time  enough  to  repent  his  bargain  as 
.ong  as  he  lived ;  he  wept  sorely  for  his 
folly,  and  carefulness  sat  heavy  upon  his 
soul ;  and  yet  he  was  not  heard,  nor  his  re- 
pentance accepted ;  for  his  time  was  past. 
And  "  take  heed,"  said  the  apostle,  lest  it 


come  to  pass  to  any  of  you  to  be  in  the 
same  case.    Now  if  ever  there  be  a  time,  in 
which  repentance  is  too  late,  it  must  be  the 
time  of  our  death-bed,  and  the  last  time  of 
our  life.    And  after  a  man  is  fallen  into  the 
displeasure  of  Almighty  God,  the  longer  he 
lies  in  his  sin  without  repentance  and  emend- 
ation, the  greater  is  his  danger,  and  the  more 
of  his  allowed  lime  is  spent;  and  no  man 
can  antecedently,  or  beforehand,  be  sure  that 
the  time  of  his  repentance  is  not  past;  and 
those  who  neglect  the  call  of  God,  and  re- 
fuse to  hear  him  call  in  the  day  of  grace, 
"God  will  laugh  at  them  when  their  cala- 
mity comes :  they  .shall  call  and  the  Lord 
shall  not  hear  them."    And  this  was  tne 
case  of  the  five  foolish  virgins,  when  the 
arrest  of  death  surprised  them  :  they  disco- 
i  vered  their  want  of  oil,  they  were  troubled 
j  at  it ;  they  begged  oil,  they  were  refused  ; 
;  they  did  something  towards  the  procuring 
|  of  the  oil  of  grace,  for  they  went  out  to  buy 
j  oil :  and,  after  all  this  stir,  the  Bridegroom 
i  came  before  they  had  finished  their  journey, 
and  they  were  shut  out  from  the  communion 
of  the  Bridegroom's  joys. 

Therefore,  concerning  the  time  of  begin- 
ning to  repent,  no  man  is  certain  but  he  that 
hath  done  his  work.  "Mortem  venientem 
nemo  hilaris  excipit,  nisi  qui  se  ad  earn  diu 
composuerat,"  said  Seneca.*  "  He  only  dies 
!  cheerfully,  who  stood  waiting  for  death  in  a 
ready  dress  of  a  long  preceding  preparation." 
He  that  repents  to-day,  repents  late  enough 
that  he  did  not  begin  yesterday  :  but  he  that 
puts  it  off  till  to-morrow,  is  vain  and  mise- 
rable. 

-hodie  jam  vivere,  Postumte,  serum  est  s 


*  Heb.  xii.  1.  3. 


t  Heb.  xii.  15,  &c. 


Ille  sapit,  quisquis,  Postume,  vixit  heri. 

Mart.  I.  5.  ep.  59. 

Well;  but  what  will  you  have  a  man  do 
that  hath  lived  wickedly,  and  is  now  cast 
upon  his  death-bed?  shall  this  man  despair, 
and  neglect  all  the  actions  of  piety,  and  the 
instruments  of  restitution  in  his  sickness? 
No,  God  forbid,  Let  him  do  what  he  can 
then  :  it  is  certain  it  will  be  little  enough ; 
for  all  those  short  gleams  of  piety  and  flashes 
of  lightning  will  help  towards  alleviating 
some  degrees  of  misery;  and  if  the  man  re- 
cover, they  are  good  beginnings  of  a  renewed 
piety :  and  Ahab's  tears  and  humiliation, 
though  it  went  no  farther,  had  a  proportion 
of  reward,  though  nothing  to  the  portions  of 
eternity.    So  that  he  that  says,  it  is  every 

•  Epist.  30. 


Serm.  XXXI. 


OR  DEATH-BED  REPENTANCE 


235 


day  necessary  to  repent,  cannot  be  supposed  I 
to  discourage  the  piety  of  any  day  :  a  death- 
bed piety,  when  things  are  come  to  that  sad  j 
condition,  may  have  many  good  purposes : 
therefore,  even  then  neglect  nothing  that  can 
be  done. — Well;  but  shall  such  persons  de- 
spair of  salvation?  To  them  I  shall  only  re- 
turn this  :  that  they  are  to  consider  the  con- 
ditions, which,  on  one  side,  God  requires  of 
us ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  whether  they 
have  done  accordingly.  Let  them  consider 
upon  what  terms  God  hath  promised  salva- 
tion, and  whether  they  have  made  themselves 
capable,  by  performing  their  part  of  the  ob- 
ligation. If  they  have  not,  I  must  tell  them, 
that,  not  to  hope  where  God  hath  made  no 
promise,  is  not  the  sin  of  despair,  but  the 
misery  of  despair.  A  man  hath  no  ground  I 
to  hope,  that  ever  he  shall  be  made  an  angel,  | 
and  yet  that  not  hoping  is  not  to  be  called 
despair  :  and  no  man  can  hope  for  heaven 
without  repentance ;  and  for  such  a  man  to 
despair,  is  not  the  sin,  but  the  misery.  If 
such  persons  have  a  promise  of  heaven,  let 
ihem  show  it,  and  hope  it,  and  enjoy  it:  if 
they  have  no  promise,  they  must  thank  them- 
selves, for  bringing  themselves  into  a  con- 
dition without  the  covenant,  without  a  pro- 
mise, hopeless  and  miserable. 

But  will  not  trusting  in  the  merits  of  Jesus 
Christ  save  such  a  man  ?  For  that,  we  must 
he  iried  by  the  word  of  God,  in  which  there 
is  no  contract  at  all  made  with  a  dying  per- 
son, that  lived  in  name  a  Christian,  in  prac- 
tice a  heathen  :  and  we  shall  dishonour  the 
sufferings  and  redemption  of  our  blessed 
Saviour,  if  we  think  them  to  be  an  umbrella 
3b  shelter  our  impious  and  ungodly  living. 
But  that  no  such  person  may,  after  a  wicked 
life,  repose  himself  on  his  death  bed  upon 
'  'hrist's  merits,  observe  but  these  two  places 
of  Scripture:  "Our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
who  gave  himself  for  us"* — what  To  do  ? 
that  we  might  live  as  we  list,  and  hope  to  be 
saved  by  his  merits?  no:— but  "that  he 
might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and  pu- 
rify to  himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of 
good  works.  These  things  speak  and  ex- 
hort," saith  St.  Paul. — But,  more  plainly  yet 
in  St.  Peter;  "Christ  bare  our  sins  in  his 
own  body  on  the  tree," — to  what  end  ?  "  that 
we.  being  dead  unto  sin,  should  live  unto 
righteousness. "f  Since  therefore  our  living 
a  holy  life  is  the  end  of  Christ's  dying  that 
sad  and  holv  death  for  us,  he  that  trusts  on 


Titus  ii.  14. 


t  1  Pet.  ii.  24 


it  to  evil  purposes,  and  to  excuse  his  vicious 
life,  does,  as  much  as  in  him  lies,  make  void 
the  very  purpose  and  design  of  Christ's  pas- 
sion, and  dishonours  the  blood  of  the  ever- 
lasting covenant;  which  covenant  was  con- 
firmed by  the  blood  of  Christ;  but,  as  ii 
brought  peace  from  God  so  it  requires  a  hcly 
life  from  us.* 

But  why  may  not  we  be  saved,  as  well  as 
the  thief  upon  the  cross?  even  because  our 
case  is  nothing  alike.  When  Christ  dies  once 
more  for  us,  we  may  look  for  such  another 
instance;  not  till  then.  But  this  thief  did 
but  then  come  to  Christ,  he  knew  him  not 
before;  and  his  case  was,  as  if  a  Turk,  or 
heathen,  should  be  converted  to  Christianity, 
and  be  baptized,  and  enter  newly  into  the 
covenant  upon  his  death- bed  :  then  God  par- 
dons all  his  sins.  And  so  God  does  to  Chris- 
tians when  they  are  baptized,  or  first  give  up 
their  names  to  Christ  by  a  voluntary  con- 
firmation of  their  baptismal  vow  :  but  when 
they  have  once  entered  into  the  covenant, 
they  must  perform  what  they  promise,  and 
do  what  they  are  obliged.  The  thief  had 
made  no  contract  with  God  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  therefore  failed  of  none;  only  the  defail- 
ances  of  the  state  of  ignorance  Christ  paid 
for  at  the  thief's  admission  :  but  we,  that  have 
made  a  covenant  with  God  in  baptism,  and 
failed  of  it  all  our  days,  and  then  return 
at  "  night,  when  we  cannot  work,"  have 
nothing  to  plead  for  ourselves ;  because  we 
have  made  all  that  to  be  useless  to  us,  which 
God,  with  so  much  mercy  and  miraculous 
wisdom,  gave  us  to  secure  our  interest  and 
hopes  of  heaven. 

And  therefore,  let  no  Christian  man,  who 
hath  covenanted  with  God  to  give  him  the 
service  of  his  life,  think  that  God  will  be 
answered  with  the  sighs  and  prayers  of  a 
dying  man  :  for  all  that  great  obligation, 
which  lies  upon  us,  cannot  be  transacted  in 
an  instant,  when  we  have  loaded  our  souls 
with  sin,  and  made  them  empty  of  virtue  ; 
we  cannot  so  soon  grow  up  to  "a  perfect 
man  in  Christ  Jesus  :"  ovdev  *wv  ptyaxuv  cupm 
ytWot.f  You  cannot  have  an  apple  or  a 
cherry,  but  you  must  stay  its  proper  periods, 
and  let  it  blossom  and  knot,  and  grow  and 
ripen  ;  "  and  in  due  season  we  shall  reap,  if 
we  faint  not,"  saith  the  apostle :  far  much 
less  may  we  expect  that  the  fruits  of  repent- 
ance, and  the  issues  and  degrees  of  holiness, 


*  See  Life  of  Jesus,  Disc,  of  Repentance,  part  2. 
t  Arrian.  Epictet.  1.  1.  c.  15 


236  DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART.      Serm.  XXXII. 


shall  be  gathered  in  a  few  days  or  hours. 
Tvu>ixrj$  §'  av9pu>7tov  xaprtbv  ^fto ovtoi  6V  olJiyov 
xai  £vx6hu>s  xtrfiaa^ai.  You  must  not  expect 
such  fruits  in  a  little  time,  nor  with  little 
labour. 

Suffer  not  therefore  yourselves  to  be  de- 
ceived by  false  principles  and  vain  confi- 
dences :  for  no  man  can  in  a  moment  root 
out  the  long- contracted  habits  of  vice,  nor 
upon  his  death-bed  make  use  of  all  that  va- 
riety of  preventing,  accompanying,  and  pre- 
serving grace,  which  God  gave  to  man  in 
mercy,  because  man  would  need  it  all,  be- 
cause without  it  he  could  not  be  saved;  nor, 
upon  his  death-bed,  can  he  exercise  the  duty 
of  mortification,  nor  cure  his  drunkenness 
then,  nor  his  lust,  by  any  act  of  Christian 
discipline,  nor  run  with  patience,  nor  "resist 
unto  blood,"  nor  "  endure  with  long-suffer- 
ance;" but  he  can  pray,  and  groan,  and 
call  to  God,  and  resolve  to  live  well  when 
he  is  dying.  But  this  is  but. just  as  the 
nobles  of  Xerxes,  when  in  a  storm  they  were 
to  lighten  the  ship,  to  preserve  their  king's, 
life ;  they  did  rtpoaxwiovtas  iriiTitjbav  sis 
^d'ha.ooav,  they  did  their  obeisance,  and  leaped 
into  the  sea  :"  so,  I  fear,  do  these  men  pray, 
and  mourn,  and  worship,  and  so  leap  over- 
board into  an  ocean  of  eternal  and  intolera- 
ble calamity  :  from  which  God  deliver  us, 
and  all  faithful  people. 

Hunc  volo  laudari  qui  sine  morte  potest. 

Mart.  ep.  J.  1. 

Vivere  quod  propero  pauper,  ncc  inutilis  annis, 
Da  veniam  ;  properat  vivere  nemo  satis. 

Differat  hoc,  patrios  optat  qui  vincere  census, 
Atriaque  immodicis  arctat  imaginibus. 

Mart.  1.  2.  ep.  90. 


SERMON  XXXII. 

THE  DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART. 
PART  I  . 

Tlie  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and 
desperately  wicked :  who  can  know  it  f — 
Jeremiah  xvii.  9. 

Folly  and  subtilty  divide  the  greatest 
part  of  mankind ;  and  there  is  no  other 
difference  but  this ;  that  some  are  crafty 
enough  to  deceive,  others  foolish  enough  to 
be  cozened  and  abused:  and  yet  the  scales 
also  turn ;  for  they  that  are  the  most  crafty 
lo  cozen  others,  are  the  veriest  fools,  and 


|  most  of  all  abused  themselves.  They  rob 
their  neighbour  of  his  money,  and  lose 
their  own  innocency  ;  they  disturb  his  rest, 
and  vex  their  own  conscience  ;  they  throw 
him  into  prison,  and  themselves  into  hell ; 
they  make  poverty  to  be  their  brother's  por- 
tion, and  damnation  to  be  their  own.  Man 
entered  into  the  world  first  alone;  but  as 
soon  as  he  met  with  one  companion,  he  met 
with  three  to  cozen  him:  the  serpent,  and 
Eve,  and  himself,  all  joined, — first  to  make 
him  a  fool,  and  to  deceive  him,  and  then  to 
make  him  miserable.  But  he  first  cozened 
himself,  "giving  up  himself  to  believe  a 
lie;"  and,  being  desirous  lo  listen  to  the 
whispers  of  a  tempting  spirit,  he  sinned  be- 
fore he  fell;  that  is,  he  had  within  him  a 
false  understanding  and  a  depraved  will: 
and  these  were  the  parents  of  his  disobe- 
dience, and  this  was  the  parent  of  his  infe- 
licity, and  a  great  occasion  of  ours.  And 
then  it  was  that  he  entered,  for  himself  and 
his  posterity,  into  the  condition  of  an  igno- 
rant, credulous,  easy,  wilful,  passionate,  and 
impotent  person ;  apt  to  be  abused,  and  so 
loving  to  have  it  so,  that  if  nobody  else  will 
abuse  him,  he  will  be  sure  to  abuse  himself ; 
by  ignorance  and  evil  principles  being  open 
to  an  enemy,  and  by  wilfulness  and  sensu- 
ality doing  to  himself  the  most  unpardona- 
ble injuries  in  the  whole  world.  So  that 
the  condition  of  man,  in  the  rudenesses  and 
first  lines  of  its  visage,  seems  very  miser- 
able, deformed,  and  accursed. 

For  a  man  is  helpless  and  vain  ;  of  a  con- 
dition so  exposed  to  calamity,  that  a  raisin 
is  able  to  kill  him ;  any  trooper  out  of  the 
Egyptian  army,  a  fly  can  do  it',  when  it 
goes  on  God's  errand  ;  the  most  contempti- 
ble accident  can  destroy  him,  the  smallest 
chance  affright  him,  every  future  contin- 
gency, when  but  considered  as  possible,  can 
amaze  him  ;  and  he  is  encompassed  with 
potent  and  malicious  enemies,  subtle  and 
implacable:  what  shall  this  poor  helpless 
thing  do?  Trust  in  God?  him  he  hath  of- 
fended, and  he  fears  him  as  an  enemy;  and, 
God  knows,  if  we  look  only  on  ourselves, 
and  on  our  own  demerits,  we  have  too  much 
reason  so  to  do.  Shall  he  rely  upon  princes  ? 
God  help  poor  kings;  they  rely  upon  their 
subjects,  they  fight  with  their  swords,  levy 
forces  with  their  money,  consult  with  their 
counsels,  hear  with  their  ears,  and  are  strong 
only  in  their  union,  and  many  times  they 
use  all  these  things  against  them;  but, 
however,  they  can  do  nothing  without  them 


Serm.  XXXII.    DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART.  237 


while  they  live,  and  yet  if  ever  they  can  die, 
they  are  not  to  be  trusted  to.    Now  kings 
and  princes  die  so  sadly  and  notoriously, 
that  it  was  used  for  a  proverb  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, "  Ye  shall  die  like  men,  and  fall  like 
one  of  the  princes."    Whom  then  shall 
we  trust  in?    In  our  friend?    Poor  man! 
he  may  help  thee  in  one  thing,  and  need 
thee  in  ten  :  he  may  pull  thee  out  of  the 
ditch,  and  his  foot  may  slip  and  fall  into  it 
himself :  he  gives  thee  counsel  to  choose  a 
wife,  and  himself  is  to  seek  how  prudently 
to  choose  his  religion  :  he  counsels  thee  to 
abstain  from  a  duel,  and  yet  slays  his  own 
soul  with  drinking:  like  a  person  void  of  all 
understanding,  he  is  willing  enough  to  pre- 
serve thy  interest,  and  is  very  careless  of  his 
own  :  for  he  does  highly  despise  to  betray 
or  be  false  to  thee,  and  in  the  mean  time  is 
not  his  own  friend,  and  is  false  to  God ;  and 
then  his  friendship  may  be  useful  to  thee 
in  some  circumstances  of  fortune,  but  no 
security  to  thy  condition.    But  what  then  ? 
shall  we  rely  upon  our  patron,  like  the  Ro- 
man clients,  who  waited  hourly  upon  their 
persons,  and  daily  upon  their  baskets,  and 
nightly  upon  their  lusts,  and  married  their 
friendships,  and  contracted  also  their  hatred 
and  quarrels?  this  is  a  confidence  will  de- 
ceive us.    For  they  may  lay  us  by,  justly 
or  unjustly  ;  they  may  grow  weary  of  doing 
benefits,  or  their  fortunes  may  change  ;  or 
they  may  be  charitable  in  their  gifts,  and 
burdensome  in  their  offices ;  able  to  feed 
you,  but  unable  to  counsel  you;  or  your 
need  may  be  longer  than  their  kindnesses, 
or  such  in  which  they  can  give  you  no  as- 
sistance :  and,  indeed,  generally  it  is  so,  in 
all  the  instances  of  men.   We  have  a  friend 
that  is  wise  ;  but  I  need  not  his  counsel,  but 
his  meat :  or  my  patron  is  bountiful  in  his 
largesses ;  but  I  am  troubled  with  a  sad 
spirit;  and  money  and  presents  do  me  no 
more  ease  than  perfumes  do  to  a  broken 
arm.    We  seek  life  of  a  physician  that  dies, 
and  go  to  him  for  health,  who  cannot  cure 
his  own  breath  or  gout ;  and  so  become  vain 
in  our  imaginations,  abused  in  our  hopes, 
restless  in  our  passions,  impatient  in  our 
calamity,  unsupported  in  our  need,  exposed 
to  enemies,  wandering  and  wild,  without 
counsel,  and  without  remedy.  At  last,  after 
the  infatuating  and  deceiving  all  our  confi- 
dences without,  we  have  nothing  left  us  but 
to  return  home,  and  dwell  within  ourselves  : 
for  we  have  a  sufficient  stock  of  self-love, 
that  we  may  be  confident  of  our  own  affec- 
tions, we  may  trust  ourselves  surely;  for 


what  we  want  in  skill  we  shall  make  up  in 
diligence,  and  our  industry  shall  supply  the 
want  of  other  circumstances :  and  no  man 
understands  my  own  case  so  well  as  I  do 
myself,  and  no  man  will  judge  so  faithfully 
as  I  shall  do  for  myself;  for  I  am  most  con- 
cerned not  to  abuse  myself;  and  if  I  do,  T 
shall  be  the  loser,  and  therefore  may  best 
rely  upon  myself.  Alas !  and  God  help  us  ! 
we  shall  find  it  to  be  no  such  matter :  for 
we  neither  love  ourselves  well,  nor  under- 
stand our  own  case;  we  are  partial  in  our 
own  questions,  deceived  in  our  sentences, 
careless  of  our  interests,  and  the  most  false, 
perfidious  creatures  to  ourselves  in  the 
whole  world  :  even  the  "  heart  of  a  man," 
a  man's  own  heart,  "  is  deceitful  above  all 
things,  and  desperately  wicked  ;  who  can 
know  it?"  and  who  can  choose  but  know  it? 

And  there  is  no  greater  argument  of  the 
deceitfulness  of  our  hearts  than  this,  that  no 
man  can  know  it  at  all ;  it  cozens  us  in  the 
very  number  of  its  cozenage.  But  yet  we 
can  reduce  it  all  to  two  heads.  We  say, 
concerning  a  false  man,  Trust  him  not,  for 
he  will  deceive  you;  and  we  say  concerning 
a  weak  and  broken  staff,  Lean  not  upon  ii, 
for  that  will  also  deceive  you.  The  man 
deceives  because  he  is  false,  and  the  stall* 
because  it  is  weak;  and  the  heart  because 
it  is  both.  So  that  it  is  "deceitful  above  all 
things ;"  that  is,  failing  and  disabled  to  sup- 
port us  in  many  things,  but  in  other  things, 
where  it  can,  it  is  false  and  "  desperately 
wicked."  The  first  sort  of  deceitfulness  is 
its  calamity,  and  the  second  is  its  iniquity  ; 
and  that  is  the  worst  calamity  of  the  two. 

1.  The  heart  is  deceitful  in  its  strength; 
and  when  we  have  the  growth  of  a  man,  we 
have  the  weaknesses  of  a  child  :  nay,  more 
vet,  and  it  is  a  sad  consideration,  the  more 
we  are  in  age,  the  weaker  in  our  courage. 
It  appears  in  the  heats  and  forwardnesses  of 
new  converts,  which  are  like  to  the  great 
emissions  of  lightning,  or  like  huge  fires, 
which  flame  and  burn  without  measure, 
even  all  that  they  can ;  till  from  flames  they 
descend  to  still  fires,  from  thence  to  smoke, 
from  smoke  to  embers,  and  from  thence  to 
ashes;  cold  and  pale,  like  ghosts,  or  the  fan- 
tastic images  of  death.  And  the  primitive 
church  were  zealous  in  their  religion  up  to 
the  degree  of  cherubims,  and  would  run  as 
greedily  to  the  sword  of  the  hangman,  to  die 
for  the  cause  of  God,  as  we  do  now  to  the 
greatest  joy  and  entertainment  of  a  Christian 
spirit, — even  to  the  receiving  of  the  holy 
sacrament.    A  man  would  think  it  reason- 


238 


DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART. 


Serm.  XXXII. 


able,  that  the  first  infancy  of  Christianity 
should,  according  to  the  nature  of  first  be- 
ginnings, have  been  remiss,  gentle,  and 
inactive;  and  that,  according  as  the  object 
or  evidence  of  faith  grew,  which  in  every 
age  hath  a  great  degree  of  argument  super- 
added to  its  confirmation,  so  should  the  habit 
also  and  the  grace ;  the  longer  it  lasts,  and 
the  more  objections  it  runs  through,  it  still 
should  show  a  brighter  and  more  certain 
light  to  discover  the  divinity  of  its  principle  ; 
and  that  after  the  more  examples,  and  new 
accidents  and  strangenesses  of  providence, 
and  daily  experience,  and  the  multitude  of 
miracles,  still  the  Christian  should  grow 
more  certain  in  his  faith,  more  refreshed  in 
his  hope,  and  warm  in  his  charity  ;  the  very 
nature  of  these  graces  increasing  and  swell- 
ing upon  the  very  nourishment  of  expe- 
rience, and  the  multiplication  of  their  own 
acts.  And  yet,  because  the  heart  of  man  is 
false,  it  suffers  the  fires  of  the  altar  to  go 
out,  and  the  flames  lessen  by  the  multitude 
of  fuel.  But,  indeed,  it  is  because  we  put 
on  strange  fire,  and  put  out  the  fire  upon  our 
hearths  by  letting  in  a  glaring  sunbeam,  the 
fire  of  lust,  or  the  heats  of  an  angry  spirit, 
to  quench  the  fire  of  God,  and  suppress  the 
sweet  cloud  of  incense.  The  heart  of  man 
hath  not  strength  enough  to  think  one  good 
thought  of  itself;  it  cannot  command  its 
own  attentions  to  a  prayer  of  ten  lines  long, 
but,  before  its  end,  it  shall  wander  after 
something  that  is  to  no  purpose;  and  no' 
wonder,  then,  that  it  grows  weary  of  a  holy  | 
religion,  which  consists  of  so  many  parts  as 
make  the  business  of  a  whole  life.  And 
there  is  no  greater  argument  in  the  world 
of  our  spiritual  weakness,  and  the  falseness 
of  our  hearts  in  the  matters  of  religion  than 
the  backwardness  which  most  men  have 
always,  and  all  men  have  sometimes,  to  say 
their  prayers;  so  weary  of  their  length,  so 
glad  when  they  are  done,  so  witty  to  excuse 
and  frustrate  an  opportunity  :  and  yet  there 
is  no  manner  of  trouble  in  the  duty,  no  wea- 
riness of  bones,  no  violent  labours;  nothing 
but  begging  a  blessing,  and  receiving  it ; 
nothing  but  doing  ourselves  the  greatest 
honour  of  speaking  to  the  greatest  person, 
and  greatest  King  of  the  world :  and,  that 
we  should  be  unwilling  to  do  this,  so  unable 
to  continue  in  it,  so  backward  to  return  to 
it,  so  without  gust  and  relish  in  the  doing 
it,  can  have  no  visible  reason  in  the  nature 
of  the  thing,  but  something  within  us,  a 
strange  sickness  in  the  heart,  a  spiritual 
nauseating  or  loathing  of  manna,  something 


that  hath  no  name ;  but  we  are  sure  it  comes 
from  a  weak,  a  faint,  and  false  heart. 

And  yet  this  weak  heart  is  strong  in  pas- 
sions, violent  in  desires,  irresistible  in  its 
appetites,  impatient  in  its  lust,  furious  in 
anger :  here  are  strengths  enough,  one 
should  think.  But  so  have  I  seen  a  man  in 
a  fever,  sick  and  distempered,  unable  to 
walk,  less  able  to  speak  sense,  or  to  do  an 
act  of  counsel ;  and  yet,  when  his  fever  had 
boiled  up  to  a  delirium,  he  was  strong 
enough  to  beat  his  nursekeeper  and  his  doc- 
tor too,  and  to  resist  the  loving  violence  of 
all  his  friends,  who  would  fain  bind  him 
down  to  reason  and  his  bed  :  and  yet  we 
still  say,  he  is  weak,  and  sick  to  death. 
BeXxo  yap  ilvai  rovovj  tv  nutuatv,  d?.X  wj  vyiai- 
vovti,  adtovrti.  For  these  strengths  of 
madness  are  not  health,  but  furiousness  and 
disease.  Ovx  tivi  tovoi,  fajja,  atovia  trtpor 
tportov,  "  It  is  weakness  another  way."* 
And  so  are  the  strengths  of  a  man's  heart : 
they  are  fetters  and  manacles;  strong,  but 
they  are  the  cordage  of  imprisonment ;  so 
strong,  that  the  heart  is  not  able  to  stir.  And 
yet  it  cannot  but  be  a  huge  sadness,  that  the 
heart  shall  pursue  a  temporal  interest  with 
wit  and  diligence,  and  an  unwearied  indus- 
try ;  and  shall  not  have  strength  enough,  in 
a  matter  that  concerns  its  eternal  interest,  to 
answer  one  objection,  to  resist  one  assault, 
to  defeat  one  art  of  the  devil ;  but  shall  cer- 
tainly and  infallibly  fall,  whenever  it  is 
tempted  to  a  pleasure. 

This,  if  it  be  examined,  will  prove  to  be 
a  deceit,  indeed  a  pretence,  rather  than  true 
upon  a  just  cause:  that  is,  it  is  not  a  natu- 
ral, but  a  moral  and  a  vicious,  weakness : 
and  we  may  try  it  in  one  or  two  familiar 
instances.  One  of  the  great  strengths,  shall 
I  call  it  ?  or  weaknesses  of  the  heart  is, — 
that  it  is  strong,  violent  and  passionate  in  its 
lusts,  and  weak  and  deceitful  to  resist  any. 
Tell  the  tempted  person,  that  if  he  act  his 
lust,  he  dishonours  his  body,  makes  himself 
a  servant  to  folly,  and  one  flesh  with  a  har- 
lot ;  he  "  defiles  the  temple  of  God,  and  him 
that  defiles  a  temple  "will  God  destroy:" 
tell  him,  that  the  angels,  who  love  to  be 
present  in  the  nastiness  and  filth  of  prisons, 
that  they  may  comfort  and  assist  chaste 
souls  and  holy  persons  there  abiding,  yet 
they  are  impatient  to  behold  or  come  near 
the  filthiness  of  a  lustful  person  :  tell  him 
that  this  sin  is  so  ugly,  that  the  devils,  who 
are  spirits,  yet  they  delight  to  counterfeit  the 

*  Arrian. 


Serm.  XXXIII.    DECEITFULNES3  OF  THE  HEART. 


239 


acting  of  this  crime,  and  descend  unto  the 
daughters  or  sons  of  men,  that  they  may 
rather  lose  their  natures,  than  not  to  help  to 
set  a  lust  forward  :  tell  them  these  and  ten 
thousand  things  more;  you  move  them  no 
more,  than  if  you  should  read  one  of  Tully's 
orations  to  a  mule:  for  the  truth  is,  they 
jiave  no  power  to  resist  it,  much  less  to 
master  it ;  their  heart  fails  them  when  they 
meet  their  mistress  ;  and  they  are  driven  like 
a  fool  to  the  slocks,  or  a  bull  to  the  slaugh- 
ter-house. And  yet  their  heart  deceives 
them;  not  because  it  cannot  resist  the  temp- 
tation, but  because  it  will  not  go  about  it: 
for  it  is  certain  the  heart  can,  if  it  list.  For 
let  a  boy  enter  into  your  chamber  of  pleas- 
ure, and  discover  your  folly,  either  your 
lust  disbands,  or  your  shame  hides  it$  you 
will  not,  you  dare  not,  do  it  before  a  stran- 
ger-boy :  and  yet,  that  you  dare  do  it  before 
the  eyes  of  the  all-seeing  God,  is  impudence 
and  folly,  and  a  great  conviction  of  the  va- 
nity of  your  pretence  and  the  falseness  of 
your  heart.  If  thou  beest  a  man  given  to 
thy  appetite,  and  thou  lovest  a  pleasant 
morsel  as  thy  life,  do  not  declaim  against 
the  precepts  of  temperance  as  impossible : 
try  this  once;  abstain  from  that  draught,  or 
that  dish.  I  cannot.  No?  Give  this  man 
a  great  blow  on  the  face,  or  tempt  him  with 
twenty  pounds,  and  he  shall  fast  from  morn- 
ing till  night,  and  then  feast  himself  with 
/our  money,  and  plain  wholesome  meat. 
And  if  your  chastity  and  temperance  be  so 
easy,  that  a  man  may  be  brought  to  either 
of  them  with  so  ready  and  easy  instruments; 
let  us  not  suffer  our  heart  to  deceive  us  by 
the  weakness  of  its  pretences,  and  the 
strength  of  its  desires ;  for  we  do  more  for 
a  boy  than  for  God,  and  for  twenty  pounds 
than  heaven  itself. 

But  thus  it  is  in  every  thing  else  :  take  a 
heretic,  a  rebel,  a  person  that  hath  an  ill 
cause  to  manage;  what  he  wants  in  the 
strength  of  his  reason,  he  shall  make  it  up 
with  diligence  :  and  a  person  that  hath  right 
on  his  side,  is  cold,  indiligent,  lazy,  and  in- 
active, trusting  that  the  goodness  of  his 
cause  will  do  it  alone.  But,  so  wrong  pre- 
vails, while  evil  persons  are  zealous  in  a 
bad  matter,  and  others  are  remiss  in  a  good  ; 
and  the  sam#  person  shall  be  very  industri- 
ous always,  when  he  hath  least  reason  so 
to  be.  That  is  the  first  particular,  the  heart 
is  deceitful  in  the  managing  of  its  natural 
strengths ;  it  is  naturally  and  physically 
strong,  but  morally  weak  and  impotent. 

2.  The  heart  of  man  is  deceitful  in  making 


judgment  concerning  its  own  acts.  It  does 
not  know  when  it  is  pleased  or  displeased  ; 
it  is  peevish  and  trifling  ;  it  would,  and  it 
would  not ;  and  it  is  in  many  cases  impossi- 
ble to  know  whether  a  man's  heart  desires 
such  a  thing  or  not.  St.  Ambrose  hath  an 
odd  saying,  "  Facilius  inveneris  innocentem, 
quam  qui  poenitenttam  digne  egerit ;"  "  It 
is  easier  to  find  a  man  that  lived  innocently, 
than  *one  that  hath  truly  repented  him," 
with  a  grief  and  care  great  according  to  the 
merit  of  his  sins.  Now  suppose  a  man 
that  hath  spent  his  younger  years  in  vanity 
and  folly,  and  is  by  the  grace  of  God 
apprehensive  of  it,  and  thinks  of  returning 
to  sober  counsels;  this  man  will  find  his 
heart  so  false,  so  subtle  and  fugitive,  so  se- 
cret and  undiscernible,  that  it  will  be  very 
hard  to  discern  whether  he  repents  or  not. 
For  if  he  considers  that  he  hates  sin,  and 
therefore  repents  ;  alas  !  he  so  hates  it,  that 
he  dares  not,  if  he  be  wise,  tempt  himself 
with  an  opportunity  to  act  it:  for  in  the 
midst  of  that  which  he  calls  hatred,  he  hath 
so  much  love  left  for  it,  that  if  the  sin  comes 
again  and  speaks  him  fair,  he  is  losi  again, 
he  kisses  the  fire,  and  dies  in  its  embraces. 
And  why  else  should  it  be  necessary  for  us  to 
pray,  that  "  we  be  not  led  into  temptation, " 
but  because  we  hate  the  sin,  and  yet  love  it 
too  well ;  we  curse  it,  and  yet  follow  it ;  we 
are  angry  at  ourselves,  and  yet  cannot  be 
without  it;  we  know  it  undoes  us, but  we 
think  it  pleasant.  And  when  Ave  are  to  ex- 
ecute the  fierce  anger  of  the  Lord  upon  our 
sins,  yet  we  are  kind-hearted,  and  spare  the 
Agag,  the  reigning  sin,  the  splendid  tempta- 
tion; we  have  some  kindnesses  left  towards  it. 

These  are  but  ill  signs.  How  then  shall 
I  know,  by  some  infallible  token,  that  I  am 
a  true  penitent?  What  and  if  I  weep  for  my 
sins?  will  you  not  then  give  me  leave  to 
conclude  my  heart  right  with  God,  and  at 
enmity  with  sin?  It  may  be  so.  But  there 
are  some  friends  that  weep  at  parting ;  and, 
s  not  thy  weeping  a  sorrow  of  affection  ? 
It  is  a  sad  thing  to  part  with  our  long  com- 
panion. Or,  it  may  be  thou  weepest,  be- 
cause thou  wouldst  have  a  sign  to  cozen 
thyself  withal:  for  some  men  are  more  do 
sirous  to  have  a  sign,  than  the  thing  signi- 
fied :  they  would  do  something  to  show  their 
repentance,  that  themselves  may  believe 
themselves  to  be  penitents,  having  no  reason 
from  within  to  believe  so.  And  I  have  seen 
some  persons  weep  heartily  for  the  loss  of 
sixpence,  or  for  the  breaking  of  a  glass,  or 
at  some  trifling  accident;  and  they  that  do 


240 


DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART.    Serm.  XXXIII. 


ao,  cannot  pretend  to  have  their  tears  valued 
at  a  bigger  rate  than  they  will  confess  their 
passion  to  be,  when  they  weep ;  they  are 
vexed  for  the  dirtying  of  their  linen,  or  some 
such  trifle,  for  which  the  least  passion  is  too 
big  an  expense.  So  that  a  man  cannot  tell 
his  own  heart  by  his  tears,  or  the  truth  of 
his  repentance  by  those  short  gusts  of  sor- 
row. How  then?  Shall  we  suppose  a  man 
to  pray  against  his  sin?  So  did  St.  Austin  ; 
when,  in  his  youth,  he  was  tempted  to  lust 
and  uncleanliness,  he  prayed  against  it,  and 
secretly  desired  that  God  would  not  hear 
him  ;  for  here  the  heart  is  cunning  to  deceive 
itself.  For,  no  man  did  ever  heartily  pray 
against  his  sin  in  the  midst  of  a  temptation 
to  it,  if  he  did  in  any  sense  or  degree  listen 
to  the  temptation  :  for  to  pray  against  a  sin, 
is  to  have  desires  contrary  to  it,  and  that 
cannot  consist  with  any  love  or  any  kind- 
ness to  it.  We  pray  against  it,  and  yet  do 
it;  and  then  pray  again,  and  do  it  again  : 
and  we  desire  it,  and  yet  pray  against  the 
desires;  and  that  is  almost  a  contradiction 
Now,  because  no  man  can  be  supposed  to 
will  against  his  own  will,  or  choose  against 
his  own  desires ;  it  is  plain,  that  we  cannot 
mow  whether  we  mean  what  we  say  when 
xe  pray  against  sin,  but  by  the  event :  if  we 
ne\eract  it,  never  entertain  it,  always  resist  it, 
<iver  fight  against  it,  and  finally  do  prevail; 
then,  at  length,  we  maf judge  our  own  heart 
to  have  meant  honestly  in  that  one  particular. 

Nay,  our  heart  is  so  deceitful  in  this  mat- 
ter of  repentance,  that  the  masters  of  spi- 
ritual life  are  fain  to  invent  suppletory  arts 
and  stratagems  to  secure  the  duty.  And  we 
are  advised  to  moura,  because  we  do  not 
mourn,  to  be  sorrowful,  because  we  are  not 
sorrowful.  Now  if  we  be  sorrowful  in 
the  first  stage,  how  happens  it  that  we 
know  it  not?  Is  our  heart  so  secret  to  our- 
selves? But  if  we  be  not  sorrowful  in  the 
first  period,  how  shall  we  be  so,  or  know  it  in 
the  second  period?  For  we  may  as  well  doubt 
concerning  the  sincerity  of  the  second,  or  re- 
flex act  of  sorrow,  as  of  the  first  and  direct 
action.  And,  therefore,  we  may  also  as  well 
be  sorrowful  the  third  time,  for  want  of  the 
just  measure  or  hearty  meaning  of  the  second 
sorrow,  as  be  sorrowful  the  second  time,  for 
want  of  true  sorrow  at  the  first ;  and  so  on 
to  infinite.  And  we  shall  never  be  secure 
in  this  artifice,  if  we  be  not  certain  of  our 
natural  and  hearty  passion  in  our  direct  and 
first  apprehensions. 

Thus  many  persons  think  themselves  in 
a  good  estate,  and  make  no  question  of  their 


salvation,  being  confident  only  because  they 
are  confident ;  and  they  are  so,  because  they 
are  bidden  to  be  so ;  and  yet  they  are  not  confi- 
dent at  all,  but  extremely  timorous  and  fear- 
ful. How  many  persons  are  there  in  the 
world,  that  say  they  are  sure  of  their  salvation, 
and  yet  they  dare  not  die  ?  And,  if  any  man 
pretends  that  he  is  now  sure  he  shall  be 
saved  and  that  he  cannot  fall  away  from 
grace;  there  is  no  better  way  to  confute 
him,  than  by  advising  him  ,to  send  for  the 
surgeon,  and  bleed  to  death.  For  what 
would  hinder  him;  not  the  sin  ;  for  it  can- 
not take  him  from  God's  favour:  not  the 
change  of  his  condition  ;  for  he  says,  he  is 
sure  to  go  to  a  better  :  why  does  he  not  then 
say,  xexpixa.  like  the  Roman  gallants  when 
they  '*  decreed7'  to  die.  The  reason  is  plain- 
ly this,  they  say  they  are  confident,  and  yet 
are  extremely  timorous  ;  they  profess  to  be- 
lieve that  doctrine,  and  yet  dare  not  trust 
it;  nay,  they  think  they  believe,  but  they  do 
not :  so  false  is  a  man's  heart,  so  deceived 
in  its  own  acts,  so  great  a  stranger  to  its 
own  sentence  and  opinions. 

3.  The  heart  is  deceitful  in  its  own  reso- 
lutions and  purposes  :  for  many  times  men 
make  their  resolution  only  in  their  under- 
standing, not  in  their  will ;  they  resolve  it 
fitting  to  be  done,  not  decree  that  they  will 
do  it ;  and  instead  of  beginning  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God  by  the  renewed  and  hearty 
purposes  of  holy  living,  they  are  advanced 
so  far  only  as  to  be  convinced,  and  apt  to  be 
condemned  by  their  own  sentence. 

But  suppose  our  resolutions  advanced  far- 
ther, and  that  our  will  and  choices  also  are 
determined  ;  see  how  our  hearts  deceive  us. 

1.  We  resolve  against  those  sins  that 
please  us  not,  or  where  temptation  is  not 
present,  and  think,  by  an  over-acted  zeal 
against  some  sins,  to  give  an  indulgence  for 
some  others.  There  are  some  persons  who 
will  be  drunk ;  the  company,  or  the  dis- 
course, or  the  pleasure  of  madness,  or  an 
easy  nature  and  a  thirsty  soul,  something  is 
amiss,  that  cannot  be  helped  :  but  they  will 
make  amends,  and  the  next  day  pray  twice 
as  much.  Or,  it  may  be,  they  must  satisfy 
a  beastly  lust ;  but  they  will  not  be  drunk 
for  all  the  world  ;  and  hope,  by  their  temper- 
ance, to  commute  for  their  want  of  chastity. 
But  they  attend  not  the  craft  of  their  secret 
enemy,  their  heart :  for  it  is  not  love  of  the 
virtue ;  if  it  were,  they  would  love  virtue  in 
all  instances  ;*  for  chastity  is  as  much  a  vir- 


*  Virtutem  unam  si  amiseris,  (etsi  amitti  non 


Serm.XXXIII.      DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART.  241 


tue  as  temperance,  and  God  hates  lust  as , 
much  as  he  hates  drunkenness.  But  this 
sin  is  against  my  health,  or,  it  may  be,  it 
is  against  my  lust ;  it  makes  me  impotent, 
and  yet  impatient ;  full  of  desire,  and  empty 
of  strength.  Or  else  I  do  an  act  of  prayer, 
lest  my  conscience  become  unquiet,  while 
it  is  not  satisfied,  or  cozened  with  some  in- 
tervals of  religion  :  I  shall  think  myself  a 
damned  wretch  if  I  do  nothing  for  my  soul ; 
but  if  I  do,  I  shall  call  the  one  sin  that  re- 
mains, nothing  but  my  infirmity  ;  and  there- 
fore it  is  my  excuse  :  and  my  prayer  is  not 
my  religion,  but  my  peace,  and  my  pretence, 
and  my  fallacy. 

2.  We  resolve  against  our  sin,  that  is,  we 
will  not  act  it  in  those  circumstances  as  for- 
merly. I  will  not  be  drunk  in  the  streets ; 
but  I  may  sleep  till  I  be  recovered,  and  then 
come  forth  sober;  or,  if  [  be  overtaken,  it  shall 
be  in  civil  and  genteel  company.  Or  it  may 
be  not  so  much  ;  I  will  leave  my  intemper- 
ance and  my  lust  too,  but  I  will  remember  it 
with  pleasure;  I  will  revolve  the  past  action 
in  my  mind,  and  entertain  my  fancy  with  a 
morose  delectation  in  it,  and,  by  a  fiction 
of  imagination,  will  represent  it  present,  and 
so  be  satisfied  with  a  little  effeminacy  or 
fantastic  pleasure.  Beloved,  suffer  not  your 
hearts  so  to  cozen  you ;  as  if  any  man  can 
be  faithful  in  much,  that  is  faithless  in  a  lit- 
tle. He  certainly  is  very  much  in  love  with 
sin,  and  parts  with  it  very  unwillingly,  that 
keeps  its  picture,  and  wears  its  favour,  and 
delights  in  the  fancy  of  it,  even  with  the 
same  desire  as  a  most  passionate  widow 
parts  with  her  dearest  husband,  even  when 
she  can  no  longer  enjoy  him  :  but  certainly 
her  staring  all  day  upon  his  picture,  and 
weeping  over  his  robe,  and  wringing  her 
hands  over  his  children,  are  no  great  signs 
that  she  hated  him.  And  just  so  do  most  men 
hate,  and  accordingly  part  with,  their  sins. 

3.  We  resolve  against  it  when  the  oppor- 
tunity is  slipped,  and  lay  it  aside  as  long  as 
the  temptation  please,  even  till  it  come  again, 
and  no  longer.  How  many  men  are  there  in 
the  world,  that  against  every  communion  re- 
new their  vows  of  holy  living  ?  men  that  for 
twenty,  for  thirty  years  together,  have  been 
perpetually  resolving  against  what  they  daily 
act;  and  sure  enough  they  did  believe  them- 
selves. And  yet  if  a  man  had  daily  pro- 
mised us  a  courtesy,  and  failed  us  but  ten 
times,  when  it  was  in  his  power  to  have 

potest  Virtus,)  see  si  unam  confessus  fueris  ie 
non  habere  nullam  te  esse  habiturum  an  nescis  ? 
— Cicero. 

31 


done  it, — we  should  think  we  had  reason 
never  to  believe  him  more.  And  can  we 
then  reasonably  believe  the  resolutions  of 
our  hearts,  which  they  have  falsified  so 
many  hundred  times  ?  We  resolve  against 
a  religious  time,  because  then  it  is  the  cus- 
tom of  men,  and  the  guise  of  the  religion  : 
or  we  resolve  when  we  are  in  a  great 
danger ;  and  then  we  promise  any  thing, 
possible  or  impossible,  likely  or  unlikely,  all 
is  one  to  us ;  we  only  care  to  remove  the 
present  pressure;  and  when  that  is  over, 
and  our  fear  is  gone,  and  no  love  remaining, 
our  condition  being  returned  to  our  first  se- 
curities, our  resolutions  also  revert  to  their 
first  indifferences  :  or  else  we  cannot  look  a 
temptation  in  the  face,  and  we  resolve  against 
it,  hoping  never  to  be  troubled  with  its  ar- 
guments and  importunity.  Epictetus  tells 
us  of  a  gentleman  returning  from  banish- 
ment, who,  in  his  journey  towards  home, 
called  at  his  house,,  told  a  sad  story  of  an 
imprudent  life,  the  greatest  part  of  which 
being  now  spent,  he  was  resolved,  for  the 
future,  to  live  philosophically,  and  entertain 
no  business,  to  be  candidate  for  no  employ- 
ment, not  to  go  to  the  court,  nor  to  salute 
Caesar  with  ambitious  attendances,  but  to 
study,  and  worship  the  gods,  and  die  will- 
ingly, when  nature  or  necessity  called  him. 
It  may  be,  this  man  believed  himself,  but 
Epictetus  did  not.  And  he  had  reason  :  for 
artrjytrjaav  avtc>  rCapa  Koc'cfopos  rtivaxiftes,  "  let- 
ters from  Caesar  met  him"  at  the  doors,  and 
invited  him  to  court;  and  he  forgot  all  his 
I  promises,  which  were  warm  upon  his  lips  ; 
'and  grew  pompous,  secular,  and  ambitious, 
j  and  gave  the  gods  thanks  for  his  preferment, 
j  Thus  many  men  leave  the  world,  when  their 
,  fortune  hath  left  them ;  and  they  are  severe 
and  philosophical,  and  retired  for  ever,  it 
'for  ever  it  be  impossible  to  return  :  but  let  a 
i  prosperous  sunshine  warm  and  refresh  their 
sadnesses,  and  make  it  but  possible  to  break, 
their  purposes,  and  there  needs  no  more 
temptation  ;  their  own  false  heart  is  enough  ;. 
they  are  like  "  Ephraim  in  the  day  of  battle, 
starting  aside  like  a  broken  bow." 

4.  The  heart  is  false,  deceiving  and  de- 
ceived, in  its  intentions  and  designs.  A 
man  hears  the  precepts  of  God  enjoining 
us  to  give  alms  of  all  we  posses ;  he  readily 
obeys  with  much  cheerfulness  and  alacritv, 
and  his  charity,  like  a  fair-spreading  tree, 
looks  beauteously:  but  there  is  a  canker  at 
the  heart ;  the  man  blows  a  trumpet  to  call 
the  poor  together,  and  hopes  the  neighbour- 
hood will  take  notice  of  his  bounty.  Nav, 


242  DECEITFULNESS  O 

he  gives  alms  privately,  and  charges  no 
man  to  speak  of  it,  and  yet  hopes,  by  some 
accident  or  other,  to  be  praised  both  for  his 
charity  and  humility.  And  if,  by  chance, 
the  fame  of  his  alms  come  abroad,  it  is  but  his 
duty  to  "let  his  light  so  shine  before  men," 
ihat  God  may  be  "glorified,"  and  some  of 
our  neighbours  be  relieved,  and  others  edi- 
fied. But  then,  to  distinguish  the  intention 
of  our  heart  in  this  instance,  and  to  seek 
God's  glory  in  a  particular,  which  will  also 
conduce  much  to  our  reputation,  and  to 
have  no  filthy  adherence  to  stick  to  the 
heart,  no  reflection  upon  ourselves,  or  no 
complacency  and  delight  in  popular  noises, 
— is  the  nicety  of  abstraction,  and  requires 
an  angel  to  do  it.  Some  men  are  so  kind- 
hearted,  so  true  to  their  friend,  that  they 
will  watch  his  very  dying  groans,  and  re- 
ceive his  last  breath,  and  close  his  eyes. 
And  if  this  be  done  with  honest  intention, 
it  is  well :  but  there  #re  some  that  do  so, 
and  yet  are  vultures  and  harpies ;  they 
watch  for  the  carcass,  and  prey  upon  a 
legacy.  A  man  with  a  true  story  may  be 
malicious  to  his  enemy,  and  by  doing  him- 
self right  may  also  do  him  wrong :  and  so 
false  is  the  heart  of  man,  so  clancular  and 
contradictory  are  its  actions  and  intentions, 
that  some  men  pursue  virtue  with  great 
earnestness,  and  yet  cannot  with  patience 
look  upon  it  in  another :  it  is  beauty  in  them- 
selves, and  deformity  in  the  other.  Is  it 
not  plain,  that  not  the  virtue,  but  its  reputa- 
tion, is  the  thing  that  is  pursued?  And 
•yet,  ;if  you  tell  the  man  so,  he  thinks  he 
hath  reason  to  complain  of  your  malice  or 
detraction.  Who  is  able  to  distinguish  his 
fear  of  God  from  fear  of  punishment,  when 
from  fear  of  punishment  we  are  brought  to 
fear  God  ?  And  yet  the  difference  must  be 
distinguishable  in  new  converts  and  old 
disciples  ;  and  our  fear  of  punishment  must 
so  often  change  its  circumstances,  that  it 
must  be  at  least  a  fear  to  offend  out  of  pure 
love,  and  must  have  no  formality  left  to 
distinguish  it  from  charity.  It  is  easy  to 
distinguish  these  things  in  precepts,  and  to 
make  the  separation  in  the  schools;  the 
head  can  do  it  easily,  and  the  tongue  can 
do  it:  but  when  the  heart  comes  to  sepa- 
rate alms  from  charity,  God's  glory  from 
human  praise,  fear  from  fear,  and  sincerity 
from  hypocrisy;  it  does  so  intricate  the 
questions,  and  confound  the  ends,  and  blind 
and  entangle  circumstances,  that  a  man 
hath  reason  to  doubt  that  his  very  best  ac- 
;*jojcs  are  sullied  with  some  unhandsome  ex- 


F  THE  HEART.  Serm.  XXXIII. 

crescency,  something  to  make  them  very  of- 
ten to  be  criminal,  but  always  to  be  imperfect. 

Here,  a  man  would  think,  were  enough 
to  abate  our  confidence,  and  the  spirit  of 
pride,  and  to  make  a  man  eternally  to  stand 
upon  his  guard,  and  to  keep  a  strict  watch 
upon  his  own  heart,  as  upon  his  greatest 
enemy  from  without.  "  Custodi,  libera  me 
de  meipso,  Deus;"  it  was  St.  Austin's 
prayer ;  "  Lord,  keep  me,  Lord,  deliver  me 
from  myself."  If  God  will  keep  a  man 
that  he  be  not  "  felo  de  se,"  that  "  he  lay 
no  violent  hands  upon  himself,"  it  is  cer- 
tain nothing  else  can  do  him  mischief. 
Ovte  Zf  vj,  ovte  /xolpa,  ovtsEpivvv^,  as  Agamem- 
non said;  "Neither  Jupiter,  nor  destinies, 
nor  the  furies,"  but  it  is  a  man's  self,  that 
does  him  the  mischief.  The  devil  can  but 
tempt,  and  offer  a  dagger  at  the  heart;  unless 
our  hands  thrust  it  home,  the  devil  can  do 
nothing,  but  what  may  turn  to  our  advan- 
tage. And  in  this  sense  we  are  to  under- 
stand the  two  seeming  contradictories  in 
Scripture  :  "  Pray  that  ye  enter  not  into 
temptation,"  said  our  blessed  Saviour;  and, 
"Count  it  all  joy  when  ye  enter  into  divers 
temptations,"  said  one  of  Christ's  disciples. 
The  case  is  easy.  When  God  suffers  us 
to  be  tempted,  he  means  it  but  as  a  trial  of 
our  faith,  as  the  exercise  of  our  virtues,  as 
the  opportunity  of  reward ;  and  in  such 
cases  we  have  reason  to  count  it  all  joy : 
since  the  "  trial  of  our  faith  worketh  pa- 
tience, and  patience  experience,  and  experi- 
ence causeth  hope,  and  hope  maketh  not 
ashamed:"  but  yet,  for  all  this,  "pray 
against  temptations:"  for  when  we  get 
them  into  our  hands,  we  use  them  as  blind 
men  do  their  clubs,  neither  distinguish  per- 
son nor  part;  they  strike  the  face  of  their 
friends  as  soon  as  the  back  of  the  enemy ; 
our  hearts  betray  us  to  the  enemy,  we  fall 
in  love  with  our  mischief,  we  contrive  how 
to  let  the  lust  in,  and  leave  a  port  open  on 
purpose,  and  use  arts  to  forget  our  duty, 
and  give  advantages  to  the  devil.  He  that 
uses  a  temptation  thus,  hath  reason  to  pray 
against  it;  and  yet  our  hearts  do  all  this 
and  a  thousand  times  more;  so  that  we 
may  engrave  upon  our  hearts  the  epitaph, 
which  was  digged  into  Thyestes'  grave- 
stone; 

Nolite,  hospites,  ad  me  adire  ;  illico  isthic ; 
Ne  contagio  mea  bonis  umbrave  obsit  : 
Meo  tanta  vis  sceleria  in  corpore  haeret. 

Cicero. 

There  is  so  much  falseness  and  iniquity 
in  man's  heart,  that  it  defiles  all  the  mem- 


Serm.  XXXIII.  DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART.  243 
bers :  it  makes  the  eyes  lustful,  and  the  I  edness  of  our  hearts  ;  they  do  not  see,  or 


tongue  slanderous;  it  fills  the  head  with 
mischief,  and  the  feet  with  blood,  and  the 
hands  with  injury,  and  the  present  condi- 
tion of  man  with  folly,  and  makes  his  fu- 
ture state  apt  to  inherit  eternal  misery. 
But  this  is  but  the  beginning  of  those 
throes  and  damnable  impieties  which  pro- 
ceed out  of  the  heart  of  man,  and  defile 


they  will  not  see,  the  ways  of  God  ;  or,  if 
they  do,  they  make  use  of  their  seeing  that 
they  may  avoid  them. 

1.  Our  hearts  are  blind,  wilfully  blind. 
I  need  not  instance  in  the  ignorance  and 
involuntary  nescience  of  men;  though  if 
we  speak  of  the  necessary  parts  of  religion, 
no  man  is  ignorant  of  them  without  his 


the  whole  constitution.    I  have  yet  told  but  own  fault ;  such  ignorance  is  always  a  di- 


the  iveaknesses of  the  heart;  I  shall  the  next 
time  tell  you  the  iniquities,  those  inherent 
devils  which  pollute  and  defile  it  to  the 
ground,  and  make  it  "desperately  wicked," 
that  is,  wicked  beyond  all  expression. 


SERMON  XXXIII. 

PART  II  . 

>  ?u»$  xai  a$vva,Luac,  rtfpt  ta  dvoyxata,  "  It  IS 
the  beginning  of  wisdom  to  know  a  man's 
own  weaknesses  and  failings,  in  things  of 
greatest  necessity       and  we  have  here  so 


rect  sin,  or  the  direct  punishment  of  a 
sin ;  a  sin  is  either  in  its  bosom,  or  in 
its  retinue.  But  the  ignorance  that  I  now 
intend,  is  a  voluntary,  chosen,  delightful 
ignorance,  taken  in  open  design,  even  for 
no  other  end,  but  that  we  may  perish  quiet- 
ly and  infallibly.  God  hath  opened  all  the 
windows  of  heaven,  and  sent  the  Sun  of 
righteousness  with  glorious  apparition,  and 
hath  discovered  the  abysses  of  his  own  wis- 
dom, made  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity 
to  be  the  doctor  and  preacher  of  his  sen- 
tences and  secrets,  and  the  third  person  to 
be  his  amanuensis  or  scribe,  and  our  hearts 
to  be  the  book  in  which  the  doctrine  is  writ- 
ten, and  miracles  and  prophecies  to  be  its 
arguments,  and  all  the  world  to  be  the  verifi- 


many  objects  to  furnish  out  this  knowledge, 

that  we  find  it  with  the  longest  and  latest,  j  cation  of  it;  and  those  leaves  contain  with- 
be fore  it  be  obtained.  A  man  does  not  be-|in  their  folds  all  that  excellent  morality, 
gin  to  know  himself  till  he  be  old,  and  then  j  which  right  reason  picked  up  after  the  ship- 


he  is  well  strieken  in  death.  A  man's 
heart  at  first  being  like  a  plain  table ;  un- 
spotted, indeed,  but  then  there  is  nothing 
legible  in  it;  as  soon  as  ever  we  ripen 
towards  the  imperfect  uses  of  our  reason, 
we  write  upon  this  table  sueh  crooked  cha- 
racters, such  imperfect  configurations,  so 
many  fooleries,  and  stain  it  with  so  many 
blots  and  vicious  inspersions,  that  there  is 
nothing  worth  the  reading  in  our  hearts  for 
a  great  while  ;  and  when  education  and 
ripeness,  reason  and  experience,  Christian 
philosophy  and  the  grace  of  God,  have 
made  fair  impressions,  and  written  the  law 
in  our  hearts  with  the  finger  of  God's  Holy 


wreck  of  nature,  and  all  those  wise  sayings 
which  singly  made  so  many  men  famous 
for  preaching  some  one  of  them ;  all  them 
Christ  gathered,  and  added  some  more  out 
of  the  immediate  book  of  revelation.  So 
that  now  the  wisdom  of  God  hath  made 
every  man's  heart  to  be  the  true  vetonica, 
in  which  he  hath  imprinted  his  own  linea- 
ments so  perfectly,  that  we  may  dress  our- 
selves like  God,  and  have  the  air  and 
features  of  Christ  our  elder  Brother  ;  that 
we  may  be  pure  as  God  is,  perfect  as  our 
Father,  meek  and  humble  as  the  Son,  and 
may  have  the  Holy  Ghost  within  us,  in 
gifts  and  graces,  in  wisdom  and  holiness. 


Spirit,  we  blot  out  this  hand-writing  of  j  This  hath  God  done  for  us;  and  see  what 
God's  ordinances,  or  mingle  it  with  false  ,  we  do  for  him.  We  stand  in  our  own  light, 
principles  and  interlinings  of  our  own  ;  we  and  quench  God's  :  we  love  darkness  more 
■disorder  the  method  of  God,  or  deface  the  than  light,  and  entertain  ourselves  accord- 
truth  of  God ;  either  we  make  the  rule  un-  ingly.  For  how  many  of  us  are  there,  that 
even,  we  bribe  or  abuse  our  guide,  that  we  understand  nothing  of  the  ways  of  God ; 


may  wander  with  an  excuse;  or  if  nothing 
else  will  do  it,  we  turn  head  and  profess  to 


that  know  no  more  of  the  laws  of  Jesus 
Christ  than  is  remaining  upon  them  since 
go  against  the  laws  of  God.  Our  hearts  they  learned  the  children's  catechism!  But, 
are  blind,  our  hearts  are  hardened;  for  amongst  a  thousand,  how  many  can  expli- 
these  are  two  great  arguments  of  the  wick- ;  cate  and  unfold  for  his  own  practice  the  ten 

 __ — _   commandments,  and  how  many  sorts  of 

*Epict.  Arrian.  sins  are  there  forbidden  ?  which  therefore 


DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART.  Serm.  XXXIII. 


244 

pass  into  action,  and  never  pass  under  the 
scrutinies  of  repentance,  because  they  know 
not  that  they  are  sins.  Are  there  not  very 
many,  who  know  not  the  particular  duties 
of  "  meekness,"  and  never  consider  con- 
cerning "long-suffering?"  and  if  you  talk 
to  them  of  growth  in  grace,  or  the  Spirit  of 
obsignation,  or  the  melancholic  lectures  of 
the  cross,  and  imitation  of  and  conformity 
to  Christ's  sufferings,  or  adherences  to  God, 
or  rejoicing  in  him,  or  not  quenching  the 
Spirit ;  you  are  too  deep-learned  for  them. 
And  yet  these  are  duties  set  down  plainly 
for  our  practice,  necessary  to  be  acted  in 
order  to  our  salvation.  We  brag  of  light, 
and  reformation,  and  fulness  of  the  Spirit: 
in  the  mean  time  we  understand  not  many 
parts  of  our  duty.  We  inquire  into  some- 
thing that  may  make  us  talk,  or  be  talked 
of,  or  that  we  may  trouble  a  church,  or  dis- 
turb the  peace  of  minds ;  but  in  things  that 
concern  holy  living,  and  that  wisdom  of 
God  whereby  we  are  wise  unto  salvation, 
never  was  any  age  of  Christendom  more 
ignorant  than  we.  For,  if  we  did  not  wink 
hard,  we  must  needs  see,  that  obedience  to 
supreme  powers,  denying  of  ourselves,  hu- 
mility, peacefulness,  and  charity,  are  written 
in  such  capital  text  letters,  that  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  be  ignorant  of  them.  And  if  the 
heart  of  man  had  not  rare  arts  to  abuse  the 
understanding,  it  were  not  to  be  imagined 
that  any  man  should  bring  the  thirteenth 
chapter  to  the  Romans,  to  prove  the  law- 
fulness of  taking  up  arms  against  our  rulers; 
but  so  we  may  abuse  ourselves  at  noon,  and 
go  to  bed,  if  we  please  to  call  it  midnight. 
And  there  have  been  a  sort  of  witty  men, 
that  maintained  that  snow  was  hot.  I  won- 
der not  at  the  problem;  but  that  a  man 
should  believe  his  paradox,  and  should  let 
eternity  go  away  with  the  fallacy,  and  ra- 
ther loose  heaven  than  leave  his  foolish 
argument;  is  a  sign  that  wilfulness  and  the 
deceiving  heart  is  the  sophister,  and  the 
great  ingredient  into  our  deception. 

But,  that  I  may  be  more  particular;  the 
heart  of  man  uses  devices  that  it  may  be 
ignorant. 

I.  We  are  impatient  of  honest  and  severe 
reproof ;  and  order  the  circumstances  of  our 
persons  and  addresses,  that  we  shall  never 
come  to  the  true  knowledge  of  our  condition. 
Who  will  endure  to  hear  his  curate  tell  him, 
that  he  is  covetous,  or  that  he  is  proud? 
Ai-yw,  «I>  Sfu^s  vfipfw?.  It  is  calumny  and  re- 
viling, if  he  speak  it  to  his  head,  and  relates 
to  his  person  :  and  yet  if  he  speak  only  in 


general,  every  man  neglects  what  is  not 
recommended  to  his  particular.  But  yet,  if 
our  physician  tells  us,  You  look  well,  sir,  but 
a  fever  lurks  in  your  spirits  ;  Anitrjoov  oruxspov 
v8u>p  nU,  "  Drink  juleps,  and  abstain  from 
flesh  ;" — no  man  thinks  it  shame  or  calumny 
to  be  told  so  :  but  when  we  are  told  that  our 
liver  is  inflamed  with  lust  or  anger,  that  our 
heart  is  vexed  with  envy,  that  our  eyes  roll 
with  wantonness ;  and  though  we  think  all 
is  well,  yet  we  are  sick,  sick  unto  death, 
and  near  to  a  sad  and  fatal  sentence ;  we 
shall  think  that  man  that  tells  us  so  is  im- 
pudent or  uncharitable;  and  yet  he  hath 
done  him  no  more  injury  than  a  deformed 
man  receives  daily  from  his  looking-glass, 
which  if  he  shall  dash  against  the  wall,  be- 
cause it  shows  him  his  face  just  as  it  is,  his 
face  is  not  so  ugly  as  his  manners.  And  our 
heart  is  so  impatient  of  seeing  its  own  stains, 
that,  like  the  elephant,  it  tramples  in  the 
pure  streams,  and  first  troubles  them,  then 
stoops  and  drinks,  when  he  can  least  see 
his  huge  deformity. 

2.  In  order  to  this,  we  heap  up  teachers 
of  our  own,  and  they  guide  us,  not  whither, 
but  which  way,  they  please :  for  we  are 
curious  to  go  our  own  way,  and  careless  of 
our  hospital  or  inn  at  night.  A  fair  way, 
and  a  merry  company,  and  a  pleasant,  easy 
guide,  will  entice  us  into  the  enemy's 
quarters  ;  and  such  guides  we  cannot  want : 
"  Improbitati  occasio  numquam  defuit ;" 
"  If  we  have  a  mind  to  be  wicked,  we  shall 
want  no  prompters  ;"  and  false  teachers,  at 
first  creeping  in  unawares,  have  now  so 
filled  the  pavement  of  the  church,  that  you 
can  scarce  set  your  foot  on  the  ground 
but  you  tread  upon  a  snake.  Cicero  (1.  7. 
ad  Atlicum)  undertakes  to  bargain  with 
them  that  kept  the  Sibyl's  books,  that  for  a 
sum  of  money  they  should  expound  to  him 
what  he  please ;  and  to  be  sure,  "  ut  quidvis 
potius  quam  regem  proferrent;"  "They 
shall  declare  against  the  government  of 
kings,  and  say,  that  the  gods  will  endure 
any  thing  rather  than  monarchy  in  their 
beloved  republic."  And  the  same  mischief 
God  complains  of  to  be  among  the  Jews  : 
"The  prophets  prophesy  lies,  and  my 
people  love  to  have  it  so  :  and  what  will 
the  end  of  these  things  be?" — even  the 
same  that  Cicero  complained  of,  "  Ad  opini 
onem  imperatorum  fictas  esse  religiones  ;"* 
men  shall  have  what  religion  they  please, 
and  God  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  quarrels 


*  De  Divinitat.  I.  2. 


Serm.  XXXIII.    DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART. 


245 


of  covetous  and  ambitious  persons  ;  xai 
Hv^tav  ta*rtr<i£etv3  as  Demosthenes  wittily 
complained  of  the  oracle  ;  an  answer  shall 
be  drawn  out  of  Scripture  to  countenance 
the  design,  and  God  made  the  rebel  against 
his  own  ordinances.  And  then  we  are 
zealous  of  the  Lord  God  of  hosts,  and  will 
live  and  die  in  that  quarrel.  But  is  it  not  a 
strange  cozenage,  that  our  hearts  shall  be 
the  main  wheel  in  the  engine,  and  shall  set 
all  the  rest  on  working  ?  The  heart  shall 
first  put  his  own  candle  out,  then  put  out 
the  eye  of  reason,  then  remove  the  land- 
mark and  dig  down  the  causeways,  and  then 
either  hire  a  blind  guide,  or  make  him  so : 
and  all  these  arts  to  get  ignorance  that  they 
may  secure  impiety.  At  first,  man  lost  his 
innocence  only  in  hope  to  get  a  little  know- 
ledge :  and  ever  since  then,  lest  knowledge 
should  discover  his  error,  and  make  him  re- 
cur to  innocence,  we  are  content  to  part 
with  that  now,  and  to  know  nothing  that 
may  discover  or  discountenance  our  sins,  or 
discompose  our  secular  designs.  And  as 
God  made  great  revelations,  and  furnished 
out  a  wise  religion,  and  sent  his  Spirit  to 
give  the  gift  of  faith  to  his  church,  that, 
upon  the  foundation  of  faith  he  might  build 
a  holy  life:  now  our  hearts  love  to  retire 
into  blindness,  and  sneak  under  covert  of 
false  principles,  and  run  to  a  cheap  religion, 
and  an  inactive  discipline,  and  make  a  faith 
of  our  own,  that  we  may  build  upon  it  ease, 
and  ambition,  and  a  tall  fortune,  and  the 
pleasures  of  revenge,  and  do  what  we  have 
a  mind  to  ;  scarce  once  in  seven  years  deny- 
ing a  strong  and  an  unruly  appetite  upon 
the  interest  of  a  just  conscience  and  holy 
religion.  This  is  such  a  desperate  method 
of  impiety,  so  certain  arts  and  apt  instru- 
ments for  the  devil,  that  it  does  his  work 
entirely,  and  produces  an  infallible  damna- 
tion. 

3.  But  the  heart  of  man  hath  yet  another 
stratagem  to  secure  its  iniquity  by  the 
means  of  ignorance ;  and  that  is,  incogi- 
tancy  or  inconsideration.  For  there  is 
wrought  upon  the  spirits  of  many  men  great 
impression  by  education,  by  a  modest  and 
temperate  nature,  by  human  laws,  and  the 
customs  and  severities  of  sober  persons,  and 
the  fears  of  religion,  and  the  awfulness  of  a 
reverend  man,  and  the  several  arguments 
and  endearments  of  virtue  :  and  it  is  not  in 
the  nature  of  some  men  to  do  an  act  in  de- 
spite of  reason,  and  religion,  and  arguments, 
and  reverence,  and  modesty,  and  fear;  but 
men  are  forced  from  their  sin  by  the  vio- 


lence of  the  grace  of  God,  when  they  hear 
it  speak.  But  so  a  Roman  gentleman  kept 
off  a  whole  band  of  soldiers  who  were  sent 
to  murder  him,  and  his  eloquence  was 
stronger  than  their  anger  and  design :  but 
suddenly  a  rude  trooper  rushed  upon  him, 
who  neither  had  nor  would  hear  him  speak; 
and  he  thrust  his  spear  into  that  throat, 
whose  music  had  charmed  all  his  fellows 
into  peace  and  gentleness.  So  do  we.  The 
grace  of  God  is  armour  and  defence  enough, 
against  the  most  violent  incursion  of  the 
spirits  and  the  works  of  darkness ;  but  then 
we  must  hear  its  excellent  charms,  and  con- 
sider its  reasons,  and  remember  its  precepts, 
and  dwell  with  its  discourses.  But  this  the 
I  heart  of  man  loves  not.  If  I  be  tempted  to 
uncleanness,  or  to  an  act  of  oppression, 
instantly  the  grace  of  God  represents  to  me, 
that  the  pleasure  of  the  sin  is  transient  and 
vain,  unsatisfying  and  empty ;  that  I  shall 
die,  and  then  I  shall  wish  too  late  that  I  had 
never  done  it.  It  tells  me,  that  I  displease 
God  who  made  me,  who  feeds  me,  who 
blesses  me,  who  fain  would  save  me.  It 
represents  to  me  all  the  joys  of  heaven,  and 
the  horrors  and  amazements  of  a  sad 
eternity;  and  if  I  will  stay  and  hear  them, 
ten  thousand  excellent  things  besides,  fit  to 
be  twisted  about  my  understanding  for  ever. 
But  here  the  heart  of  man  shuffles  all  these 
discourses  into  disorder,  and  will  not  be  put 
to  the  trouble  of  answering  the  objections ; 
but,  by  a  mere  wildness  of  purpose,  and 
rudeness  of  resolution,  ventures  "super 
totam  materiam,"  at  all,  and  does  the  thing, 
not  because  it  thinks  it  fit  to  do  so,  but  be- 
cause it  will  not  consider  whether  it  be  or 
not;  it  is  enough,  that  it  pleases  a  pleasant 
appetite.  And  if  such  incogitancy  comes  to 
be  habitual,  as  it  is  in  very  many  men, — 
first  by  resisting  the  motions  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  then  by  quenching  him, — we  shall 
find  the  consequence  to  be,  first  an  in- 
differency, — then  a  dulness, — then  a  le- 
thargy,— then  a  direct  hating  the  ways  of 
God  ; — and  it  commonly  ends  in  a  wretch- 
edness of  spirit,  to  be  manifested  on  our 
death-bed  ;  when  the  man  shall  pass  hence, 
not  like  the  shadow,  but  like  the  dog,  that 
departeth  without  sense,  or  interest,  or  ap- 
prehension, or  real  concernment,  in  the 
considerations  of  eternity  :  and  it  is  but  just, 
when  we  will  not  hear  our  King  speak  and 
plead,  not  to  save  himself,  but  us,  to  speak 
for  our  peace,  and  innocency,  and  salvation, 
to  prevent  our  ruin,  and  our  intolerable 
calam'y.  Certainly,  we  are  much  in  love 
v2 


246  DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART.   Serm.  XXXIII. 


with  the  wages  of  death,  when  we  cannot 
endure  to  hear  God  call  us  back,  and  ■*  stop 
our  ears  against  the  voice  of  the  charmer, 
charm  he  ever  so  wisely." 

Nay,  further  yet,  we  suffer  the  arguments 
of  religion  to  have  so  little  impression  upon 
our  spirits,  that  they  operate  but  like  the 
discourses  of  childhood,  or  the  problems  of 
uncertain  philosophy.  A  man  talks  of  re- 
ligion but  as  of  a  dream,  and  from  thence 
he  awakens  into  the  business  of  the  world, 
and  acts  them  deliberately,  with  perfect 
action  and  full  resolution,  and  contrives,  and 
considers,  and  lives  in  them :  but  when  he 
falls  asleep  again,  or  is  taken  from  the  scene 
of  his  own  employment  and  choice,  then  he 
dreams  again,  and  religion  makes  such 
impressions  as  is  the  conversation  of  a 
dreamer,  and  he  acts  accordingly.  Theo- 
critus tells  of  a  fisherman,  that  dreamed  he 
had  taken  ov  adpxixov  ixOvv,  aMka  ^pvotov,  i(  a 
fish  of  gold  upon  which  being  overjoyed, 
he  made  a  vow,  that  he  would  never  fish 
more  :  but  when  he  waked,  he  soon  declared 
his  vow  to  be  null,  because  he  found  his 
golden  fish  was  escaped  away  through  the 
holes  of  his  eyes,  when  he  first  opened  them. 
Just  so  we  do  in  the  purposes  of  religion ; 
sometimes,  in  a  good  mood,  we  seem  to  see 
heaven  opened,  and  all  the  streets  of  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem  paved  with  gold  and 
precious  stones,  and  we  are  ravished  with 
spiritual  apprehensions,  and  resolve  never 
to  return  to  the  low  affections  of  the  world, 
and  the  impure  adherences  of  sin  :  but  when 
this  flash  of  lightning  is  gone,  and  we  con- 
verse again  with  the  inclinations  and  habitual 
desires  of  our  false  hearts,  those  other  de- 
sires and  fine  considerations  disband,  and 
the  resolutions  taken  in  that  pious  fit,  melt 
into  indifference  and  cold  customs.  He  was 
prettily  and  fantastically  troubled,  who, 
having  used  to  put  his  trust  in  dreams, 
one  night  dreamed  that  all  dreams  were 
vain  :  for  he  considered,  if  so,  then  this 
was  vain,  and  then  dreams  might  be  true 
for  all  this  :  but  if  they  might  be  true,  then 
this  dream  might  be  so  upon  equal  reason  : 
and  then  dreams  were  vain,  because  this 
dream,  which  told  him  so,  was  true ;  and 
so  round  again.  In  the  same  circle  runs 
the  heart  of  man  :  all  his  cogitations  are 
vain,  and  yet  he  makes  especial  use  of  this, 
that  that  thought  which  thinks  so,  that  is 
vain;  and  if  that  be  vain,  then  his  other 
thoughts,  which  are  vainly  declared  so,  may 
be  real,  and  relied  upon.  And  so  do  we  : 
those  religious  thoughts  which  are  sent  into 


j  us  to  condemn  and  disrepute  the  thoughts 
:  of  sin  and  vanity,  are  esteemed  the  only 
dreams  :  and  so  all  those  instruments  which 
the  grace  of  God  hath  invented  for  the  de- 
struction of  impiety,  are  rendered  ineffectual, 
either  by  our  direct  opposing  them,  or 
(which  happens  most  commonly)  by  our 
want  of  considering-  them. 

The  effect  of  all  is  this,  that  we  are  igno 
rant  of  the  things  of  God.  We  make  re 
ligion  to  be  the  work  of  a  few  hours  in  the 
whole  year ;  we  are  without  fancy  or  affec- 
tion to  the  severities  of  holy  living  ;  we  re- 
duce religion  to  the  believing  of  a  few 
articles,  and  doing  nothing  that  is  considera- 
ble; we  pray  seldom,  and  then  but  very 
coldly  and  indifferently;  we  communicate 
not  so  often  as  the  sun  salutes  both  the 
tropics  ;  we  profess  Christ,  but  dare  not  die 
for  him  ;  we  are  factious  for  a  religion,  and 
will  not  live  according  to  its  precepts ;  we 
call  ourselves  Christians,  and  love  to  be 
ignorant  of  many  of  the  laws  of  Christ,  lest 
our  knowledge  should  force  us  into  shame, 
or  into  the  troubles  of  a  holy  life.  All  the 
mischiefs  that  you  can  suppose  to  happen 
to  a  furious  inconsiderate  person,  running 
after  the  wildfires  of  the  night,  over  rivers, 
and  rocks,  and  precipices,  without  sun  or 
star,  or  angel  or  man,  to  guide  him  ;  all  that, 
and  ten  thousand  times  worse,  may  you 
suppose  to  be  the  certain  lot  of  him,  who 
gives  himself  up  to  the  conduct  of  a  passion- 
ate, blind  heart,  whom  no  fire  can  warm, 
and  no  sun  can  enlighten ;  who  hates  light, 
and  loves  to  dwell  in  the  regions  of  darkness. 
That  is  the  first  general  mischief  of  the  heart, 
it  is  possessed  with  blindness,  wilful  and 
voluntary. 

2.  But  the  heart  is  hard  too.  Not  only 
folly,  but  mischief  also,  is  bound  up  in  the 
heart  of  man.  If  God  strives  to  soften  it 
with  sorrow  and  sad  accidents,  it  is  like  an 
ox,  it  grows  callous  and  hard.  Such  a 
heart  was  Pharaoh's.  When  God  makes 
the  clouds  to  gather  round  about  us,  we 
wrap  our  heads  in  the  clouds,  and,  like  the 
malcontents  in  Galba's  time,  "tristitiam 
simulamus,  contumaciam  propiores,"  "  we 
seem  sad  and  troubled,  but  it  is  doggedness 
and  murmur." — Or  else,  if  our  fears  be  preg- 
nant, and  the  heart  yielding,  it  sinks  low 
into  pusillanimity  and  superstition ;  and  our 
hearts  are  so  childish,  so  timorous,  or  so  im- 
patient, in  a  sadness,  that  God  is  weary  of 
striking  us,  and  we  are  glad  of  it.  And  yet, 
when  the  sun  shines  upon  us,  our  hearts 
are  hardened  with  that  too  :  and  God  seems 


Serm.  XXXIII.  DECEITFULNES 


S  OF  THE  HEART. 


247 


to  be  at  a  loss,  as  if  he  knew  not  what  to  do 
to  us.  War  undoes  u&,  and  makes  us  vio- 
lent ;  peace  undoes  us,  and  makes  us  wan- 
ton ;  prosperity  makes  us  proud  ;  adversity 
renders  us  impatient;  plenty  dissolves  us, 
and  makes  us  tyrants;  want  makes  us 
greedy,  liars,  and  rapacious. 

n<I>s  ovv  t(4  av  ou>6tu  toiavtqv  tCoHv, 

Aristoph.  Barpa^.  Act  5.  Sc.  4. 

"No  fortune  can  save  that  city,  to  whom 
neither  peace  nor  war  can  do  advantage." 
And  what  is  there  left  for  God  to  mollify  our 
hearts,  whose  temper  is  like  both  to  wax  and 
dirt;  whom  fire  hardens,  and  cold  hardens: 
and  contradictory  accidents  produce  no 
change,  save  that  the  heart  grows  worse 
and  more  obdurate  for  every  change  of  Pro- 
vidence? But  here  also  I  must  descend  to 
particulars. 

1.  The  heart  of  man  is  strangely  proud. 
If  men  commend  us,  we  think  we  have 
reason  to  distinguish  ourselves  from  others, 
since  the  voice  of  discerning  men  hath  al- 
ready made  the  separation.  If  men  do  not 
commend  us,  we  think  they  are  stupid,  and 
understand  us  not;  or  envious,  and  hold 
their  tongues  in  spite.  If  we  are  praised  by 
many,  then  "  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei,"  "  Fame 
is  the  voice  of  God."  If  we  be  praised  but 
by  few,  then  "Satis  unus,  satis  nullus;" 
we  cry,  "  These  are  wise,  and  one  wise  man 
is  worth  a  whole  herd  of  the  people."  But 
if  we  be  praised  by  none  at  all,  we  resolve 
to  be  even  with  all  the  world,  and  speak 
well  of  nobody,  and  think  well  only  of  our- 
selves. And  then  we  have  such  beggarly 
arts,  such  tricks,  to  cheat  for  praise.  We 
inquire  after  our  faults  and  failings,  only  to 
be  told  we  have  none,  but  did  excellently ; 
and  then  we  are  pleased :  we  rail  upon  our 
actions,  only  to  be  chidden  for  so  doing ; 
and  then  he  is  our  friend  who  chides  us  into 
a  good  opinion  of  ourselves,  which  how- 
ever all  the  world  cannot  make  us  part  with. 
Nay,  humility  itself  makes  us  proud;  so 
false,  so  base,  is  the  heart  of  man.  For  hu- 
mility is  so  noble  a  virtue,  that  even  pride 
itself  puts  on  its  upper  garment:  and  we  do 
like  those  who  cannot  endure  to  look  upon 
an  ugly  or  a  deformed  person,  and  yet  will 
give  a  great  price  for  a  picture  extremely 
like  him.  Humility  is  despised  in  substance, 
but  courted  and  admired  in  effigy.  And 
/Esop's  picture  was  sold  for  two  talents, 
when  himself  was  made  a  slave  at  the  price 
of  two  philippics.    And  because  humility 


makes  a  man  to  be  honoured,  therefore  we 
imitate  all  its  garbs  and  postures,  its  civil- 
ities and  silence,  its  modesties  and  conde- 
scensions. And,  to  prove  that  we  are 
extremely  proud,  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
pageantry,  we  should  be  extremely  angry  at 
any  man  that  should  say  we  are  proud  ;  and 
that  is  a  sure  sign  we  are  so.  And  in  the 
midst  of  all  our  arts  to  seem  humble,  we 
use  devices  to  bring  ourselves  into  talk  ;  we 
thrust  ourselves  into  company,  we  listen  at 
doors,  and,  like  the  greatbeards  in  Rome 
that  pretended  philosophy  and  strict  life, 
dfisUcsxov  xata7a6vtfg  TisptTiatov/xsv,  "we  walk 
by  the  obelisk,"*  and  meditate  in  piazzas, 
that  they  that  meet  us  may  talk  of  us,  and 
they  that  follow  may  cry  out,  "il  ^yoxov 
$ao<?d(j>oi; !  Behold!  there  goes  an  excellent 
man  !  He  is  very  prudent,  or  very  learned, 
or  a  charitable  person,  or  a  good  house- 
keeper, or  at  least  very  humble. 

2.  The  heart  of  man  is  deeply  in  love 
with  wickedness,  and  with  nothing  else : 
against  not  only  the  laws  of  God,  but  against 
his  own  reason,  its  own  interest,  and  its 
own  securities  ?  For  is  it  imaginable,  that 
a  man,  who  knows  the  laws  of  God,  the  re- 
wards of  virtue,  the  cursed  and  horrid  effects 
of  sin ;  that  knows,  and  considers,  and 
deeply  sighs  at,  the  thought  of  the  intoler- 
able pains  of  hell ;  that  knows  the  joys  of 
heaven  to  be  unspeakable,  and  that  concern- 
ing them  there  is  no  temptation,  but  that 
they  are  too  big  for  man  to  hope  for,  and 
yet  he  certainly  believes,  that  a  holy  life 
shall  infallibly  attain  thither :  is  it,  I  say, 
imaginable,  that  this  man  should,  for  a  tran- 
sient action,  forfeit  all  this  hope,  and  cer- 
tainly and  knowingly  incur  all  that  calami- 
ty? Yea,  but  the  sin  is  pleasant,  and  the 
man  is  clothed  with  flesh  and  blood,  and 
their  appetites  are  material,  and  importu- 
nate, and  present ;  and  the  discourses  of 
religion  are  concerning  things  spiritual,  se- 
parate and  apt  for  spirits,  angels,  and  souls 
departed.  To  take  off  this  also,  we  will 
suppose  the  man  to  consider,  and  really  to 
believe,  that  the  pleasure  of  the  sin  is  sud- 
den, vain,  empty,  and  transient;  that  it 
leaves  bitterness  upon  the  tongue,  before  it 
is  descended  into  the  bowels ;  that  there  it 
is  poison,  and  "makes  the  belly  to  swell, 
and  the  thigh  to  rot;"  that  he  remembers, 
and  actually  considers,  that  as  soon  as  the 
moment  of  sin  is  past,  he  shall  have  an  in- 
tolerable conscience,  and  does,  at  the  instant, 


*  Arnau. 


248 


DECEITFULNESS  OF  THE  HEART. 


Serm.  XXXIII. 


compare  moments  with  eternity,  and  with 
horror  remembers,  that  the  very  next  minute 
he  is  as  miserable  a  man  as  is  in  the  world  : 
yet  that  this  man  should  sin?  Nay,  sup- 
pose the  sin  to  have  no  pleasure  at  all,  such 
as  is  the  sin  of  swearing ;  nay,  suppose  it 
really  to  have  pain  in  it,  such  as  is  the  sin 
of  envy,  which  never  can  have  pleasure  in 
its  actions,  but  much  torment  and  consump- 
tion of  the  very  heart :  *what  should  make 
this  man  sin  so  for  nothing,  so  against  him- 
self, so  against  all  reason,  and  religion,  and 
interest,  without  pleasure,  for  no  reward? 
Here  the  heart  betrays  itself  to  be  "  despe- 
rately wicked."  What  man  can  give  a 
reasonable  account  of  such  a  man,  who,  to 
prosecute  his  revenge,  will  do  himself  an 
injury,  that  he  may  do  a  less  to  him  that 
troubles  him.  Such  a  man  hath  given  me 
ill  language:  Ovte  lip  xttytikriv  a"kysi,  ovts  tbv 
bty^ayixov,  ovts  tbv  irs%lov,ovts  tbv  aypov  artoTJkvst, 
"  My  head  aches  not  for  his  language,  nor 
hath  he  broken  my  thigh,  nor  carried  away 
my  land  :"  but  this  man  must  be  requited  ; 
well,  suppose  that.  But  then  let  it  be  pro- 
portionably :  you  are  not  undone,  let  not  him 
be  so. — Oh,  yes;  for  else  my  revenge  tri- 
umphs not ; — well,  if  you  do,  yet  remember, 
he  will  defend  himself,  or  the  law  will  right 
him ;  at  least,  do  not  do  wrong  to  yourself 
by  doing  him  wrong:  this  were  but  pru- 
dence and  self-interest.  And  yet  we  see, 
that  the  heart  of  some  men  hath  betrayed 
them  to  such  furiousness  of  appetite,  as  to 
make  them  willing  to  die,  that  their  enemy 
may  be  buried  in  the  same  ruins.  Jovius 
Pontanus  tells  of  an  Italian  slave,  I  think, 
who,  being  enraged  against  his  lord,  watched 
his  absence  from  home,  and  the  employment 
and  inadvertency  of  his  fellow-servants:  he 
locked  the  doors,  and  secured  himself  for 
awhile,  and  ravished  his  lady;  then  took 
her  three  sons  up  to  the  battlements  of  the 
house,  and  at  the  return  of  his  lord,  threw 
one  down  to  him  upon  the  pavement,  and 
then  a  second,  to  rend  the  heart  of  their  sad 
father,  seeing  them  weltering  in  their  blood 
and  brains.  The  lord  begged  for  his  third, 
and  now  his  only  son,  promising  pardon 
and  liberty  if  he  would  spare  his  life.  The 
slave  seemed  to  bend  a  little,  and,  on  condi- 
tion his  lord  would  cut  off  his  own  nose,  he 
would  spare  his  son.  The  sad  father  did  so, 
being  willing  to  suffer  any  thing  rather  than 
the  loss  of  that  child.  But  as  soon  as  he 
saw  his  lord  all  bloody  with  his  wound,  he 
threw  the  third  son  and  himself  down  to- 
gether upon  the  pavement.    The  story  is 


sad  enough,  and  needs  no  lustre  and  advan 
tages  of  sorrow  to  represent  it :  but  if  a  man 
sets  himself  down,  and  considers  sadly,  he 
cannot  easily  tell,  upon  what  sufficient  in- 
ducement, or  what  principle,  the  slave 
should  so  certainly,  so  horridly,  so  presently, 
and  then  so  eternally,  ruin  himself.  What 
could  he  propound  to  himself  as  a  recom- 
pense to  his  own  so  immediate  tragedy? 
There  is  not  in  the  pleasure  of  the  revenge, 
nor  in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  any  thing  to 
tempt  him ;  we  must  confess  our  ignorance, 
and  say  ,  that  "  The  heart  of  man  is  despe- 
rately wicked ;"  and  that  is  the  truth  in  ge- 
neral, but  we  cannot  fathom  it  by  particular 
comprehension. 

For  when  the  heart  of  man  is  bound  up 
by  the  grace  of  God,  and  tied  in  golden 
bands,  and  watched  by  angels,  tended  by 
those  nursekeepers  of  the  soul,  it  is  not  easy 
for  a  man  to  wander ;  and  the  evil  of  his 
heart  is  but  like  the  ferity  and  wildness  of 
lions'  whelps :  but  when  once  we  have 
broken  the  hedge,  and  got  into  the  strengths 
of  youth,  and  the  licentiousness  of  an  un- 
governed  age,  it  is  wonderful  to  observe, 
what  a  great  inundation  of  mischief,  in  a 
very  short  time,  will  overflow  all  the  banks 
of  reason  and  religion.  Vice  first  is  pleas- 
ing,— then  it  grows  easy, — then  delightful,— 
then  frequent, — then  habitual, — then  con- 
firmed ; — then  the  man  is  impenitent, — then 
he  is  obstinate, — then  he  resolves  never  to 
repent, — and  then  he  is  damned. — And  by 
that  time  he  is  come  half-way  in  this  pro- 
gress, he  confutes  the  philosophy  of  the  old 
moralists :  for  they,  not  knowing  the  vile- 
ness  of  man's  heart,  nor  considering  its 
desperate,  amazing  impiety,  knew  no  other 
degree  of  wickedness  but  this,  that  men  pre- 
ferred sense  before  reason,  and  their  under- 
standings were  abused  in  the  choice  of  a 
temporal  before  an  intellectual  and  eternal 
good :  but  they  always  concluded,  that  the 
will  of  man  must  of  necessity  follow  the  last 
dictate  of  the  understanding,  declaring  an 
object  to  be  gc#d,  in  one  sense  or  other. 
Happy  men  they  were  that  were  so  inno- 
cent, that  knew  no  pure  and  perfect  malice, 
and  lived  in  an  age  in  which  it  was  not  easy 
to  confute  them.  But,  besides  that  now  the 
wells  of  a  deeper  iniquity  are  discovered, 
we  see,  by  too  sad  experience,  that  there  are 
some  sins  proceeding  from  the  heart  of  man, 
which  have  nothing  but  simple  and  unmin 
gled  malice :  actions  of  mere  spite,  doing 
evil  because  it  is  evil,  sinning  without  sen- 
sual pleasures,  sinning  with  sensual  pain. 


Serm.XXXIII.  deceitfulness  of  the  heart. 


249 


with  hazard  of  our  lives,  with  actual  tor- 
ment, and  sudden  deaths,  and  certain  and 
present  damnation  ;  sins  against  the  Holy 
Ghost,  open  hostilities,  and  professed  enmi- 
ties, against  God  and  all  virtue.  I  can  go 
no  further,  because  there  is  not  in  the  world, 
or  in  the  nature  of  things,  a  greater  evil. 
And  that  is  the  nature  and  folly  of  the  devil ; 
he  tempts  men  to  ruin,  and  hates  God,  and 
only  hurts  himself  and  those  he  tempts,  and 
does  himself  no  pleasure,  and  some  say  he 
increases  his  own  accidental  torment. 

Although  I  can  say  nothing  greater,  yet  I 
had  many  more  things  to  say,  if  the  time 
would  have  permitted  me  to  represent  the 
falseness  and  baseness  of  the  heart.  1. 
We  are  false  ourselves,  and  dare  not  trust 
God.  2.  We  love  to  be  deceived,  and  are 
angry  if  we  be  told  so.  3.  We  love  to  seem 
virtuous,  and  yet  hate  to  be  so.  4.  We  are 
melancholic  and  impatient,  and  we  know 
not  why.  5.  We  are  troubled  at  little  things, 
and  are  careless  of  greater.  6.  We  are 
overjoyed  at  a  petty  accident,  and  despise 
great  and  eternal  pleasures.  7.  We  believe 
things,  not  for  their  reasons  and  proper  ar- 
guments, but  as  they  serve  our  turns,  be 
they  true  or  false.  8.  We  long  extremely 
for  things  that  are  forbidden  us  ;  and  what 
we  despise  when  it  is  permitted  us,  we 
snatch  at  greedily  when  it  is  taken  from  us. 
9.  We  love  ourselves  more  than  Ave  love 
God  ;  and  yet  we  eat  poisons  daily,  and  feed 
upon  toads  and  vipers,  and  nourish  our 
deadly  enemies  in  our  bosom,  and  will  not 
be  brought  to  quit  them ;  but  brag  of  our 
shame,  and  are  ashamed  of  nothing  but  vir- 
tue, which  is  most  honourable.  10.  We 
fear  to  die,  and  yet  use  all  the  means  we  can 
to  make  death  terrible  and  dangerous.  11. 
We  are  busy  in  the  faults  of  others,  and 
negligent  of  our  own.  12.  We  live  the  life 
of  spies,  striving  to  know  others,  and  to  be 
unknown  ourselves.  13.  We  worship  and 
flatter  some  men  and  some  things,  because 
we  fear  them,  not  because  we  love  them. 

14.  We  are  ambitious  of  greatness,  and 
covetous  of  wealth,  and  all  that  we  get  by 
it  is,  that  we  are  more  beautifully  tempted  ; 
and  a  troop  of  clients  run  to  us  as  to  a  pool, 
which  first  they  trouble,  and  then  draw  dry. 

15.  We  make  ourselves  unsafe  by  commit- 


ting wickedness,  and  then  we  add  more 
wickedness,  to  make  us  safe  and  beyond 
punishment.  16.  We  are  more  servile  for 
one  courtesy  that  we  hope  for,  than  for 
twenty  that  we  have  received.  17.  We  en- 
tertain slanderers,  and,  without  choice, 
spread  their  calumnies,  and  we  hug  flatter- 
ers, and  know  they  abuse  us.  And  if  I 
should  gather  the  abuses,  and  impieties,  and 
deceptions  of  the  heart,  as  Chrysippus  did 
the  oracular  lies  of  Apollo  into  a  table,  I  fear 
they  would  seem  remediless,  and  beyond  the 
cure  of  watchfulness  and  religion.  Indeed, 
they  are  great  and  many  ;  but  the  grace  of 
God  is  greater;  and  "if  iniquity  abounds," 
then  "doth  grace  superabound :"  and  that 
is  our  comfort  and  our  medicine,  which  we 
must  thus  use. 

1.  Let  us  watch  our  heart  at  every 
turn. 

2.  Deny  it  all  its  desires  that  do  not  di- 
rectly, or  by  consequence,  end  in  godliness  : 
at  no  hand  be  indulgent  to  its  fondnesses  and 
peevish  appetites. 

3.  Let  us  suspect  it  as  an  enemy. 

4.  Trust  not  to  it  in  any  thing. 

5.  But  beg  the  grace  of  God  with  perpe- 
tual and  importunate  prayer,  that  he  would 
be  pleased  to  bring  good  out  of  these  evils ; 
and  that  he  would  throw  the  salutary  wood 
of  the  cross,  the  merits  of  Christ's  death 
and  passion,  into  these  salt  waters,  and  make 
them  healthful  and  pleasant. 

And  in  order  to  the  managing  these  ad- 
vices, and  acting  the  purposes  of  this  prayer, 
let  us  strictly  follow  a  rule,  and  choose  a 
prudent  and  faithful  guide,  who  may  attend 
our  motions,  and  watch  our  counsels,  and 
direct  our  steps,  and  "prepare  the  way  of 
the  Lord,  and  make  his  paths  straight,"  apt, 
and  imitable.  For  without  great  watchful- 
ness, and  earnest  devotion,  and  a  prudent 
guide,  we  shall  find  that  true  in  a  spiritual 
sense,  which  Plutarch  affirmed  of  a  man's 
body  in  the  natural :  that  of  dead  bulls  arise 
bees ;  from  the  carcasses  of  horses,  hornets 
are  produced  :  but  the  body  of  man  brings 
forth  serpents.  Our  hearts,  wallowing  in 
their  own  natural  and  acquired  corruptions, 
will  produce  nothing  but  issues  of  hell,  and 
images  of  the  old  serpent  the  devil,  for  whom 
is  provided  the  everlasting  burning. 


32 


250     FAITH  AND  PATIENCE 


OF  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXIV. 


SERMON  XXXIV. 

THE  FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OF  THE  SAINTS;; 
OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED. 

PART  I  . 

For  the  time  is  come  that  judgment  must  begin  at 
the  house  of  God:  and  if  it  first  begin  at  us,  what 
shall  the  end  be  of  them  that  obey  not  the  gospel 
of  God  ? 

And  if  the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall 
the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  ? — 1  Peter  iv. 
17,  18. 

So  long  as  the  world  lived  by  sense,  and 
discourses  of  natural  reason,  as  they  were 
abated  with  human  infirmities,  and  not  at 
all  heightened  by  the  Spirit  and  divine  reve- 
lations ;  so  long  men  took  their  accounts  of 
good  and  bad  by  their  being  prosperous  or 
unfortunate :  and  amongst  the  basest  and 
most  ignorant  of  men,  that  only  was  ac- 
counted honest  which  was  profitable ;  and 
he  only  wise,  that  was  rich ;  and  those  men 
beloved  of  God,  who  received  from  him  all 
that  might  satisfy  their  lust,  their  ambition, 
or  their  revenge. 

 Fatis  accede,  Deisque, 

Et  cole  felices,  miseros  fuge  :  sidera  terr& 
Ut  distant,  ut  flamma  mari,  sic  utile  recto. 

LUCAN. 

But  because  God  sent  wise  men  into  the 
world,  and  they  were  treated  rudely  by  the 
world,  and  exercised  with  evil  accidents, 
and  this  seemed  so  great  a  discouragement 
to  virtue,  that  even  these  wise  men  were 
more  troubled  to  reconcile  virtue  and  misery, 
than  to  reconcile  their  affections  to  the  suf- 
fering ;  God  was  pleased  to  enlighten  their 
reason  with  a  little  beam  of  faith,  or  else 
heightened  their  reason  by  wiser  principles 
than  those  of  vulgar  understandings,  and 
taught  them  in  the  clear  glass  of  faith,  or  the 
dim  perspective  of  philosophy,  to  look  be- 
yond the  cloud,  and  there  to  spy  that  there 
stood  glories  behind  their  curtain,  to  which 
they  could  not  come  but  by  passing  through 
the  cloud,  and  being  wet  with  the  dew  of 
heaven  and  the  waters  of  affliction.  And 
according  as  the  world  grew  more  enlight- 
ened by  faith,  so  it  grew  more  dark  with 
mourning  and  sorrows.  God  sometimes 
sent  a  light  of  fire,  and  a  pillar  of  a  cloud, 
and  the  brightness  of  an  angel,  and  the  lus- 
tre of  a  star,  and  the  sacrament  of  a  rainbow, 
to  guide  his  people  through  their  portion  of 
sorrows,  and  to  lead  them  through  troubles 
to  rest:  but  as  the  Sun  of  righteousness  ap- 
proached towards  the  chambers  of  the  east, 
and  sent  the  harbingers  of  light  peeping 


through  the  curtains  of  the  night,  and  lead- 
ing  on  the  day  of  faith  and  brightest  revela- 
tion ;  so  God  sent  degrees  of  trouble  upon 
wise  and  good  men,  that  now,  in  the  same 
degree  in  the  which  the  world  lives  by  faith, 
and  not  by  sense,  in  +he  same  degree  they 
might  be  able  to  live  in  virtue  even  while 
she  lived  in  trouble,  and  not  reject  so  great 
a  beauty,  because  she  goes  in  mourning,  and 
hath  a  black  cloud  of  Cyprus  drawn  before 
her  face.  Literally  thus :  God  first  entertained 
their  services,  and  allured  and  prompted  on 
the  infirmities  of  the  infant-world  by  tem- 
poral prosperity  ;  but  by  degrees  changed 
his  method;  and  as  men  grew  stronger  in 
the  knowledge  of  God,  and  the  expectations 
of  heaven,  so  they  grew  weaker  in  their  for- 
tunes, more  afflicted  in  their  bodies,  more 
abated  in  their  expectations,  more  subject  to 
their  enemies,  and  were  to  endure  the  con- 
tradiction of  sinners,  and  the  immission  of 
the  sharpnesses  of  Providence  and  divine 
economy. 

First,  Adam  was  placed  in  a  garden  of 
health  and  pleasure,  from  which  when  he 
fell,  he  was  only  tied  to  enter  into  the  cove- 
nant of  natural  sorrows,  which  he  and  all 
his  posterity  till  the  flood  ran  through  :  but 
in  all  that  period  they  had  the  whole  wealth 
of  the  earth  before  them  :  they  needed  not 
fight  for  empires,  or  places  for  their  cattle  to 
graze  in  ;  they  lived  long,  and  felt  no  want, 
no  slavery,  no  tyranny,  no  war ;  and  the 
evils  that  happened,  were  single,  personal, 
and  natural ;  and  no  violences  were  then 
done,  but  they  were  like  those  things  which 
the  law  calls  "rare  contingencies;"  for  which 
as  the  law  can  now  take  no  care  and  make 
no  provisions,  so  then  there  was  no  law, 
but  men  lived  free,  and  rich,  and  long,  and 
they  exercised  no  virtues  but  natural,  and 
knew  no  felicity  but  natural:  and  so  long 
their  prosperity  was  just  as  was  their  virtue, 
because  it  was  a  natural  instrument  towards 
all  that  which  they  knew  of  happiness.  But 
this  public  easiness  and  quiet,  the  world 
turned  into  sin  ;  and  unless  God  did  compel 
men  to  do  themselves  good,  they  would  undo 
themselves:  and  then  God  broke  in  upon 
them  with  a  flood,  and  destroyed  that  gene- 
ration, that  he  might  begin  the  government 
of  the  world  upon  a  new  stock,  and  bind 
virtue  upon  men's  spirits  by  new  bands,  en- 
deared to  them  by  new  hopes  and  fears. 

Then  God  made  new  laws,  and  gave  tc 
princes  the  power  of  the  sword,  and  men 
might  be  punished  to  death  in  certain  cases, 
and  man's  life  was  shortened,  and  slavery 


Serm.XXXIV.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  251 


was  brought  into  the  world  and  the  state  of 
servants :  and  then  war  began,  and  evils 
multiplied  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  :  in 
which  it  is  naturally  certain  that  they  that  were 
most  violent  and  injurious,  prevailed  upon 
the  weaker  and  more  innocent ;  and  every 
tyranny  that  began  from  Nimrod  to  this  day, 
and  every  usurper,  was  a  peculiar  argument 
to  show  that  God  began  to  teach  the  world  vir- 
tue by  suffering ;  and  that  therefore  he  suffered 
tyrannies  and  usurpations  to  be  in  the  world, 
and  to  be  prosperous,  and  the  rights  of  men 
to  be  snatched  away  from  their  owners,  that 
the  world  might  be  established  in  potent 
and  settled  governments,  and  the  sufferers 
be  taught  all  the  passive  virtues  of  the  soul. 
For  so  God  brings  good  out  of  evil,  turning 
tyranny  into  the  benefits  of  government,  and 
violence  into  virtue,  and  sufferings  into  re- 
wards. And  this  was  the  second  change  of 
the  world :  personal  miseries  were  brought  in 
upon  Adam  and  his  posterity,  as  a  punish- 
ment of  sin  in  the  first  period  ;  and  in  the 
second,  public  evils  were  brought  in  by  ty- 
rants and  usurpers,  and  God  suffered  them 
as  the  first  elements  of  virtue,  men  being 
just  newly  put  to  school  to  infant  sufferings. 
But  all  this  was  not  much. 

Christ's  line  was  not  yet  drawn  forth ;  it 
began  not  to  appear  in  what  family  the  King 
of  sufferings  should  descend,  till  Abraham's 
time ;  and  therefore,  till  then  there  were  no 
greater  sufferings  than  what  I  have  now 
reckoned.  But  when  Abraham's  family  was 
chosen  from  among  the  many  nations,  and  be- 
gan to  belong  to  God  by  a  special  right,  and  he 
was  designed  to  be  the  father  of  the  Messias  ; 
then  God  found  out  a  new  way  to  try  him. 
even  with  a  sound  affliction,  commanding 
him  to  offer  his  beloved  Isaac  :  but  this  was 
accepted,  and  being  intended  by  Abraham, 
was  not  intended  by  God  :  for  this  was  a  type 
of  Christ,  and  therefore  was  also  but  a  type 
of  sufferings.  And  excepting  the  sufferings 
of  the  old  periods,  and  the  sufferings  of  na- 
ture and  accident,  we  see  no  change  made 
for  a  long  time  after;  but  God  having  es- 
tablished a  law  in  Abraham's  family,  did 
build  it  upon  promises  of  health,  and  peace, 
and  victory,  and  plenty,  and  riches  ;  and  so 
long  as  they  did  not  prevaricate  the  law  of 
their  God,  so  long  they  were  prosperous: 
but  God  kept  a  remnant  of  Canaanites  in 
the  land,  like  a  rod  held  over  them,  to  vex 
or  to  chastise  them  into  obedience,  in  which 
while  they  persevered  nothing  could  hurt 
them ;  and  that  saying  of  David  needs  no 
other  sense  but  the  letter  of  its  own  expres- 


sion, "  I  have  been  young,  and  now  am  old 
and  yet  I  never  saw  the  righteous  forsaken, 
nor  his  seed  begging  their  bread. "  The 
godly  generally  were  prosperous,  and  a  good 
cause  seldom  had  an  ill  end,  and  a  good  man 
never  died  an  ill  death, — till  the  law  had 
spent  a  great  part  of  its  time,  and  it  de- 
scended towards  its  declension  and  period. 
But,  that  the  great  Prince  of  sufferings  might 
not  appear  upon  his  stage  of  tragedies  with- 
out some  forerunners  of  sorrow,  God  was 
pleased  to  choose  out  some  good  men,  and 
honour  them,  by  making  them  to  become 
little  images  of  suffering.  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
and  Zechariah,  were  martyrs  of  the  law ; 
but  these  were  single  deaths :  Shadrach, 
Meshech,  and  Abednego,  were  thrown  into 
a  burning  furnace,  and  Daniel  into  a  den  of 
lions,  and  Susanna  was  accused  for  adul- 
tery ;  but  these  were  but  little  arrests  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  godly.  As  the  time  drew 
nearer  that  Christ  should  be  manifest,  so  the 
sufferings  grew  bigger  and  more  numerous  : 
and  Antiochus  raised  up  a  sharp  perse- 
cution in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  in 
which  many  passed  through  the  Red  Sea 
of  blood  into  the  bosom  of  Abraham ;  and 
then  Christ  came.  And  that  was  the  third 
period  in  which  the  changed  method  of 
God's  providence  was  perfected  :  for  Christ 
was  to  do  his  great  work  by  sufferings,  and 
by  sufferings  was  to  enter  into  blessedness; 
and  by  his  passion  he  was  made  Prince  of 
the  catholic  Church:  and  as  our  Head 
was,  so  must  the  members  be.  God  made 
the  same  covenant  with  us  that  he  did 
with  his  most  holy  Son,  and  Christ  ob- 
tained no  better  conditions  for  us  than  for 
j himself;  that  was  not  to  be  looked  for; 
I "  The  servant  must  not  be  above  his  master ; 
it  is  well  if  he  be  as  his  master  :  if  the  world 
j  persecuted  him,  they  will  also  persecute 
us:"  and  "  from  the  days  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist, the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffers  violence, 
and  the  violent  take  it  by  force  ;"  not  "the 
violent  doers,"  but  "  the  sufferers  of  vio- 
lence:" for  though  the  old  law  was  estab- 
lished in  the  promises  of  temporal  pros- 
perity ;  yet  the  gospel  is  founded  in  tem- 
poral adversity ;  it  is  directly  a  covenant 
of  sufferings  and  sorrows  ;  for  now  "  the 
time  is  come  that  judgment  must  begin 
jat  the  house  of  God."  That  is  the  sense 
iand  design  of  the  text ;  and  I  intend  it  as  a 
I  direct  antinomy  to  the  common  persuasions 
of  tyrannous,  carnal,  and  vicious  men,  who 
I  reckon  nothing  good  but  what  is  prosperous  : 
I  for  though  that  proposition  had  many  de- 


252  FAITH  AND  PATIENCE 


OF  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXIV. 


grees  of  truth  in  the  beginning  of  the  law, 
yet  the  case  is  now  altered,  God  hath  es- 
tablished its  contradictory ;  and  now  every 
good  man  must  look  for  persecution,  and 
every  good  cause  must  expect  to  thrive  by 
the  sufferings  and  patience  of  holy  persons  : 
and,  as  men  do  well,  and  suffer  evil,  so  they 
are  dear  to  God  ;  and  whom  he  loves  most 
he  afflicts  most,  and  does  this  with  a  design 
of  the  greatest  mercy  in  the  world. 

1.  Then,  the  state  of  the  gospel  is  a  state 
of  sufferings,  not  of  temporal  prosperities. 
This  was  foretold  by  the  prophets;  "A 
fountain  shall  go  out  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord,  ( et  irrigabit  torrentem  spinarum,'  (so 
it  is  in  the  Vulgar  Latin,)  and  it  shall  water 
the  torrent  of  thorns  ;"*  that  is,  the  state  or 
time  of  the  gospel,  which,  like  a  torrent,  shall 
carry  all  the  world  before  it,  and,  like  a  tor- 
rent, shall  be  fullest  in  ill  weather;  and  by 
its  banks  shall  grow  nothing  but  thorns  and 
briers,  sharp  afflictions,  temporal  infelicities, 
and  persecution.  This  sense  of  the  words  is 
more  fully  explained  in  the  book  of  the  pro- 
phet Isaiah.  "  Upon  the  ground  of  my 
people  shall  thorns  and  briers  come  up  ;  how 
much  more  in  all  the  houses  of  the  city  of 
rejoicing  !"f  Which  prophecy  is  the  same 
in  the  style  of  the  prophets,  that  my  text  is 
in  the  style  of  the  apostles.  The  house  of 
God  shall  be  watered  with  the  dew  of  heaven, 
and  there  shall  spring  up  briers  in  it :  "Judg- 
ment must  begin  there;"  but  how  much 
more  "  in  the  house  of  the  city  of  rejoicing ! " 
how  much  more  amongst  "them  that  are 
at  ease  in  Sion,"  that  serve  their  desires, 
that  satisfy  their  appetites,  that  are  given 
over  to  their  own  hearts'  lust,  that  so  serve 
themselves,  that  they  never  serve  God,  that 
"  dwell  in  the  city  of  rejoicing!"  They  are 
like  Dives,  whose  portion  was  in  this  life, 
"who  went  in  fine  linen,  and  fared  deli- 
ciously  every  day  :"  they,  indeed,  trample 
upon  their  briers  and  thorns,  and  suffer  them 
not  to  grow  in  their  houses  ;  but  the  roots 
are  in  the  ground,  and  they  are  reserved  for 
fuel  of  wrath  in  the  day  of  everlasting  burn- 
ing. Thus,  you  see,  it  was  prophesied,  now 
see  how  it  was  performed  ;  Christ  was  the 
Captain  of  our  sufferings,  and  he  began. 

He  entered  into  the  world  with  all  the 
circumstances  of  poverty.  He  had  a  star 
to  illustrate  his  birth;  but  a  stable  for  his 
bedchamber,  and  a,  manger  for  his  cradle. 
The  angels  sang  hymns  when  he  was  born  : 


*  Joel  iii.  10.  t  lea.  xxxii.  13. 


I  but  he  was  cold  and  cried,  uneasy  and  un- 
I  provided.  He  lived  long  in  the  trade  of  a 
carpenter;  he,  by  whom  God  made  the 
world,  had,  in  his  first  years,  the  business  of 
a  mean  and  ignoble  trade.  He  did  good 
wherever  he  went;  and  almost  wherever 
he  went  was  abused.  He  deserved  heaven 
for  his  obedience,  but  found  a  cross  in  his 
way  thither :  and  if  ever  any  man  had 
reason  to  expect  fair  usages  from  God,  and 
to  be  dandled  in  the  lap  of  ease,  softness, 
and  a  prosperous  fortune,  he  it  was  only 
that  could  deserve  that,  or  any  thing  that 
can  be  good.  But,  after  he  had  chosen  to 
live  a  life  of  virtue,  of  poverty,  and  labour, 
he  entered  into  a  state  of  death;  whose 
shame  and  trouble  were  great  enough  to 
pay  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  And 
I  shall  choose  to  express  this  mystery  in 
the  words  of  Scripture.  He  died  not  hy  a 
single  or  a  sudden  death,  but  he  was  the 
"Lamb  slain  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world  :"  for  he  was  massacred  in  Abel, 
saith  St.  Paulinus ;  he  was  tossed  upon  the 
waves  of  the  sea  in  the  person  of  Noah; 
it  was  he  that  went  out  of  his  country, 
when  Abraham  was  called  from  Charran. 
and  wandered  from  his  native  soil;  he  was 
offered  up  in  Isaac,  persecuted  in  Jacob, 
betrayed  in  Joseph,  blinded  in  Samson, 
affronted  in  Moses,  sawed  in  Isaiah,  cast 
into  the  dungeon  with  Jeremiah:  for  all 
these  were  types  of  Christ  suffering.  And 
then  his  passion  continued  even  after  his 
resurrection.  For  it  is  he  that  suffers  in  all 
his  members ;  it  is  he  that  "  endures  the 
contradiction  of  all  sinners;"  it  is  he  that 
is  "the  Lord  of  life,  and  is  crucified  again, 
and  put  to  open  shame,"  in  all  the  suffer- 
ings of  his  servants,  and  sins  of  rebels,  and 
defiances  of  apostates  and  renegadoes,  and 
violence  of  tyrants,  and  injustice  of  usur- 
pers, and  the  persecutions  of  his  church. 
It  is  he  that  is  stoned  in  St.  Stephen,  flayed 
in  the  person  of  St.  Bartholomew :  he  was 
roasted  upon  St.  Laurence's  gridiron,  ex- 
posed to  lions  in  St.  Ignatius,  burnt  in  St. 
Polycarp,  frozen  in  the  lake  where  stood 
forty  martyrs  of  Cappadocia.  "  Unigenitus 
enim  Dei  ad  peragendum  mortis  sua?  sacra- 
mentum  consummavit  omne  genus  human- 
arum  passionum,"  said  St.  Hilary;  "the 
sacrament  of  Christ's  death  is  not  to  be  ac- 
complished but  by  suffering  all  the  sorrows 
of  humanity." 

All  that  Christ  came  for,  was,  or  was 
mingled  with,  sufferings  :  for  all  those  little 


Serm.  XXXIV.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  253 


joys  which  God  sent,  either  to  recreate  his 
person,  or  to  illustrate  his  office,  were  abat- 
ed, or  attended  with  afflictions;  God  being 
more  careful  to  establish  in  him  the  covenant 
of  sufferings,  than  to  refresh  his  sorrows. 
Presently  after  the  angels  had  finished  their 
hallelujahs,  he  was  forced  to  fly  to  save  his 
life;  and  the  air  became  full  of  shrieks  of 
the  desolate  mothers  of  Bethlehem  for  their 
dying  babes.  God  had  no  sooner  made  him 
illustrious  with  a  voice  from  heaven,  and 
the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  him  in 
the  waters  of  baptism,  but  he  was  delivered 
over  to  be  tempted  and  assaulted  by  the 
devil  in  the  wilderness.  His  transfiguration 
was  a  bright  ray  of  glory ;  but  then  also  he 
entered  into  a  cloud,  and  was  told  a  sad 
story  what  he  was  to  suffer  at  Jerusalem. 
And  upon  Palm  Sunday,  when  he  rode  tri- 
umphantly into  Jerusalem,  and  was  adorned 
with  the  acclamations  of  a  King  and  a  God, 
he  wet  the  palms  with  his  tears,  sweeter 
than  the  drops  of  manna,  or  the  little  pearls 
of  heaven,  that  descended  upon  mount  Her- 
mon;  weeping,  in  the  midst  of  his  triumph, 
over  obstinate,  perishing,  and  malicious  Je- 
rusalem. For  this  Jesus  was  like  the  rain- 
bow, which  God  set  in  the  clouds  as  a 
sacrament  to  confirm  a  promise,  and  esta- 
blish a  grace ;  he  was  half  made  of  the 
glories  of  the  light,  and  half  of  the  mois- 
ture of  a  cloud ;  in  his  best  days  he  was 
but  half  triumph  and  half  sorrow  :  he  was 
sent  to  tell  of  his  Father's  mercies,  and  that 
God  intended  to  spare  us  ;  but  appeared  not 
but  in  the  company  or  in  the  retinue  of  a 
shower,  and  of  foul  weather.  But  I  need 
not  tell  that  Jesus,  beloved  of  God,  was  a 
suffering  person  ;  that  which  concerns  this 
question  most,  is,  that  he  made  for  us  a 
covenant  of  sufferings  :  his  doctrines  were 
such  as  expressly  and  by  consequent  enjoin 
and  support  sufferings,  and  a  state  of  afflic- 
tion ;  his  very  promises  were  sufferings ; 
his  beatitudes  were  sufferings  ;  his  rewards, 
and  his  arguments  to  invite  men  to  follow 
him,  were  only  taken  from  sufferings  in 
this  life,  and  the  reward  of  sufferings  here- 
after. 

For  if  we  sum  up  the  commandments  of 
Christ,  we  shall  find  humility, — mortifica- 
tion,—self-denial,— repentance,— renouncing 
the  world, — mourning, — taking  up  the  cross, 
— dying  for  him., — patience  and  poverty, — 
to  stand  in  the  chiefest  rank  of  Christian 
precepts,  and  in  the  direct  order  to  heaven  : 
"  He  that  will  be  my  disciple,  must  deny 


I  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow 
me."  We  must  follow  him  that  was  crown- 
ed with  thorns  and  sorrows,  him  that  was 
drenched  in  Cedron,  nailed  upon  the  cross, 
that  deserved  all  good,  and  suffered  all  evil: 
that  is  the  sum  of  Christian  religion,  as  it 
distinguishes  from  all  the  religions  of  the 
world.  To  which  we  may  add  the  express 
precept  recorded  by  St.  James:  "Be  afflict- 
ed, and  mourn,  and  weep;  let  your  laughter 
be  turned  into  mourning,  and  your  joy  into 
weeping."*  You  see  the  commandments  ; 
will  you  also  see  the  promises?  These 
they  are,  "  In  the  world  ye  shall  have 
tribulation  ;  in  me  ye  shall  have  peace : — 
Through  many  tribulations  ye  shall  enter 
into  heaven  : — He  that  loseth  father  and  mo- 
ther, wives  and  children,  houses  and  lands, 
for  my  name's  sake  and  the  gospel,  shall 
receive  a  hundred-fold  in  this  life,  with 
persecution;"  that  is  part  of  his  reward: 
and,  "  He  chastiseth  every  son  that  he  re- 
ceiveth  ; — if  ye  be  exempt  from  sufferings, 
ye  are  bastards,  and  not  sons."  These  are 
some  of  Christ's  promises  :  will  you  see 
some  of  Christ's  blessings  that  he  gives  his 
church  ?  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  :  blessed  are 
the  hungry  and  thirsty  :  blessed  are  they  that 
mourn :  blessed  are  the  humble  :  blessed  are 
the  persecuted."!  Of  the  eight  beatitudes, 
five  of  them  have  temporal  misery  and  mean- 
ness, or  an  afflicted  condition,  for  their  sub- 
ject. Will  you  at  last  see  some  of  the  rewards 
which  Christ  hath  propounded  to  his  ser- 
vants, to  invite  them  to  follow  him?  "When 
I  am  lifted  up,  I  will  draw  all  men  after  me :" 
when  Christ  is  "  lifted  up,  as  Moses  lift  up 
the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,"  that  is,  lifted 
upon  the  cross,  then  "'he  will  draw  us  after 
him." — "To  you  it  is  given  for  Christ," 
saith  St.  Paul,  when  he  went  to  sweeten 
and  to  flatter  the  Philippians  well,  what  is 
given  to  them?  some  great  favours  surely: 
true;  "It  is  not  only  given  that  you  believe 
in  Christ," — though  that  be  a  great  matter, 
— "  but  also  that  you  suffer  for  him,"  that 
is  the  highest  of  your  honour.  And  there- 
fore St.  James,  "  My  brethren,  count  it  all 
joy  when  ye  enter  into  divers  temptations  :"§ 
and  St.  Peter;  "Communicating  with  the 
sufferings  of  Christ,  rejoice."!  And  St. 
James  again;  "We  count  them  blessed 
that  have  suffered  :"1f  and  St.  Paul,  when 
he  gives  his  blessing  to  the  Thessalonians, 


*  James  iv.  9.  t  Matt.  v.  t  Phil.  i.  29. 
§  James  i.  2.    II  1  Pet.  iv.  13.     HJamesv.  11 

w 


254  FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OP  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXIV. 


useth  this  form  of  prayer;  "  Our  Lord  di- 
rect your  hearts  in  the  charity  of  God,  and: 
in  the  patience  and  sufferings  of  Christ."* 
So  that  if  we  will  serve  the  King  of  suffer- 
ings, whose  crown  was  of  thorns,  whose 
sceptre  was  a  reed  of  scorn,  whose  im- 
perial robe  was  a  scarlet  of  mockery,  whose 
throne  was  the  cross ;  we  must  serve  him 
in  sufferings,  in  poverty  of  spirit,  in  hu- 
mility and  mortification;  and  for  our  re- 
ward we  shall  have  persecution,  and  all  its 
blessed  consequences.  "  Atque  hoc  est  esse 
Christianum." 

Since  this  was  done  in  the  green  tree, 
what  might  we  expect  should  be  done  in 
the  dry  ?  Let  us,  in  the  next  place,  consider 
how  God  hath  treated  his  saints  and  ser- 
vants in  the  descending  ages  of  the  gospel : 
that  if  the  best  of  God's  servants  were  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus  in  this  covenant  of  suffer- 
ings, we  may  not  think  it  strange  concern- 
ing the  fiery  trial,  as  if  some  new  thing 
had  happened  to  us.f  For  as  the  gospel 
was  founded  in  sufferings,  we  shall  also  see 
it  grow  in  persecutions ;  and  as  Christ's 
blood  did  cement  the  corner-stones,  and  the 
first  foundations;  so  the  blood  and  sweat, 
the  groans  and  sighings,  the  afflictions  and 
mortifications,  of  saints  and  martyrs,  did 
make  the  superstructures,  and  must  at  last 
finish  the  building. 

If  we  begin  with  the  apostles,  who  were 
to  persuade  the  world  to  become  Christian, 
and  to  use  proper  arguments  of  invitations, 
we  shall  find  that  they  never  offered  an  argu- 
ment of  temporal  prosperity;  they  never 
promised  empires  and  thrones  on  earth,  nor 
riches,  nor  temporal  power ;  and  it  would 
have  been  soon  confuted,  if  they  who  were 
whipt  and  imprisoned,  bound  and  scattered, 
persecuted  and  tormented,  should  have  pro- 
mised sunshine  days  to  others,  which  they 
could  not  to  themselves.  Of  all  the  apostles 
there  was  not  one  that  died  a  natural  death 
but  only  St.  John;J  and  did  he  escape? 
Yes :  but  he  was  put  into  a  cauldron  of 
scalding  lead  and  oil  before  the  Port  Latin 
in  Rome,  and  escaped  death  by  a  miracle, 
though  no  miracle  was  wrought  to  make 
him  escape  the  torture.  And,  besides  this, 
he  lived  long  in  banishment,  and  that  was 
worse  than  St.  Peter's  chains.  "Sanctus 
Petrus  in  vinculis,  et  Johannes  ante  Port- 
am,"  were  both  days  of  martyrdom,  and 
church  festival.    And  after  a  long  and  la- 


borious life,  and  the  affliction  of  being  de- 
tained from  his  crown,  and  his  sorrows  for 
the  death  of  his  fellow-disciples,  he  died  full 
of  days  and  sufferings.  And  when  St.  Paul 
was  taken  into  the  apostolate,  his  commis- 
sions were  signed  in  these  words ;  "  I  will 
show  unto  him  how  great  things  he  must 
suffer  for  my  name  :"*  And  his  whole  life 
was  a  continual  suffering.  "  Q,uotidie  mo- 
rior"  was  his  motto,  "  I  die  daily ;"  and  his 
lesson  that  he  daily  learned  was,  to  "know 
Christ  Jesus,  and  him  crucified ;"  and  all 
his  joy  was  "to  rejoice  in  the  cross  of 
Christ ;"  and  the  changes  of  his  life  were 
nothing  but  the  changes  of  his  sufferings, 
and  the  variety  of  his  labours.  For  though 
Christ  hath  finished  his  own  sufferings  for 
expiation  of  the  world ;  yet  there  are  vatt- 
W/xata  ^%L^sav,  "  portions  that  are  behind  of 
the  sufferings"  of  Christ,  which  must  be 
filled  up  by  his  body,  the  church;  and  happy 
are  they  that  put  in  the  greatest  symbol;  for 
"  in  the  same  measure  you  are  partakers  of 
the  sufferings  of  Christ,  in  the  same  shall  ye 
be  also  of  the  consolation."  And  therefore, 
concerning  St.  Paul,  as  it  was  also  concern- 
ing Christ,  there  is  nothing,  or  but  very 
little,  in  Scripture,  relating  to  his  person  and 
chances  of  his  private  life,  but  his  labours 
i  and  persecutions ;  as  if  the  Holy  Ghost  did 
think  nothing  fit  to  stand  upon  record  for 
Christ  but  sufferings. 

And  now  began  to  work  the  greatest  glory 
of  the  Divine  providence :  here  was  the 
case  of  Christianity  at  stake.  The  world 
was  rich  and  prosperous,  learned  and  full 
of  wise  men  :  the  gospel  was  preached  with 
poverty  and  persecution,  in  simplicity  of  dis- 
course, and  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit ; 
God  was  on  one  side,  and  the  devil  on  the 
other;  they  each  of  them  dressed  up  their 
city;  Babylon  upon  earth,  Jerusalem  from 
above.  The  devil's  city  was  full  of  plea- 
sure, triumphs,  victories,  and  cruelty;  good 
news,  and  great  wealth;  conquest  over 
kings,  and  making  nations  tributary :  they 
"  bound  kings  in  chains,  and  the  nobles  with 
links  of  iron  ;"  and  the  inheritance  of  the 
earth  was  theirs  :  the  Romans  were  lords 
over  the  greatest  part  of  the  world  ;  and  God 
;  permitted  to  the  devil  the  firmament  and  in- 
;  crease,  the  wars  and  the  success  of  that  peo- 
pie,  giving  to  him  an  entire  power  of  dis- 
posing the  great  changes  of  the  world,  so 
as  might  best  increase  their  greatness  and 


*  2  Thcs.  iii.  5.  Heb  ii.  10.  1 1  Pet.  iv.  12. 
X  Tertul.  8.  Hieron. 


Serm.  XXXIV.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  255 


power:  and  he  therefore  did  it,  because  all 
the  power  of  the  Roman  greatness  was  a 
professed  enemy  to  Christianity.  And  on 
the  other  side,  God  was  to  build  up  Jerusa- 
lem, and  the  kingdom  of  the  gospel ;  and  he 
chose  to  build  it  of  hewn  stone,  cut  and 
broken  :  the  apostles  he  chose  for  preachers, 
and  they  had  no  learning  ;  women  and  mean 
people  were  the  first  disciples,  and  they  had 
no  power;  the  devil  was  to  lose  his  king- 
dom, he  wanted  no  malice :  and  therefore  he 
stirred  up,  and,  as  well  as  he  could,  he 
made  active  all  the  power  of  Rome,  and  all 
the  learning  of  the  Greeks,  and  all  the 
malice  of  barbarous  people,  and  all  the  pre- 
judice and  the  obstinacy  of  the  Jews,  against 
this  doctrine  and  institution,  which  preach- 
ed, and  promised,  and  brought,  persecution 
along  with  it.  On  the  one  side,  there  was 
*'  scandalum  crucis  :"  on  the  other,  "  patien- 
tia  sanctorum  :"  and  what  was  the  event? 
They  that  had  overcome  the  world,  could 
not  strangle  Christianity.  But  so  have  I 
seen  the  sun  with  a  little  ray  of  distant  light 
challenge  all  the  power  of  darkness,  and, 
without  violence  and  noise,  climbing  up  the 
hill,  hath  made  night  so  to  retire,  that  its 
memory  was  lost  in  the  joys  and  spriteful- 
ness  of  the  morning  ;  and  Christianity  with- 
out violence  or  armies,  without  resistance 
and  self-preservation,  without  strength,  or 
human  eloquence,  without  challenging  of 
privileges  or  fighting  against  tyranny,  with- 
out alteration  of  government  and  scandal  of 
princes,  with  its  humility  and  meekness, 
with  toleration  and  patience,  with  obedience 
and  charity,  with  praying  and  dying,  did  in- 
sensibly turn  the  world  into  Christian,  and 
persecution  into  victory. 

For  Christ,  who  began,  and  lived,  and 
died  in  sorrows,  perceiving  his  own  suffer- 
ings to  succeed  so  well,  and  that  "  for  suf- 
fering death,  he  was  crowned  with  immor- 
tality," resolved  to  take  all  his  disciples  and 
servants  to  the  fellowship  of  the  same  suffer- 
ing, that  they  might  have  a  participation  of 
his  glory  ;  knowing,  God  had  opened  no  gale 
of  heaven  but  "  the  narrow  gate,"  to  which 
the  cross  was  the  key.  And  since  Christ 
now  being  our  high  priest  in  heaven,  inter- 
cedes for  us  by  representing  his  passion,  and 
the  dolours  of  the  cross,  that  even  in  glory 
he  might  still  preserve  the  mercies  of  his 
past  sufferings,  for  which  the  Father  did  so 
delight  in  him ;  he  also  designs  to  present  us 
to  God  dressed  in  the  same  robe,  and  treat- 
ed in  the  same  manner,  and  honoured  with 
"  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus ;"  "  He  hath 


predestinated  us  to  be  conformable  to  the 
image  of  his  Son."  And  if  under  a  head 
crowned  with  thorns,  we  bring  to  God  mem- 
bers circled  with  roses,  and  softness,  and 
delicacy,  triumphant  members  in  the  mili- 
tant Church,  God  will  reject  us,  he  will  not 
know  us  who  are  so  unlike  our  elder  Bro- 
ther :  for  we  are  members  of  the  lamb,  not 
of  the  lion ;  and  of  Christ's  suffering  part, 
not  of  the  triumphant  part :  and  for  three 
hundred  years  together  the  Church  lived 
upon  blood,  and  was  nourished  with  blood, 
the  blood  of  her  own  children.  Thirty-three 
bishops  of  Rome  in  immediate  succession 
were  put  to  violent  and  unnatural  deaths  ; 
and  so  were  all  the  Churches  of  the  east 
and  west  built ;  the  cause  of  Christ  and  of 
religion  was  advanced  by  the  sword,  but  it 
was  the  sword  of  the  persecutors,  not  of  re- 
sisters  or  warriors  :  they  were  "  all  baptized 
into  the  death  of  Christ ;"  their  very  profes- 
sion and  institution  is  to  live  like  him,  and, 
when  he  requires  it,  to  die  for  him ;  that  is 
the  very  formality,  the  life  and  essence,  of 
Christianity.  This,  I  say,  lasted  for  three 
hundred  years,  that  the  prayers,  and  the 
backs,  and  the  necks  of  Christians  fought 
against  the  rods  and  axes  of  the  persecutors, 
and  prevailed,  till  the  country,  and  the  cities, 
and  the  court  itself,  was  filled  with  Chris- 
tians. And  by  this  time  the  army  of  mar- 
tyrs was  vast  and  numerous,  and  the  num- 
ber of  sufferers  blunted  the  hangman's  sword. 
For  Christ  first  triumphed  over  the  princes 
and  powers  of  the  world,  before  he  would 
admit  them  to  serve  them ;  he  first  felt  their 
|  malice,  before  he  would  make  use  of  their 
!  defence  ;  to  show,  that  it  was  not  his  neces- 
J  sity  that  required  it,  but  his  grace  that  ad- 
mitted kings  and  queens  to  be  nurses  of  the 
Church. 

And  now  the  Church  was  at  ease,  and 
!  she  that  sucked  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  so 

long,  began  now  to  suck  the  milk  of  queens. 

Indeed  it  was  a  great  mercy  in  appearance, 
!  and  was  so  intended,  but  it  proved  not  so. 

But  then  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  pursuance  of 
!  the  design  of  Christ,  who  meant  by  suffer- 
|  ing  to  perfect  his  Church,  as  himself  was  by 

the  same  instrument, — was  pleased,  now 
j  that  persecution  did  cease,  to  inspire  the 
j  Church  with  the  spirit  of  mortification  and 
j  austerity  ;  and  then  they  made  colleges  of 
|  sufferers,  persons,  who,  to  secure  their  in- 
,  heritance  in  the  world  to  come,  did  cut  off 

all  their  portion  in  this,  excepting  so  much 

of  it  as  was  necessary  to  their  present  being ; 
!  and  by  instruments  of  humility,  by  patience 


256    FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OF  THE  SAINTS;   Serm.  XXXIV. 


under,  and  a  voluntary  undertaking  of,  the! 
cross,  the  burden  of  the  Lord, — by  self-de- 
nial, by  fastings  and  sackcloth,  and  pernoc- 
tations  in  prayer,  they  chose  then  to  exercise 
the  active  part  of  the  religion,  mingling  it 
as  much  as  they  could  with  the  suffering. 

And  indeed  it  is  so  glorious  a  thing  to  be 
like  Christ,  to  be  dressed  like  the  prince  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  who  was  "a  man  of 
sufferings,"  and  to  whom  a  prosperous  and 
unafflicted  person  is  very  unlike,  that  in  all 
ages  the  servants  of  God  have  "put  on  the 
armour  of  righteousness,  on  the  right  hand 
and  on  the  left :"  that  is,  in  the  sufferings  of 
persecution,  or  the  labours  of  mortification  ; 
in  patience  under  the  rod  of  God,  or  by 
election  of  our  own  ;  by  toleration,  or  self- 
denial  ;  by  actual  martyrdom,  or  by  aptness 
or  disposition  towards  it ;  by  dying  for  Christ, 
or  suffering  for  him ;  by  being  willing  to 
part  with  all  when  he  calls  for  it,  and  by 
parting  with  what  we  can  for  the  relief  of 
his  poor  members.  For,  know  this,  there 
is  no  state  in  the  Church  so  serene,  no  days 
so  prosperous,  in  which  God  does  not  give 
to  his  servants  the  powers  and  opportunities 
of  suffering  for  him  ;  not  only  they  that  die 
for  Christ,  but  they  that  live  according  to 
his  laws,  shall  find  some  lives  to  part  with, 
and  many  ways  to  suffer  for  Christ.  To 
kill  and  crucify  the  old  man  and  all  his  lusts, 
to  mortify  a  beloved  sin,  to  fight  against 
temptations,  to  do  violence  to  our  bodies,  to 
live  chastely,  to  suffer  affronts  patiently,  to 
forgive  injuries  and  debts,  to  renounce  all 
prejudice  and  interest  in  religion,  and  to 
choose  our  side  for  truth's  sake,  (not  because 
it  is  prosperous,  but  because  it  pleases  God,) 
to  be  charitable  beyond  our  power,  to  re- 
prove our  betters  with  modesty  and  open- 
ness, to  displease  men  rather  than  God,  to 
be  at  enmity  with  the  world,  that  you  may 
preserve  friendship  with  God,  to  deny  the 
importunity  and  troublesome  kindness  of  a 
drinking  friend,  to  own  truth  in  despite  of 
danger  or  scorn,  to  despise  shame,  to  refuse 
worldly  pleasures  when  they  tempt  your 
soul  beyond  duty  or  safety,  to  take  pains  in 
the  cause  of  religion,  the  "  labour  of  love," 
and  the  crossing  of  your  anger,  peevishness, 
and  morosity  :  these  are  the  daily  sufferings 
of  a  Christian;  and,  if  we  perform  them 
well,  will  have  the  same  reward,  and  an 
equal  smart,  and  greater  labour,  than  the 
plain  suffering  the  hangman's  sword.  This 
I  have  discoursed,  to  represent  unto  you, 
that  you  cannot  be  exempted  from  the  simili- 
tude of  Christ's  sufferings  :  that  God  will 


J  shut  no  age  nor  no  man  from  his  portion  of 
the  cross  ;  that  we  cannot  fail  of  the  result 
of  this  predestination,  nor  without  our  own 
fault  be  excluded  from  the  covenant  of  suf- 
ferings. "Judgment  must  begin  at  God's 
house,  and  enters  first  upon  the  sons  and 
heirs  of  the  kingdom ;  and  if  it  be  not  by 
the  direct  persecution  of  tyrants,  it  will  be 
by  the  direct  persecution  of  the  devil,  or  in- 
firmities of  our  own  flesh.  But  because 
this  was  but  the  secondary  meaning  of  the 
text,  I  return  to  make  use  of  all  the  former 
discourse. 

Let  no  Christian  man  make  any  judg- 
ment concerning  his  condition  or  his  cause, 
by  the  external  event  of  things.  For  al- 
though in  the  law  of  Moses,  God  made  with 
his  people  a  covenant  of  temporal  prosperi- 
ty, and  "  his  saints  did  bind  the  kings  of  the 
Amorites,  and  the  Philistines,  in  chains,  and 
their  nobles  with  links  of  iron,  and  then, 
that  was  the  honour  which  all  his  saints 
had  :"  yet,  in  Christ  Jesus,  he  made  a  cove- 
nant of  sufferings.  Most  of  the  graces  of 
Christianity  are  suffering  graces,  and  God 
hath  predestinated  us  to  sufferings,  and  we 
are  baptized  into  suffering,  and  our  very 
communions  are  symbols  of  our  duty,  by 
being  the  sacrament  of  Christ's  death  and 
passion  ;  and  Christ  foretold  to  us  tribulation, 
and  promised  only  that  he  would  be  with  us 
in  tribulation,  that  he  would  give  us  his 
Spirit  to  assist  us  at  tribunals,  and  his  grace 
to  despise  the  world,  and  to  contemn  riches, 
and  boldness  to  confess  every  article  of  the 
Christian  faith,  in  the  face  of  armies  and 
armed  tyrants.  And  he  also  promised  that 
"all  things  should  work  together  for  the 
best  to  his  servants,"  that  is,  he  would  "  out 
of  the  eater  bring  meat,  and  out  of  the  strong 
issue  sweetness,"  and  crowns  and  sceptres 
should  spring  from  crosses,  and  that  the 
cross  itself  should  stand  upon  the  globes 
and  sceptres  of  princes  ;  but  he  never  pro- 
mised to  his  servants,  that  they  should  pur- 
sue kings  and  destroy  armies,  that  they 
should  reign  over  nations,  and  promote  the 
cause  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  breaking  his  com- 
mandment. "The  shield  of  faith,  and  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  armour  of  righteous- 
ness, and  the  weapons  of  spiritual  warfare ;" 
these  are  they  by  which  Christianity  swelled 
from  a  small  company,  and  a  less  reputation, 
to  possess  the  chairs  of  doctors,  and  the 
thrones  of  princes,  and  the  hearts  of  all 
men.  But  men,  in  all  ages,  will  be  tamper- 
ing with  shadows  and  toys.  The  apostles 
|  at  no  hand  could  endure  to  hear  that  Christ's 


Serm.  XXXIV.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  257 


H  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,"  and  that 
their  Master  should  die  a  sad  and  shameful 
death  ;  though  that  way  he  was  to  receive 
his  crown,  and  "  enter  into  glory."  And 
after  Christ's  lime,  when  his  disciples  had 
taken  up  the  cross,  and  were  marching  the 
King's  highway  of  sorrows,  there  were  a 
very  great  many,  even  the  generality  of 
Christians,,  for  two  or  three  ages  together, 
who  fell  a  dreaming,  that  Christ  should 
come  and  reign  upon  earth  again  for  a 
thousand  years,  and  then  the  saints  should 
reign  in  all  abundance  of  temporal  power 
and  fortunes  :  but  these  men  were  content 
to  stay  for  it  till  after  the  resurrection ;  in  the 
mean  time,  took  up  their  cross,  and  follow- 
ed after  their  Lord,  the  King  of  sufferings. 
But  now-a-days,  we  find  a  generation  of 
men  who  have  changed  the  covenant  of  suf- 
ferings into  victories  and  triumphs,  riches 
and  prosperous  chances,  and  reckon  their 
Christianity  by  their  good  fortunes  :  as  if 
Christ  had  promised  to  his  servants  no 
heaven  hereafter,  no  Spirit  in  the  mean  time 
to  refresh  their  sorrows  ;  as  if  he  had  enjoin- 
ed them  no  passive  graces  ;  but  as  if  to  be  a 
Christian  and  to  be  a  Turk  were  the  same 
thing.  Mahomet  entered  and  possessed  by 
the  sword  :  Christ  came  by  the  cross,  enter- 
ed by  humility  ;  and  his  saints  "  possess 
their  souls  by  patience." 

God  was  fain  to  multiply  miracles  to 
make  Christ  capable  of  being  a  "'man  of 
sorrows  :"  and  shall  we  think  he  will  work 
miracles  to  make  us  delicate  ?  He  promised 
us  a  glorious  portion  hereafter,  to  which  if 
all  the  sufferings  of  the  world  were  put  to- 
gether, they  are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  : 
and  shall  we,  with  Dives,  choose  our  por- 
tion of  "  good  things  in  this  life?"  If  Christ 
suffered  so  many  things  only  that  he  might 
give  us  glory,  shall  it  be  strange  that  we 
shall  suffer  who  are  to  receive  his  glory  ? 
It  is  in  vain  to  think  we  shall  obtain  glories 
at  an  easier  rate,  than  to  drink  of  the  brook 
in  the  way  in  which  Christ  was  drenched. 
When  the  devil  appeared  to  St.  Martin,  in 
a  bright  splendid  shape,  and  said  he  was 
Christ;  he  answered,  "Christus  non  nisi  in 
cruce  apparet  suis,  in  hac  vita.."  And  when 
St.  Ignatius  was  newly  tied  in  a  chain  to  be 
led  to  his  martyrdom,  he  cried  out,  "  Nunc 
incipio  esse  Christianus."  And  it  was  ob- 
served by  Minutius  Felix,  and  was  indeed 
a  great  and  excellent  truth,  "  Omnes  viri 
fortes,  quos  gentiles  prasdicabant  in  exem- 
plum,  oerumnis  suis  inclyti  floruerunt ;" 
"  The  gentiles  in  their  whole  religion  never 
33 


propounded  any  man  imitable,  unless  the 
i  man  were  poor  or  persecuted."  Brutus 
stood  for  his  country's  liberty,  but  lost  his 
army  and  his  life  ;  Socrates  was  put  to  death 
for  speaking  a  religious  truth ;  Cato  chose  to 
be  on  the  right  side,  but  happened  to  fall 
upon  the  oppressed  and  the  injured;  he  died 
together  with  his  party. 

Victrix  causa  Deis  placuit,  sed  victa  Catoni. 

LrcAX. 

And  if  God  thus  dealt  with  the  best  of  hea- 
j  thens,  to  whom  he  had  made  no  clear  reve- 
[  lation  of  immortal  recompenses  :  how  little 
|  is  the  faith,  and  how  much  less  is  the  pa- 
tience of  Christians,  if  they  shall  think  much 
to  suffer  sorrow,  since  they  so  clearly  see 
with   the  eye  of  faith  the  great  things 
I  which  are  laid  up  for  them  that  are  -'faith- 
|  ful  unto  the  death  ?"    Faith  is  useless,  if 
now  in  the  midst  of  so  great  pretended  lights 
we  shall  not  dare  to  trust  God,  unless  we 
have  all  in  hand  that  we  desire  :  and  suffer 
nothing,  for  all  we  can  hope  for.  They 
j  that  live  by  sense  have  no  use  of  faith :  yet 
our  Lord  Jesus,  concerning  whose  passion 
,  the  gospel  speaks  much,  but  little  of  his 
glorifications:   whose  shame  was  public, 
|  whose  pains  were  notorious,  but  his  joys 
and  transfigurations  were  secret,  and  kept 
i  private ;  he  who  would  not  suffer  his  holy 
mother,  whom  in  great  degrees  he  exempted 
j  from  sin, — to  be  exempted  from  many  and 
I  great  sorrows,  certainly  intends  to  admit 
,  none  to  his  resurrection  but  by  the  doors  of 
j  his  grave,  none  to  gJory  but  by  way  of  the 
i  cross.    "If  we  be  planted  into  the  likeness 
j  of  his  death,  we  shall  be  also  of  his  resur- 
rection ;"  else  on  no  terms.    Christ  took 
away  sin  from  us,  but  he  left  us  our  share 
of  sufferings  j  and  the  cross,  which  was 
first  printed  upon  us  in  the  waters  of  bap- 
tism, must  for  ever  be  borne  by  us  in  pe- 
nance, in  mortification,  in  self-denial,  and  in 
martyrdom,  and  toleration,  according  as  God 
shall  require  of  us  by  the  changes  of  the 
world  and  the  condition  of  the  church. 

For  Christ  considers  nothing  but  souls, 
;  he  values  not  their  estates  or  bodies,  supply- 
ing our  want  by  his  providence;  and  we 
are  secured  that  our  bodies  may  be  killed, 
i  but  cannot  perish,  so  long  as  we  preserve 
our  duty  and  our  consciences.    Christ,  our 
Captain,  hangs  naked  upon  the  cross  :  our 
fellow-soldiers  are  cast  into  prison,  torn 
;  with  lions,  rent  in  sunder  with  trees  return- 
I  ing  from  their  violent  bendings,  broken 
upon  wheels,  roasted  upon  gridirons,  and 
w2 


258     FAITH  AND  P  A  T I  E  N  0  E 


OF  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXV. 


have  had  the  honour  not  only  to  have  a  good 
cause,  but  also  to  suffer  for  it ;  and  by 
faith,  not  by  armies, — by  patience,  not  by 
fighting,  have  overcome  the  world.  "  Et 
sit  anima  mea  cum  Christianis ;"  "I  pray 
God  my  soul  may  be  among  the  Chris- 
tians." And  yet  the  Turks  have  prevailed 
upon  a  great  part  of  the  Christian  world, 
and  have  them  slaves  and  tributaries,  and 
do  them  all  spite,  and  are  hugely  prosper- 
ous ;  but  when  the  Christians  are  so,  they 
are  tempted  and  put  in  danger,  and  never 
have  their  duty  and  their  interest  so  well 
secured,  as  when  they  lose  all  for  Christ, 
and  are  adorned  with  wounds  or  poverty, 
change  or  scorn,  affronts  orrevilings,  which 
are  the  obelisks  and  triumphs  of  a  holy 
cause.  Evil  men  and  evil  causes  had  need 
have  good  fortune  and  great  success  to  sup- 
port their  persons  and  their  pretences ;  for 
nothing  but  innocence  and  Christianity 
can  flourish  in  a  persecution.  I  sum  up 
this  first  discourse  in  a  word:  in  all  the 
Scripture,  and  in  all  the  authentic  stories  of 
the  church,  we  find  it  often  that  the  devil 
appeared  in  the  shape  of  an  "  angel  of  light," 
but  was  never  suffered  so  much  as  to 
counterfeit  a  persecuted  sufferer.  Say  no 
more,  therefore,  as  the  murmuring  Israelites 
said,  "  If  the  Lord  be  with  us,  why  have 
these  evils  apprehended  us?"  for  if  to  be 
afflicted  be  a  sign  that  God  hath  forsaken  a 
man,  and  refuses  to  own  his  religion  or  his 
question,  then  he  that  oppresses  the  widow, 
and  murders  the  innocent,  and  puts  the 
fatherless  to  death,  and  follows  providence 
by  doing  all  the  evils  that  he  can,  that  is,  all 
that  God  suffers  him, — he,  I  say,  is  the 
only  saint  and  servant  of  God ;  and  upon 
the  same  ground  the  wolf  and  the  fox  may 
boast,  when  they  scatter  and  devour  a  flock 
of  lambs  and  harmless  sheep. 


SERMON  XXXV. 

PART  II. 

2.  It  follows  now  that  we  inquire  con- 
cerning the  reasons  of  the  Divine  Providence 
in  this  administration  of  affairs,  so  far  as  he 
hath  been  pleased  to  draw  aside  the  curtain, 
and  to  unfold  the  leaves  of  his  counsels  and 
predestination.  And  for  such  an  inquiry 
we  have  the  precedent  of  the  prophet  Je- 
remy^ "  Righteous  art  thou,  O  Lord,  when 


I  plead  with  thee;  yet  let  us  talk  to  thee  of 
thy  judgments.  Wherefore  doth  the  way 
of  the  wicked  prosper?  wherefore  are  all 
they  happy  that  deal  very  treacherously  ? 
thou  hast  planted  them,  yea  they  have  taken 
root :  they  grow,  yea  they  bring  forth 
fruit."*  Concerning  which  in  general  the 
prophet  Malachi  gives  this  account  after  the 
same  complaint  made :  "  And  now  we 
call  the  proud  happy  ;  and  they  that  work 
wickedness  are  set  up  :  yea  they  that  tempt 
God  are  even  delivered.  They  that  feared 
the  Lord  spake  often  one  to  another ;  and 
the  Lord  hearkened  and  heard,  and  a  book  of 
remembrance  was  written  before  him,  for 
them  that  feared  the  Lord  and  thought  upon 
his  name.  And  they  shall  be  mine  (saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts)  in  that  day  when  I  bind 
up  my  jewels ;  and  I  will  spare  them,  as  a 
man  spareth  his  own  son  that  serveth  him. 
Then  shall  ye  return,  and  discern  between 
the  righteous  and  the  wicked ;  between  him 
that  serveth  God  and  him  that  serveth  him 
not."t  In  this  interval,  which  is  a  valley 
of  tears,  it  is  no  wonder  if  they  rejoice  who 
shall  weep  for  ever ;  and  "  they  that  sow  in 
tears"  shall  have  no  cause  to  complain, 
when  God  gathers  all  the  mourners  into  his 
kingdom,  "  they  shall  reap  with  joy." 

For  innocence  and  joy  were  appointed  to 
dwell  together  for  ever.  And  joy  went  not 
first ;  but  when  innocence  went  away,  sor- 
row and  sickness  dispossessed  joy  of  its 
habitation;  and  now  this  world  must  be 
always  a  scene  of  sorrows,  and  no  joy  can 
grow  here  but  that  which  is  imaginary  and 
fantastic.  There  is  no  worldly  joy,  no  joy 
proper  for  this  world,  but  that  which  wicked 
persons  fancy  to  themselves  in  the  hopes 
and  designs  of  iniquity.  He  that  covets  his 
neighbour's  wife  or  land,  dreams  of  fine 
things,  and  thinks  it  a  fair  condition  to  be 
rich  and  cursed,  to  be  a  beast  and  die,  or  to 
lie  wallowing  in  fiithiness  :  but  those  holy 
souls  who  are  not  in  love  with  the  leprosy 
and  the  itch  for  the  pleasure  of  scratching, 
they  know  no  pleasure  can  grow  from  the 
thorns  which  Adam  planted  in  the  hedges 
of  paradise :  and  that  sorrow,  which  was 
brought  in  by  sin,  must  not  go  away  till  it 
hath  returned  us  into  the  first  condition  of  in- 
nocence :  the  same  instant  that  quits  us  from 
sin  and  the  failings  of  mortality,  the  same 
instant  wipes  all  tears  from  our  eyes ;  but 
that  is  not  in  this  world.  In  the  mean  time, 
God  afflicts  the  godly,  that  he  might  mani- 


*  Jer.  xii.  1,  2.  t  Mai.  iii.  14,  &c. 


Skkm.  XXXV.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  259 


fest  many  of  his  attributes,  and  his  servants 
exercise  many  of  their  virtues. 

Ncc  fortuna  probat  causas,  sequiturque  merentcs, 
Sed  vaga  per  cunctos  nullo  discrimine  fertur: 
Scilicet  est  aliud.  quod  nos  cogaJque  regatque, 
Majus,  et  in  propnas  ducat  mortalia  leges. 

For,  without  the  sufferings  of  saints,  God 
should  lose  the  glories,  1.  Of  bringing  good 
out  of  evil :  2.  Of  being  with  us  in  tribula- 
tion :  3.  Of  sustaining  our  infirmities  :  4. 
Of  triumphing  over  the  malice  of  his  ene- 
mies. 5.  Without  the  suffering  of  the  saints, 
where  were  the  exaltation  of  the  cross,  the 
conformity  of  the  members  to  Christ  their 
head,  the  coronets  of  martyrs?  6.  Where 
were  the  trial  of  our  faith?  7.  Or  the 
exercise  of  long  suffering  ?  8.  Where  were 
the  opportunities  to  give  God  the  greatest 
love?  which  cannot  be  but  by  dying  and 
suffering  for  him.  9.  How  should  that 
which  the  world  calls  folly,  prove  the  great- 
est wisdom  ?  10.  And  God  be  glorified  by 
events  contrary  to  the  probability  and  ex- 
pectation of  their  causes  ?  11.  By  the  suf- 
fering of  saints,  Christian  religion  is  proved 
to  be  most  excellent;  whilst  the  iniquity 
and  cruelty  of  the  adversaries  proves  the 
*  Illecebra  sectae,"  as  Tertullian's  phrase  is  : 
it  invites  men  to  consider  the  secret  excel- 
lencies of  that  religion,  for  which  and  in 
which  men  are  so  willing  to  die :  for  that 
religion  must  needs  be  worth  looking  into, 
which  so  many  wise  and  excellent  men  do 
so  much  value  above  their  lives  and  fortunes- 
12.  That  a  man's  nature  is  passible,  is  its 
best  advantage  ;  for  by  it  we  are  all  redeem- 
ed :  by  the  passiveness  and  sufferings  of 
our  Lord  and  Brother  we  were  all  rescued 
from  the  portion  of  devils ;  and  by  our  suf- 
ferings we  have  a  capacity  of  serving  God 
beyond  that  of  angels  :  who  indeed  can  sing 
God's  praise  with  a  sweeter  note,  and  obey 
him  with  a  more  unabated  will,  and  execute 
his  commands  with  a  swifter  wing  and  a 
greater  power ;  but  they  cannot  die  for  God, 
they  can  lose  no  lands  for  him ;  and  he  that 
did  so  for  all  us,  and  commanded  us  to  do 
so  for  him,  is  ascended  far  above  all  angels, 
and  is  heir  of  a  greater  glory.  13.  "Do 
this,  and  live,"  was  the  covenant  of  the  law  ; 
but  in  the  gospel  it  is,  "  Suffer  this,  and 
live  :" — "  He  that  forsaketh  house  and  land, 
friends  and  life,  for  my  sake,  is  my  disciple." 
1 4.  By  the  sufferings  of  saints  God  chastises 
their  follies  and  levities,  and  suffers  not 
their  errors  to  climb  up  into  heresies,  nor 
their  infirmities  into  crimes. 

— — -  rta9w»'  Si  tc  jrrtioj  f'yvu. 


"  Affliction  makes  a  fool  leave  his  folly." — 
If  David  numbers  the  people  of  Judea,  God 
punishes  him  sharply  and  loudly:  but  if 
Augustus  Caesar  numbers  all  the  wrorld,  he 
is  let  alone  and  prospers. 

Ille  crucem  pretium  sceleris  tulit,  hicdiadema. 

Juv. 

And  in  giving  physic,  we  always  call  that 
just  and  fitting  that  is  useful  and  profitable  : 
no  man  complains  of  his  physician's  iniquity, 
if  he  burns  one  part  to  cure  all  the  body;  if 
I  the  belly  be  punished  to  chastise  the  floods 
of  humour,   and  the   evils  of  a  surfeit. 
.  Punishments  can  no  other  way  turn  into  a 
'mercy,  but  when  they  are  designed  for  a 
'  medicine  :  and  God  is  then  very  careful  of 
I  thy  soul,  when  he  will  suppress  every  of  its 
|  evils,  when  it  first  discomposes  the  order  of 
things  and  spirits.    And  what  hurt  is  it  to 
!  thee,  if  a  persecution  draws  thee  from  the 
vanities  of  a  former  prosperity,  and  forces 
tAee  into  the  sobrieties  of  a  holy  life  ?  What 
loss  is  it  ?  what  misery  ?    Is  not  the  least  sin 
1  a  greater  evil  than  the  greatest  of  sufferings? 
God  smites  some  at  the  beginning  of  their 
sin ;  others,  not  till  a  long  while  after  it  is 
done.    The  first  cannot  say  that  God  is 
slack  in  punishing,  and  have  no  need  to 
complain  that  the  wicked  are  prosperous, 
for  they  find  that  God  is  apt  enough  to 
strike :  and  therefore,  that  he  strikes  them, 
and  strikes  not  the  other,  is  not  defect  of 
|  justice,  but  because  there  is  not  mercy  in 
!  store  for  them  that  sin,  and  suffer  not.  15. 
For  if  God  strikes  the  godly  that  they  may 
j  repent,  it  is  no  wonder  that  God  is  so  good 
to  his  servants ;  but  then  we  must  not  call 
that  a  misery,  which  God  intends  to  make 
!  an  instrument  of  saving  them.    And  if  God 
'  forbears  to  strike  the  wicked  out  of  anger, 
;  and  because  he  hath  decreed  death  and  hell 
against  them,  we  have  no  reason  to  envy- 
that  they  ride  in  a  gilded  chariot  to  the 
gallows  :  but  if  God  forbear  the  wicked, 
i  that  by  his  long  sufferance  they  may  be  in- 
vited to  repentance,  then  we  may  cease  to 
■  wonder  at  the  dispensation,  and  argue  com- 
forts to  the  afflicted  saints,  thus  :  for  if  God 
be  so  gracious  to  the  wicked,  how  much 
|  more  is  he  to  the  godly  ?    And  if  sparing  the 
wicked  be  a  mercy  ;  then,  smiting  the  godly, 
being  the  expression  of  his  greater  kindness, 
affliction  is  of  itself  the  more  eligible  con- 
dition.   If  God  hath  some  degrees  of  kind- 
ness for  the  persecutors,  so  much  as  to  in- 
vite them  by  kindness  ;  how  much  greater 
is  his  love  to  them  that  are  peis?cutet? 


260    FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OF  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXV. 


And  therefore,  his  intercourse  with  them  is 
also  a  greater  favour;  and,  indeed,  it  is  the 
surer  way  of  securing  the  duty  :  fair  means 
may  do  it,  but  severity  will  fix  and  secure  it. 
Fair  means  are  more  apt  to  be  abused  than 
harsh  physic  j  that  may  be  turned  into 
wantonness,  but  none  but  the  impudent  and 
grown  sinners  despise  all  God's  judgments; 
and  therefore,  God  chooses  this  way  to  deal 
with  his  erring  servants,  that  they  may  ob- 
tain an  infallible  and  a  great  salvation.  And 
yet  if  God  spares  not  his  children,  how 
much  less  the  reprobates  !  and  therefore,  as 
sparing  the  latter  commonly  is  a  sad  curse, 
so  the  smiting  the  former  is  a  very  great 
mercy.  16.  For  by  this  economy  God  gives 
us  a  great  argument  to  prove  the  resurrec- 
tion, since  to  his  saints  and  servants  he 
assigns  sorrow  for  their  present  portion. 
Sorrow  cannot  be  the  reward  of  virtue  ;  it 
may  be  its  instrument  and  handmaid,  but 
not  its  reward  ;  and  therefore,  it  may  be  in- 
termedial to  some  great  purposes,  but  they 
must  look  for  their  portion  in  the  other  life  : 
"  For  if  in  this  life  only  we  had  hope,  then 
we  were  of  all  men  the  most  miserable 
it  is  St.  Paul's  argument  to  prove  a  beatifi- 
cal resurrection.  And  we  therefore  may 
learn  to  estimate  the  state  of  the  afflicted 
godly  to  be  a  mercy,  great  in  proportion  to 
the  greatness  of  that  reward,  which  these 
afflictions  come  to  secure  and  to  prove. 

Nunc  et  damna  juvant ;  sunt  ipsa  pericula  tanti: 
Stantia  non  poterant  tecta  probare  deos. 

Martial. 

It  is  a  great  matter,  and  infinite  blessing, 
to  escape  the  pains  of  hell ;  and  therefore, 
that  condition  is  also  very  blessed  which  God 
sends  us,  to  create  and  to  confirm  our  hopes 
of  that  excellent  mercy.  17.  The  sufferings  j 
of  the  saints  are  the  sum  of  Christian  phi- 
losophy :  they  are  sent  to  wean  us  from  the 
vanities  and  affections  of  this  world,  and  to 
create  in  us  strong  desires  of  heaven  ;  whiles 
God  causes  us  to  be  here  treated  rudely,  that 
we  may  long  to  be  in  our  country,  where 
God  shall  be  our  portion,  and  angels  our 
companions,  and  Christ  our  perpetual  feast, 
and  never-ceasing  joy  shall  be  our  conditions 
and  entertainment.  "O  death,  how  bitter 
art  thou  to  a  man  that  is  at  ease  and  rest  in 
his  possessions  !"*  But  he  that  is  uneasy  in 
his  body,  and  unquiet  in  his  possessions, 
vexed  in  his  person,  discomposed  in  his  de- 
signs, who  finds  no  pleasure,  no  rest  here,  will 
be  glad  to  fix  his  heart  where  only  he  shall 

*  Ecclus.  iv.  SI. 


have  what  he  can  desire,  and  what  can  make 
him  happy.  As  long  as  the  waters  of  per- 
secutions are  upon  the  earth,  so  long  we 
dwell  in  the  ark:  but  where  the  land  is  dry, 
the  dove  itself  will  be  tempted  to  a  wandering 
course  of  life,  and  never  to  return  to  the  house 
of  her  safety.  What  shall  I  say  more?  18. 
Christ  nourisheth  his  church  by  sufferings. 

19.  He  hath  given  a  single  blessing  to  all 
other  graces ;  but  to  them  that  are  "perse- 
cuted," he  hath  promised  a  double  one  :*  it 
being  a  double  favour,  first  to  be  innocent 
like  Christ,  and  then  to  be  afflicted  like  him. 

20.  Without  this,  the  miracles  of  patience, 
which  God  hath  given  to  fortify  the  spirits 
of  the  saints,  would  signify  nothing.  "  Nemo 
enim  tolerare  tanta  velit  sine  causa,  nec  po- 
tuit  sine  Deo  :  iC  As  no  man  would  bear  evils 
without  a  cause,  so  no  man  could  bear  so 
much  without  the  supporting  hand  of  God ;" 
and  we  need  not  the  Holy  Ghost  to  so  great 
purposes,  if  our  lot  were  not  sorrow  and 
persecution.  And  therefore,  without  this 
condition  of  suffering,  the  Spirit  of  God  shall 
lose  that  glorious  attribute  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
"the  Comforter."  21.  Is  there  anything 
more  yet?  Yes.  They  that  have  suffered  or 
forsaken  any  lands  for  Christ,  "  shall  sit  upon 
the  thrones,  and  judge  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel ;"  so  said  Christ  to  his  disciples.  Nay, 
iC  the  saints  shall  judge  angels,"  saith  St. 
Paul :  well  therefore  might  St.  Paul  say,  "I 
rejoice  exceedingly  in  tribulation."  It  must 
be  some  great  thing  that  must  make  an  af- 
flicted man  to  rejoice  exceedingly ;  and  so  it 
was.  For  since  patience  is  necessary  that 
we  receive  the  promise,  and  tribulation  does 
work  this ;  i(  for  a  short  time  it  worketh  the 
consummation  of  our  hope  ;  even  an  exceed- 
ing weight  of  glory  ;"  we  have  no  reason  to 
"  think  it  strange  concerning  the  fiery  trial, 
as  if  it  were  a  strange  thing."  It  can  be  no 
hurt.  The  church  is  like  Moses'  bush,  when 
it  is  all  on  fire,  it  is  not  at  all  consumed, 
but  made  full  of  miracle,  full  of  splendour, 
full  of  God  :  and  unless  we  can  find  some- 
thing that  God  cannot  turn  into  joy,  we  have 
reason  not  only  to  be  patient,  but  rejoice, 
when  we  are  persecuted  in  a  righteous  cause : 
for  love  is  the  soul  of  Christianity,  and  suffer- 
ing is  the  soul  of  love.  To  be  innocent,  and 
to  be  persecuted,  are  the  body  and  soul  of 
Christianity.  "  I,  John,  your  brother,  and 
partaker  in  tribulation,  and  in  the  kingdom 
and  patience  of  Jesus,"  said  St.  John  :f  those 
were  the  titles  and  ornaments  of  his  profes- 


*  Matt.  v.  12. 


t  Rev.  i.  9. 


Sum. XXXV.   OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.    20 1 


sion:  that  is,"  I,  John,  your  fellow  Christian: " 
that  is  the  plain  song  of  the  former  descant. 
He,  therefore,  that  is  troubled  when  he  is  af- 
flicted in  his  outward  man,  that  his  inward 
man  may  grow  strong,  like  the  birds  upon 
the  ruins  of  the  shell,  and  wonders  that  a 
good  man  should  be  a  beggar,  and  a  sinner 
be  rich  with  oppression ;  that  Lazarus  should 
die  at  the  gate  of  Dives,  hungry  and  sick, 
unpitied  and  unrelieved  ;  may  as  well  wonder 
that  carrion-crows  should  feed  themselves 
fat  upon  a  fair  horse,  far  better  than  them- 
selves ;  or  that  his  own  excellent  body  should 
be  devoured  by  worms  and  the  most  con- 
temptible creatures,  though  it  lies  there  to  be 
converted  into  glory.  That  man  knows 
nothing  of  nature,  or  Providence,  or  Chris- 
tianity, or  the  rewards  of  virtue,  or  the  nature 
of  its  constitution,  or  the  infirmities  of  man, 
or  the  mercies  of  God,  or  the  arts  and  pru- 
dence of  his  loving-kindness,  or  the  rewards 
of  heaven,  or  the  glorification  of  Christ's  ex- 
alted humanity,  or  the  precepts  of  the  gospel, 
who  is  offended  at  the  sufferings  of  God's 
dearest  servants,  or  declines  the  honour  and 
the  mercy  of  sufferings  in  the  cause  of  right- 
eousness, for  the  securing  of  a  virtue,  for  the 
imitation  of  Christ,  and  for  the  love  of  God, 
or  the  glories  of  immortality.  It  cannot,  it 
ought  not,  it  never  will  be  otherwise :  the 
world  may  as  well  cease  to  be  measured  by 
time,  as  good  men  to  suffer  affliction.  I  end 
this  point  with  the  words  of  St.  Paul ;  "  Let  as 
many  as  are  perfect  be  thus  minded  :  and  if 
any  man  be  otherwise  minded,  God  also  will 
reveal  this  unto  you  this,  of  the  covenant 
of  sufferings,  concerning  which  the  old  pro- 
phets and  holy  men  of  the  temple  had  many 
thoughts  of  heart :  but  in  the  full  sufferings 
of  the  gospel  there  hath  been  a  full  revelation 
of  the  excellency  of  the  sufferings.  I  have 
now  given  you  an  account  of  some  of  those 
reasons,  why  God  hath  so  disposed  that  at 
this  time,  that  is,  under  the  period  of  the 
gospel,  "  Judgment  must  begin  at  the  house 
of  God :"  and  they  are  either  ttpupuu,  or  8oxi- 
ua<aai,  or  uaprvptor,  or  imitation  of  Christ's  \v- 
rpov, "  chastisements,"  or  "  trials,"  or  "  mar- 
tyrdom," or  "  a  conformity  to  the  sufferings 
of  the  holy  Jesus." 

But  now  besides  all  the  premises,  we  have 
another  account  to  make  concerning  the  pros- 
perity of  the  wicked :  "  For  if  judgment  first 
begin  at  us,  what  shall  the  end  be  of  them  that 
obey  not  the  gospel  of  God  ?"  that  is  the  ques- 
tion of  the  apostle,  and  is  the  great  instrument 

*  Phil.  lii.  15. 


of  comfort  to  persons  ill-treated  in  the  actions 
of  the  world.    The  first  ages  of  the  church, 
lived  upon  promises  and  prophecies  ;  and  be- 
cause-some  of  them  are  already  fulfilled  for 
ever,  and  others  are  of  a  continual  and  a 
successive  nature,  and  are  verified  by  the 
actions  of  every  day,  therefore  we  and  all  the 
'  following  ages  live  upon  promises  and  ex- 
'perience.    And  although  the  servants  of 
i  God  have  suffered  many  calamities  from  the 
tyranny  and  prevalency  of  evil  men  their 
enemies,  yet  still  it  is  preserved  as  one  of  the 
fundamental  truths  of  Christianity,  that  all  the 
fair  fortunes  of  the  wicked  are  not  enough 
to  make  them  happy,  nor  the  persecutions 
of  the  godly  able  to  make  a  good  man  mise- 
rable, nor  yet  their  sadnesses  arguments  of 
j  God's  displeasure  against  them.    For  when 
!a  godly  man  is  afflicted  and  dies,  it  is  his 
'  work  and  his  business  :  and  if  the  wicked 
prevail,  that  is,  if  they  persecute  the  godly, 
it  is  but  that  which  was  to  be  expected 
from  them :  for  who  are  fit  to  be  hangmen 
I  and  executioners  of   public  wrath,  but  evil 
and  ungodly  persons  1    And  can  it  be  a 
wonder,  that  they  whose  cause  wants  reason, 
|  should  betake  themselves  to  the  sword  1  that 
what  he  cannot  persuade,  he  may  wrest  ? 
Only  we  must  not  judge  of  the  things  of 
God  by  the  measures  of  men.    Ta  dv^pwrum, 
"the  things  of  men"  have  this  world  for 
their  stage  and  their  reward :  but  the  "  things 
of  God"  relate  to  the  world  to  come :  and 
for  our  own  particulars  we  are  to  be  guided 
by  rule,  and  by  the  end  of  all ;  not  by  events 
intermedial,  which  are  varied  by  a  thousand 
irregular  causes.    For  if  all  the  evil  men  in 
the  world  were  unprosperous, — as  most  cer- 
tain they  are, — and  if  all  good  persons  were 
temporally  blessed, — as  most  certainly  they 
|  are  not ;  yet  this  would  not  move  us  to  become 
|  virtuous.    "If  an  angel  should  come  from 
;  heaven,  or  one  rise  from  the  dead"  and 
preach  repentance,  or  justice,  and  temper- 
lance,  all  this  would  be  ineffectual  to  those,  to 
iwhom  the  plain  doctrines  of  God  delivered 
I  in  the  law  and  the  prophets  will  not  suffice, 
j    For  why  should  God  work  a  sign  to  make 
\  us  to  believe  that  we  ought  to  do  justice,  if 
!we  already  believe  he  hath  commanded  it? 
No  man  can  need  a  miracle  for  the  confirma- 
tion of  that  which  he  already  believes  to  be 
|  the  command  of  God  :  and  when  God  hath 
expressly  bidden  us  to  "obey  every  ordinance 
of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake,  the  king  as  su- 
preme, and  his  deputies  as  sent  by  him  ;"  it 
:  is  a  strange  infidelity  to  think  that  a  rebellion 
against  the  ordinance  of  God  can  be  sanctified 


262    FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OF  THE  SAINTS.  Serm.  XXXV. 


by  the  success  and  prevalency  of  them  that 
destroy  the  authority,  and  the  person,  and 
the  law,  and  the  religion.  The  sin  cannot 
grow  to  its  height,  if  it  be  crushed  at  the  be- 
ginning; unless  it  prosper  in  ils  progress,  a 
man  cannot  easily  fill  up  the  measure  of  his 
iniquity  :  but  then  that  sin  swells  to  its  ful- 
ness by  prosperity,  and  grows  too  big  to  be 
suppressed  without  a  miracle ;  it  is  so  far 
from  excusing  or  lessening  the  sin,  that 
nothing  doth  so  nurse  the  sin  as  it.  It  is  not 
virtue,  because  it  is  prosperous  ;  but  if  it  had 
not  been  prosperous,  the  sin  could  never  be 
so  great. 

Facere  omnia  saeve 
Non  impune  licet,  nisi  dum  facis. — Lucan. 

A  little  crime  is  sure  to  smart ;  but  when  the 
sinner  is  grown  rich,  and  prosperous,  and 
powerful,  he  gets  impunity. 

Jusque  datum  sceleri. — Lucan. 

But  that  is  not  innocence :  and  if  prosperity 
were  the  voice  of  God  to  approve  an  action, 
then  no  man  were  vicious  but  he  that  is  pu- 
nished ;  and  nothing  were  rebellion  but  that 
which  can  be  easily  suppressed  ;  and  no  man 
were  a  pirate  but  he  that  robs  with  a  little 
vessel ;  and  no  man  could  be  a  tyrant  but  he 
that  is  no  prince;  and  no  man  an  unjust  in- 
vader of  his  neighbour's  rights  but  he  that 
is  beaten  and  overthrown.    Then  the  crime 
grows  big  and  loud,  then  it  calls  to  Heaven 
for  vengeance,  when  it  hath  been  long  a 
growing,  when  it  hath  thrived  under  the 
devil's  managing;  when  God  hath  long  suf- 
fered it,  and  with  patience,  in  vain  expecting 
the  repentance  of  a  sinner.    "He  that  trea- 
sures up  wrath,  against  the  day  of  wrath," 
that  man  hath  been  a  prosperous,  that  is,  an 
unpunished,  and  a  thriving  sinner  :  but  then 
it  is  the  sin  that  thrives,  not  the  man  :  and 
that  is  the  mistake  upon  this  whole  question; 
for  the  sin  cannot  thrive,  unless  the  man 
goes  on  without  apparent  punishment  and 
restraint.    And  all  that  the  man  gets  by  it  is 
that  by  a  continual  course  of  sin  he  is  pre 
pared  for  an  intolerable  ruin.    The  Spirit  of 
God  bids  us  look  upon  the  end  of  these  men; 
not  the  way  they  walk,  or  the  instruments 
of  that  pompous  death.    When  Epaminon- 
das  was  asked  which  of  the  three  was  hap 
piest,  himself,  Chabrias,  or  Iphicrates,  Le  bid 
the  man  stay  till  they  were  all  dead  ;  for  ti 
then  that  question  could  not  be  answered. 
He  that  had  seen  the  Vandals  besiege  the 
city  of  Hippo,  and  had  known  the  bar 
barousness  of  that  unchristened  people,  and 
had  observed  that  St.  Austin  with  all  his 


prayers  and  vows  could  not.  obtain  peace  in 
his  own  days,  not  so  much  as  a  reprieve  for 
the  persecution,  and  then  had  observed  St. 
Austin  die  with  grief  that  very  night,  would 
have  perceived  his  calamity  more  visible 
than  the  reward  of  his  piety  and  holy  reli- 
gion.   When  Lewis,  surnamed  Pius,  went 
his  voyage  to  Palestine  upon  a  holy  end, 
and  for  the  glory  of  God,  to  fight  against 
the  Saracens  and  Turks  and  Mamelukes, 
the  world  did  promise  to  themselves  that  a 
good  cause  should  thrive  in  the  hands  of  so 
holy  a  man;  but  the  event  was  far  other- 
wise :  his  brother  Robert  was  killed,  and 
his  army  destroyed,  and  himself  taken  pri- 
soner, and  the  money  which  by  his  mother 
was  sent  for  his  redemption  was  cast  away 
in  a  storm,  and  he  was  exchanged  for  the 
last  town  the  Christians  had  in  Egypt,  and 
brought  home  the  cross  of  Christ  upon  his 
shoulder  in  a  real  pressure  and  participation 
of  his  Master's  sufferings.    When  Charles 
the  Fifth  went  to  Algiers  to  suppress  pirates 
and  unchristened  villains,  the  cause  was 
more  confident  than  the  event  was  prosper- 
ous :  and  when  he  was  almost  ruined  in  a 
prodigious  storm,  he  told  the  minutes  of  the 
clock,  expecting  that  at  midnight,  when  re- 
ligious persons  rose  to  matins,  he  should 
be  eased  by  the  benefit  of  their  prayers ; 
but  the  providence  of  God  trod  upon  those 
waters,  and  left  no  footsteps  for  discovery ; 
his  navy  was  beat  in  pieces,  and  his  design 
ended  in  dishonour,  and  his  life  almost  lost 
by  the  bargain.    Was  ever  cause  more  baf- 
fled than  the  Christian  cause  by  the  Turks 
in  all  Asia  and  Africa,  and  some  parts  of 
Europe,  if  to  be  persecuted  and  afflicted  be 
reckoned  a  calamity?    What  prince  was 
ever  more  unfortunate  than  Henry  the  Sixth 
of  England?  and  yet  that  age  saw  none 
more  pious  and  devout.    And  the  title  of  the 
house  of  Lancaster  was  advanced  against 
the  right  of  York  for  three  descents.  But 
then  what  was  the  end  of  these  things? 
The  persecuted  men  were  made  saints,  and 
their  memories  were  preserved  in  honour, 
and  their  souls  shall  reign  for  ever.  And 
some  good  men  were  engaged  in  a  wrong 
cause,  and  the  good  cause  was  sometimes 
managed  by  evil  men  ;  till  that  the  sup- 
pressed cause  was  lifted  up  by  God  in  the 
hands  of  a  young  and  prosperous  prince, 
and  at  last  both  interests  were  satisfied  in 
the  conjunction  of  two  roses,  which  was 
brought  to  issue  by  a  wonderful  chain  of 
causes  managed  by  the  Divine  Providence. 
And  there  is  no  age,  no  history,  no  state,  no 


Serm.  XXXV.  OR,  T.HE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  263 


great  change  in  the  world,  but  hath  minis- 
tered an  example  of  an  afflicted  truth,  and 
a  prevailing  sin ;  for  I  will  never  more  call 
that  sinner  prosperous,  who,  after  he  hath 
been  permitted  to  finish  his  business,  shall 
die  and  perish  miserably ;  for  at  the  same 
rate  we  may  envy  the  happiness  of  a  poor 
fisherman,  who,  while  his  nets  were  drying, 
siept  upon  the  rock,  and  dreamed  that  he 
was  made  a  king;  on  a  sudden  starts  up, 
and  leaping  for  joy,  falls  down  from  the 
rock,  and  in  the  place  of  his  imaginary 
felicities,  loses  his  little  portion  of  pleasure 
and  innocent  solaces  he  had  from  the  sound 
sleep  and  little  cares  of  his  humble  cottage. 

And  what  is  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked  ? 
To  dwell  in  fine  houses,  or  to  command 
armies,  or  to  be  able  to  oppress  their  bre- 
thren, or  to  have  much  wealth  to  look  on,  or 
many  servants  to  feed,  or  much  business  to 
despatch,  and  great  cares  to  master ;  these 
things  are  of  themselves  neither  good  nor 
bad.  But  consider,  would  any  man  amongst 
us,  looking  and  considering  beforehand,  kill 
his  lawful  king,  to  be  heir  of  all  that  which 
I  have  named  ?  Would  any  of  you  choose  to 
have  God  angry  with  you  upon  these  terms  ? 
Would  any  of  you  be  a  perjured  man  for  it 
all?  A  wise  man  or  a  good  would  not 
choose  it.  Would  any  of  you  die  an  athe- 
ist, that  you  might  live  in  plenty  and  power? 
I  believe  you  tremble  to  think  of  it.  It  can- 
not therefore  be  a  happiness  to  thrive  upon 
the  stock  of  a  great  sin.  For  if  any  man 
should  contract  with  an  impure  spirit,  to 
give  his  soul  up  at  a  certain  day,  it  may 
be  twenty  years  hence,  upon  the  condition 
he  might,  for  twenty  years,  have  his  vain 
desires  ;  should  we  not  think  that  person  in- 
finitely miserable  ?  Every  prosperous,  thriv- 
ing sinner  is  in  the  same  condition  :  within 
these  twenty  years  he  shall  be  thrown  into 
the  portion  of  devils,  but  shall  never  come 
out  thence  in  twenty  millions  of  years.  His 
wealth  must  needs  sit  uneasy  upon  him, 
that  remembers  that  within  a  short  space  he 
shall  be  extremely  miserable-,  and  if  he  does 
not  remember  it,  he  does  but  secure  it  the 
more.  And  that  God  defers  the  punish- 
ment, and  suffers  evil  men  to  thrive  in  the 
opportunities  of  their  sin,  it  may  and  does 
serve  many  ends  of  providence  and  mercy, 
but  serves  no  end  that  any  evil  men  can  rea- 
sonably wish  or  propound  to  themselves  eli- 
gible. 

Bias  said  well  to  a  vicious  person,"  Non 
metuo  ne  non  sis  daturus  poenas,  sed  metuo 


ne  id  non  sim  visurus ;"  "  He  was  sure  the 
man  should  be  punished,  he  was  not  sure 
;  he  should  live  to  see  it."    And  though  the 
Messenians  that  were  betrayed  and  slain  by 
!  Aristocrates,  in  the  battle  of  Cyprus,  were 
not  made  alive  again;  yet  the  justice  of 
j  God  was  admired,  and  treason  infinitely  dis- 
graced, when,  twenty  yeais  after,  the  trea- 
'  son  was  discovered,  and  the  traitor  punished 
j  with  a  horrid  death.    Lyciscus  gave  up  the 
I  Orchomenians  to  their  enemies,  having  first 
j  wished  his  feet,  which  he  then  dipped  in 
;  water,  might  rot  off,  if  he  were  not  true  to 
them ;  and  yet  his  feet  did  not  rot  till  those 
I  men  were  destroyed,  and  of  a  long  time 
after ;  and  yet  at  last  they  did.   "  Slay  them 
not,  O  Lord,  lest  my  people  forget  it,"  saith 
David.    If  punishment  were  instantly  and 
j  totally  inflicted,  it  would  be  but  a  sudden 
|  and  single  document ;  but  a  slow  and  linger- 
j  ing  judgment,  and  a  wrath  breaking  out  in 
j  the  next  age,  is  like  a  universal  proposition, 
':  teaching  our  posterity  that  God  was  angry 
|  all  the  while,  that  he  had  a  long  indignation 
in  his  breast,  that  he  would  not  forget  to 
j  take  vengeance.    And  it  is  a  demonstration, 
I  that  even  the  prosperous  sins  of  the  present 
age  will  find  the  same  period  in  the  Divine 
'revenge,  when  men  see  a  judgment  upon 
the  nephews  for  the  sins  of  their  grandfa- 
|  thers,  though  in  other  instances,  and  for  sins 
I  acted  in  the  days  of  their  ancestors. 

We  know  that  when,  in  Henry  the  Eighth 
or  Edward  the  Sixth's  days,  some  great  men 
;  pulled  down  churches  and  built  palaces,  and 
j  robbed  religion  of  its  just  encouragements 
and  advantages ;  the  men  that  did  it  were 
sacrilegious ;  and  we  find  also,  that  God  hath 
been  punishing  that  great  sin  ever  since; 
and  hath  displayed  to  so  many  generations 
of  men,  to  three  or  four  descents  of  child- 
ren, that  those  men  could  not  be  esteemed 
happy  in  their  great  fortunes,  against  whom 
God  was  so  angry,  that  he  would  show  his 
displeasure  for  a  hundred  years  together. 
When  Herod  had  killed  the  babes  of  Beth- 
lehem, it  was  seven  years  before  God  called 
him  to  an  account;  but  he  that  looks  upon 
I  the  end  of  that  man,  would  rather  choose 
|  the  fate  of  the  oppressed  babes,  than  of  the 
prevailing  and  triumphant  tyrant.  It  was 
forty  years  before  God  punished  the  Jews, 
for  their  execrable  murder  committed  upon 
the  person  of  their  King,  the  holy  Jesus  ; 
and  it  was  so  long,  that  when  it  did  happen, 
many  men  attributed  it  to  their  killing  of  St. 
James,  their  bishop,  and  seemed  to  forget  the 


264  FAITH  AND  PATIENCE 


OP  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXV. 


greater  crime.  But  "  Non  eventu  rerum, 
sed  fide  verborum  stamus ;"  "  We  are  to 
stand  to  the  truth  of  God's  word,  not  to  the 
event  of  things  — because  God  hath  given 
us  a  rule,  but  hath  left  the  judgment  to  him- 
self; and  we  die  so  quickly,  (and  God  mea- 
sures all  things  by  his  standard  of  eternity, 
and  "one  thousand  years  to  God  is  as  but 
one  day,")  that  we  are  not  competent  per- 
sons to  measure  the  times  of  God's  account, 
and  the  returns  of  judgment.  We  are  dead 
before  the  arrow  comes;  but  the  man  escapes 
not,  unless  his  soul  can  die,  or  that  God  can- 
not punish  him.  "  Ducunt  in  bonis  dies 
suos,  et  in  momento  descendunt  ad  infer- 
num,"  that  is  their  fate :  "They  spend  their 
days  in  plenty,  and  in  a  moment  descend 
into  hell."*  In  the  mean  time  they  drink, 
and  forget  their  sorrow;  but  they  are  con- 
demned: they  have  drunk  their  hemlock; 
but  the  poison  does  not  work  yet :  the  bait 
is  in  their  mouths,  and  they  are  sportive ; 
but  the  hook  hath  struck  their  nostrils,  and 
they  shall  never  escape  the  ruin.  And  let 
no  man  call  the  man  fortunate,  because  his 
execution  is  deferred  for  a  few  days,  when 
the  very  deferring  shall  increase  and  ascer- 
tain the  condemnation. 

But  if  we  should  look  under  the  skirt  of 
the  prosperous  and  prevailing  tyrant,  we 
should  find,  even  in  the  days  of  his  joys, 
such  allays  and  abatements  of  his  pleasure, 
as  may  serve  to  represent  him  presently 
miserable,  besides  his  final  infelicities.  For 
I  have  seen  a  young  and  healthful  person 
warm  and  ruddy  under  a  poor  and  thin 
garment,  when  at  the  same  time  an  old 
rich  person  hath  been  cold  and  paralytic 
under  a  load  of  sables  and  the  skins  of 
foxes.  It  is  the  body  that  makes  the  clothes 
warm,  not  the  clothes  the  body:  and  the 
spirit  of  a  man  makes  felicity  and  content, 
not  any  spoils  of  a  rich  fortune  wrapped 
about  a  sickly  and  an  uneasy  soul.  Apollo- 
dorus  was  a  traitor  and  a  tyrant,  and  the 
world  wondered  to  see  a  bad  man  have  so 
good  a  fortune ;  but  knew  not  that  he  nour- 
ished scorpions  in  his  breast,  and  that  his 
liver  and  his  heart  were  eaten  up  with  spec- 
tres and  images  of  death  ;  his  thoughts  were 
full  of  interruptions,  his  dreams  of  illusions; 
his  fancy  was  abused  with  real  troubles  and 
fantastic  images,  imagining  that  he  saw  the 
Scythians  flaying  him  alive,  his  daughters 
like  pillars  of  fire  dancing  round  about 


*  Job.  xxi.  13. 


a  cauldron,  in  which  himself  was  boiling, 
and  that  his  heart  accused  itself  to  be  the 
cause  of  all  these  evils.  And  although  all 
tyrants  have  not  imaginative  and  fantastic 
consciences,  yet  all  tyrants  shall  die  and 
come  to  judgment;  and  such  a  man  is  not 
to  be  feared,  not  at  all  to  be  envied.  And, 
in  the  mean  time,  can  he  be  said  to  escape 
who  hath  an  unquiet  conscience,  who  is 
already  designed  for  hell,  he  whom  God 
hates,  and  the  people  curse,  and  who.  hath 
an  evil  name,  and  against  whom  all  good 
men  pray,  and  many  desire  to  fight,  and  all 
wish  him  destroyed,  and  some  contrive  to 
do  it?  Is  this  man  a  blessed  man?  Is  that 
man  prosperous  who  hath  stolen  a  rich 
robe,  and  is  in  fear  to  have  his  throat  cut  for 
it,  and  is  fain  to  defend  it  with  greatest  diffi- 
culty and  the  greatest  danger?  Does  not 
he  drink  more  sweetly  that  takes  his  beve- 
rage in  an  earthen  vessel,  than  he  that  looks 
and  searches  into  his  golden  chalices  for 
fear  of  poison,  and  looks  pale  at  every  sud- 
den noise,  and  sleeps  in  armour,  and  trusts 
nobody,  and  does  not  trust  God  for  his  safe- 
ty, but  does  greater  wickedness  only  to 
escape  awhile  unpunished  for  his  fcrmer 
crimes?  "  Auro  bibitur  venenum."  No  man 
goes  about  to  poison  a  poor  man's  pitcher, 
nor  lays  plots  to  forage  his  little  garden 
made  for  the  nospital  of  two  bee-hives,  and 
the  feasting  of  a  few  Pythagorean  herb-eaters. 
 oux'  laaoiv  ocf9  jfkBov  vj/xiav  rtavtbs, 

HESIOD.  Epy. 

They  that  admire  the  happiness  of  a  pros- 
perous, prevailing  tyrant,  know  not  the  feli- 
cities that  dwell  in  innocent  hearts,  and  poor 
cottagers,  and  small  fortunes. 

A  Christian,  so  long  as  he  preserves  his 
integrity  to  God  and  to  religion,  is  bold  in 
all  accidents,  he  dares  die,  and  he  dares  be 
poor;  but  if  the  persecutor  dies,  he  is  un- 
done. Riches  are  beholden  to  our  fancies 
for  their  value;  and  yet  the  more  we  value 
the  riches,  the  less  good  they  are,  and  by 
an  over-valuing  affection  they  become  our 
danger  and  our  sin :  but,  on  the  other  side, 
death  and  persecution  lose  all  the  ill  that 
they  can  have,  if  we  do  not  set  an  edge 
upon  them  by  our  fears  and  by  our  vices. 
From  ourselves  riches  take  their  wealth,  and 
death  sharpens  his  arrows  at  our  forges,  and 
we  may  set  their  prices  as  we  please ;  and 
if  we  judge  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  we  must 
account  them  happy  that  suffer;  and,  there- 
fore, that  the  prevailing  oppressor,  tyrant. 


Serm.  XXXV.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  265 


or  persecutor,  is  infinitely  miserable.  Only 
let  God  choose  by  what  instruments  he  will 
govern  the  world,  by  what  instances  him- 
self would  be  served,  by  what  ways  he  will 
chastise  the  failings,  and  exercise  the  duties, 
and  reward  the  virtues,  of  his  servants.  God 
sometimes  punishes  one  sin  with  another; 
pride  with  adultery,  drunkenness  with  mur- 
der, carelessness  with  irreligion,  idleness 
with  vanity,  penury  with  oppression,  irre- 
ligion with  blasphemy,  and  that  with  athe- 
ism :  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder  if  he 
punishes  a  sinner  by  a  sinner.  And  if  David 
made  use  of  villains  and  profligate  persons 
to  frame  an  army  ;  and  Tiraoleon  destroyed 
the  Carthaginians  by  the  help  of  soldiers, 
who  themselves  were  sacrilegious  ;  and  phy- 
sicians use  poison  to  expel  poisons ;  and  all 
commonwealths  take  the  basest  of  men  to 
be  their  instruments  of  justice  and  execu- 
tions: we  shall  have  no  further  cause  to 
wonder,  if  God  raises  up  the  Assyrian  to 
punish  the  Israelites,  and  the  Egyptians  to 
destroy  the  Assyrians,  and  the  ^Ethiopians 
to  scourge  the  Egyptians ;  and  at  last  his 
own  hand  shall  separate  the  good  from  the 
bad  in  the  day  of  separation,  in  the  day 
when  he  makes  up  his  jewels. 

Hov  riots  xspavvoi  Aio$, 
not'  ^as^coi'  a}uo$, 

KpVTttOVSLV  txrpXH, ; 

Soph.  Elect. 

God  hath  many  ends  of  providence  to 
serve  by  the  hands  of  violent  and  vicious 
men.  By  them  he  not  only  checks  the  be- 
ginning errors  and  approaching  sins  of  his 
predestinate;  but  by  them  he  changes  go- 
vernments, and  alters  kingdoms,  and  is  ter- 
rible among  the  sons  of  men.  For  since  it 
is  one  of  his  glories  to  convert  evil  into  good, 
and  that  good  into  his  own  glory,  and  by 
little  and  little  to  open  and  to  turn  the  leaves 
and  various  folds  of  providence  :  it  becomes 
us  only  to  dwell  in  duty,  and  to  be  silent  in 
our  thoughts,  and  wary  in  our  discourses  of 
God;  and  let  him  choose  the  time  when  he 
will  prune  his  vine,  and  when  he  will  burn 
his  thorns :  how  long  he  will  smite  his  ser- 
vants, and  when  he  will  destroy  his  enemies. 
In  the  days  of  the  primitive  persecutions, 
what  prayers,  how  many  sighings.  how 
deep  groans,  how  many  bottles  of  tears,  did 
God  gather  into  his  repository,  all  praying 
for  ease  and  deliverances,  for  halcyon  days 
and  fine  sunshine,  "  for  nursing  fathers  and  . 
34 


nursing  mothers,"  for  public  assemblies  and 
open  and  solemn  sacraments  :  and  it  was 
three  hundred  years  before  God  would  hear 
their -prayers :  and  all  that  while  the  perse- 
cuted people  were  in  a  cloud,  but  they  were 
safe,  and  knew  it  not ;  and  God  "  kept  for 
them  the  best  wine  until  the  last :"  they 
ventured  for  a  crown,  and  fought  valiantly  ; 
they  were  "  faithful  to  the  death,  and  they 
received  a  crown  of  life ;"  and  they  are 
honoured  by  God,  by  angels,  and  by  men. 
Whereas  in  all  the  prosperous  ages  of  the 
church,  we  hear  no  stories  of  such  multi- 
tudes of  saints,  no  record  of  them,  no  honour 
to  their  memorial,  no  accident  extraordinary  ; 
scarce  any  made  illustrious  with  a  miracle, 
which  in  the  days  of  suffering  were  frequent 
and  popular.  And  after  all  our  fears  of  se- 
questration and  poverty,  of  death  or  banish- 
ment, our  prayers  against  the  persecution 
and  troubles  under  it,  we  may  please  to  re- 
member, that  twTenty  years  hence  (it  may  be 
sooner,  it  will  not  be  much  longer)  all  our 
cares  and  our  troubles  shall  be  dead  ;  and 
then  it  shall  be  inquired  how  we  did  bear 
our  sorrows,  and  who  inflicted  them,  and  in 
what  cause  :  and  then  he  shall  be  happy 
that  keeps  company  with  the  persecuted  ; 
and  the  "  persecutors  shall  be  shut  out 
amongst  dogs  and  unbelievers." 

He  that  shrinks  from  the  yoke  of  Christ, 
from  the  burden  of  the  Lord,  upon  his  deatn- 
bed  will  have  cause  to  remember,  that  by 
that  time  all  his  persecutions  would  have 
been  past,  and  that  then  there  would  remain 
nothing  for  him  but  rest,  and  crowns,  and 
sceptres.  When  Lysimachus,  impatient  and 
overcome  with  thirst,  gave  up  his  kingdom 
to  the  Getse,  being  a  captive,  and  having 
drunk  a  lusty  draught  of  wine,  and  his  thirsT 
now  gone,  he  fetched  a  deep  sigh,  and  said, 
"  Miserable  man  that  I  am,  who  for  so  little 
pleasure,  the  pleasure  of  one  draught,  lost  so 
great  a  kingdom ! "  Such  will  be  their  case, 
who,  being  impatient  of  suffering,  change 
their  persecution  into  wealth  and  an  easy 
fortune :  they  shall  find  themselves  misera- 
ble in  the  separations  of  eternity,  losing  the 
glories  of  heaven  for  so  little  a  pleasure,  "il- 
liberalis  et  ingratias  voluptatis  causa,"  as  Plu- 
tarch calls  it,  "  for  illiberal  and  ungrateful 
pleasure;"  in  which  when  a  man  hath  en- 
tered, he  loses  the  rights  and  privileges  and 
honours  of  a  good  man,  and  gets  nothing 
that  is  profitable  and  useful  to  holy  pur- 
poses, or  necessary  to  any;  but  is  already 
in  a  state  so  hateful  and  miserable,  that  he 
X 


266      FAITH  AND  PATIENCE 


OF  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXVI. 


needs  neither  God  nor  man  to  be  a  revenger, 
having  already  under  his  splendid  robe  of 
miseries  enough  to  punish  and  betray  this 
hypocrisy  of  his  condition  ;  being  troubled 
with  the  memory  of  what  is  past,  distrustful 
of  the  present,  suspicious  of  the  future,  vi- 
cious in  their  lives,  and  full  of  pageantry 
and  outsides,  but  in  their  death,  miserable 
with  calamities,  real,  eternal,  and  insup- 
portable. And  if  it  could  be  otherwise,  vir- 
tue itself  would  be  reproached  with  the  ca- 
lamity. 

Fi  yap  6  /j.ev  $avC)v 
Ta  ts  xai  ovhtv  u>v 

Ot  be  firj  rta%Lv 

Ep/jof '  civ  cuSwj  a,7tdvtuv 

Soph.  Elect. 

I  end  with  the  advice  of  St.  Paul ;  "  In 
nothing  be  terrified  of  your  adversaries; 
which  to  them  is  an  evident  token  of  perdi- 
tion, but  to  you  of  salvation,  and  that  of 
God." 


SERMON  XXXVI. 

PART  III  . 

But  now,  that  the  persecuted  may  at  least 
be  pitied,  and  assisted  in  that  of  which  they 
are  capable,  I  shall  propound  some  rules  by 
which  they  may  learn  to  gather  grapes  from 
their  thorns,  and  figs  from  their  thistles; 
crowns  from  the  cross,  glory  from  dishonour. 
As  long  as  they  belong  to  God,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  they  suffer  persecution  or  sorrow ; 
no  rules  can  teach  them  to  avoid  that :  but 
the  evil  of  the  suffering  and  the  danger  must 
be  declined,  and  we  must  use  some  such  spi- 
ritual arts  as  are  apt  to  turn  them  into  health 
and  medicine.  For  it  were  a  hard  thing,  first 
to  be  scourged,  and  then  to  be  crucified;  to 
suffer  here,  and  to  perish  hereafter ;  through 
the  fiery  trial  and  purging  fire  of  afflictions 
to  pass  into  hell  that  is  intolerable,  and  to  be 
prevented  with  the  following  cautions  :  lest 
a  man  suffer  like  a  fool  and  a  malefactor,  or 
inherit  damnation  for  the  reward  of  his  im- 
prudent suffering. 

1.  They  that  suffer  any  thing  for  Christ, 
and  are  ready  to  die  for  him,  let  them  do 
nothing  against  him.  For  certainly  they 
think  too  highly  of  martyrdom,  who  believe 


it  able  to  excuse  all  the  evils  of  a  wicked 
life.    A  man  may  "give  his  body  to  be 
burned,  and  yet  have  no  charity  :"  and  he 
that  dies  without  charity,  dies  without  God  ; 
"  for  God  is  love."    And  when  those  who 
fought  in  the  days  of  the  Maccabees  for  the 
defence  of  true  religion,  and  were  killed  in 
those  holy  wars,  yet,  being  dead,  were  found 
having  about  their  necks  ^pw^aiu,  or  "  pen- 
dants consecrated"  to  idols  of  the  Jam- 
nenses;  it  much  allayed  the  hope,  which, 
by  their  dying  in  so  good  a  cause,  was  en- 
tertained concerning  their  beatifical  resur- 
rection.    He  that  overcomes  his  fear  of 
death,  does  well;  but  if  he  hath  not  also 
overcome  his  lust,  or  his  anger,  his  baptism 
of  blood  will  not  wash  him  clean.  Many 
things  make  a  man  willing  to  die  in  a  good 
cause;  public  reputation,  hope  of  reward, 
gallantry  of  spirit,  a  confident  resolution, 
and  a  masculine  courage ;  or  a  man  may  be 
vexed  into  a  stubborn  and  unrelenting  suf- 
fering:  but  nothing  can  make  a  man  live 
well  but  the  grace  and  the  love  of  God.  But 
those  persons  are  infinitely  condemned  by 
their  last  act,  who  profess  their  religion  to 
be  worth  dying  for,  and  yet  are  so  unworthy 
as  not  to  live  according  to  its  institution. 
It  were  a  rare  felicity,  if  every  good  cause 
could  be  managed  by  good  men  only ;  but 
we  have  found  that  evil  men  have  spoiled  a 
good  cause,  but  never  that  a  good  cause 
made  those  evil  men  good  and  holy.   If  the 
governor  of  Samaria  had  crucified  Simon 
Magus  for  receiving  Christian  baptism,  he 
had  no  more  died  a  martyr  than  he  lived  a 
saint.    For  dying  is  not  enough,  and  dying 
in  a  good  cause  is  not  enough;  but  then 
only  we  receive  a  crown  of  martyrdom, 
when  our  death  is  the  seal  of  our  life,  and 
our  life  is  a  continual  testimony  of  our  duty, 
and  both  give  testimony  to  the  excellencies 
of  religion,  and  glorify  the  grace  of  God.  If 
a  man  be  gold,  the  fire  purges  him ;  but  it 
burns  him  if  he  be,  like  stubble,  cheap,  light, 
and  useless  :  for  martyrdom  is  the  consum- 
mation of  love.    But  then  it  must  be  sup- 
posed, that  this  grace  must  have  had  its  be- 
ginning, and  its  several  stages  and  periods, 
and  must  have  passed  through  labour  to 
zeal,  through  all  the  regions  of  duty  to  the 
perfections  of  sufferings.    And  therefore,  it 
is  a  sad  thing  to  observe,  how  some  empty 
souls  will  please  themselves  with  being  of 
such  a  religion,  or  such  a  cause ;  and  though 
they  dishonour  their  religion,  or  weigh  down 
the  cause  with  the  prejudice  of  sin,  believe 
all  is  swallowed  up  by  one  honourable  name, 


Serm.  XXXVI.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  267 


or  the  appellative  of  one  virtue.  If  God  had 
forbid  nothing  but  heresy  and  treason,  then 
to  have  been  a  loyal  man,  or  of  a  good  be- 
lief, had  been  enough:  but  he  that  forbade 
rebellion,  forbids  also  swearing  and  covetous- 
ness,  rapine  and  oppression,  lying  and  cru- 
elty. And  it  is  a  sad  thing  to  see  a  man  not 
only  to  spend  his  time,  and  his  wealth,  and 
his  money,  and  his  friends,  upon  his  lust,  but 
to  spend  his  sufferings  too,  to  let  the  canker- 
worm  of  a  deadly  sin  devour  his  martyr- 
dom. He  therefore  that  suffers  in  a  good 
cause,  let  him  be  sure  to  walk  worthy  of 
that  honour  to  which  God  hath  called  him ; 
let  him  first  deny  his  sins,  and  then  "  deny 
himself,"  and  then  he  may  "  take  up  his 
cross  and  follow  Christ ;"  ever  remember- 
ing, that  no  man  pleases  God  in  his  death 
who  hath  walked  perversely  in  his  life. 

2.  He  that  suffers  in  a  cause  of  God,  must 
be  indifferent  what  the  instance  be,  so  that 
he  may  serve  God.  I  say,  he  must  be  in- 
different in  the  cause,  so  it  be  a  cause  of 
God  ;  and  indifferent  in  the  suffering,  so  it 
be  of  God's  appointment.  For  some  men 
have  a  natural  aversation  to  some  vices  or 
virtues,  and  a  natural  affection  to  others. 
One  man  will  die  for  his  friend,  and  another 
will  die  for  his  money ;  some  men  hate  to 
be  a  rebel,  and  will  die  for  their  prince;  but 
tempt  them  to  suffer  for  the  cause  of  the 
church,  in  which  they  were  baptized,  and  in 
whose  communion  they  look  for  heaven,  and 
then  they  are  tempted,  and  fall  away.  Or 
if  God  hath  chosen  the  cause  for  them,  and 
they  have  accepted  it,  yet  themselves  will 
choose  the  suffering.  Right  or  wrong,  some 
men  will  not  endure  a  prison  ;  and  some 
that  can,  yet  choose  the  heaviest  part  of  the 
burden,  the  pollution  and  stain  of  a  sin, 
rather  than  lose  their  money  ;  and  some  had 
rather  die  twice  than  lose  their  estate  once. 
In  this  our  rule  is  easy.  Let  us  choose  God, 
and  let  God  choose  all  the  rest  for  us ;  it 
being  indifferent  to  us,  whether  by  poverty 
or  shame,  by  a  lingering  or  a  sudden  death, 
by  the  hands  of  a  tyrant-prince,  or  the  de 
spised  hands  of  a  base  usurper  or  a  rebel, 
we  receive  the  crown,  and  do  honour  to  God 
and  to  religion. 

3.  Whoever  suffer  in  a  cause  of  God, 
from  the  hands  of  cruel  and  unreasonable 
men,  let  them  not  be  too  forward  to  prog- 
nostigate  evil  and  death  to  their  enemies ; 
but  let  them  solace  themselves  in  the  assur- 
ance of  the  Divine  justice,  by  general  con- 
sideration, and,  in  particular,  pray  lor  them 
that  are  our  persecutors.  Nebuchadnezzar 


was  the  rod  in  the  hand  of  God  against  the 
Tyrians,  and  because  he  destroyed  that  city, 
God  rewarded  him  with  the  spoil  of  Egypt : 
and  it  is  not  always  certain  that  God  will  be 
angry  with  every  man  by  whose  hand  af- 
fliction comes  upon  us.  And  sometimes 
two  armies  have  met,  and  fought,  and  the 
wisest  man  amongst  them  could  not  say, 
that  either  of  the  princes  had  prevaricated 
either  the  laws  of  God  or  of  nations  ;  and 
yet,  it  may  be,  some  superstitious,  easy,  and 
half-witted  people  of  either  side  wonder  that 
their  enemies  live  so  long.  And  there  are 
very  many  cases  of  war,  concerning  which 
God  hath  declared  nothing:  and  although 
in  such  cases,  he  that  yields  and  quits  his 
title,  rather  than  his  charity,  and  the  care  of 
so  many  lives,  is  the  wisest  and  the  best 
man ;  yet,  if  neither  of  them  will  do  so,  let 
us  not  decree  judgments  from  heaven,  in 
cases  where  we  have  no  word  from  heaven, 
and  thunder  from  our  tribunals,  where  no 
voice  of  God  hath  declared  the  sentence. 
But  in  such  cases,  where  there  is  an  evident 
tyranny  or  injustice,  let  us  do  like  the  good 
Samaritan,  who  dressed  the  wounded  man, 
but  never  pursued  the  thief;  let  us  do  cha- 
rity to  the  afflicted,  and  bear  the  cross  with 
nobleness,  and  "look  up  to  Jesus,  who  en- 
dured the  cross,  and  despised  the  shame  :" 
but  let  us  not  take  upon  us  the  office  of  God, 
who  will  judge  the  nations  righteously,  and 
when  he  hath  delivered  up  our  bodies,  will 
rescue  our  souls  from  the  hands  of  unright- 
eous judges.  I  remember,  in  the  story  that 
Plutarch  tells,  concerning  the  soul  of  Thes- 
pesius,  that  it  met  with  a  prophetic  genius, 
who  told  him  many  things  that  should 
happen  afterwards  in  the  world ;  and  the 
strangest  of  all  was  this  :  That  there  should 
be  a  king,  "qui  bonus  cum  sit,  tyrannide 
vitam  finiet ;"  "  an  excellent  prince  and  a 
good  man,  should  be  put  to  death  by  a  rebel 
and  usurping  power:" — and  yet,  that  pro- 
phetic soul  could  not  tell,  that  those  rebels 
should,  within  three  years,  die  miserable 
and  accursed  deaths.  And  in  that  great  pro- 
phecy, recorded  by  St.  Paul,  "  That  in  the 
last  days  perilous  times  should  come,  and  men 
should  be  traitors  and  selfish,  having  forms 
of  godliness,  and  creeping  into  houses;"* 
yet  he  could  not  tell  us  when  these  men 
should  come  to  final  shame  and  ruin  :  only 
,  by  a  general  signification,  he  gave  this  sign 
of  comfort  to  God's  persecuted  servants  : 
"  but  they  shall  proceed  no  farther,  for  their 

*  2  Tim.  in.  1,  &c. 


268     FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OF  THE  SAINTS;    Serm.  XXXVI. 


folly  shall  be  manifest  unto  all  men  ;"*  that 
is,  at  long  running,  they  shall  shame  them- 
selves, and,  "  for  the  elect's  sake,  those  days 
of  evil  shall  be  shortened."  But  you  and  I 
may  be  dead  first :  and  therefore,  only  re- 
member, that  they  that,  with  a  credulous 
heart  and  a  loose  tongue,  are  too  decretory 
and  enunciative  of  speedy  judgments  to  their 
enemies,  turn  their  religion  into  revenge, 
and  therefore  do  believe  it  will  be  so ;  be- 
cause they  vehemently  desire  it  should  be 
so,  which  all  wise  and  good  men  ought  to 
suspect,  as  less  agreeing  with  that  charity, 
which  overcomes  all  the  sins  and  all  the 
evils  of  the  world,  and  sits  down  and  rests 
in  glory. 

4.  Do  not  trouble  yourself  by  thinking 
how  much  you  are  afflicted,  but  consider 
how  much  you  make  of  it :  for  reflex  acts 
upon  the  suffering  itself  can  lead  to  nothing 
but  to  pride,  or  to  impatience,  to  temptation, 
or  to  apostasy.  He  that  measures  the  grains 
and  scruples  of  his  persecution,  will  soon 
sit  down  and  call  for  ease,  or  for  a  reward ; 
will  think  the  time  long,  or  his  burden  great; 
will  be  apt  to  complain  of  his  condition,  or 
set  a  greater  value  upon  his  person.  Look 
not  back  upon  him  that  strikes  thee,  but 
upward  to  God  that  supports  thee,  and  for- 
ward to  the  crown  that  is  set  before  thee : 
and  then  consider,  if  the  loss  of  thy  estate 
hath  taught  thee  to  despise  the  world,  whe- 
ther thy  poor  fortune  hath  made  thee  poor 
in  spirit;  and  if  thy  uneasy  prison  sets  thy 
soul  at  liberty,  and  knocks  oft  the  fetters  of 
a  worse  captivity.  For  then  the  rod  of  suf- 
ferings turns  into  crowns  and  sceptres,  when 
every  suffering  is  a  precept,  and  every 
change  of  condition  produces  a  holy  resolu- 
tion, and  the  state  of  sorrows  makes  the 
resolution  actual  and  habitual,  permanent 
and  persevering.  For  as  the  silkworm  eat- 
eth  itself  out  of  a  seed  to  become  a  little 
worm ;  and  there  feeding  on  the  leaves  of 
mulberries,  it  grows  till  its  coat  be  off,  and 
then  works  itself  into  a  house  of  silk ;  then 
casting  its  pearly  seeds  for  the  young  to 
breed,  it  leaveth  its  silk  for  man,  and  dieth 
all  white  and  winged  in  the  shape  of  a  flying 
creature:  so  is  the  progress  of  souls.  When 
they  are  regenerate  by  baptism,  and  have 
cast  off  their  first  stains  and  the  skin  of 
worldly  vanities,  by  feeding  on  the  leaves 
of  Scriptures,  and  the  fruits  of  the  vine,  and 
the  joys  of  the  sacrament,  they  encircle 
themselves  in  the  rich  garments  of  holy  and 

*  2  Tim.  iii.  9. 


virtuous  habits;  then,  by  leaving  their 
blood,  which  is  the  church's  seed,  to  raise 
up  a  new  generation  to  God,  they  leave  a 
blessed  memory,  and  fair  example,  and  are 
themselves  turned  into  angels,  whose  fe- 
licity is  to  do  the  will  of  God,  as  their  em- 
ployment was  in  this  world  to  suffer.  "Fiat 
voluntas  tua"  is  our  daily  prayer,  and  that 
is  of  a  passive  signification;  "Thy  will  be 
done"  upon  us:  and  if  from  thence  also  we 
translate  it  into  an  active  sense,  and  by  suf- 
fering evils  increase  in  our  aptnesses  to  do 
well,  we  have  done  the  work  of  Christians, 
and  shall  receive  the  reward  of  martyrs. 

5.  Let  our  suffering  be  entertained  by  a 
direct  election,  not  by  collateral  aids  and 
fantastic  assistances.  It  is  a  good  refresh- 
ment to  a  weak  spirit  to  suffer  in  good  com- 
pany :  and  so  Phocion  encouraged  a  timor- 
ous Greek,  condemned  to  die ;  and  he  bid 
him  be  confident,  because  that  he  was  to  die 
with  Phocion :  and  when  forty  martyrs  in 
Cappadocia  suffered,  and  that  a  soldier, 
standing  by,  came  and  supplied  the  place 
of  the  one  apostate,  who  fell  from  his  crown, 
being  overcome  with  pain,  it  added  warmth 
to  the  frozen  confessors,  and  turned  them 
into  consummate  martyrs.  But  if  martyr- 
dom were  but  a  fantastic  thing,  or  relied 
upon  vain  accidents  and  irregular  chances, 
it  were  then  necessary  to  be  assisted  by- 
images  of  things,  and  any  thing  less  than 
the  proper  instruments  of  religion  :  but  since 
it  is  the  greatest  action  of  the  religion,  and 
relies  upon  the  most  excellent  promises,  and 
its  formality  is  to  be  an  action  of  love,  and 
nothing  is  more  firmly  chosen  (by  an  after- 
election  at  least)  than  an  act  of  love;  to 
support  martyrdom,  or  the  duty  of  suffer- 
ings, by  false  arches  and  exterior  circum- 
stances, is  to  build  a  tower  upon  the  beams 
of  the  sun,  or  to  set  up  a  wooden  ladder  to 
climb  up  to  heaven  ;  the  soul  cannot  attain 
so  huge  and  unimaginable  felicities  by 
chance  and  instruments  of  fancy.  And  let 
no  man  hope  to  glorify  God  and  go  to  hea- 
ven by  a  life  of  sufferings,  unless  he  first 
begin  in  the  love  of  God,  and  from  thence 
derive  his  choice,  his  patience,  and  confi- 
dence, in  the  causes  of  virtue  and  religion, 
like  beams,  and  warmth,  and  influence,  from 
the  body  of  the  sun.  Some  there  are  that 
fall  under  the  burden,  when  they  are  pressed 
hard,  because  they  use  not  the  proper  instru- 
ments in  fortifying  the  will  in  patience  and 
resignation,  but  endeavour  to  lighten  the 
burden  in  imagination ;  and  when  these 
temporary  supporters  fail,  the  building  that 


Serm.  XXXVI.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  2G9 


relies  upon  them,  rushes  into  coldness,  re- 
cidivation,  and  lukewarmness  :  and,  among 
all  instances,  that  of  the  main  question  of 
the  text  is  of  greatest  power  to  abuse  impru- 
dent and  less  severe  persons. 


Nullos  esse  Deos.  inane  caelum, 

Affirmat  Ccelius ;  probatque, 

Quod  se  videt,  dum  negat  haec,  beatum. 

Martial. 


When  men  choose  a  good  cause  upon! 
confidence  that  an  ill  one  cannot  thrive,  that 
IB,  not  for  the  love  of  virtue  or  duty  to  God, 
but  for  profit  and  secular  interests,  they  are 
easily  lost,  when  they  see  the  wickedness 
of  the  enemy  to  swell  up  by  impunity  and 
success  to  a  greater  evil :  for  they  have  not  | 
learned  to  distinguish  a  great  growing  sin 
from  a  thriviug  and  prosperous  fortune. 

Ulla  si  juris  tibi  pejerati 

Poena,  Barine,  nocuisset  unquam  ; 

Dente  si  nigro  fieres,  vel  uno 

Turpior  ungui ; 
Crederem   Hon. 

They  that  believe  and  choose  because  of 
idle  fears  and  unreasonable  fancies,  or  by 
mistaking  the  accounts  of  a  man  for  the 
measures  of  God,  or  dare  not  commit  treason 
for  fear  of  being  blasted;  may  come  to  be 
tempted  when  they  see  a  sinner  thrive,  and 
are  scandalized  all  the  way  if  they  die  before 
him  j  or  they  may  come  to  receive  some  ac- 
cidental hardnesses  j  and  every  thing  in  the 
world  may  spoil  such  persons,  and  blast 
their  resolutions.  Take  in  all  the  aids  you 
can,  and,  if  the  fancy  of  the  standers-by,  or 
the  hearing  of  a  cock  crow,  can  add  any 
collateral  aids  to  thy  weakness,  refuse  it  not : 
but  let  thy  state  of  sufferings  begin  with 
choice,  and  be  confirmed  with  knowledge, 
and  rely  upon  love,  and  the  aids  of  God, 
and  the  expectations  of  heaven,  and  the  pre- 
sent sense  of  duty  j  and  then  the  action  will 
be  as  glorious  in  the  event,  as  it  is  prudent  j 
in  the  enterprise,  and  religious  in  the  prose- 
Button. 

6.  Lastly,  when  God  hath  brought  thee  j 
into  Christ's  school,  and  entered  thee  into  a 
state  of  sufferings,  remember  the  advantages 
of  that  state :  consider,  how  unsavoury  the 
things  of  the  world  appear  to  thee,  when  j 
thou  art  under  the  arrest  of  death ;  remem-  < 
ber,  with  what  comforts  the  Spirit  of  God  | 
assists  thy  spirit:  set  down  in  thy  heart  all; 
those  intercourses,  which  happen  between  1 
God  and  thy  own  soul,  the  sweetnesses  of 
religion,  the  vanity  of  sin's  appearances,  thy 
newly-entertained  resolutions,  thy  longings . 


after  heaven,  and  all  the  things  of  God. 
And  if  God  finishes  thy  persecutions  with 
death,  proceed  in  them  :  if  he  restores  thee 
to  the  light  of  the  world,  and  a  temporal  re- 
freshment, change  but  the  scene  of  sufferings 
in  an  active  life,  and  converse  with  God 
upon  the  same  principles,  on  which,  in  thy 
state  of  sufferings,  thou  didst  build  all  the 
parts  of  duty.  If  God  restores  thee  to  thy 
estate,  be  not  less  in  love  with  heaven,  nor 
more  in  love  with  the  world ;  let  thy  spirit 
be  now  as  humble  as  before  it  was  broken  : 
and,  to  whatsoever  degree  of  sobriety  or  aus- 
terity thy  suffering  condition  did  enforce 
thee,  if  it  may  be  turned  into  virtue,  when 
God  restores  thee,  (because  then  it  was  ne- 
cessary thou  shouldst  entertain  it  by  an  after- 
choice,)  do  it  now  also  by  a  pre-election ; 
that  thou  mayest  say  with  David,  "  It  is 
good  for  me  that  I  have  been  afflicted,  for 
thereby  I  have  learned  thy  commandments." 
And  Paphnutius  did  not  do  his  soul  more 
advantage,  when  he  lost  his  right  eye,  and 
suffered  his  left  knee  to  be  cut  off  for  Chris- 
tianity and  the  cause  of  God,  than  that,  in 
the  days  of  Constantine  and  the  church's 
peace,  he  lived  not  in  the  toleration,  but  in 
the  active  piety  of  a  martyr's  condition ;  not 
now  a  confessor  of  the  faith  only,  but  of  the 
charity  of  a  Christian.  We  may  everyone 
live  to  have  need  of  these  rules ;  and  I  do 
not  at  all  think  it  safe  to  pray  against  it,  but 
to  be  armed  for  it :  and  to  whatsoever  degree 
of  sufferings  God  shall  call  us,  we  see  what 
advantages  God  intends  for  us,  and  what 
advantages  we  ourselves  may  make  of  it.  I 
now  proceed  to  make  use  of  all  the  former 
discourse,  by  removing  it  a  littie  farther  even 
into  its  utmost  spiritual  sense :  which  the 
apostle  does  in  the  last  words  of  the  text ; 
"  If  the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved,  where 
shall  the  wicked  and  the  sinner  appear?" 

These  words  are  taken  cut  of  the  Pro- 
verbs,* according  to  the  translation  of  the 
LXX.  "  If  the  righteous  scarcely  be  safe." 
Where  the  word  ^o?us  implies  that  he  is 
safe  ;  but  by  "  intermedial  difficulties  :"  and 
<ju£fTcu,  he  is  safe  in  the  midst  of  his  perse- 
cutions; they  may  disturb  his  rest,  and  dis- 
compose his  fancy,  but  they  are  like  the 
fiery  chariot  to  Elias ;  he  is  encircled  with 
fire,  and  rare  circumstances  and  strange 
usages,  but  is  carried  up  to  heaven  in  a  robe 
of  flames.  And  so  was  Noah  safe  when 
the  flood  came ;  and  was  the  great  type  and 
instance  too  of  the  verification  of  this  pro- 


*  Chap.  xi.  31. 
x  2 


270  FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OF  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXVI. 


position  ;  he  was  6  8lxaio$  and  Sixavoavvqs 
xr$vt,  he  was  put  into  a  strange  condition, 
perpetually  wandering,  shut  up  in  a  prison 
of  wood,  living  upon  faith,  having  never  had 
the  experience  of  being  safe  in  floods.  And 
so  have  I  often  seen  young  and  unskilful 
persons  sitting  in  a  little  boat,  when  every 
little  wave  sporting  about  the  sides  of  the 
vessel,  and  every  motion  and  dancing  of  the 
barge,  seemed  a  danger,  and  made  them 
cling  fast  upon  their  fellows ;  and  yet  all  the 
while  they  were  as  safe  as  if  they  sat  under  a 
tree,  while  a  gentle  wind  shook  the  leaves  into 
a  refreshment  and  a  cooling  shade :  and  the 
unskilful,  inexperienced  Christian  shrieks 
out,  whenever  his  vessel  shakes,  thinking  it 
always  a  danger,  that  the  watery  pavement 
is  not  stable  and  resident,  like  a  rock ;  and 
yet  all  his  danger  is  in  himself,  none  at  all 
from  without :  for  he  is  indeed  moving  upon 
the  waters,  but  fastened  to  a  rock;  faith  is 
his  foundation,  and  hope  is  his  anchor,  and 
death  is  his  harbour,  and  Christ  is  his  pilot, 
and  heaven  is  his  country  ;  and  all  the  evils 
of  poverty  or  affronts,  of  tribunals  and  evil 
judges,  of  fears  and  sadder  apprehensions, 
are  but  like  the  loud  wind  blowing  from  the 
right  point,  they  make  a  noise,  and  drive 
faster  to  the  harbour  ;  and  if  we  do  not  leave 
the  ship,  and  leap  into  the  sea;  quit  the  in- 
terests of  religion,  and  run  to  the  securities 
of  the  world ;  cut  our  cables,  and  dissolve 
our  hopes  ;  grow  impatient,  and  hug  a  wave, 
and  die  in  its  embraces ;  we  are  as  safe  at 
sea,  safer  in  the  storm  which  God  sends  us, 
than  in  a  calm  when  we  are  befriended  with 
the  world. 

2.  But  p6us  may  also  signify  "  rard ;" 
"If  the  righteous  is  seldom  safe:"  which 
implies  that  sometimes  he  is,  even  in  a  tem- 
poral sense.  God  sometimes  sends  halcyon 
days  to  his  church,  and  when  he  promised 
"  kings  and  queens  to  be  their  nurses,"  he 
intended  it  for  a  blessing  ;  and  yet  this  bless- 
ing does  oftentimes  so  ill  succeed,  that  it  is 
the  greater  blessing  of  the  two,  not  to  give 
us  that  blessing  too  freely.  But  poto;,  this 
is  "scarcely"  done;  and  yet  sometimes  it  is, 
and  God  sometimes  refreshes  languishing 
piety  with  such  arguments  as  comply  with 
our  infirmities  :  and  though  it  be  a  shame  to 
us  to  need  such  allectives  and  infant-gauds, 
such  which  the  heathen  world  and  the  first 
rudiments  of  the  Israelites  did  need ;  God, 
who  pities  us,  and  will  be  wanting  in  nothing 
to  us,  as  he  corroborates  our  willing  spirits 
with  proper  entertainments,  so  also  he  sup- 
ports our  weak  flesh,  and  not  only  cheers  an 


afflicted  soul  with  beams  of  light,  and  ante- 
pasts  and  earnests  of  glory,  but  is  kind  also 
to  our  man  of  flesh  and  weakness  ;  and  to  this 
purpose  he  sends  thunderbolts  from  heaven 
upon  evil  men,  dividing  their  tongues,  in- 
fatuating their  counsels,  cursing  their  pos- 
terity, and  ruining  their  families. 

 aXhote  6"  alts 

"H  iZiv  yt  Gtpatov  svpvv  drtwtofff j>,  rj  oys  rft^oj, 
rsaj  iv  Ttovtcj  Kpovltys  ario-tivvvtai  avtcpv. 

Hesiod.  Epy. 

"  Sometimes  God  destroys  their  armies, 
or  their  strongholds,  sometimes  breaks  their 
ships."  But  this  happens  either  for  the 
weakness  of  some  of  his  servants,  and  their 
too  great  aptness  to  be  offended  at  a  pros- 
perous iniquity,  or  when  he  will  not  suffer 
the  evil  to  grow  too  great,  or  for  some  end 
of  his  providence;  and  yet,  if  this  should  be 
very  often,  or  last  long,  God  knows  the  dan- 
ger, and  we  should  feel  the  inconvenience. 
Of  all  the  types  of  Christ,  only  Joshua  and 
Solomon  were  noted  to  be  generally  prosper- 
ous :  and  yet  the  fortune  of  the  first  was  to 
be  in  perpetual  war  and  danger ;  but  the 
other  was  as  himself  could  wish  it,  rich, 
and  peaceful,  and  powerful,  and  healthful, 
and  learned,  and  beloved,  and  strong,  and 
amorous,  and  voluptuous,  and  so  he  fell ; 
and  though  his  fall  was,  yet  his  recovery 
was  not,  upon  record. 

And  yet  the  worst  of  evils  that  happen  to 
the  godly,  is  better,  temporally  better,  than 
the  greatest  external  felicity  of  the  wicked  : 
that  in  all  senses  the  question  may  be  con- 
siderable and  argumentative,  "  If  the  right- 
eous scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall  the  un- 
godly appear  V  If  it  be  hard  .with  good 
men,  with  the  evil  it  shall  be  far  worse.  But 
see  the  difference.  The  godly  man  is  timor- 
ous, and  yet  safe ;  tossed  by  the  seas,  and 
yet  safe  at  anchor  ;  impaired  by  evil  acci- 
dents, and  righted  by  divine  comforts ;  made 
sad  with  a  black  cloud,  and  refreshed  with 
a  more  gentle  influence ;  abused  by  the 
world,  and  yet  an  heir  of  heaven;  hated  by 
men,  and  beloved  by  God ;  loses  one  house, 
and  gets  a  hundred  ;  he  quits  a  convenient 
lodging-room,  and  purchases  a  glorious 
country:  is  forsaken  by  his  friends,  but 
never  by  a  good  conscience  ;  he  fares  hardly, 
and  sleeps  sweetly;  he  flies  from  his  ene- 
mies, but  hath  no  distracting  fears;  he  is 
full  of  thought,  but  of  no  amazement ;  it  is 
his  business  to  be  troubled,  and  his  portion 
to  be  comforted;  he  hath  nothing  to  afflict 
him,  but  the  loss  of  that  which  might  be  his 
danger,  but  can  never  be  his  good :  and  in 


Serm.  XXXVI.  OR,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CAUSE  OPPRESSED.  271 


the  recompense  of  this  he  hath  God  for  his 
Father,  Christ  for  his  Captain,  the  Holy- 
Ghost  for  his  supporter ;  so  that  he  shall 
have  all  the  good  which  God  can  give  him, 
and  of  all  that  good  he  hath  the  holy  Trinity 
for  an  earnest  and  a  gage  for  his  main- 
tenance at  the  present,  and  his  portion  to  all 
eternity.  But,  though  Paul  and  Silas  sang 
psalms  in  prison,  and  under  the  hangman's 
whips,  and  in  an  earthquake ;  yet  neither 
the  jailer  nor  the  persecuting  magistrates 
could  do  so.  For  the  prosperity  of  the 
wicked  is  like  a  winter's  sun,  or  the  joy  of 
a  condemned  drunkard  :  it  is  a  forgetfuness 
of  his  present  danger  and  his  future  sorrows, 
nothing  but  imaginary  arts  of  inadvertency  ; 
he  sits  in  the  gates  of  the  city,  and  judges 
others,  and  is  condemned  himself;  he  is 
honoured  by  the  passers-by,  and  is  thought 
happy,  but  he  sighs  deeply ;  "  he  heapeth 
up  riches,  and  cannot  tell  who  shall  gather 
them :"  he  commands  an  army,  and  is  him- 
self a  slave  to  his  passions ;  he  sleeps  be- 
cause he  needs  it,  and  starts  from  his  uneasy 
pillows  which  his  thoughtful  head  hath  dis- 
composed ;  when  he  is  waking,  he  dreams 
of  greatness  ;  when  he  sleeps,  he  dreams  of 
spectres  and  illusions  :  he  spoils  a  poor  man 
of  his  lamb,  and  himself  of  his  innocence 
and  peace:  and  in  every  unjust  purchase, 
himself  is  the  greatest  loser. 

hk  xsv  ourz'os  s%rjtai,  avacSslrj^t  7tidrtio.q, 
Kcm)  t£  GULxpbv  ibv,  to  1  £ta%vio6sv  <pihov  rtop. 

Hesiod.  Epy. 

For,  just  upon  his  oppression  or  injustice, 
he  is  turned  a  devil,  and  God's  enemy,  a 
wolf  to  his  brother,  a  greedy  admirer  of  the 
baits  of  fishes,  and  the  bread  of  dogs  ;  he 
is  unsafe  by  reason  of  his  sin  :  for  he  hath 
against  him  the  displeasure  of  God,  the  jus- 
tice of  the  laws,  the  shame  of  the  sin,  the 
revenge  of  the  injured  person  ;  and  God  and 
men,  the  laws  of  nations  and  private  socie- 
ties, stand  upon  their  defence  against  this 
man  :  he  is  unsafe  in  his  rest,  amazed  in  his 
danger,  troubled  in  his  labours,  weary  in 
his  change,  esteemed  a  base  man,  disgraced 
and  scorned,  feared  and  hated,  flattered  and 
derided,  watched  and  suspected,  and,  it  may 
be,  dies  in  the  middle  of  his  purchase,  and 
at  the  end  is  a  fool,  and  leaves  a  curse  to 
his  posterity. 

Tov  5i  •?'  OLjAavpotipr]  ysvtr]  /xst67tirs^s  %i'Ku7ita.i. 

Hesiod,  Epy. 

"  He  leaves  a  generation  of  blacker  children 
behind  him  ;"  so  the  poet  describes  the  curs- 
edness  of  their  posterity  :  and  their  memory 


sits  down  to  eternal  ages  in  dishonour.  And 
by  this  time  let  them  cast  up  their  accounts, 
and  see  if,  of  all  their  violent  purchases,  they 
carry  any  thing  with  them  to  the  grave  but 
sin,  and  a  guilty  conscience,  and  a  polluted 
soul;  the  anger  of  God,  and  the  shame  of 
men.  And  what  help  shall  all  those  per- 
sons give  to  thee  in  thy  flames,  who  divided 
and  scattered  that  estate,  for  which  thou 
diedst  for  ever  ? 

Audire  est  operae  pretium,  procedere  recte 
Qui  moechis  non  vultis,  ut  omni  parte  laborent  ; 
Utque  illis  multo  corrupta  dolore  voluptas, 
Atque  haec  rara  cadat  dura  inter  ssepe  pericla. 

Hor. 

And  let  but  a  sober  answerer  tell  me,  if  any 
thing  in  the  world  be  more  distant  either 
from  goodness  or  happiness,  than  to  scatter 
the  plague  of  an  accursed  soul  upon  our 
dearest  children  ;  to  make  a  universal  curse; 
to  be  the  fountain  of  mischief ;  to  be  such  a 
person  whom  our  children  and  nephews 
shall  hate,  and  despise,  and  curse,  when 
they  groan  under  the  burden  of  that  plague, 
which  their  fathers'  sins  brought  upon  the 
family.  If  there  were  no  other  account  to 
be  given,  it  were  highly  enough  to  verify 
the  intent  of  my  text;  4<r  If  the  righteous 
scarcely  be  saved,"  or  escape  God's  angry 
stroke,  the  wicked  must  needs  be  infinitely 
more  miserable. 

Nw  6'  lyw  iirq^  avtbs  iv  cu^pwrtotcrc.  Slxaioq 
Etjjv,  jU.tjt''  ifibs  vlb^ijtsl  xaxbv  av8pa  bixaiov 
Euusvcu   Hes.  Epy. 

"  Neither  I  nor  my  son"  (said  the  oldest  of 
the  Greek  pcets)  "  would  be  virtuous,  if  to 
be  a  just  person  were  all  one  as  to  be  miser- 
able." No,  not  only  in  the  end  of  affairs, 
and  at  sunset,  but  all  the  day  long,  the  god- 
ly man  is  happy,  and  the  ungodly  and  the 
sinner  are  very  miserable. 

Pellitnr  a  populo  victus  Cato  ;  tristior  ille  est 
Qui  vicit,  faciesque  pudet  rapuisse  Catoni : 
Namque  hoc  dedecus  est  populi,  morumque  ruina. 
Non  homo  pulsus  erat ;  sed  in  uno  victa  potestas 
Romanumque  decus  

And  there  needs  no  other  argument  to  be 
added  but  this  one  great  testimony ;  that 
though  the  godly  are  afflicted  and  persecuted, 
yet  even  they  are  blessed,  and  the  perse- 
cutors are  the  most  unsafe.  They  are  essen- 
tially happy  whom  affliction  cannot  make 
miserable,  but  turns  unto  their  advantages  : 

(Quis  curam  negat  esse  te  Deorum, 
Propter  quern  fuit  innocens  ruina  ?)  Mart. 

And  that  is  the  state  of  the  godly.  And  they 
are  most  intolerably  accursed,  who  have  no 
portions  in  the  blessings  of  eternity,  and  yet 
cannot  have  comfort  in  the  present  purchases 


272     FAITH  AND  PATIENCE  OF  THE  SAINTS;  Serm.  XXXVI. 


of  their  sin,  to  whom  even  their  sunshine 
brings  a  drought,  and  their  fairest  is  their 
foulest  weather  :  and  that  is  the  portion  of 
the  sinner  and  the  ungodly.  The  godly  are 
not  made  unhappy  by  their  sorrows;  and 
the  wicked  are  such,  whom  prosperity  itself 
cannot  make  fortunate. 

3.  And  yet  after  all  this,  it  is  but  /tous 
<su>£s?ai,,  not  fioUs  Gcodr-nst ai,  he  "  escapes  but 
hardly"  here  :  it  will  be  well  enough  with 
him  hereafter.  Isaac  digged  three  wells. 
The  first  was  called  "  Contention  for  he 
Grank  the  waters  of  strife,  and  digged  the 
well  with  his  sword.  The  second  well  was 
not  altogether  so  hard  a  purchase,  he  got  it 
with  some  trouble;  but  that  being  over,  he 
had  some  room,  and  his  fortune  swelled, 
and  he  called  his  well  "  Enlargement."  But 
his  third  he  called  "Abundance ;"  and  then 
he  dipped  his  foot  in  oil,  and  drank  freely 
as  out  of  a  river.  Every  good  man  first 
"  sows  in  tears ;  he  first  drinks  of  the  bottle 
of  his  own  tears,  sorrow  and  trouble,  labour 
and  disquiet,  strivings  and  temptations  :  but 
if  they  pass  through  a  torrent,  and  virtue 
becomes  easy  and  habitual,  they  find  their 
hearts  enlarged  and  made  sprightly  by  the 
visitations  of  God,  and  refreshment  of  his 
Spirit ;  and  then  their  hearts  are  enlarged, 
they  know  how  to  gather  the  down  and 
softnesses  from  the  sharpest  thistles. 

Tjjj  6'  dpttrs  iBpuita     oi  jtportdpoiSsv  t&nxav 

 fuucpbs     xai  opStoj  ot^oj  tit  avtrtP, 

Kai  tprj%v$  to  rtpwrov' 

At  first  we  cannot  serve  God  but  by  pas- 
sions and  doing  violence  to  all  our  wilder 
inclinations,  and  suffering  the  violence  of 
tyrants  and  unjust  persons. 

 inrtv  5'  fcj  axpov  Ixqai, 

'PrjiSCrj  6'  tpterta  rictet,  ^atart'/j  rtsp  iovda. 

Hes.  Epy. 

The  second  days  of  virtue  are  pleasant  and 
easy  in  the  midst  of  all  the  appendant  la- 
bours. But  when  the  Christian's  last  pit  is 
digged,  when  he  is  descended  to  his  grave, 
and  hath  finished  his  state  of  sorrows  and 
suffering ;  then  God  opens  the  river  of  abun- 
dance, the  rivers  of  life  and  never-ceasing 
felicities .  And  this  is  that  which  God  pro- 
mised to  his  people :  "  I  hid  my  face  from 
thee  for  a  moment,  but  with  everlasting 
kindness  will  I  have  mercy  on  thee,  saith 
the  Lord  thy  Redeemer ."*  So  much  as  mo- 
ments are  exceeded  by  eternity,  and  the 
sighing  of  a  man  by  the  joys  of  an  angel, 
and  a  salutary  frown  by  the  light  of  God's 

*  Isa.  liv.  8. 


countenance,  a  few  groans  by  the  infinite 
and  eternal  hallelujans  ;  so  mucn  are  the  sor- 
rows of  the  godly  to  be  undervalued  in 
respect  of  what  is  deposited  for  them  in  the 
treasures  of  eternity.  Their  sorrows  can 
jdie,  but  so  cannot  their  joys.  And  if  the 
|  blessed  martyrs  and  confessors  were  asked 
concerning  their  past  sufferings  and  their 
present  rest,  and  the  joys  of  their  certain  ex- 
J  pectation,  you  should  hear  them  glory  in 
nothing  but  in  the  mercies  of  God,  and  "  in 
the  cross  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  Every  chain 
is  a  ray  of  light,  and  every  prison  is  a  palace, 
and  every  loss  is  the  purchase  of  a  kingdom, 
and  every  affront  in  the  cause  of  God  is  an 
eternal  honour,  and  every  day  of  sorrow  is 
a  thousand  years  of  comfort,  multiplied  with 
!a  never-ceasing  numeration;  days  without 
night,  joys  without  sorrow,  sanctity  without 
]  s'm,  charity  without  stain,  possession  with- 
i  out  fear,  society  without  envying,  commu- 
;  nication  of  joys  without  lessening:  and  thev 
|  shall  dwell  in  a  blessed  country,  where  an 
enemy  never  entered,  and  from  whence  a 
friend  never  went  away.  Well  might  David 
say,  "  Funes  ceciderunt  mihi  in  praeclaris," 
"The  cords"  of  my  tent,  my  ropes,  and  the 
sorrow  of  my  pilgrimage,  "  fell  to  me  >n  a 
good  ground,  and  I  have  a  goodly  heritage." 
— And  wrhen  persecution  hews  a  man  down 
from  a  high  fortune  to  an  even  one,  or 
from  thence  to  the  face  of  the  earth,  or  from 
thence  to  the  grave ;  a  good  man  is  but  pre- 
paring for  a  crown,  and  the  tyrant  does 
but  first  knock  off  the  fetters  of  the  soul,  the 
manacles  of  passion  and  desire,  sensual 
loves  and  lower  appetites  :  and  if  God  suf- 
fers him  to  finish  the  persecution,  then 
he  can  but  dismantle  the  soul's  prison,  aBd 
let  the  soul  forth  to  fly  to  the  mountains  of 
rest :  and  all  the  intermedial  evils  are  but 
like  the  Persian  punishments;  the  execution- 
er tore  off  their  hairs,  and  rent  their  silken 
mantles,  and  discomposed  their  curious  dress- 
ings, and  lightly  touched  their  skin  ;  yet  the 
offender  cried  out  with  most  bitter  exclama- 
tions, while  his  fault  was  expiated  with  a 
ceremony  and  without  blood.  So  does  God 
to  his  servants,  he  rends  their  upper  gar- 
ments, and  strips  them  of  their  unnecessary 
wealth,  and  ties  them  to  physic  and  salutary 
discipline;  and  they  cry  out  under  usages, 
which  have  nothing  but  the  outward  sense 
and  opinion  of  evil,  not  the  real  substance. 
!  But  if  we  would  take  the  measures  of  images, 
'we  must  not  take  the  height  of  the  base,  but 
I  the  prbportion  of  the  members  ;  nor  yet 
I  measure  the  estates  of  men  by  their  big-look- 


Serm.  XXXVII.  MERCY  OF  THE  DIVINE  JUDGMENTS;  273 


ing  supporter,  or  the  circumstance  of  an  ex- 
terior advantage,  but  by  its  proper  commen- 
suration  in  itself,  as  it  stands  in  its  order  to 
eternity  :  and  then  the  godly  man  that  suf- 
fers sorrow  and  persecution,  ought  to  be  re- 
lieved by  us,  but  needs  not  be  pitied  in  the 
sum  of  affairs.  But  since  the  two  estates  of 
the  world  are  measured  by  time  and  by 
eternity,  and  divided  by  joy  and  sorrow,  and 
no  man  shall  have  his  portion  of  joys  in 
both  durations  ;  and  the  state  of  those  men 
is  insupportably  miserable,  who  are  fatted 
for  slaughter,  and  are  crowned  like  beasts 
for  sacrifice ;  who  are  feared  and  fear,  who 
cannot  enjoy  their  purchases  but  by  com- 
munications with  others,  and  themselves 
have  the  least  share,  but  themselves  are 
alone  in  the  misery  and  the  saddest  dangers, 
and  they  possess  the  whole  portion  of  sor- 
sows;  to  whom  their  prosperity  gives  but 
occasions  to  evil  counsels,  and  strength  to  do 
mischief,  or  to  nourish  a  serpent,  or  oppress 
a  neighbour,  or  to  nurse  a  lust,  to  increase  | 
folly,  and  treasure  up  calamity.  And  did  ! 
ever  any  man  see,  or  story  tell,  that  any  i 
tyrant-prince  kissed  his  rods  and  axes,  his 
sword  of  justice,  and  his  imperial  ensigns  i 
of  power?  they  shine  like  a  taper,  to  all' 
things  but  itself.  But  we  read  of  many  mar-  j 
tyrs  who  kissed  their  chains,  and  hugged ; 
their  stakes,  and  saluted  their  hangman  with  | 
great  endearments;  and  yet,  abating  the  in- 
cursions of  their  seldom  sins,  these  are  their 
greatest  evils  j  and  such  they  are,  with  which 
a  wise  and  a  good  man  may  be  in  love. 
And  till  the  sinners  and  ungodly  men  can 
be  so  with  their  deep  groans  and  broken 
sleeps,  with  the  wrath  of  God  and  their  por- 
tions of  eternity ;  till  they  can  rejoice  in 
death  and  long  for  a  resurrection,  and  with 
delight  and  a  greedy  hope  can  think  of  the 
day  of  judgment;  we  must  conclude  that 
their  glass  gems  and  finest  pageantry,  their 
splendid  outsides  and  great  powers  of  evil, 
cannot  make  amends  for  that  estate  of  mise- 
ry, which  is  their  portion  with  a  certainly  as 
great  as  is  the  truth  of  God,  and  all  the  ar- 
ticles of  the  Christian  creed.  Miserable  men 
are  they,  who  cannot  be  blessed  unless  there 
be  no  day  of  judgment;  who  must  perish,  un- 
less the  word  of  God  should  fail.  If  that  be 
all  their  hopes,  then  we  may  with  a  sad  spirit 
and  a  soul  of  pity  inquire  into  the  question 
of  the  text,  "Where  shall  the  ungodly  and 
the  sinner  appear?"  Even  there  where 
God's  face  shall  never  shine,  where  there 
shall  be  fire  and  no  light,  where  there  shall 
be  no  angels^  but  what  are  many  thousand 
3,5 


years  turned  into  devils,  where  no  good  man 
shall  ever  dwell,  and  from  whence  the  evil 
and  the  accursed  shall  never  be  dismissed. 
"  O  my  God,  let  my  soul  never  come  into  their 
counsels,  nor  lie  down  in  their  sorrows. n 


SERMON  XXXVII. 

THE  MERCY  OF  THE   DIVINE  JUDGMENTS; 
OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  IN  CURING  SINNERS 


Despisest  thou  the  riches  of  his  good?ies$  and  for- 
bearance a?id  long-suffering;  not  knowing  that 
the  goodness  of  God  leadeth  thee  to  repentance  ? 
— Rom.  ii.  4. 

From  the  beginning  of  time  till  now,  all 
effluxes  which  have  come  from  God  have 
been  nothing  but  emanations  of  his  good- 
ness, clothed  in  variety  of  circumstances. 
He  made  man  with  no  other  design  than 
that  man  should  be  happy,  and  by  receiv- 
ing derivations  from  his  fountain  of  mercy, 
might  reflect  glory  to  him.  And  therefore, 
God  making  man  for  his  own  glory,  made 
also  a  paradise  for  man's  use  ;  and  did  him 
good,  to  invite  him  to  do  himself  a  greater ; 
for  God  gave  forth  demonstrations  of  his 
power  by  instances  of  mercy,  and  he  who 
might  have  made  ten  thousand  worlds  of 
wonder  and  prodigy,  and  created  man  with 
faculties  able  only  to  stare  upon,  and  ad- 
mire, those  miracles  of  mightiness,  did 
choose  to  instance  his  power  in  the  effusions 
of  mercy,  that,  at  the  same  instant,  he  might 
represent  himself  desirable  and  adorable  in 
all  the  capacities  of  amiability  :  viz.  as  ex- 
cellent in  himself,  and  profitable  to  us.  For 
as  the  sun  sends  forth  a  benign  and  gentle 
influence  on  the  seed  of  plants,  that  it  may 
invite  forth  the  active  and  plastic  power 
from  its  recess  and  secrecy,  that  by  rising 
into  the  tallness  and  dimensions  of  a  tree,  it 
may  still  receive  a  greater  and  more  refresh- 
ing influence  from  its  foster-father,  the 
prince  of  all  the  bodies  of  light ;  and  in  all 
these  emanations,  the  sun  itself  receives  no 
advantage,  but  the  honour  of  doing  benefits  ; 
so  doth  the  Almighty  Father  of  all  the  crea- 
tures; he  at  first  sends  forth  his  blessings 
upon  us,  that  we,  by  using  them  aright, 
should  make  ourselves  capable  of  greater 
while  giving  glory  to  God,  and  doing  ho- 
mage to  him,  are  nothing  for  his  advantage, 
but  only  for  ours ;  our  duties  towards  him 
being  like  vapours  ascending  from  the  earth. 


274 


MERCY  OF  THE  DIVINE  JUDGMENTS;  Serm.  XXXVII. 


not  at  all  to  refresh  the  region  of  the  clouds, 
but  to  return  back  in  a  fruitful  and  refreshing 
shower;  and  God  created  us,  not  that  we 
can  increase  his  felicity,  but  that  he  might 
have  a  subject  receptive  of  felicity  from.  him. 
Thus  he  causes  us  to  be  born,  that  we  may 
be  capable  of  his  blessings  ;  he  causes  us  to 
be  baptized,  that  we  may  have  a  title  to  the 
glorious  promises  evangelical ;  he  gives  us 
his  Son,  that  we  may  be  rescued  from  hell. 
And  when  we  constrain  him  to  use  harsh 
courses  towards  us,  it  is  also  in  mercy  ; 
he  smites  to  cure  a  disease ;  he  sends  us 
sickness,  to  procure  our  health.  And  as 
if  God  were  all  mercy,  he  is  merciful  in 
his  first  design,  in  all  his  instruments,  in 
the  way,  and  in  the  end  of  the  journey ; 
and  does  not  only  show  the  riches  of  his  good- 
ness to  them  that  do  well,  but  to  all  men 
that  they  may  do  well ;  he  is  good,  to  make 
us  good;  he  does  us  benefits,  to  make  us 
happy.  And  if  we,  by  despising  such 
gracious  rays  of  light  and  heat,  stop  their 
progress,  and  interrupt  their  design,  the  loss 
is  not  God's,  but  ours ;  we  shall  be  the 
miserable  and  accursed  people.  This  is  the 
sense  and  paraphrase  of  my  text:  "De- 
spisest  thou  the  riches  of  his  goodness," 
&c?  "Thou  dost  not  krtaw,"  that  is,  thou 
considerest  not,  that  it  is  for  further  benefit 
that  God  does  thee  this  :  the  "goodness  of 
God"  is  not  a  design  to  serve  his  own  ends 
upon  thee,  but  thine  upon  him  :  "the  good- 
ness of  God  leadeth  thee  to  repentance." 

Here  then  is  God's  method  of  curing 
mankind,  xpriGtotrjs  uvo%y,  /xaxpo9v/xla.  First, 
i<r  goodness,"  or  inviting  us  to  him  by  su- 
gared words,  by  the  placid  arguments  of 
temporal  favour,  and  the  propositions  of 
excellent  promises.  Secondly,  m>o%^,  at 
the  same  time.  Although  God  is  pro- 
voked every  day,  yet  he  does  avsxtw,  he 
"  tolerates"  our  stubbornness,  he  forbears 
to  punish ;  and  when  he  does  begin  to 
strike,  takes  his  hand  off,  and  gives  us  truce 
and  respite.  For  so  wox*  signifies  "  laxa- 
mentum,"  and  "  inducias"  too.  Thirdly, 
!xaxpo9viua,  still  "a  long  putting  ofT"  and 
deferring  his  final  destroying  anger,  by  using 
all  means  to  force  us  to  repentance ;  and 
this  especially  by  the  way  of  judgments; 
these  being  the  last  reserves  of  the  Divine 
mercy,  and  however  we  esteem  it,  is  the 
greatest  instance  of  the  Divine  long-suffer- 
ing that  is  in  the  world.  After  these  instru- 
ments, we  may  consider  the  end,  the  strand 
upon  which  these  land  us,  the  purpose  of 
♦his  variety,  of  these  labours  and  admirable 


arts,  with  which  God  so  studies  and  contrives 
the  happiness  and  salvation  of  man :  it  is 
only  that  man  may  be  brought  by  these  means 
unto  repentance,  and  by  repentance  may  be 
brought  to  eternal  life.  This  is  "the  trea- 
sure of  the  Divine  goodness,"  the  great  and 
admirable  efflux  of  the  eternal  beneficence, 
the  rttovtos  zpvi<st6tritos,  "  the  riches  of  his 
goodness,"  which  whosoever  despises,  de- 
spises himself  and  the  great  interest  of  his 
own  felicity  ;  he  shall  die  in  his  impenitence, 
and  perish  in  his  folly. 

L  The  first  great  instrument  that  God 
chooses  to  bring  us  to  him,  is  zwatotos,  "pro- 
fit," or  benefit ;  and  this  must  needs  be  first, 
for  those  instruments  whereby  we  have  a 
being,  are  so  great  mercies,  that  besides  that 
they  are  such  which  give  us  the  capacities 
of  all  other  mercies,  they  are  the  advances 
of  us  in  the  greatest  instances  of  promotion 
in  the  world.    For  from  nothing  to  some- 
thing is  an  infinite  space;  and  a  man  must 
have  a  measure  of  infinite  passed  upon  him, 
before  he  can  perceive  himself  to  be  either 
happy  or  miserable  :  he  is  not  able  to  give 
I  God  thanks  for  one  blessing,  until  he  hath 
I  received  many.    But  then  God  intends  we 
should  enter  upon  his  service  at  the  begin- 
!  ning  of  our  days,  because  even  then  he  is 
[  beforehand  with  us,  and  hath  already  given 
us  great  instances  of  his  goodness.  What 
j  a  prodigy  of  favour  is  it  to  us,  that  he  hath 
passed  by  so  may  forms  of  his  creatures, 
and  hath  not  set  us  down  in  the  rank  of  any 
of  them,  till  we  come  to  be  "  paulo  minores 
angelis,"  "a  little  lower  than  the  angels!" 
and  yet  from  the  meanest  of  them  God  can 
perfect  his  own  praise.    The  deeps  and 
the  snows,  the  hail  and  the  rain,  the  birds 
of  the  air  and  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  they 
can  and  do  glorify  God,  and  give  him 
praise  in  their  capacity ;  and  yet  he  gave 
them  no  reason,  no  immortal  spirit,  or  ca- 
pacity of  eternal  blessedness ;  but  he  hath 
distinguished  us  from  them  by  the  absolute 
issues  of  his  predestination,  and  hath  given 
us  a  lasting  and  eternal  spirit,  excellent  or- 
gans of  perception,  and  wonderful  instru- 
ments of  expression,  that  we  may  join  in 
concert  with  the  morning-star,  and  bear  a 
part  in  the  chorus  with  the  angels  of  light, 
to  sing  hallelujah  to  the  great  Father  of  men 
and  angels. 

But  was  it  not  a  huge  chain  of  mercies, 
that  we  were  not  strangled  in  the  regions  of 
our  own  natural  impurities,  but  were  sus- 
stained  by  the  breath  of  God  from  perishing 
in  the  womb,  where  God  formed  us  "  in 


Slrm.  XXXVII.  OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  IN  CURING  SINNERS.  275 


secreto  terra?,"  told  our  bones,  and  kept  the 
order  of  nature,  and  the  miracles  of  creation  j 
and  we  lived  upon  that  which,  in  the  next 
minute  after  we  were  born,  would  strangle 
us  if  it  were  not  removed  ?  but  then  God 
took  care  of  us,  and  his  hand  of  providence 
clothed  us  and  fed  us.  But  why  do  I 
reckon  the  mercies  of  production,  which  in 
every  minute  of  our  being  are  alike  con- 
tinued, and  are  miracles  in  all  senses,  but 
that  they  are  common  and  usual?  I  only 
desire  you  to  remember,  that  God  made  all 
the  works  of  his  hands  to  serve  him.  And. 
indeed,  this  mercy  of  creating  us  such  as  we 
are,  was  not  "to  lead  us  to  repentance," 
but  was  a  design  of  innocence  :  intended  we 
should  serve  him  as  the  sun  and  the  moon 
do,  as  fire  and  water  do ;  never  to  prevari- 
cate the  laws  he  fixed  to  us,  that  we  might 
have  needed  no  repentance.  But  since  we 
did  degenerate,  and  being  by  God  made 
better  and  more  noble  creatures  than  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  air,  the  water,  and  the 
earth  besides, — we  made  ourselves  baser  and 
more  ignoble  than  any  :  for  no  dog,  croco- 
dile, or  swine,  was  ever  God's  enemy,  as 
we  made  ourselves.  Yet  then  from  thence- 
forward God  began  his  work  of  "  leading 
us  to  repentance "  by  the  "  riches  of  his 
goodness."  He  caused  us  to  be  born  of 
Christian  parents,  under  whom  we  were 
taught  the  mysteriousness  of  its  goodness 
and  designs  for  the  redemption  of  man;  and 
by  the  design  of  which  religion,  repentance 
was  taught  to  mankind,  and  an  excellent 
law  given  for  distinction  of  good  and  evil. 
And  this  is  a  blessing,  which  though  possibly 
we  do  not  often  put  into  our  eucharistical 
litanies  to  give  God  thanks  for ;  yet  if  we 
sadly  consider  what  had  become  of  us,  if  we 
had  been  born  under  the  dominion  of  a 
Turkish  lord,  or  in  America,  where  no 
Christians  do  inhabit,  where  they  worship 
the  devil,  where  witches  are  their  priests, 
their  prophets,  their  physicians,  and  their 
oracles :  can  we  choose  but  apprehend  a  visi- 
ble notorious  necessity  of  perishing  in  those 
sins,  which  we  then  should  not  have  un- 
derstood by  the  glass  of  a  divine  law  to  have 
declined,  nor  by  a  revelation  have  been 
taught  to  repent  of  ?  But  since  the  best  of 
men  does,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  great  advan- 
tages of  laws,  and  examples,  and  promises, 
and  threatenings,  do  many  things  he  ought 
to  be  ashamed  of,  and  needs  to  repent  of ', 
we  can  understand  the  riches  of  the  Divine 
goodness  best,  by  considering,  that  the  very 
design  of  our  birth  and  education  in  the 


I  Christian  religion  is,  that  we  may  recover 
,  of  and  cure  our  follies  by  the  antidote  of  re- 
!  pentance.  which  is  preached  to  us  as  a 
!  doctrine,  and  propounded  as  a  favour ;  which 
|  was  put  into  a  law,  and  purchased  for  us 
;  by  a  great  expense ;  which  God  does  not 
!  more  command  to  us  as  a  duty,  than  he 
1  gives  us  as  a  blessing.    For  now  that  we 
I  shall  not  perish  for  our  first  follies,  but  be 
admitted  to  new  conditions,  to  be  repaid  by 
'  second  thoughts,  to  have  our  infirmities,  ex- 
cused, and  our  sins  forgiven,  our  habits 
lessened,  and  our  malice  cured,  after  we 
'were  wounded,  and  sick,  and  dead,  and 
buried,  and  in  the  possession  of  the  devil ; 
this  was  such  a  blessing,  so  great  riches  of 
the  Divine  goodness,  that  as  it  was  taught 
to  no  religion  but  the  Christian,  revealed  by 
no  lawgiver  but  Christ,  so  it  was  a  favour 
greater  than  ever  God  gave  to  the  angels 
j  and  devils  :  for  although  God  was  rich  in 
1  the  effusion  of  his  goodness  towards  them, 
yet  they  were  not  admitted  to  the  condition 
of  second  thoughts ;  Christ  never  shed  one 
I  drop  of  blood  for  them,  "  his  goodness  did 
'not  lead  them  to  repentance:"  but  to  us  it 
was  that  he  made  this  largess  of  his  good- 
ness ;  to  us,  to  whom  he  made  himself  a 
brother,  and  sucked  the  paps  of  our  mother ; 
he  paid  the  scores  of  our  sin,  and  shame, 
and  death,  only  that  we  might  be  admitted 
to  repent,  and  that  this  repentance  might  be 
effectual  to  the  great  purposes  of  felicity  and 
!  salvation.    And  if  we  would  consider  this 
'  sadly,  it  might  make  us  better  to  understand 
|  our  madness  and  folly  in  refusing  to  repent; 
that  is,  to  be  sorrowful, — and  to  leave  all 
our  sins, — and  to  make  amends  by  a  holy 
!  life.    For  that  we  might  be  admitted  and 
suffered  to  do  so,  God  was  fain  to  pour  forth 
'  all  the  riches  of  his  goodness  :  it  cost  our 
i  dearest  Lord  the  price  of  his  dearest  blood, 
many  a  thousand  groans,  millions  of  prayers 
and  sighs,  and  at  this  instant  he  is  praying 
for  our  repentance  :  nay,  he  hath  prayed 
'for  our  repentance  these  sixteen  hundred 
|  years  incessantly,  night  and  day,  and  shall 
:  do  so  till  doomsday  ;  "  He  sits  at  the  right 
hand  of  God  making  intercession  for  us." 
And  that  we  may  know  what  he  prays  for, 
he  hath  sent  us  embassadors  to  declare  the 
;  purpose  of  all  his  design  ;  for  St.  Paul  saith, 
j  "We  are  embassadors  for  Christ,  as  though 
he  did  beseech  you  by  us ;  we  pray  you  in 
Christ's  stead  to  be  reconciled  to  God." 
The  purpose  of  our  embassy  and  ministry 
;is  a  prosecution  of  the  mercies  of  God,  and 
!  the  work  of  redemption,  and  the  intercession 


276     MERCY  OF  THE  DIVINE  JUDGMENTS;  Serm.  XXXVII. 


and  mediation  of  Christ:  it  is  the  work  of 
atonement  and  reconciliation  that  God  de- 
signed, and  Christ  died  for,  and  still  prays 
for,  and  we  preach  for,  and  you  all  must 
labour  for. 

And  therefore  here  consider,  if  it  be  not 
infinite  impiety  to  "  despise  the  riches  of 
such  a  goodness,"  which  at  so  great  a 
charge,  with  such  infinite  labour  and  deep 
mysterious  arts,  invites  us  to  repentance; 
that  is,  to  such  a  thing  as  could  not  be 
granted  to  us  unless  Christ  should  die  to 
purchase  it;  such  a  glorious  favour,  that  is 
the  issue  of  Christ's  prayers  in  heaven,  and 
of  all  his  labours,  his  sorrows,  and  his  suf- 
ferings on  earth.  If  we  refuse  to  repent 
now,  we  do  not  so  much  refuse  to  do  our 
own  duty,  as  to  accept  of  a  reward.  It  is 
the  greatest  and  the  dearest  blessing  that! 
ever  God  gave  to  men,  that  they  may  re- 
pent :  and  therefore,  to  deny  it  or  delay  it, 
is  to  refuse  health,  brought  us  by  the  skill 
and  industry  of  the  physician;  it  is  to  refuse 
liberty  indulged  to  us  by  our  gracious  Lord. 
And  certainly  we  had  reason  to  take  it  very 
ill,  if,  at  a  great  expense,  we  should  pur- 
chase a  pardon  for  a  servant,  and  he,  out  of 
a  peevish  pride  or  negligence,  shall  refuse 
it;  the  scorn  pays  itself,  the  folly  is  its  own 
scourge,  and  sits  down  in  an  inglorious 
ruin. 

After  the  enumeration  of  these  glories, 
these  prodigies  of  mercies  and  loving- kind- 
nesses, of  Christ's  dying  for  us,  and  inter- 
ceding for  us,  and  merely  that  we  may  repent 
and  be  saved ;  I  shall  less  need  to  instance 
those  other  particularities  whereby  God  con- 
tinues, as  by  so  many  arguments  of  kind- 
ness, to  sweeten  our  natures,  and  make  them 
malleable  to  the  precepts  of  love  and  obedi- 
ence, the  twin-daughters  of  holy  repentance  : 
but  the  poorest  person  amongst  us,  besides 
the  blessing  and  graces  already  reckoned, 
hath  enough  about  him,  and  the  accidents 
of  every  day,  to  shame  him  into  repentance. 
Does  not  God  send  his  "  angels  to  keep  thee 
in  all  thy  ways?"  are  not  they  ministering 
spirits  sent  forth  to  wait  upon  thee  as  thy 
guard ;  art  not  thou  kept  from  drowning, 
from  fracture  of  bones,  from  madness,  from 
deformities,  by  the  riches  of  the  Divine 
goodness?  Tell  the  joints  of  thy  body;  dost 
thou  want  a  finger?  and  if  thou  dost  not 
understand  how  great  a  blessing  that  is,  do 
but  remember,  how  ill  thou  canst  spare  the 
use  of  it  when  thou  hast  but  a  thorn  in  it. 
The  very  privative  blessings,  the  blessings 
of  immunity  ,  safeguard,  and  integrity,  which 


we  all  enjoy,  deserve  a  thanksgiving  of  a 
whole  life.  If  God  should  send  a  cancer 
upon  thy  face,  or  a  wolf  into  thy  breast,  if 
he  should  spread  a  crust  of  leprosy  upon 
thy  skin,  what  wouldst  thou  give  to  be  but 
as  now  thou  art?  Wouldst  not  thou  repent 
of  thy  sins  upon  that  condition  ?  Which  is 
the  greater  blessing,  to  be  kept  from  them, 
or  to  be  cured  of  them?  And  why  there- 
fore shall  not  this  greater  blessing  lead  thee 
to  repentance?  Why  do  we,  not  so  aptly, 
promise  repentance  when  we  are  sick,  upon 
the  condition  to  be  made  well,  and  yet  per- 
petually forget  it  when  we  are  well?  As  if 
health  never  were  a  blessing,  but  when  we 
have  it  not.  Rather  I  fear  the  reason  is, 
when  we  are  sick  we  promise  to  repent, 
because  then  we  cannot  sin  the  sins  of  our 
former  life  ;  but  in  health  our  appetites  return 
to  their  capacity,  and  in  all  the  way  "  we 
despise  the  riches  of  the  Divine  goodness," 
which  preserves  us  from  such  evils,  which 
would  be  full  of  horror  and  amazement,  if 
they  should  happen  to  us. 

Hath  God  made  any  of  you  all  chapfallen? 
Are  you  affrighted  with  spectres  and  illu- 
sions of  the  spirits  of  darkness  ?  How  many 
earthquakes  have  you  been  in  ?  How  many 
days  have  any  of  you  wanted  bread?  How 
many  nights  have  you  been  without  sleep  ? 
Are  any  of  you  distracted  of  your  senses  ? 
And  if  God  gives  you  meat  and  drink,  health 
and  sleep,  proper  seasons  of  the  year,  entire 
senses  and  a  useful  understanding  ;  what  a 
great  unworthiness  is  it  to  be  unthankful  to 
so  good  a  God,  so  benign  a  Father,  so  gra- 
cious a  Lord?  All  the  evils  and  baseness 
of  the  world  can  show  nothing  baser  and 
more  unworthy  than  ingratitude:  and  there- 
fore it  was  not  unreasonably  said  of  Aristo- 
tle, Evtv%la  fyChoQtos,  "  Prosperity  makes  a 
man  love  God,"  supposing  men  to  have  so 
much  humanity  left  in  them,  as  to  love  him 
from  whom  they  have  received  so  many 
favours.  And  Hippocrates  said,  that  al- 
though poor  men  use  to  murmur  against 
God,  yet  rich  men  will  be  offering  sacrifice 
to  their  Deity,  whose  beneficiaries  they  are. 
Njowj  since  the  riches  of  the  Divine  good- 
ness are  so  poured  out  upon  the  meanest  of 
us  all,  if  we  shall  refuse  to  repent  (which  is 
a  condition  so  reasonable,  that  God  requires 
it  only  for  our  sake,  and  that  it  may  end  in 
our  felicity)  we  do  ourselves  despite,  to  be 
unthankful  to  God;  that  is,  we  become 
miserable  by  making  ourselves  basely  cri- 
minal. And  if  any  man,  whom  God  hath 
used  to  no  other  method  but  of  his  sweetness 


Serm.  XXXVII.  OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  IN  CURING  SINNERS.  277 


and  the  effusion  of  mercies,  brings  no  other 
fruits  but  the  apples  of  Sodom  in  return  of 
all  his  culture  and  labours,  God  will  cut  off 
that  unprofitable  branch,  that  with  Sodom 
it  may  suffer  the  flames  of  everlasting  burn- 


Otft  ai>  rovj  Saioiraj,  <I>  Xix?;parf 
Uifyvyhui  to  $siov.  PHILEMON. 

If  here  we  have  good  things,  and  a  continual 
shower  of  blessings  to  soften  our  stony 
hearts,  and  we  shall  remain  obdurate  against 
those  sermons  of  mercy  which  God  makes 
us  every  day,  there  will  come  a  time  when 
this  shall  be  upbraided  to  us,  that  we  had 
not  vovv  avrltvxov,  a  thankful  mind,  but  made 
God  to  sow  his  seed  upon  the  sand,  or  upon 
the  stones,  without  increase  or  restitution. 
It  was  a  sad  alarm  which  God  sent  to  David 
by  Nathan,  to  upbraid  his  ingratitude:  "I 
anointed  thee  king  over  Israel,  I  delivered 
thee  out  of  the  hand  of  Saul,  I  gave  thee  thy 
master's  house  and  wives  into  thy  bosom, 
and  the  house  of  Israel  and  Judah  ;  and  if 
this  had  been  too  little,  I  would  have  given 
thee  such  and  such  things  ;  wherefore  hast 
thou  despised  the  name  of  the  Lord  ?"  But 
how  infinitely  more  can  God  say  to  all  of 
us  than  all  this  came  to ;  he  hath  anointed 
us  kings  and  priests  in  the  royal  priesthood 
of  Christianity  ;  he  hath  given  us  his  Holy 
Spirit  to  be  our  guide,  his  angels  to  be  our 
protectors,  his  creatures  for  our  food  and 
raiment  :  he  hath  delivered  us  from  the 
hands  of  Satan,  hath  conquered  death  for 
us,  hath  taken  the  sting  out,  and  made  it 
harmless  and  medicinal,  and  proclaimed  us 
heirs  of  heaven,  coheirs  with  the  eternal  Je- 
sus ;  and  if  after  all  this  we  despise  the 
commandment  of  the  Lord,  and  defer  and 
neglect  our  repentance,  what  shame  is  great 
enough,  what  miseries  are  sharp  enough, 
what  hell  painful  enough,  for  such  horrid 
ingratitude  ?  St.  Lewis  the  king  having 
sent  Ivo,  bishop  of  Chartres,  on  an  embassy, 
the  bishop  met  a  woman  on  the  way,  grave, 
sad,  fantastic,  and  melancholic,  with  fire  in 
one  hand,  and  water  in  the  other.  He  asked 
what  those  symbols  meant.  She  answered, 
My  purpose  is  with  fire  to  burn  paradise, 
and  with  my  water  to  quench  the  flames  of 
hell,  that  men  may  serve  God  without  the 
incentives  of  hope  and  fear,  and  purely  for 
the  love  of  God.  But  this  woman  began  at 
the  wrong  end  :  the  love  of  God  is  not  pro- 
duced in  us  after  we  have  contracted  evil 
habits,  till  God,  with  "  his  fan  in  his  hand, 


hath  thoroughly  purged  his  floor,"  till  he 
hath  cast  out  all  the  devils,  and  swept  the 
1  house  with  the  instrument  of  hope  and  fear, 
and  with  the  achievements  and  efficacy  of 
mercies  and  judgments.  But  then,  since 
God  may  truly  say  to  us,  as  of  old  to  his 
rebellious  people,  "  Am  I  a  dry  tree  to  the 
house  of  Israel  ?"  that  is,  Do  I  bring  them 
no  fruit?  Do  they  "  serve  me  for  nought?'' 
and  he  expects  not  our  duty  till  first  we  feel 
his  goodness;  we  are  now  infinitely  inex- 
cusable to  throw  away  so  great  riches,  to 
"despise  such  a  goodness." 

However,  that  we  may  see  the  greatness 
of  this  treasure  of  goodness,  God  seldom 
leaves  us  thus :  for  he  sees,  (be  it  spoken  to 
the  shame  of  our  natures,  and  the  dishonour 
of  our  manners,)  he  sees  that  his  mercies 
do  not  allure  us,  do  net  make  us  thankful, 
but,  (as  the  Roman  said,)  "Felicitate  cor- 


rumpimur, 


We  become  worse  for  God's 


mercy,"  and  think  it  will  be  always  holiday  ; 
and  are  like  the  crystal  of  Arabi a.  hardened 
not  by  cold,  but  made  crusty  and  stubborn 
by  the  warmth  of  the  Divine  fire,  by  its 
refreshments  and  mercies :  therefore,  to  de- 
monstrate that  God  is  good  indeed,  he  con- 
tinues his  mercies  still  to  us,  but  in  another 
instance;  he  is  merciful  to  us  in  punishing 
us,  that  we  may  be  led  to  repentance  by  such 
instruments  which  will  scare  us  from  sin; 
he  delivers  us  up  to  the  pedagogy  of  the 
Divine  judgments :  and  there  begins  the 
second  part  of  God's  method,  intimated  in 
j  the  word  avo^r;,  or  "  forbearance."  God 
j  begins  his  cure  by  caustics,  by  incisions  and 
l  instruments  of  vexation,  to  try  if  the  disease 
I  that  will  not  yield  to  the  allectives  of  cor- 
dials and  perfumes,  frictions  and  baths,  may 
be  forced  out  by  deleteries,  scarifications, 
and  more  salutary,  but  less  pleasing,  physic. 

2.  'Ai/o^,  "  Forbearance,"  it  is  called  in 
the  text;  which  signifies  " laxamentum" 
or  "inducias:"  that  is,  when  the  decrees 
of  the  Divine  judgments  temporal  are  gone 
out,  either  wholly  to  suspend  the  execution 
of  them,  which  is  "  inducice."  or  a  "  re- 
prieve;" or  else,  w7hen  God  hath  struck 
once  or  twice,  he  takes  off  his  hand,  that  is 
"laxamentum,"  an  "ease  or  remission"  of 
his  judgment.  In  both  these,  although  "  in 
judgment  God  remembers  mercy,"  yet  we 
are  under  discipline,  we  are  brought  into 
jthe  penitential  chamber;  at  least  we  are 
j  showed  the  rod  of  God  ;  and  if,  like  Moses* 
rod,  it  turns  us  into  serpents,  and  that  we 
repent  not.  but  grow  more  devils  ;  yet  then 
it  turns  into  a  rod  asrain,  and  finishes 


278      MERCY  OF  THE  DIVINE  JUDGMENTS;    Serm.  XXXVII. 


up  the  smiting,  or  the  first-designed  afflic- 
tion. 

But  I  consider  it  first  in  general.  The 
riches  of  the  Divine  goodness  are  manifest 
in  beginning  this  new  method  of  curing  us, 
by  severity  and  by  a  rod.  And  that  you 
may  not  wonder  that  I  expound  this  "for- 
bearance" to  be  an  act  of  mercy  punishing, 
I  observe,  that  besides  that  the  word  sup- 
poses the  method  changed,  and  it  is  a  mercy 
about  judgments,  and  their  manner  of  exe- 
cution; it  is  also,  in  the  nature  of  the  thing, 
in  the  conjunction  of  circumstances,  and 
the  designs  of  God,  a  mercy  when  he  threat- 
ens us  or  strikes  us  into  repentance. 

We  think  that  the  way  of  blessings  and 
prosperous  accidents,  is  the  finer  way  of  se- 
curing our  duty ;  and  that  when  our  heads 
are  anointed,  our  cups  crowned,  and  our 
tables  full,  the  very  caresses  of  our  spirits 
will  best  of  all  dance  before  the  ark,  and  sing 
perpetual  anthems  to  the  honour  of  our  be- 
nefactor and  patron,  God;  and  we  are  apt 
to  dream  that  God  will  make  his  saints  reign 
here  as  kings  in  a  millenary  kingdom,  and 
give  them  the  riches  and  fortunes  of  this 
world,  that  they  may  rule  over  men,  and 
sing  psalms  to  God  for  ever.  But  I  remem- 
ber what  Xenophanes  says  of  God, 

Out's  8i/xas  ^vrtolaiv  fyioJloj,  ov-te  vorj/xa. 

"  God  is  like  to  men  neither  in  shape  nor  in 
counsel ;"  he  knows  that  his  mercies  con- 
firm some,  and  encourage  more,  but  they 
convert  but  few  :  alone  they  lead  men  to 
dissolution  of  manners,  and  forgetfulness  of 
God,  rather  than  repentance :  not  but  that 
mercies  are  competent  and  apt  instruments 
of  grace,  if  we  would  ;  but  because  we  are 
more  dispersed  in  our  spirits,  and  by  a  pros- 
perous accident  are  melted  into  joy  and  gar- 
rishness,  and  drawn  off  from  the  sobriety  of 
recollection.  "Jeshurun  waxed  fat  and 
kicked."  Many  are  not  able  to  suffer  and 
endure  prosperity  ;  it  is  like  the  light  of  the 
sun  to  a  weak  eye ;  glorious  indeed  in  itself, 
but  not  proportioned  to  such  an  instrument. 
Adam  himself  (as  the  rabbins  say)  did  not 
dwell  one  night  in  Paradise,  but  was  poi- 
soned with  prosperity,  with  the  beauty  of 
his  fair  wife,  and  a  beauteous  tree :  and 
Noah  and  Lot  were  both  righteous  and  ex- 
emplary, the  one  to  Sodom,  the  other  to  the 
old  world,  so  long  as  they  lived  in  a  place 
in  which  they  were  obnoxious  to  the  com- 
mon suffering ;  but  as  soon  as  the  one  of 
them  had  escaped  from  drowning,  and  the 


other  from  burning,  and  were  put  into  se- 
curity, they  fell  into  crimes  which  have  dis- 
honoured their  memories  for  above  thirty 
generations  together,  the  crimes  of  drunken- 
ness and  incest.  Wealth  and  a  full  fortune 
make  men  licentiously  vicious,  tempting  a 
man  with  power  to  act  all  that  he  can  desire 
or  design  viciously. 

Inde  irae  faciles  

Namque  ut  opes  nimias  mundo  fortuna  subacto 
Intulit,  et  rebus  mores  cessere  secundis, 

 Cultus,  gestare  decoros 

Vix  nuribus,  rapuere  mares; — totoque  accersi- 

tur  orbe 
Quo  gens  quaeque  perit  

Lucan.  lib.  1. 

And  let  me  observe  to  you,  that  though 
there  are  in  the  New  Testament  many  pro- 
mises and  provisions  made  for  the  poor  in 
that  very  capacity,  they  having  a  title  to 
some  certain  circumstances  and  additionals 
of  grace  and  blessing  ;  yet  to  rich  men  our 
blessed  Saviour  was  pleased  to  make  none 
at  all,  but  to  leave  them  involved  in  general 
comprehensions,  and  to  have  a  title  to  the 
special  promises  only,  by  becoming  poor  in 
spirit,  and  in  preparation  of  mind,  though 
not  in  fortune  and  possession.  However, 
it  is  hard  for  God  to  persuade  us  to  this,  till 
we  are  taught  it  by  a  sad  experience,  that 
those  prosperities  which  we  think  will  make 
us  serve  God  cheerfully,  make  us  to  serve 
the  world  and  secular  ends  diligently,  and 
God  not  at  all. 

Repentance  is  a  duty  that  best  complies 
with  affliction  ;  it  is  a  symbolical  estate,  of 
the  same  complexion  and  constitui.ian;  half 
the  work  of  repentance  is  done  by  a  sad  ac- 
cident, our  spirits  are  made  sad,  our  gaieties 
mortified,  our  wildness  corrected,  the  water- 
springs  are  ready  to  run  over:  but  if  God 
should  grant  our  desires,  and  give  to  most 
men  prosperity,  with  a  design  to  lead  them 
to  repentance,  all  his  pomp,  and  all  his  em- 
ployment, and  all  his  affections  and  pas- 
sions, and  all  his  circumstances,  are  so 
many  degrees  of  distance  from  the  condi- 
tions and  nature  of  repentance.  It  was 
reported  by  Dio  concerning  Nero's  mother, 
that  she  often  wished  that  her  son  might  be 
emperor,  and  wished  it  with  so  great  pas- 
sion, that,  upon  that  condition,  she  cared 
not  though  her  son  might  kill  her.  Her 
first  wish  and  her  second  fear  were  both 
granted  :  but  when  she  began  to  fear  that 
her  son  did  really  design  to  murder  her,  she 
used  all  the  art  and  instruments  of  diversion 
that  a  witty  and  a  powerful,  a  timorous  per- 
son and  a  woman,  could  invent  or  apply. 


Serm.  XXXVII.  OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  OF  CURING  SINNERS.  279 


Just  so  it  is  with  us  :  so  we  might  have  our 
wishes  of  prosperity,  we  promise  to  undergo 
all  the  severities  of  repentance;  but  when 
we  are  landed  upon  our  desire,  then  every  de- 
gree of  satisfaction  of  those  sensualities  is  a 
temptation  against  repentance :  for  a  man 
must  have  his  affections  weaned  from  those 
possessions  before  he  can  be  reconciled  to 
the  possibilities  of  repentance. 

And  because  God  knows  this  well,  and 
loves  us  better  than  we  do  ourselves,  there- 
fore he  sends  upon  us  the  scrolls  of  ven- 
geance, "the  hand-writing  upon  the  wall," 
to  denounce  judgment  against  us  :  for  God 
is  so  highly  resolved  to  bring  us  to  repent- 
ance some  way  or  other,  that  if,  by  his  good- 
ness, he  cannot  shame  us  into  it,  he  will 
try  if,  by  his  judgments,  he  can  scare  us 
into  it :  not  that  he  strikes  always  as  soon  as 
he  hath  sent  his  warrants  out;  oi8h  tots 
duaprdvovw  fv^vj  htej&UH*  6  Ofoj'  alJjx  SiSust 
Zpovov  fij  (xttdvoiav,  xai  try  tov  b$ii\ru(xxos 
Iwsiv,  said  Philo.  Thus  God  sent  Jonas,  and 
denounced  judgments  against  Nineveh  ;  but 
with  the  dro^r,  with  the  "  forbearance"  of 
forty  days  for  the  time  of  their  escape,  if 
they  would  repent.  When  Noah,  the  great 
preacher  of  righteousness,  denounced  the 
flood  to  all  the  world,  it  was  with  the  dvozrt, 
with  the  "  forbearance"  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty  years.  And  when  the  great  exter- 
mination of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  their  to- 
tal deletion  from  being  God's  people,  was 
foretold  by  Christ,  and  decreed  by  God;  yet 
they  had  the  dvo%r;  of  forty  years,  in  which 
they  ;vere  perpetually  called  to  repentance. 
These  were  reprieves  and  deferrings  of  the 
stroke. 

But  sometimes  God  strikes  once,  and  then 
forbears.  And  such  are  all  those  sadnesses, 
which  are  less  than  death  :  every  sickness, 
every  loss,  every  disgrace,  the  death  of 
friends  ?>nd  nearest  relatives,  sudden  discon- 
tents ;  these  are  all  of  them  the  louder  calls 
of  God  to  repentance ;  but  still  instances  of 
forbearance. 

Indeed,  many  times  this  forbearance  makes 
men  impudent.  It  was  so  in  the  case  of 
Pharaoh ;  when  God  smote  him,  and  then 
forebore,  Pharaoh's  heart  grew  callous  and 
insensible,  till  God  struck  again  :  and  this 
was  the  meaning  of  these  words  of  God,  "  I 
will  harden  the  heart  of  Pharaoh,"  that  is, 
I  will  forbear  him;  smite  him,  and  then 
take  the  blow  off:  <fSic  enim  Deus  indura- 
vit  Pharaonis  cor,"  said  St.  Basil.  For  as 
water  taken  off  from  fire  will  sooner  conceal 


and  become  icy,  than  if  it  had  not  been  at- 
tenuated by  the  heat ;  so  is  the  heart  of  some 
men ;  when  smitten  by  God,  it  seems  soft 
and  pliable,  but  taken  off  from  the  fire  of  af- 
fliction, it  presently  becomes  horrid,  then 
stiff,  and  then  hard  as  a  rock  of  adamant,  or 
as  the  gates  of  death  and  hell.  But  this  is 
beside  the  purpose  and  intention  of  the  Di- 
vine mercy ;  this  is  an  dm*fptWa^,  a  plain 
"  contradiction"  to  the  riches  of  God's  good- 
ness ;  this  is  to  be  evil  because  God  is  good  ; 
to  burn  with  flames  because  we  are  cooled 
with  water ;  this  is  to  put  out  the  lamps  of 
heaven,  or  (if  we  cannot  do  it)  to  put  our 
own  eyes  out,  lest  we  should  behold  the  fair 
beauty  of  the  Lord,  and  be  enamoured  of 
his  goodness,  and  repent,  and  live.  O  take 
heed  of  despising  this  goodness ;  for  this  is 
one  of  God's  latest  arts  to  save  us ;  he  hath 
no  way  left  beyond  this,  but  to  punish  us 
with  a  lasting  judgment  and  a  poignant  af- 
fliction. In  the  tomb  of  Terentia,  certain 
lamps  burned  under  ground  many  ages  to- 
gether ;  but  as  soon  as  ever  they  were 
brought  into  the  air,  and  saw  a  bigger  light, 
they  went  out,  never  to  be  re-enkindled.  So 
long  as  we  are  in  the  retirements  of  sorrow, 
of  want,  of  fear,  of  sickness,  or  of  any  sad 
accident,  we  are  burning  and  shining  lamps  \ 
but  when  God  comes  with  his  dvoxh  with 
his  "forbearance,"  and  lifts  us  up  from  the 
gates  of  death,  and  carries  us  abroad  into 
the  open  air,  that  we  converse  with  pros- 
perity and  temptation,  we  go  out  in  dark- 
ness ;  and  we  cannot  be  preserved  in  heat 
and  light,  but  by  still  dwelling  in  the  regions 
of  sorrows  And  if  such  be  our  weaknesses 
or  our  folly,  it  concerns  us  to  pray  against 
such  deliverances,  to  be  afraid  of  health,  to 
beg  of  God  to  continue  a  persecution,  and 
not  deny  us  the  mercy  of  an  affliction. 

And  do  not  we  find  all  this  to  be  a  great 
truth  in  ourselves  ?  Are  we  so  great 
strangers  to  our  own  weakness  and  un- 
worthiness,  as  not  to  remember  when  God 
scared  us  with  judgments  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, where  we  lived  in  a  great  plague,  or 
if  we  were  ever  in  a  storm,  or  God  had  sent 
a  sickness  upon  us  ?  Then  we  may  please 
to  remember,  that  repentance  was  our  busi- 
ness that  we  designed  mountains  of  piety, 
renewed  our  holy  purposes,  made  vows  and 
solemn  sacraments  to  God  to  become  peni- 
tent and  obedient  persons :  and  we  mav 
also  remember,  without  much  considering, 
that  as  soon  as  God  began  to  forbear  us,  w<* 
would  no  longer  forbear  to  sin,  but  add  flame 


280 


MERCY  OF  THE  DIVIN 


E  JUDGMENTS;  Serm.  XXXVI/. 


to  flame,  a  heap  of  sins  lo  a  treasure  of  wrath, 
already  too  big :  being  like  Pharaoh  or  He- 
rod, or  like  the  ox  and  mule,  more  hard  and 
callous  for  our  stripes;  and  melted  in  the 
fire,  and  frozen  harder  in  the  cold ;  worse 
for  all  our  afflictions,  and  the  worse  for  all 
God's  judgments ;  not  bettered  by  his  good- 
ness, nor  mollified  by  his  threatenings  :  and 
what  is  there  more  left  for  God  to  do  unto 
us  ?  He  that  is  not  won  by  the  sense  of 
God's  mercy,  can  never  find  any  thing  in 
God  that  shall  convert  him ;  and  he  whom 
fear  and  sense  of  pain  cannot  mend,  can 
never  find  any  argument  from  himself  that 
shall  make  him  wise.  This  is  sad,  that 
nothing  from  without,  and  nothing  from 
within,  shall  move  us  :  nothing  in  heaven, 
and  nothing  in  hell;  neither  love,  nor  fear; 
gratitude  to  God,  nor  preservation  of  our- 
selves, shall  make  us  to  repent.  Qeov  8h 
itXrjyrjv  ovz  vrteprtrfia  fipotbg'  That  shall  be 
his  final  sentence :  he  shall  never  escape 
that  ruin  from  which  the  greatest  art  of 
God  could  not  entice,  nor  his  terror  scare 
him  :  "  he  loved  cursing,  therefore  shall  it 
happen  to  him:  he  loved  not  blessing, 
therefore  shall  it  be  far  from  him." 

Let,  therefore,  every  one  of  us  take  the 
account  of  our  lives,  and  read  over  the  ser- 
mons that  God  hath  made  us :  besides  that 
sweet  language  of  his  mercy,  and  his  "  still 
voice"  from  heaven,  consider  what  voices 
of  thunder  you  heard,  and  presently  that 
noise  ceased,  and  God  was  heard  in  the 
"still  voice"  again.  What  dangers  have 
any  of  you  escaped  ?  Were  you  ever  as- 
saulted by  the  rudeness  of  an  ill-natured 
man?  Have  you  never  had  a  dangerous 
fall,  and  escaped  it?  Did  none  of  you  ever 
escape  drowning,  and  in  a  great  danger  saw 
the  forbearance  of  God  ?  Have  you  never 
been  sick  (as  you  feared)  unto  death  ?  Or, 
suppose  none  of  these  things  have  hap- 
pened, hath  not  God  threatened  you  all,  and 
forborne  to  smite  you  ?  or  smitten  you,  and 
forborne  to  kill  you  ?  That  is  evident.  But 
if  you  had  been  a  privado,  and  of  the  ca- 
binet-council with  your  angel-guardian,  that 
from  him  you  might  have  known  how 
many  dangers  you  have  escaped,  how  often 
you  have  been  near  a  ruin,  so  near,  that  if 
you  had  seen  your  danger  with  a  sober 
spirit,  the  fear  of  it  would  have  half  killed 
you ;  if  he  had  but  told  you  how  often  God 
had  sent  out  his  warrants  to  the  exterminat- 
ing angel,  and  our  blessed  Saviour  by  his 
intercession  hath  obtained  a  reprieve,  that 
he  might  have  the  content  of  rejoicing  at 


thy  conversion  and  repentance  :  if  you  hao 
known  from  him  the  secrets  of  that  provi- 
dence which  governs  us  in  secret,  and  how 
many  thousand  times  the  devil  would  have 
done  thee  hurt,  and  how  often  himself,  as  a 
ministering  spirit  of  God's  "  goodness  and 
forbearance,"  did  interpose  and  abate  or  di- 
vert a  mischief  which  was  falling  on  thy 
head :  it  must  needs  cover  thy  head  with  a 
cloud  of  shame  and  blushing  at  that  ingrati- 
tude and  that  folly,  that  neither  will  give 
God  thanks  nor  secure  thy  own  well-being. 

Hadst  thou  never  any  dangerous  fall  in 
thy  intemperance?  Then  God  showed  thee 
thy  danger,  and  that  he  was  angry  at  thy 
sin  ;  but  yet  did  so  pity  thy  person,  that  he 
would  forbear  thee  a  little  longer,  else  that 
fall  had  been  into  thy  grave.  When  thy 
gluttony  gave  thee  a  surfeit,  and  God  gave 
thee  a  remedy,  his  meaning  then  was,  that 
thy  gluttony  rather  should  be  cured  than  thy 
surfeit;  that  repentance  should  have  been 
thy  remedy,  and  abstinence  and  fasting 
should  be  thy  cure.  Did  ever  thy  proud  and 
revengeful  spirit  engage  thee  upon  a  duel, 
or  vexatious  lawsuit,  and  God  brought 
thee  off  with  life  or  peace?  His  purpose 
then  was,  that  his  mercy  should  teach  thee 
charity.  And  he  that  cannot  read  the  pur- 
poses of  God  written  with  the  finger  of 
judgment,  (for  as  yet  his  whole  hand  is  not 
laid  on),  either  is  consigned  to  eternal  ruin, 
because  God  will  no  more  endeavour  his 
cure;  or,  if  his  mercy  still  continues  and 
goes  on  in  long-suffering,  it  shall  be  by  such 
vexatious  instruments,  such  caustics  and 
corrosives,  such  tormenting  and  desperate 
medicaments,  such  which,  in  the  very  cure, 
will  soundly  punish  thy  folly  and  ingrati- 
tude. For,  deceive  not  yourselves,  God's 
mercy  cannot  be  made  a  patron  for  any 
man's  impiety ;  the  purpose  of  it  is  to  bring 
us  to  repentance  :  and  God  will  do  it  by  the 
mercies  of  his  mercies,  or  by  mercies  of 
his  judgments;  he  will  either  break  our 
hearts  into  a  thousand  fragments  of  contri- 
tion, or  break  our  bones  in  the  ruins  of  the 
grave  and  hell.  And  since  God  rejoices  in 
his  mercy  above  all  his  works  he  will  be 
most  impatient  that  we  shall  despise  that  in 
which  he  most  delights,  and  in  which  we 
have  the  greatest  reason  to  delight:  the 
riches  of  that  goodness  which  is  essential, 
and  part  of  his  glory,  and  is  communicated 
to  us,  to  bring  us  to  repentance,  that  we 
may  partake  of  that  goodness,  and  behold 
that  glory. 


SfiRM. XXXVIII.  OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  OF  CURING  SINNERS.  231 


SERMON  XXXVIII. 


PART  II 


3.  Maxpc&u/ito,  "Long-suffering."— Ia  this 
one  word  are  contained  all  the  treasures  of 


is;  and, whether  the  fire  means  to  burn,  we 
shall  know  it  by  the  change  wrought  upon 
ourselves.  For  what  Plato  said  concerning 
his  dream  of  purgatory, is  true  here:  "Q,ui- 
cunque  non  purgatus  migrat  ad  inferos, 
jacebit  in  luto ;  quicunque  vero  mitratus 


the  Divine  goodness :  here  is  the  length  and  illuc  accesserit,  habitabit  cum  Deis  :"  "  He 
extension  of  his  mercy:  "Pertrahit  spiritual , that  dies  in  his  impurity,  shall  lie  in  it  for- 
super  nos  Dominus,"  so  the  Syrian  inter-  ever;  but  he  that  descends  to  his  grave 
preter  reads,  Luke  xviii.  7.  "  God  holds  ,  purged  and  mitred, — that  is, — having  quit- 
his  breath:  he  retains  his  anger  within  him,  ted  his  vices,  'et  superinduens  justitiam,' 
lest  it  should  come  forth  and  blast  us."  | '  being  clothed  with  righteousness/  shall 
And  here  is  also  much  of  the  Divine  jus-  j  dwell  in  light  and  immortality."  It  is  said 
tice:  for  although  God  suffers  long,  yet  he 'that  we  put  God  to  such  extremities:  and 
does  not  let  us  alone;  he  forbears  to  destroy  !as  it  happens  in  long  diseases,  those  which 
us,  but  not  to  punish  us :  and  in  both  he,  physicians  use  for  the  last  remedies  seldom 
by  many  accidents,  gives  probation  of  his! prevail;  and  when  consumptive  persons 
power;  according  to  the  prayer  of  the  wise ;  come  to  have  their  heads  shaven,  they  do 
man,  'Eten?  8s  ndvtai,  ore.  Ttdvta  ovwxtfaf  xai  |not  often  escape ;  so  it  is  when  we  put  God 
7tapopa?  dftapTyuouu  dv'^rtiov  ei$  /xstdvoiav.  to  his  last  remedies  :  God  indeed  hath  the 
"  Thou  art  merciful  towards  us  all,  because |  glory  of  his  patience  and  his  long-suffering, 
thou  canst  do  all  things :  and  thou  passest  but  we  seldom  have  the  benefit  and  the  use 
by  the  sins  of  men,  that  they  may  repent."*  !  of  it.  For  if,  when  our  sin  was  young,  and 
And,  that  God  should  support  our  spirit,  our  strength  more  active,  and  our  habits  less, 
and  preserve  our  patience,  and  nourish  our  and  virtue  not  so  much  a  stranger  to  us, — 
hope,  and  correct  our  stubbornness,  and  j  we  suffered  sin  to  prevail  upon  us,  to  grow 
mortify  our  pride,  and  bring  us  to  him,  j  stronger  than  the  ruins  of  our  spirit,  and  to 
whether  wre  will  or  not,  by  such  gracious  j  lessen  us  into  the  state  of  sickness  and  disa- 
bility, in  the  midst  of  all  those  remedies 
which  God  used  to  our  beginning-diseases: 
much  more  desperate  is  our  recovery,  when 
our  disease  is  stronger,  and  our  faculties 
weaker ;  when  our  sins  reign  in  us,  and  our 
thoughts  of  virtue  are  not  alive. 

However,  although  I  say  this,  and  it  is 
highly  considerable  to  the  purpose  that  we 
never  suffer  things  to  come  to  this  extremity, 
yet,  if  it  be  upon  us,  we  must  do  as  well  as 
we  can  :  but  then  we  are  to  look  upon  it  as 
a  design  of  God's  last  mercy,  beyond  which, 
if  we  protract  our  repentance,  our  condition 
is  desperately  miserable.  The  whole  state 
of  which  mercy  we  understand  by  the  para- 
ble of  the  king  reckoning  with  his  servants 
that  were  in  arrears  to  him :  w  One  was 
brought  to  him  which  owed  him  ten  thou- 
sand talents  :  but  forasmuch  as  he  had  not 
to  pay,  his  Lord  commanded  him  to  be  sold, 
and  his  wife  and  children,  and  all  that  he 
had,  and  payment  to  be  made."  The  man, 
you  see,  was  under  the  arrest;  the  sentence 
was  passed  upon  him,  he  was  a  condemned 
man  :  but,  before  the  execution  of  it,  he  fell 
down,  and  worshipped,  and  said,  Kvpi?  juo- 
xpo^vfx^ov;  "  Lord, '  suffer  me  longer  awhile ;' 
have  patience  with  me,  and  I  will  pay  thee 
all."  This  tells  its  meaning :  this  is  "  a  long 
t2 


violences  and  merciful  judgments,  which 
he  uses  towards  us  as  his  last  remedies,  is 
not  only  the  demonstration  of  a  mighty 
mercy,  but  of  an  almighty  power.    So  hard 
a  thing  it  is  to  make  us  leave  our  follies, 
and  become  wise,  that,  were  not  the  mer- 
cies of  God  an  effective  pity,  and  clothed , 
m  all  the  way  of  its  progress  wTith  mighti-  j 
ness  and  power,  every  sinner  should  perish 
irrecoverably.    But  this  is  the  fiery  trial,  the 
last  purgatory  fire  which  God  uses,  to  burn 
the  thistles,  and  purify  the  dross.  When 
the  gentle  influence  of  a  sunbeam  will  not 
wither  them,  nor  the  weeding-hook  of  a 
short  affliction  cut  them  out;  then  God 
comes  with  fire  to  burn  us,  with  the  axe 
laid  to  the  root  of  the  tree.    But  then  ob- 
serve, that  when  we  are  under  this  state  of 
cure,  we  are  so  near  destruction,  that  the 
same  instrument  that  God  uses  for  remedy 
to  us,  is  also  prepared  to  destroy  us ;  the  fire 
is  as  apt  to  burn  us  to  ashes  as  to  cleanse  us 
when  we  are  so  overgrown  ;  and  the  axe  as 
instrumental  to  cut  us  down  for  fuel,  as  to 
square  us  for  building  in  God's  temple:  and 
therefore  when  it  comes  thus  far,  it  will  be 
hard  discerning  what  the  purpose  of  the  axe 


*  Wisd.  xi.  24. 
36 


282        MERCY  OF  THE  DIVINE  JUDGMENTS;  Sebm.  XXXVIII. 


sufferance,"  by  being  "a.  forbearance"  only 
of  execution  of  the  last  sentence,  a  putting  off 
damnation  upon  a  longer  trial  of  our  emend- 
ation ;  but  in  the  mean  time  it  implies  no 
other  case,  but  that,  together  with  his  long 
sufferance,  God  may  use  all  other  seventies 
and  scourges  to  break  our  untamed  spirits, 
and  to  soften  them  with  hammers ;  so  death 
be  put  off,  no  matter  else  what  hardship  and 
loads  of  sufferance  we  have.  "  Hie  ure, 
hie  seca,  ut  in  aeternum  parcas ;"  so  St. 
Austin  prayed :  "  Here,  O  Lord,  cut  me, 
here  burn  me;  spare  me  not  now,  that  thou 
mayest  spare  me  for  ever."  And  it  is  just 
like  the  mercy  used  to  a  madman,  when  he  is 
kept  in  a  dark  room,  and  tamed  with  whips; 
it  is  a  cruel  mercy,  but  such  as  his  condition 
requires  ;  he  can  receive  no  other  mercy,  all 
things  else  were  cruelly  unmerciful. 

I  remember  wThat  Bion  observed  wittily  of 
the  punishment  inflicted  upon  the  daughters 
of  Danaus,  whom  the  old  poets  feigned  to 
be  condemned  in  hell  to  fill  a  bottomless  tub 
with  water,  and,  to  increase  the  pain,  (as 
they  fancied,)  this  water  they  were  to  carry 
in  sieves,  and  never  to  leave  work  till  the 
tub  were  full ;  it  is  well,  (says  he,)  since 
their  labour  must  be  eternal,  that  it  is  so 
gentle ;  for  it  were  more  pains  to  carry  their 
water  in  whole  vessels,  and  a  sad  burden  to 
go  laden  to  a  leaking  tub  with  unfruitful 
labours.  Just  so  is  the  condition  of  those 
persons,  upon  whom  a  wrath  is  gone  out; 
it  is  a  sad  sentence,  but  acted  with  a  gentle 
instrument;  and  since  they  are  condemned 
to  pay  the  scores  of  their  sins  with  the  suf- 
ferance of  a  load  of  judgments,  it  is  well  they 
are  such  as  will  run  quite  through  them,  and 
not  stick  upon  them  to  eternity.  "Omnes  enim 
pcense  exterminantes,  sunt  medicinales ;" 
All  punishments  whatsoever,  which  do  not 
destroy  us,  are  intended  to  save  us,  they  are 
lancets  which  make  a  wound,  but  to  let  forth 
the  venom  of  our  ulcers.  When  God  slew 
twenty-three  thousand  of  the  Assyrians  for 
their  fornication,  that  was  a  final  justice 
upon  their  persons,  and  consigned  them  to 
a  sad  eternity  ;  for  beyond  such  an  infliction 
there  was  no  remedy.  But  when  God  sent 
lions  to  the  Assyrian  inhabitants  of  Samaria, 
and  the  judgment  drove  them  to  inquire  after 
the  manner  of  the  God  of  the  land,  and  they 
sent  for  priests  from  Jerusalem  to  teach  them 
how  to  worship  the  God  of  Israel ;  that  was 
a  mercy  and  judgment  too:  "the  long  for- 
bearance of  God,"  who  destroyed  not  all  the 
inhabitants,  "  led"  the  rest  u  unto  repent- 
ance." 


1.  And  I  must  make  this  observation  to 
you ;  that  when  things  come  to  this  pass, 
that  God  is  forced  to  the  last  remedies  of 
judgments,  this  long-sufferance  wiJl  little  or 
nothing  concern  particular  persons,  but  na- 

I  tions  and  communities  of  men ;  for  those 
iwho  are  smitten  with  judgment,  if  God 
j  takes  his  hand  off  again,  and  so  opens  a 
way  for  their  repentance  by  prolonging  their 
| time;  that  comes  under  the  second  part  of 
God's  method,  the  avoxr,  or  " forbearance  :" 
but  if  he  smites  a  single  person  with  a  final 
|  judgment,  that  is  "  a  long-suffering,"  not  of 
j  him,  but  towards  others ;  and  God  hath  de- 
stroyed my  neighbour,  to  make  me  repent,  my 
neighbour's  time  being  expired,  and  the  date 
of  his  possibility  determined.  For  a  man's 
death-bed  is  but  an  ill  station  for  a  penitent ; 
and  a  final  judgment  is  no  good  monitor  to 
him,  to  whom  it  is  a  severe  executioner. 
They  that  perished  in  the  gainsaying  of 
Korah,  were  out  of  the  conditions  of  re- 
pentance. But  the  people  that  were  affright- 
ed with  the  neighbourhood  of  the  judgment, 
and  the  expresses  of  God's  anger  manifested 
in  such  visible  remonstrances,  they  were  the 
men  called  unto  repentance.  But  concern- 
ing the  whole  nations  of  communities  of 
men,  this  long-sufferance  is  a  sermon  of  re- 
pentance; loud,  clamorous,  and  highly  argu- 
mentative. When  God  suffered  the  mutinies, 
the  affronts,  the  baseness  and  ingratitude, 
the  follies  and  relapses,  of  the  children  of  Is- 
rael, who  murmured  against  God  ten  times 
in  the  wilderness ;  God  sent  evil  angels 
among  them,  and  fiery  serpents,  and  pesti- 
lence, and  fire  from  heaven,  and  prodigies 
from  the  earth,  and  a  prevailing  sword  of 
the  enemies;  and  in  all  these  accidents, 
although  some  innocent  persons  felt  the  con- 
tingencies and  variety  of  mortality,  yet  those 
wicked  persons  who  fell  by  the  design  of 
God's  anger,  wrere  made  examples  unto 
others,  and  instances  of  God's  forbearance 
to  the  nation  ;  and  yet  this  forbearance  was 
such,  that  although  God  preserved  the  na- 
Ition  in  being,  and  in  title  to  the  first  pro- 
mises, yet  all  the  particular  persons  that 
'came  from  Egypt  died  in  the  wilderness, 
two  only  excepted. 

2.  And  I  desire  you  to  observe  this,  that 
you  may  truly  estimate  the  arts  of  the  Di- 
vine justice  and  mercy.  For  all  the  world 
being  one  continual  and  entire  argument  of 
the  Divine  mercy,  we  are  apt  to  abuse  that 
mercy  to  vain  confidences  and  presumption; 

i  first  mistaking  the  end,  as  if  God's  mercy 
I  would  be  indulgent  to  our  sin,  to  which  it  is 


Serm.  XXXVIII.  OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  OF  CURING  SINNERS.  283 


the  greatest  enemy  in  the  world ;  for  it  is  a 
certain  truth,  that  the  mercy  of  God  is  as 
great  an  enemy  to  sin  as  his  justice  is  ;  and 
as  God's  justice  is  made  the  handmaid  of 
his  mercy  to  cure  sin,  so  it  is  the  servant 
also  and  the  instrument  to  avenge  our  despite 
and  contempt  of  mercy  ;  and  in  all  the  way 
where  a  difference  can  be,  there  justice  is  the 
less  principal.  And  it  were  a  great  sign  of 
folly,  and  a  huge  mistake,  to  think  our  Lord 
and  our  friends  do  us  offices  of  kindness,  to 
make  themselves  more  capable  of  affronts  ; 
and  that  our  fathers'  care  over  us,  and  pro- 
vision for  us,  can  tempt  us  to  disobey  them  : 
the  very  purpose  of  all  those  emanations  is, 
that  their  love  may  return  in  duty,  and  their 
providence  be  the  parent  of  our  prudence, 
and  their  care  be  crowned  with  our  piety ; 
and  then  we  shall  all  be  crowned,  and  shall 
return  like  the  year,  that  ends  into  its  own 
circle ;  and  the  fathers  and  the  children,  the 
benefactors  and  the  beneficiary,  shall  knit 
the  wreath,  and  bind  each  other  in  the  eter- 
nal enclosures  and  circlings  of  immortality. 
But  besides,  as  the  men  who  presume  to  sin 
because  of  God's  mercy,  do  mistake  the 
very  end  and  design  of  God's  mercy,  so 
they  also  mistake  the  economy  of  it,  and 
the  manner  of  its  ministration. 

3.  For  if  God  suffers  men  to  go  on  in  sins, 
and  punishes  them  not,  it  is  not  a  mercy,  it 
is  not  a  forbearance ;  it  is  a  hardening  them, 
a  consigning  them  to  ruin  and  reprobation  ; 
and  themselves  give  the  best  argument  to 
prove  it ;  for  they  continue  in  their  sin,  they 
multiply  their  iniquity,  and  every  day  grow 
more  enemy  to  God  ;  and  that  is  no  mercy 
that  increases  their  hostility  and  enmity 
with  God.  A  prosperous  iniquity  is  the 
most  unprosperous  condition  in  the  world. 
"  When  he  slew  them,  they  sought  him, 
and  turned  them  early,  and  inquired  after 
God;"  but  as  long  as  they  prevailed  upon 
their  enemies,  "  they  forgot  that  God  was 
their  strength,  and  the  high  God  was  their 
Redeemer."  It  was  well  observed  by  the 
Persian  ambassador  of  old  ;  when  he  was 
telling  the  king  a  sad  story  of  the  overthrow 
of  all  his  army  by  the  Athenians,  he  adds 
this  of  his  own  :  that  the  day  before  the  fight, 
the  young  Persian  gallants,  being  confident 
they  should  destroy  their  enemies,  were 
drinking  drunk,  and  railing  at  the  timorous- 
ness  and  fears  of  religion,  and  against  all 
their  gods,  saying,  there  were  no  such  things, 
and  that  all  things  came  by  chance  and  in- 
dustry, nothing  by  the  providence  of  the 
Supreme  Power.    But  the  next  day  when 


they  had  fought  unprosperously,  and  flying 
from  their  enemies  who  were  eager  in  their 
pursuit,  they  came  to  the  river  Strymon, 
which  was  so  frozen  that  their  boats  could 
not  launch,  and  yet  it  began  to  thaw,  so  that 
they  feared  the  ice  would  not  bear  them  ; 
then  you  should  see  the  bold  gallants,  that 
the  day  before  said  there  was  no  God,  most 
timorously  and  superstitiously  fall  upon  their 
faces,  and  beg  of  God,  that  the  river  Strymon 
might  bear  them  over  from  their  enemies. 
What  wisdom,  and  philosophy,  and  per- 
petual experience,  and  revelation,  and  pro- 
mises, and  blessings,  cannot  do,  a  mighty 
fear  can,  it  can  allay  the  confidences  of  bold 
lust  and  imperious  sin,  and  soften  our  spirit 
into  the  lowness  of  a  child,  or  revenge  into 
the  charity  of  prayers,  our  impudence  into 
the  blushings  of  a  chidden  girl ;  and  there- 
fore God  hath  taken  a  course  proportionable  : 
for  he  is  not  so  unmercifully  merciful,  as  to 
give  milk  to  an  infirm  lust,  and  hatch  the 
egg  to  the  bigness  of  a  cockatrice.  And, 
therefore,  observe  how  it  is  that  God's  mercy 
prevails  over  all  his  works  ;  it  is  even  then 
when  nothing  can  be  discerned  but  his  judg- 
ments :  for  as  when  a  famine  had  been  in 
Israel  in  the  days  of  Ahab  for  three  years 
and  a  half,  when  the  angry  prophet  Elijah 
met  the  king,  and  presently  a  great  wind 
arose,  and  the  dust  blew  into  the  eyes  of 
them  that  walked  abroad,  and  the  face  of  the 
heavens  was  black  and  all  tempest,  yet  then 
the  prophet  was  most  gentle,  and  God  began 
to  forgive,  and  the  heavens  were  more  beau- 
tiful than  when  the  sun  puts  on  the  brightest 
ornaments  of  a  bridegroom,  going  from  his 
chambers  of  the  east :  so  it  is  in  the  economy 
of  the  Divine  mercy  ;  when  God  makes  our 
faces  black,  and  the  winds  blow  so  loud  till 
the  cordage  cracks,  and  our  gay  fortunes 
split,  and  our  houses  are  dressed  with  cypress 
and  yew,  "and  the  mourners  go  about  the 
streets,"  this  is  nothing  but  the  "  pompa 
misericordiie,"  this  is  the  funeral  of  our  sins, 
dressed  indeed  with  emblems  of  mourning, 
and  proclaimed  with  sad  accents  of  death  : 
I  but  the  sight  is  refreshing,  as  the  beauties 
of  the  field  which  God  had  blessed,  and  the 
sounds  are  healthful  as  the  noise  of  a  phy- 
sician. 

This  is  that  riddle  spoken  of  in  the  Psalm, 
"Calix  in  manu  Domini  vini  meri  plenus 
misto ;"  "  The  pure  impure,  the  mingled 
unmingled  cup  :"*  for  it  is  a  cup  in  which 
God  hath  poured  much  of  his  severity  and 


*  Psal.  lxxv.  8. 


284         MERCY  OF  THE  DIVIN 

anger,  and  yet  it  is  pure  and  unmingled ; 
for  it  is  all  mercy.  And  so  the  riddle  is  re- 
solved, and  our  cup  is  full  and  made  more 
wholesome ;  •'*  Lymphatum  crescit,  dulcescit, 
lsedere  nescit;"  it  is  some  justice,  and  yet  it 
is  all  mercy  ;  the  very  justice  of  God  being 
an  act  of  mercy ;  a  forbearance  of  the  man 
or  the  nation,  and  the  punishing  of  the  sin. 
Thus  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  children  of 
Israel ;  when  they  ran  after  the  bleating  of 
the  idolatrous  calves,  Moses  prayed  passion- 
ately, and  God  heard  his  prayer,  and  forgave 
their  sin  unto  them.  And  this  was  David's 
observation  of  the  manner  of  God's  mercy  j 
to  them ;  "  Thou  wast  a  God  and  forgavest 
them,  though  thou  tookest  vengeance  of  their 
inventions."*  For  God's  mercy  is  given  to 
us  by  parts,  and  to  certain  purposes.  Some- 
times God  only  so  forgives  us,  that  he  does 
not  cut  us  off  in  the  sin,  but  yet  lays  on  a 
heavy  load  of  judgments  :  so  he  did  to  his 
people,  when  he  sent  them  to  school  under  the 
discipline  of  seventy  years' captivity.  Some- 
times he  makes  a  judgment  less,  and  forgives 
in  respect  of  the  degree  of  the  infliction,  he 
strikes  more  gently  ;  and  whereas  God  had 
designed,  it  may  be,  the  death  of  thyself,  or 
thy  nearest  relatives,  he  is  content  to  take 
the  life  of  a  child.  And  so  he  did  to  David, 
when  he  forbore  him;  "The  Lord  hath 
taken  away  thy  sin,  thou  shalt  not  die ; 
nevertheless,  the  child  that  is  born  unto  thee, 
that  shall  die."f  Sometimes  he  puts  the 
evil  ofT  to  a  farther  day ;  as  he  did  in  the 
case  of  Ahab  and  Hezekiah ;  to  the  first  he 
brought  the  evil  upon  his  house,  and  to  the 
second  he  brought  the  evil  upon  his  king- 
dom in  his  son's  days,  God  forgiving  only 
so  as  to  respite  the  evil,  that  they  should 
have  peace  in  their  own  days.  And  thus 
when  we  have  committed  a  sin  against  God, 
which  hath  highly  provoked  him  to  anger, 
even  upon  our  repentance  we  are  not  sure 
to  be  forgiven,  so  as  we  understand  forgive- 
ness, that  is,  to  hear  no  more  of  it,  never  to 
be  called  to  an  account :  but  we  are  happy 
if  God  so  forgive  us,  as  not  to  throw 
us  into  the  insufferable  flames  of  hell,  though 
he  smite  us  till  we  groan  for  our  misery, 
till  we  "  chatter  like  a  swallow,"  as  David's 
expression  is.  And  though  David  was  an 
excellent  penitent;  yet  after  he  had  lost  the 
child  begotten  of  Bathsheba,  and  God  had 
told  him  he  had  forgiven  him,  yet  he  raised 
up  his  darling  son  against  him,  and  forced 
him  to  an  inglorious  flight,  and  his  son  lay 
*  Psal.  xcix.  8.        t  2  Sam.  xii.  13,  14. 


E  JUDGMENTS;     Serm.  XXXVIII. 

with  his  father's  concubines  in  the  face  of 
all  Israel.  So  that  when  we  are  forgiven, 
yet  it  is  ten  to  one  but  God  will  make  us  to 
smart  and  roar  for  our  sins,  for  the  very  dis- 
quietness  of  our  souls. 

For  if  we  sin  and  ask  God  forgiveness, 
and  then  are  quiet,  Ave  feel  so  little  incon- 
venience in  the  trade,  that  we  may  more 
easily  be  tempted  to  make  a  trade  of  it  in- 
deed. I  wish  to  God  that  for  every  sin  we 
have  committed,  wre  could  heartily  cry  "  God 
mercy"  and  leave  it,  and  judge  ourselves  for 
it,  to  prevent  God's  anger  :  but  when  we 
j  have  done  all  that  we  commonly  call  repent- 
ance, and  when  possibly  God  hath  forgiven 
us  to  some  purposes,  yet,  it  may  be,  he 
punishes  our  sin  when  we  least  think  of  it; 
that  sin  which  we  have  long  since  forgotten. 
It  may  be,  for  the  lust  of  thy  youth  thou 
hast  a  healthless  old  age.  An  old  religious 
person  long  ago  complained  it  was  his  case. 

Quos  nimis  efTrasnes  habui,  nunc  vapulo  renes  : 
Sic  luitur  juvenis  culpa,  dolore  senis. 

It  may  be,  thy  sore  eyes  are  the  punish- 
ment of  intemperance  seven  years  ago  ;  or 
God  cuts  thy  days  shorter,  and  thou  shalt 
die  in  a  florid  age  ;  or  he  raises  up  afflictions 
to  thee  in  thine  own  house,  in  thine  own 
bowels  ;  or  hath  sent  a  gangrene  into  thy 
estate ;  or  with  an  arrow  out  of  his  quiver 
he  can  wound  thee,  and  the  arrow  shall 
stick  fast  in  thy  flesh,  although  God  hath 
forgiven  thy  sin  to  many  purposes.  Our 
blessed  Saviour  "  was  heard  in  all  that  he 
prayed"  (said  the  apostle)  :  and  he  prayed 
for  the  Jews  that  crucified  him,  "  Father  for- 
give them  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do :"  and  God  did  forgive  that  great  sin  ; 
but  how  far?  Whereas  it  was  just  in  God 
to  deprive  them  of  all  possibility  of  receiv- 
ing benefit  from  the  death  of  Christ,  yet  God 
admitted  them  to  it ;  he  gave  them  time,  and 
possibilities,  and  helps,  and  great  advan- 
tages to  bring  them  to  repentance;  he  did 
not  presently  shut  them  up  in  his  final  and 
eternal  anger  ;  and  yet  he  had  finally  resolv- 
ed to  destroy  their  city  and  nation,  and  did 
so,  but  forebore  them  forty  years,  and  gave 
them  all  the  helps  of  miracles  and  sermons 
apostolical  to  shame  them,  and  force  them 
into  sorrow  for  their  fault.  And  before  any 
man  can  repent,  God  hath  forgiven  the  man 
in  one  degree  of  forgiveness ;  for  he  hath 
given  him  grace  of  repentance,  and  taken 
from  him  that  final  anger  of  the  spirit  of 
reprobation  :  and  when  a  man  hath  repent- 
ed, no  man  can  say  that  God  hath  forgiven 


Serm.  XXXVIII.  OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  OF  CURING  SINNERS.  285 


him  to  all  purposes,  but  hath  reserves  of  j  of  grace,  arts  to  make  us  sober  and  wise,  to 
anger  to  punish  the  sin,  to  make  the  man  take  us  off  from  our  vanity,  to  restrain  our 
afraid  to  sin  anymore;  and  to  represent, j wildnesses,  which,  if  they  were  left  un- 
that  when  any  man  hath  sinned,  whatever  j  bridled,  would  set  all  the  world  on  fiie. 
he  does  afterwards,  he  shall  be  miserable  as  j  God's  judgments  are  like  the  censures  of 


long  as  he  lives,  vexed  with  its  adherences, 
and  its  neighbourhood  and  evil  consequence. 
For  as  no  man  that  hath  sinned,  can,  dur- 
ing his  life,  ever  return  to  an  integral  and 
perfect  innocence ;  so  neither  shall  he  be 


the  Church,  in  which  a  sinner  is  "  delivered 
over  to  Satan  to  be  buffeted  ;  that  the  spirit 
may  be  saved."  The  result  of  all  this  is, 
that  God's  mercies  are  not,  ought  not,  can- 
not be  instruments  of  confidence  to  sin,  be- 


restored  to  a  perfect  peace,  but  must  always :  cause  the  very  purpose  of  his  mercy  is  to  the 
watch  and  strive  against  his  sin,  and  always  contrary,  and  the  very  manner  of  his  economy 


mourn  and  pray  for  its  pardon,  and  always 
find  cause  to  hate  it,  by  knowing  himself  to 
be  lor  ever  in  danger  of  enduring  some 
grievous  calamity,  even  for  those  sins  for 
which  he  hath  truly  repented  him,  for  which 


and  dispensation  is  such,  that  God's  mercy 
goes  along  in  complexion  and  conjunction 
with  his  judgments  ;  the  riches  of  his  forbear- 
ance is  this,  that  he  forbears  to  throw  us  into 
hell,  and  sends  the  mercies  of  his  rod  to  chide 


God  hath,  in  many  gracious  degrees,  pass- ,  us  into  repentance,  and  the  mercies  of  his  rod 


ed  his  pardon  :  this  is  the  manner  of  dispen- 
sation of  the  Divine  mercy,  in  respect  of  par- 
ticular persons  and  nations  too. 

But  sometimes  we  find  a  severer  judg- 


to  punish  us  for  having  sinned,  and  that  when 
we  have  sinned  we  may  never  think  our- 
selves secured,  nor  ever  be  reconciled  to 
such  dangers  and  deadly  poisons.  This, 


ment  happening  upon  a  people  ;  and  yet  in  '  this  is  the  manner  of  the  Divine  mercy.  Go 
that  sad  story  God's  mercy  sings  the  triumph,  I  now,  fond  man,  and,  because  God  is  mer- 
which,  although  it  be  much  to  God's  glory,;  ciful,  presume  to  sin,  as  having  grounds  to 
yet  it  is  a  sad  story  to  sinning  people.  Six,  hope  that  thou  mayest  sin,  and  be  safe  all 
hundred  thousand  fighting  men,  besides  wo-  the  way  !  If  this — hope,  shall  I  call  it,  or 
men  and  children  and  decrepit  persons,  came ;  sordid  flattery,  could  be  reasonable,  then  the 
out  of  Egypt;  and  God  destroyed  them  all :  mercies  of  God  would  not  lead  us  to  repent- 
in  the  wilderness,  except  Caleb  and  Joshua  :  ance  ;  so  unworthy  are  we  in  the  sense 
and  there  it  was  that  God's  mercy  prevailed  and  largeness  of  a  wide  fortune  and  pleas- 
over  his  justice,  that  he  did  not  destroy  the  ant  accident.  For  impunity  was  never  a 
nation,  but  still  preserved  a  succession  to  good  argument  to  make  men  to  obey  laws. 
Jacob,  to  possess  the  promise.  God  drown- i te  Q,uotusquisque  reperitur,  qui  impunitate 
ed  all  the  world  except  eight  persons ;  his  propositi  abstinere  possit  injuriis  ?  Im- 
mercy  there  also  prevailed  over  his  justice,  j  punitas  est  maxima  peccandi  illecebra," 
that  he  preserved  a  remnant  to  mankind;  his  j  said  Cicero.*    And  therefore,  the  wisdom 


justice  devoured  all  the  world,  and  his  mercy 
which  preserved  but  eight,  had  the  honour 


of  God  hath  so  ordered  the  actions  of  the 
world,  that  the  most  fruitful  showers  shall 


of  the  prevailing  attribute.  God  destroyed  be  wrapped  up  in  a  cover  of  black  clouds, 
Sodom  and  the  five  cities  of  the  plain, J  that  health  shall  be  conveyed  by  bitter  and 
and  rescued  but  four  from  the  flames  of  that  ill-tasted  drugs  ;  that  the  temples  of  our 
sad  burning,  and  of  the  four  lost  one  in  the 'bodies  shall  be  purged  by  whips,  and  that 
flight ;  and  yet  his  mercy  prevailed  over  his  I  the  cords  of  the  whip  shall  be  the  cords  of 


justice,  because  he  did  not  destroy  all. 

And  in  these  senses  we  are  to  understand 
the  excellency  of  the  Divine  mercy  :  even 
when  he  smites,  when  "  he  rebukes  us  for 


love,  to  draw  us  from  the  entanglings  of 
vanity  and  folly.  This  is  the  long  suffering 
of  God,  the  last  remedy  to  our  diseased  souls  : 
and  dj  ou.s^ros,  oar   ?io?.?.a  rto&d>vov  suypori^Wat, 


sin,"  when  he  makes  "our  beauty  to  fail, '  said  Phalaris;  unless  we  be  senseless,  we  shall 


and  our  flesh  to  consume  away  like  a  moth 
fretting  a  garment,"  yet  then  his  mercy  is 
the  prevailing  ingredient.  If  his  judgments 
be  but  fines  set  upon  our  heads,  according 
to  the  mercy  of  our  old  laws,  "  salvo  con- 
tenemento,"  "  so  as  to  preserve  our  estates," 


be  brought  to  sober  courses  by  all  those  sad 
accidents,  and  wholesome,  but  ill-tasted  mer- 
cies, which  we  feel  in  all  the  course  and  suc- 
cession of  the  Divine  long-sufferance. 

The  use  of  all  the  premises  is  that  which 
St.  Paul  expresses  in  the  text,  that  "  we  do 


to  continue  our  hopes  and  possibilities  of  j  not  despise  all  this  :"  and  he  only  despises 
heaven  ;  all  the  other  judgments  can  be;  not,  who  serves  the  ends  of  God  in  all  these 


nothing  but  mercies,  excellent  instruments . 


Offic.  5. 


286    MERCY  OF  THE  DIVINE  JUDGMENTS;    Serm.  XXXVIII 


designs  of  mercy,  that  is,  he  that  repents 
him  of  his  sins.  But  there  are  a  great  many 
despisers  j  all  they  that  live  in  their  sins, 
they  that  have  more  blessings  than  they  can 
reckon  hours  in  their  lives,  that  are  courted 
by  the  Divine  favour  and  wooed  to  salva- 
tion, as  if  mankind  were  to  give,  not  to  re- 
ceive, so  great  a  blessing,  all  they  that 
answer  not  to  so  friendly  summons, — they 
are  despisers  of  God's  mercies  :  and  although 
God  overflows  with  mercies,  and  does  not 
often  leave  us  to  the  only  hopes  of  being 
cured  by  unctions  and  gentle  cataplasms, 
but  proceeds  further,  and  gives  us  "  stibi- 
um," or  prepared  steel,  sharp  arrows  of  his 
anger,  and  the  sword,  and  the  hand  of  sick- 
ness ;  yet  we  are  not  sure  of  so  much  f&  /our 
as  to  be  entertained  longer  in  God's  hospital, 
but  may  be  thrust  forth  among  the  "  incura- 
biles."  Plutarch  reports  concerning  swine, 
that  their  optic  nerves  are  so  disposed  to 
turn  their  eyes  downward,  that  they  cannot 
look  upwards,  nor  behold  the  face  of  heaven, 
unless  they  be  thrown  upon  their  backs. 
Such  swine  are  we :  we  seldom  can  look 
up  to  heaven,  till  God  by  his  judgments 
throws  us  upon  our  backs;  till  he  humbles 
us  and  softens  us  with  showers  of  our  own 
blood,  and  tears  of  sorrow :  and  yet  God 
hath  not  promised  that  he  will  do  so  much 
for  us ;  but  for  aught  we  know,  as  soon  as 
ever  the  devil  enters  into  our  swinish  and 
brutish  hearts,  we  shall  run  down  the  hill, 
and  perish  in  the  floods  and  seas  of  intolera- 
ble misery.  And  therefore,  besides  that  it 
is  a  huge  folly  in  us,  that  we  will  not  be 
cured  with  pleasant  medicines,  but  must  be 
longing  for  coloquintida  and  for  vomits,  for 
knives  and  poniards,  instead  of  the  gentle 
showers  of  the  Divine  refreshments,  besides 
that  this  is  an  imprudence  and  sottishness ; 
we  do  infinitely  put  it  to  the  venture,  whether 
we  shall  be  in  a  saveable  condition  or  not, 
after  the  rejection  of  the  first  state  of  mercies. 
But,  however,  then  begins  the  first  step  of 
the  judgment  and  pungent  misery,  we  are 
perishing  people  ;  or,  if  not,  yet  at  the  least 
not  to  be  cured  without  the  abscission  of  a 
member,  without  the  cutting  off  a  hand  or 
a  leg,  or  the  putting  out  of  an  eye :  we 
must  be  cut,  to  take  the  stone  out  of  our 
hearts,  and  that  is  the  state  of  a  very  great 
infelicity ;  and  if  we  escape  the  stone,  we 
cannot  escape  the  surgeon's  knife;  if  we 
escape  death,  yet  we  have  a  sickness;  and 
though  that  be  a  great  mercy  in  respect  of 
death,  yet  it  is  as  great  misery  in  respect  of 
health.    And  that  is  the  first  punishment 


for  the  despite  done  to  the  first  and  most 
sensible  mercies ;  we  are  fallen  into  a  sick- 
ness, that  cannot  be  cured  but  by  disease 
and  hardship. 

But  if  this  despite  runs  further,  and  when 
the  mercies  look  on  us  with  an  angry 
countenance,  and  that  God  gives  us  only 
the  mercy  of  a  punishment,  if  we  despise 
this  too,  we  increase  but  our  misery,  as  we 
increase  our  sin.  The  sum  of  which  is  this  : 
that  if  Pharaoh  will  not  be  cured  by  one 
plague,  he  shall  have  ten  ;  and  if  ten  will 
not  do  it,  the  great  and  tenth  wave,  which 
is  far  bigger  than  all  the  rest,  the  severest  and 
the  last  arrow  of  the  quiver,  then  we  shall  per- 
ish in  the  Red  sea,  the  sea  of  flames  and  blood, 
in  which  the  ungodly  shall  roll  eternally. 

But  some  of  these  despisers  are  such  as 
are  unmoved  when  God  smites  others  ;  like 
Gallio,  when  the  Jews  took  Sosthenes,  and 
beat  him  in  the  pleading-place,  he  "cared 
for  none  of  these  things ;"  he  was  not  con- 
cerned in  that  interest:  and  many  Gallios 
there  are  among  us,  that  understand  it  not  to 
be  a  part  of  the  divine  method  of  God's 
"  long-sufferance,"  to  strike  others  to  make 
us  afraid.  But  however  we  sleep  in  the 
midst  of  such  alarms,  yet  know,  that  there 
is  not  one  death  in  all  the  neighbourhood 
but  is  intended  to  thee  ;  every  crowing  of 
I  the  cock  is  to  awake  thee  to  repentance  :  and 
if  thou  sleepest  still,  the  next  turn  may  be 
thine ;  God  will  send  his  angel,  as  he  did 
to  Peter,  and  smite  thee  on  thy  side,  and 
wake  thee  from  thy  dead  sleep  of  sin  and 
sottishness.  But  beyond  this  some  are  de- 
spisers still,  and  hope  to  drown  the  noises 
of  mount  Sinai,  the  sound  of  cannons,  of 
thunders  and  lightnings,  with  a  counter- 
noise  of  revelling  and  clamorous  roarings, 
with  merry  meetings ;  like  the  sacrifices  to 
Moloch,  they  sound  drums  and  trumpets, 
that  they  might  not  hear  the  sad  shriekings 
of  their  children,  as  they  were  dying  in  the 
cavity  of  the  brazen  idol :  and  when  their 
conscience  shrieks  out  or  murmurs  in  a  sad 
melancholy,  or  something  that  is  dear  to 
them  is  smitten,  they  attempt  to  drown  it  in 
a  sea  of  drink,  in  the  heathenish  noises  of 
idle  and  drunken  company  ;  and  that  which 
God  sends  to  lead  them  to  repentance,  leads 
them  to  a  tavern,  not  to  refresh  their  needs 
of  nature,  or  for  ends  of  a  tolerable  civility, 
or  innocent  purposes  ;  but  like  the  condemn- 
ed persons  among  the  Levantines,  they 
tasted  wine  freely,  that  they  might  die  and 
be  insensible.  I  could  easily  reprove  such 
persons  with  an  old  Greek  proverb  mention- 


Seuc.  XXXVIII.  OR,  GOD'S  METHOD  OF  CURI  NG  SINNERS.  287 


ed  by  Plutarch,  n?pt  tr$  Eti&vfuag,  ovts  rcohd- 
ypo*  drta^arrft  xctf.xioj,  "  You  shall  ill  be 
cured  of  the  knotted  gout,  if  you  have 
nothing  else  but  a  wider  shoe."  But  this 
reproof  is  too  gentle  for  so  great  madness  :  it 
is  not  only  an  incompetent  cure,  to  apply 
the  plaster  of  a  sin  or  vanity  to  cure  the 
smart  of  a  divine  judgment ;  but  it  is  a  great 
increaser  of  the  misery,  by  swelling  the 
cause  to  bigger  and  monstrous  proportions. 
It  is  just  as  if  an  impatient  fool,  feeling  the 
smart  of  his  medicine,  shall  tear  his  wounds 
open,  and  throw  away  the  instruments  of 
his  cure,  because  they  bring  him  health  at 
the  charge  of  a  little  pain,  'Eyyij  Kupww 
rr^p^s  partlyw,  "  He  that  is  full  of  stripes" 
and  troubles,  and  decked  round  about  with 
thorns,  he  "is  near  to  God  :"  but  he  that, 
because  he  sits  uneasily  when  he  sits  near 
the  King  that  was  crowned  with  thorns, 
shall  remove  thence,  or  strew  flowers,  roses 
and  jessamine,  the  down  of  thistles  and  the 
softest  gossamer,  that  he  may  die  without 
pain,  die  quietly  and  like  a  lamb,  sink  to 
the  bottom  of  hell  without  noise ;  this  man 
is  a  fool,  because  he  accepts  death  if  it  arrest 
him  in  civil  language,  is  content  to  die  by 
the  sentence  of  an  eloquent  judge,  and  pre- 
fers a  quiet  passage  to  hell  before  going  to 
heaven  in  a  storm. 

That  Italian  gentleman  was  certainly  a 
great  lover  of  his  sleep,  who  was  angry  with 
the  lizard  that  waked  him,  when  a  viper 
was  creeping  into  his  mouth  :  when  the 
devil  is  entering  into  us  to  poison  our  spirits, 
and  steal  our  souls  away  while  we  are  sleep- 
ing in  the  lethargy  of  sin,  God  sends  his 
sharp  messages  to  awaken  us  ;  and  we  call 
that  the  enemy,  and  use  arts  to  cure  the 
remedy,  not  to  cure  the  disease.  There  are 
some  persons  that  will  never  be  cured,  not 
because  the  sickness  is  incurable,  but  be- 
cause they  have  ill  stomachs,  and  cannot 
keep  the  medicine.  Just  so  is  his  case  that 
so  despises  God's  method  of  curing  him  by 
these  instances  of  long  sufferance,  that  he 
uses  all  the  arts  he  can  to  be  quit  of  his 
physician,  and  to  spill  his  physic,  and  to 
take  cordials  as  soon  as  his  vomit  begins  to 
work.  There  is  no  more  to  be  said  in  this 
affair,  but  to  read  the  poor  wretch's  sen- 
tence, and  to  declare  his  condition.  As  at 
first,  when  he  despised  the  first  great  mer- 
cies, God  sent  him  sharpness  and  sad  acci- 
dents to  ensober  his  spirits  :  so  now  that  he 
despises  his  mercy  also,  the  mercy  of  the 
rod,  God  will  take  it  away  from  him,  and 
then  I  hope  all  is  well.  Miserable  man  that 


thou  art !  this  is  thy  undoing  ;  if  God  ceases 
to  strike  thee,  because  thou  wilt  not  mend, 
thou  art  sealed  up  to  ruin  and  reprobation 
for  ever ;  the  physician  hath  given  thee 
over,  he  hath  no  kindness  for  thee.  This 
was  the  desperate  estate  of  Judah,  "  Ah, 
sinful  nation  !  a  people  laden  with  iniquity  : 
they  have  forsaken  the  Lord,  they  have  pro- 
voked the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  Why  should 
ye  be  stricken  any  more?"*    This  is  the 
avd&epa  uapav  a9a,  the  most  bitter  curse,  the 
greatest  excommunication,  when  the  delin- 
I  quent  is  become  a  heathen  and  a  publican, 
I  without  the  covenant,  out  of  the  pale  of  the 
church  :  the  church  hath  nothing  to  do  with 
them  :  for  what  have  I  to  do  with  them  that 
are  without?"  said  St.  Paul.    It  was  not 
.  lawful  for  the  church  any  more  to  punish 
'  them.  And  this  court  Christian  is  an  imita- 
I  tion  and  parallel  of  the  justice  of  the  court 
1  of  heaven  :  when  a  sinner  is  not  mended 
!  by  judgments  at  long-running,  God  cuts 
|  him  off  from  his  inheritance,  and  the  lot  of 
I  sons  ;  he  will  chastise  him  no  more,  but  let 
|  him  take  his  course,  and  spend  his  portion 
1  of  prosperity,  such  as  shall  be  allowed  him 
|  in  the  great  economy  of  the  world.  Thus 
God  did  to  his  vineyard  which  he  took  such 
pains  to  fence,  to  plant,  to  manure,  to  dig, 
to  cut,  and  to  prune :  and  when,  after  all, 
it  brought  forth  wild  grapes,  the  last  and 
worst  of  God's  anger  was  this  ;  "  Auferam 
sepem  ejus  :"t  God  had  fenced  it  with  a 
hedge  of  thorns,  and  "  God  would  take 
away  all  that  hedge,"  he  would  not  leave 
a  thorn  standing,  not  one  judgment  to  re- 
prove or  admonish  them,  but  all  the  wild 
beasts,  and  wilder  and  more  beastly  lusts, 
I  may  come  and  devour  it,  and  trample  it 
J  down  in  scorn. 

And  now  what  shall  I  say,  but  those 
|  words  quoted  by  St.  Paul  in  his  sermon, 
"  Behold,  ye  despisers,  and  wonder,  and 
perish  ;"J  perish  in  your  own  folly  by  stub- 
bornness and  ingratitude.  For  it  is  a  huge 
contradiction  to  the  nature  and  designs  of 
God  :  God  calls  us,  we  refuse  to  hear ;  he 
invites  us  with  fair  promises,  we  hear  and 
consider  not ;  he  gives  us  blessings,  we  take 
them  and  understand  not  his  meaning  j  we 
t  take  out  the  token,  but  read  not  the  letter: 
I  then  he  threatens  us,  and  we  regard  not  • 
he  strikes  our  neighbours,  and  we  are  not 
concerned  :  then  he  strikes  us  gently,  but 
we  feel  it  not :  then  he  does  like  the  physi- 
cian in  the  Greek  epigram,  who  being  to 

*  Isaiah  i.  4,  5.     t  Isaiah  v.  5.     X  Acts  xiii.  41. 


288  GROWTH  IN  GRACE.  Serm.  XXXIX. 


cure  a  man  of  a  lethargy,  locked  him  into 
the  same  room  with  a  madman,  that  he  by 
dry-beating  him  might  make  him  at  least 
sensible  of  blows ;  but  this  makes  us,  in- 
stead of  running  to  God,  to  trust  in  unskilful 
physicians,  or,  like  Saul,  to  run  to  a  Pytho- 
nisse ;  we  run  for  cure  to  a  crime,  we  take 
sanctuary  in  a  pleasant  sin ;  just  as  if  a 
man,  to  cure  his  melancholy,  should  desire 
to  be  stung  with  a  tarantula,  that  at  least  he 
may  die- merrily.  What  is  there  more  to  be 
done  that  God  hath  not  yet  done?  He  is 
forced  at  last  to  break  off  with  "  Curavimus 
Babylonem,  et  non  est  sanata,"  "  We 
dressed  and  tended  Babylon,"  but  she  was 
incurable:  there  is  no  help  but  such  persons 
must  die  in  their  sins,  and  lie  down  in  eter- 
nal sorrow. 


SERMON  XXXIX. 

OF  GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 
PART  I. 

hv,t  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ:  to  whom  be  glory  both  now 
and  for  ever.    Amen. — 2  Pet.  iii.  18. 

When  Christianity,  like  the  day-spring 
from  the  east,  with  a  new  light,  did  not 
only  enlighten  the  world,  but  amazed  the 
minds  of  men,  and  entertained  their  curiosi- 
ties, and  seized  upon  their  warmer  and  more 
pregnant  affections,  it  was  no  wonder,  that 
whole  nations  were  converted  at  a  sermon, 
multitudes  were  instantly  professed,  and 
their  understandings  followed  their  affec- 
tions, and  their  wills  followed  their  under- 
standings, and  they  were  convinced  by 
miracle,  and  overcome  by  grace,  and  pas- 
sionate with  zeal,  and  wisely  governed  by 
their  guides,  and  ravished  with  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  doctrine,  and  the  holiness  of  their 
examples.  And  this  was  not  only  their 
duty,  but  a  great  instance  of  providence, 
that  by  the  great  religion  and  piety  of  the 
first  professors,  Christianity  might  be  firmly 
planted,  and  unshaken  by  scandal,  and 
hardened  by  persecution ;  and  that  these 
first  lights  might  be  actual  precedents  for 
ever,  and  copies  for  us  to  transcribe  in  all 
descending  ages  of  Christianity,  that  thither 
we  might  run  to  fetch  oil  to  enkindle  our 
extinguished  lamps.  But  then  piety  was 
so  universal,  that  it  might  well  be  enjoined 


by  St.  Paul,  that  "  if  a  brother  walked  dis- 
orderly," the  Christians  should  avoid  his 
company  :  he  forbade  them  not  to  accom- 
pany with  the  heathens  that  walked  disor- 
derly; "for  then  a  man  must  have  gone 
out  of  the  world ;"  but  they  were  not  to 
endure  so  much  as  "to  eat  with,"  or,  "  to 
salute,  a  disorderly  brother,"  and  ill-living 
Christian.    But  now,  if  we  should  observe 
this  canon  of  St.  Paul,  and  refuse  to  eat  or 
to  converse  with  a  fornicator,  or  a  drunkard, 
or  a  perjured  person,  or  covetous,  we  must 
also  "  go  out  of  the  world  :"  for  a  pious  or 
a  holy  person  is  now  as  rare  as  a  disorderly 
Christian  was  at  first ;  and  as  Christianity  is 
multiplied  every  where  in  name  and  title, 
so  it  is  destroyed  in  life,  essence,  and  proper 
operation ;  and  we  have  very  great  reason 
to  fear,  that  Christ's  name  will  serve  us  to 
no  end  but  to  upbraid  our  baseness,  and  his 
person  only  to  be  our  judge,  and  his  laws 
are  so  many  bills  of  accusation,  and  his 
graces  and  helps  offered  us  but  as  aggrava- 
tions of  our  unworthiness,  and  our  baptism 
but  an  occasion  of  vow-breach,  and  the 
holy  communion  but  an  act  of  hypocrisy, 
formality,  or  sacrilege,  and  all  the  promises 
of  the  gospel  but  as  pleasant  dreams,  and 
the  threatenings  but  as  arts  of  affrightment. 
For  Christianity  lasted  pure  and  zealous,  it 
kept  its  rules,  and  observed  its  own  laws  for 
three  hundred  years,  or  thereabouts;  so  long 
the  church  remained  a  virgin ;  for  so  long 
they  were  warmed  with  their  first  fires,  and 
kept  under  discipline  by  the  rod  of  perse- 
cution :  but  it  hath  declined  almost  fourteen 
hundred   years   together ;   prosperity  and 
pride,  wantonness  and  great  fortunes,  am- 
bition and  interest,  false  doctrine  upon  mis- 
take and  upon  design,  the  maiice  of  the 
devil  and  the  arts  of  all  his  instruments, 
the  want  of  zeal,  and  a  weariness  of  spirit, 
filthy  examples,  and  a  disreputation  of 
piety  and  a  strict  life,  seldom  precedents 
and  infinite  discouragements,  have  caused 
so  infinite  a  declension  of  piety  and  holy 
living,  that  what  Papirius  Massonius,  one 
of  their  own,  said  of  the  popes  of  Rome, 
"  In  pontificibus  nemo  hodie  sanctitatem 
requirit;   optimi   putantur,  si  vel  leviter 
mali  sint,  vel  minus  boni  quam  caeteri  mor- 
tales  esse  solent:"  "  No  man  looks  for  holi- 
ness in  the  bishops  of  Rome;  those  are  the 
best  popes  who  are  not  extremely  wicked:" 
the  same  is  too  true  of  the  greatest  part  of 
Christians;  men  are  excellent  persons,  if 
they  be  not  traitors  or  adulterous,  oppress- 
ors or  injurious,  drunkards  or  scandalous, 


Seem.  XXXIX. 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 


289 


if  they  be  not  "as  this  publican,"  as  the 
vilest  person  with  whom  they  converse. 

Nunc,  si  depositum  non  inficietur  amicus. 
Si  reddat  veterem  cum  tota  aerugine  foilem  ; 
Prodigiosa  fides,  et  Thuscis  digna  libellis, 
Quaeque  coronata  lustrari  debeat  agna. 

Juv.  Sat.  13. 

He  that  is  better  than  the  dregs  of  his 
own  age,  whose  religion  is  something  above 
profaneness,  and  whose  sobriety  is  a  step  or 
two  from  downright  intemperance,  whose 
discourse  is  not  swearing,  nor  yet  apt  to  edi- 
fy, whose  charity  is  setout  in  piety,  and  agen- 
tle  yearning  and  saying  "  God  help,"  whose 
alms  are  contemptible,  and  his  devotion  in- 
frequent; yet,  as  things  are  now,  he  is 
"unus  e  millibus,"  "one  of  a  thousand," 
and  he  stands  eminent  and  conspicuous  in 
the  valleys  and  lower  grounds  of  the  present 
piety;  for  a  bank  is  a  mountain  upon  a 
level :  but  what  is  rare  and  eminent  in  the 
manners  of  men  in  this  day  would  have 
been  scandalous,  and  have  deserved  the  rod 
of  an  apostle,  if  it  had  been  confronted  with 
the  fervours  and  rare  devotion  and  religion 
of  our  fathers  in  the  gospel. 

Men  of  old  looked  upon  themselves  as 
they  stood  by  the  examples  and  precedents 
of  martyrs,  and  compared  their  piety  to  the 
life  of  St.  Paul,  and  estimated  their  zeal  by 
flames  of  the  Boanerges,  St.  James  and  his 
brother ;  and  the  bishops  were  thought  re- 
provable,  as  they  fell  short  of  the  ordinary 
government  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  John ;  and 
the  assemblies  of  Christians  wrere  so  holy, 
that  every  meeting  had  religion  enough  to 
hallow  a  house,  and  convert  it  to  a  church ; 
and  every  day  of  feasting  was  a  communion, 
and  every  fasting-day  was  a  day  of  repent- 
ance and  alms,  and  every  day  of  thanksgiv- 
ing was  a  day  of  joy  and  alms  ;  and  religion 
began  all  their  actions,  and  prayer  conse- 
crated them,  and  they  ended  in  charity,  and 
were  not  polluted  with  design  :  they  despis- 
ed the  world  heartily,  and  pursued  after 
heaven  greedily;  they  knew  no  ends,  but  to 
serve  God  and  to  be  saved ;  and  had  no  de- 
signs upon  their  neighbours,  but  to  lead 
them  to  God  and  to  felicity ;  till  Satan,  full 
of  envy  to  see  such  excellent  days,  mingled 
covetousness  and  ambition  within  the  throngs 
and  conveniens  of  the  church,  and  a  vice 
crept  into  an  office,  and  then  the  mutual 
confidence  grew  less,  and  so  charity  was 
lessened;  and  heresies  crept  in,  and  then 
faith  began  to  be  sullied  ;  and  pride  crept  in, 
and  then  men  snatched  at  offices,  not  for 
37 


the  work,  but  for  the  dignity;  and  then 
they  served  themselves  more  than  God  and 
the  church ;  till  at  last  it  came  to  that  pass 
where  now  it  is,  that  the  clergy  live  lives 
no  better  than  the  laity,  and  the  laity  are 
stooped  to  imitate  the  evil  customs  of  stran- 
gers and  enemies  of  Christianity ;  so  that 
we  should  think  religion  in  a  good  condi- 
tion, if  that  men  did  offer  up  to  God  but  the 
actions  of  an  ordinary,  even,  and  just  life, 
without  the  scandal  and  allays  of  a  great 
impiety.  But  because  such  is  the  nature  of 
things,  that  either  they  grow  towards  per- 
fection, or  decline  towards  dissolution  ;  there 
is  no  proper  way  to  secure  it  but  by  setting 
its  growth  forward  :  for  religion  hath  no 
station  or  natural  periods ;  if  it  does  not 
grow  better  it  grows  much  worse ;  not  that 
it  always  returns  the  man  into  scandalous 
sins,  but  that  it  establishes  and  fixes  him  in 
a  state  of  indifference  and  lukewarmness ; 
and  he  is  more  averse  to  a  state  of  improve- 
ment, and  dies  in  an  incurious,  ignorant, 
and  unrelenting  condition. 

"  But  grow  in  grace  :" — That  is  the  reme- 
dy, and  that  would  make  us  all  wise  and 
happy,  blessed  in  this  world,  and  sure  of 
heaven :  concerning  which,  we  are  to  con- 
sider, first,  What  the  state  of  grace  is  into 
which  every  one  of  us  must  be  entered,  that 
we  may  "grow"  in  it :  secondly,  The  pro- 
per parts,  acts,  and  offices  of  "  growing  in 
grace:"  thirdly,  The  signs,  consequences, 
and  proper  significations,  by  which  if  we 
cannot  perceive  the  "  growing,"  yet  after- 
wards we  may  perceive  that  "  we  are 
grown,"  and  so  judge  of  the  state  of  our 
duty,  and  concerning  our  final  condition  of 
being  saved. 

1.  Concerning  the  state  of  grace,  I  con- 
sider that  no  man  can  be  said  to  be  in 
the  state  of  grace,  who  retains  an  affec- 
tion to  any  one  sin.  The  state  of  pardon 
and  the  Divine  favour  begins  at  the  first 
instance  of  anger  against  our  crimes,  when 
we  leave  our  fondnesses  and  kind  opinions, 
when  we  excuse  them  not,  and  will  not 
endure  their  shame,  when  we  feel  the 
smarts  of  any  of  their  evil  consequents  : 
for  he  that  is  a  perfect  lover  of  sin,  and  is 
sealed  up  to  a  reprobate  sense,  endures  all 
that  sin  brings  along  with  it;  and  is  recon- 
ciled to  all  its  mischiefs ;  he  can  suffer  the 
sickness  of  his  own  drunkenness,  and  yet 
call  it  pleasure ;  he  can  wait  like  a  slave  to 
serve  his  lust,  and  yet  count  it  no  dispar- 
agement; he  can  suffer  the  dishonour  of 


290 


GROWTH  JN  GRACE. 


Serm.  XXXIX. 


being  counted  a  base  and  dishonest  person, 
and  yet  look  confidently,  and  think  himself 
no  worse.  But  when  the  grace  of  God  be- 
gins to  work  upon  a  man's  spirit,  it  makes 
he  conscience  nice  and  tender :  and  although 
the  sin,  as  yet,  does  not  displease  the  man, 
but  he  can  endure  the  flattering  and  alluring 
part,  yet  he  will  not  endure  to  be  used  so  ill 
by  his  sin ;  he  will  not  be  abused  and  dis- 
honoured by  it.  But  because  God  hath  so 
allayed  the  pleasure  of  his  sin,  that  he 
that  drinks  the  sweet  should  also  strain  the 
dregs  through  his  throat;  by  degrees  of 
God's  grace  doth  irreconcile  the  convert, 
and  discovers,  first,  its  base  attendants,  then 
its  worst  consequents,  then  the  displeasure 
of  God ;  that  here  commence  the  first  reso- 
lutions of  leaving  the  sin,  and  trying  if,  in 
the  service  of  God,  his  spirit  and  the  whole 
appetite  of  man  may  be  better  entertained. 
He  that  is  thus  far  entered,  shall  quickly 
perceive  the  difference,  and  meets  argu- 
ments enough  to  invite  him  farther;  for 
then  God  treats  the  man  as  he  treated  the 
spies,  that  went  to  discover  the  land  of  pro- 
mise; he  ordered  the  year  in  plenty,  and 
directed  them  to  a  pleasant  and  a  fruitful 
place,  and  prepared  bunches  of  grapes  of  a 
miraculous  and  prodigious  greatness,  that 
they  might  report  good  things  of  Canaan, 
and  invite  the  whole  nation  to  attempt  its 
conquest ;  so  God's  grace  represents  to  the 
new  converts,  and  the  weak  ones  in  faith, 
the  pleasures  and  first  deliciousnesses  of  re- 
ligion ;  and  when  they  come  to  spy  the  good 
things  of  that  way  that  leads  to  heaven, 
they  presently  perceive  themselves  eased  of 
the  load  of  an  evil  conscience,  of  their  fears 
of  death,  of  the  confusion  of  their  shame; 
and  God's  Spirit  gives  them  a  cup  of  sensible 
comfort,  and  makes  them  to  rejoice  in  their 
prayers,  and  weep  with  pleasures  mingled 
with  innocent  passion  and  religious  changes. 
And  although  God  does  not  deal  with  all 
men  in  the  same  method,  or  in  manners 
that  can  regularly  be  described  ;  and  all  men 
do  not  feel,  or  do  not  observe,  or  cannot,  for 
want  of  skill,  discern,  such  accidental  sweet- 
nesses and  pleasant  grapes  at  their  first  en- 
trance into  religion ;  yet  God  to  every  man 
does  minister  excellent  arguments  of  invita- 
tion ;  and  such,  that  if  a  man  will  attend  to 
them,  they  will  certainly  move  either  his 
affections  or  his  will,  his  fancy  or  his  reason, 
and  most  commonly  both.  But  while  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  doing  this  work  in  man, 
man  must  also  be  avvfpyo$  -tov  &sov,  "  a  fel- 
Jow-worker  with  God ;"  he  must  entertain 


the  Spirit,  attend  his  inspirations,  receive 
his  whispers,  obey  all  his  motions,  invite 
him  farther,  and  truly  renounce  all  confede- 
racy with  his  enemy,  sin ;  at  no  hand  suf- 
fering any  "root  of  bitterness  to  spring  up," 
not  allowing  to  himself  any  reserve  of  car- 
nal pleasure,  no  clancular  lust,  no  private 
oppressions,  no  secret  covetousness,  no  love 
to  this  world,  that  may  discompose  his  duty. 
For  if  a  man  prays  all  day,  and  at  night  is 
intemperate  ;  if  he  spends  his  time  in  read- 
ing, and  his  recreation  be  sinful ;  if  he 
studies  religion,  and  practises  self-interest; 
if  he  leaves  his  swearing,  and  yet  retains 
his  pride;  if  he  becomes  chaste,  and  yet 
remains  peevish  and  imperious ;  this  man 
is  not  changed  from  the  state  of  sin  into  the 
first  stage  of  the  state  of  grace,  he  does  at 
no  hand  belong  to  God ;  he  hath  suffered 
himself  to  be  scared  from  one  sin,  and 
tempted  from  another  by  interest,  and  hath 
left  a  third  by  reason  of  his  inclination,  and 
a  fourth  for  shame  or  want  of  opportunity  ; 
but  the  Spirit  of  God  hath  not  yet  planted 
one  perfect  plant  there  :  God  may  make  use 
of  the  accidentally-prepared  advantages ;  but 
as  yet  the  Spirit  of  God  hath  not  begun  the 
proper  and  direct  work  of  grace  in  his  heart. 
But  when  we  leave  every  sin,  when  we  re- 
solve never  to  return  to  the  chains,  when  we 
have  no  love  for  the  world  but  such  as  may 
be  a  servant  of  God  ;  then  I  account  that 
we  are  entered  into  a  state  of  grace,  from 
whence  I  am  now  to  begin  to  reckon  the 
commencement  of  this  precept,  "Grow  in 
grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ." 

2.  And  now  the  first  part  of  this  duty  is, 
— to  make  religion  to  be  the  business  of  our 
lives ; — for  this  is  the  great  instrument  which 
will  naturally  produce  our  growth  in  grace, 
and  the  perfection  of  a  Christian.  For  a 
man  cannot,  after  a  state  of  sin,  be  instantly 
a  saint;  the  work  of  Heaven  is  not  done  by 
a  flash  of  lightning,  or  a  dash  of  affection- 
ate rain,  or  a  few  tears  of  a  relenting  pity  : 
God  and  his  church  have  appointed  holy 
intervals,  and  have  taken  portions  of  our 
time  for  religion,  that  we  may  be  called  off 
from  the  world,  and  remember  the  end  of 
our  creation,  and  do  honour  to  God,  and 
think  of  heaven  with  hearty  purposes  and 
peremptory  designs  to  get  thither.  But  as 
we  must  not  neglect  those  times,  which  God 
hath  reserved  for  his  service,  or  the  church 
hath  prudently  decreed ;  nor  yet  act  religion 
upon  such  days  with  forms  and  outsides,  or 
to  comply  with  customs,  or  to  seem  reli* 


Serm.  XXXIX. 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 


291 


gious ;  so  we  must  take  care,  that  all  the 
other  portions  of  our  time  be  hallowed  with 
little  retirements  of  our  thoughts,  and  short 
conversations  with  God.  and  all  along  be 
guided  with  holy  intention ;  that  even  our 
works  of  nature  may  pass  into  the  relations 
of  grace,  and  the  actions  of  our  calling  may 
help  toAvards  the  "  obtaining  the  prize  of 
our  high  calling ;"  while  our  eatings  are 
actions  of  temperance,  our  labours  are  profit- 
able, our  humiliations  are  acts  of  obedience, 
and  our  alms  of  charily,  and  our  marriages 
are  chaste  ;  and  "whether  we  eat  or  drink," 
sleep  or  wake,  we  may  "do  all  to  the  glory 
of  God,"  by  a  direct  intuition,  or  by  a  re- 
flex act;  by  design,  or  by  supplement;  by 
foresight,  or  by  an  after-election.  A»d  to 
this  purpose  we  must  not  look  upon  religion 
as  our  trouble  and  our  hindrance,  nor  think 
alms  chargeable  or  expensive,  nor  our  fast- 
ings vexatious  and  burdensome;  nor  our 
prayers  a  weariness  of  spirit :  but  we  must 
make  these,  and  all  other  duties  of  religion, 
our  employment,  our  care,  the  work  and 
end  for  which  we  came  into  the  world  ;  and 
remember  that  we  never  do  the  work  of 
men,  nor  serve  the  ends  of  God,  nor  are  in 
the  proper  employment  and  business  of  our 
life,  but  when  we  worship  God,  or  live  like 
wise  or  sober  persons,  or  do  benefit  to  our 
brother. 

I  will  not  turn  this  discourse  into  a  re- 
proof, but  leave  it  represented  as  a  duly. 
Remember  that  God  sent  you  into  the  world 
for  religion;  we  are  but  to  pass  through  our 
pleasant  fields,  or  our  hard  labours ;  but  to 
dodge  a  little  while  in  our  fair  palaces,  or 
our  meaner  cottages  ;  but  to  bait  in  the  way 
at  our  full  tables,  or  with  our  spare  diet ;  but 
then  only  man  does  his  proper  employment, 
when  he  prays  and  does  charity,  and  morti- 
fies his  unruly  appetites,  and  restrains  his 
violent  passions,  and  becomes  like  to  God 
and  imitates  his  holy  Son,  and  writes  after 
the  copies  of  apostles  and  saints.  Then  he 
is  dressing  himself  for  eternity,  where  he 
must  dwell  or  abide,  either  in  an  excellent 
beatifical  country,  or  in  a  prison  of  amaze- 
ment and  eternal  horror  :  and  after  all  this, 
vou  may,  if  you  please,  call  to  mind  how 
much  time  you  allow  to  God  and  to  your 
souls  every  day,  or  every  month,  or  in  a 
year,  if  you  please,  for  I  fea;  the  account  of 
the  time  is  soon  made ;  but  the  account  for 
the  neglect  will  be  harder ;  and  it  will  not 
easily  be  answered,  that  all  our  days  and 
years  are  little  enough  to  attend  perishing 
things,  and  to  be  swallowed  up  in  avari- 


cious and  vain  attendances,  and  we  shall 
not  attend  to  religion  with  a  zeal  so  great  as 
is  our  revenge,  or  as  is  the  hunger  of  one 
meal.  Without  much  time,  and  a  wary 
life,  and  a  diligent  circumspection,  we  can- 
not mortify  our  sins,  or  do  the  first  works 
of  grace.  I  pray  God  we  be  not  found  to 
have  grown  like  the  sinews  of  old  age,  from 
strength  to  remissness;  from  thence  to  dis- 
solution, and  infirmity,  and  death.  Mene- 
demus  was  wont  to  say,  "  that  the  young 
boys  that  went  to  Athens,  the  first  year  were 
wise  men,  the  second  year,  philosophers, 
the  third  orators,  and  the  fourth  were  but 
plebeians,  and  understood  nothing  but  their 
own  ignorance."  And  just  so  it  happens 
to  some  in  the  progresses  of  religion ;  at 
first  they  are  violent  and  active,  and  then 
they  satiate  all  the  appetites  of  religion ;  and 
that  which  is  left  is,  that  they  were  soon 
weary,  and  sat  down  in  displeasure,  and  re- 

|  turn  to  the  world,  and  dwell  in  the  business 
of  pride  or  money  ;  and,  by  this  time,  they 

;  understand  that  their  religion  is  declined, 
and  passed  from  the  heats  and  follies  of 

|  youth,  to  the  coldness  and  infirmities  of  old 
age :  the  remedy  of  which  is  only  a  diligent 

I  spirit  and  a  busy  religion  ;  a  great  industry, 

!  and  a  full  portion  of  time  in  holy  offices  ; 
that,  as  the  oracle  said  to  the  CiiThseans. 
"  noctes  diesque  beliigerandum,"  they  could 
not  be  happy  "  unless  they  waged  war  night 
and  day ;"  so  unless  we  perpetually  fight 

I  against  our  own  vices,  and  repel  our  ghostly 
enemies,  and  stand  upon  our  guard,  we 
must  stand  for  ever  in  the  state  of  babes  in 
Christ ;  or  else  return  to  the  first  imperfec- 
tions of  an  unchristened  soul  and  an  un- 
sanctified  spirit.    That  is  the  first  particular. 

2.  The  second  step  of  our  growth  in  grace 
is, — when  virtues  grow  habitual,  apt,  and 
easy,  in  our  manners  and  dispositions ; — 
for,  although  many  new  converts  have  a 
great  zeal,  and  a  busy  spirit,  apt  enough,  as 
they  think,  to  contest  against  all  the  diffi- 
culties of  a  spiritual  life ;  yet  they  meet  with 
such  powerful  oppositions  from  without, 
and  a  false  heart  within,  that  their  first  heats 
are  soon  broken  ;  and  either  they  are  for 
ever  discouraged,  or  are  forced  to  march 
more  slowly,  and  proceed  more  temperately 
for  ever  after. 

Tri-  utiTot  xaxotirto.  got  itaSor  tltiv  ttJvBar 
'PrtSiuj,  dfc'yij       oSoj,  uata  6'  iyyiOt  rcu'ft. 

"It  is  an  easy  thing  to  commit  any  wicked- 
ness, for  temptation  and  infirmity  are  al- 
ways too  near  us:"  but  God  hath  made 


292 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 


Serm.  XXXIX. 


care  and  sweat,  prudence  and  diligence,  ex- 
perience and  -watchfulness,  wisdom  and 
labour  at  home,  and  good  guides  abroad,  to 
be  instruments  and  means  to  purchase  virtue. 

The  way  is  long  and  difficult  at  first;  but 
in  the  progress  and  pursuit,  we  find  all  the 
knots  made  plain,  and  the  rough  ways  made 
smooth. 

 jam  monte  potitus 

Ridet  

Now  the  spirit  of  grace  is  like  a  new  soul 
within  him,  and  he  hath  new  appetites, 
and  new  pleasures,  when  the  things  of  the 
world  grow  unsavoury,  and  the  things  of 
religion  are  delicious  :  when  his  temptations 
to  his  old  crimes  return  but  seldom,  and  pre- 
vail not  at  all,  or  in  very  inconsiderable  in- 
stances, and  stay  not  at  all,  but  are  reproached 
with  a  penitential  sorrow  and  speedy  amend- 
ment ;  when  we  do  actions  of  virtue,  quickly, 
frequently,  and  with  delight,  then  we  have 
grown  in  grace,  in  the  same  degree  in  which 
they  can  perceive  these  excellent  disposi- 
tions. Some  persons  there  are  who  dare 
not  sin :  they  dare  not  omit  their  hours  of 
prayer,  and  they  are  restless  in  their  spirits 
till  they  have  done ;  but  they  go  to  it  as  to 
execution  ;  they  stay  from  it  as  long  as  they 
can,  and  they  drive,  like  Pharaoh's  chariots, 
with  the  wrheels  off,  sadly  and  heavily  ;  and, 
besides  that,  such  persons  have  reserved  to 
themselves  the  best  part  of  their  sacrifice, 
and  do  not  give  their  will  to  God :  they  do 
not  love  him  with  all  their  heart;  they  are, 
also,  soonest  tempted  to  retire  and  fall  off. 
Sextius  Romanus  resigned  the  honours  and 
offices  of  the  city,  and  betook  himself  to  the 
severity  of  a  philosophical  life ;  but  when 
his  unusual  diet  and  hard  labour  began  to 
pinch  his  flesh,  and  he  felt  his  propositions 
smart;  and  that,  which  was  fine  in  discourse 
at  a  symposiac  or  an  academical  dinner,  be- 
gan to  sit  uneasily  upon  him  in  the  practice, 
he  so  despaired,  that  he  had  like  to  have 
cast  himself  into  the  sea,  to  appease  the  la- 
hours  of  his  religion  ;  because  he  never  had 
gone  farther  than  to  think  it  a  fine  thing  to 
be  a  wise  man  :  he  would  commend  it,  but 
he  was  loath  to  pay  for  it  at  the  price  that 
God  and  the  philosopher  set  upon  it.  But 
he  that  is  "grown  in  grace,"  and  hath  made 
religion  habitual  to  his  spirit,  is  not  at  ease 
but  when  he  is  doing  the  works  of  the  new 
man  ;  he  rests  in  religion,  and  comforts  his 
sorrows  with  thinking  of  his  prayers  ;  and 
in  all  crosses  of  the  world  he  is  patient,  be- 
cause his  joy  is  at  hand  to  refresh  him  when 


he  list,  for  he  cares  not  so  he  may  serve 
God ;  and  if  you  make  him  poor  here,  he  is 
rich  there,  and  he  counts  that  to  be  his  pro- 
per service,  his  work,  his  recreation,  and 
reward. 

3.  But  because  in  the  course  of  holy  liv- 
ing, although  the  duty  be  regular  and  con- 
stant, yet  the  sensible  relishes  and  the  flow- 
erings of  affections,  the  zeal  and  the  visible 
expressions,  do  not  always  make  the  same 
emission ;  but  sometimes  by  design,  some- 
times by  order,  and  sometimes  by  affection, 
we  are  more  busy,  more  entire,  and  more 
intent  upon  the  actions  of  religion  :  in  such 
cases  we  are  to  judge  of  our  growth  in  grace, 
if  after  every  interval  of  extraordinary  piety, 
the  next  return  be  more  devout  and  more 
affectionate,  the  labour  be  more  cheerful  and 
more  active,  and  if  religion  returns  oftener, 
and  stays  longer  in  the  same  expressions, 
and  leaves  more  satisfaction  upon  the  spirit. 
Are  your  communions  more  frequent?  and, 
when  they  are,  do  you  approach  nearer  to 
God?  Have  you  made  firmer  resolutions, 
and  entertained  more  hearty  purposes  of 
amendment?  Do  you  love  God  more  duti- 
fully, and  your  neighbour  with  a  greater 
charity?  Do  you  not  so  easily  return  to  the 
world  as  formerly?  Are  not  you  glad  when 
the  thing  is  done  ?  Do  you  go  to  your  secu- 
lar accounts  with  a  more  weaned  affection 
than  before?  If  you  communicate  ■well,  it 
is  certain  that  you  will  still  do  it  better ;  if 
you  do  not  communicate  well,  every  oppor- 
tunity of  doing  it  is  but  a  new  trouble,  easily 
excused,  readily  omitted ;  done  because  it 
is  necessary,  but  not  because  we  love  it; 
and  we  shall  find  that  such  persons,  in  their 
old  age,  do  it  worst  of  all.  And- it  was  ob- 
served by  a  Spanish  confessor,  who  was 
also  a  famous  preacher,  that  in  persons 
not  very  religious,  the  confessions,  which 
they  made  upon  their  death-bed,  were  the 
coldest,  the  most  imperfect,  and  with  less 
contrition  than  he  had  observed  them  to 
make  in  many  years  before.  For  so  the 
canes  of  Egypt,  when  they  newly  arise  from 
their  bed  of  mud  and  slime  of  Nilus,  start 
up  into  an  equal  and  continual  length,  and 
are  interrupted  but  with  few  knots,  and  are 
strong  and  beauteous,  with  great  distances 
and  intervals  ;  but  when  they  are  grown  to 
their  full  length,  they  lessen  into  the 'point 
of  a  pyramid,  and  multiply  their  knots  and 
joints,  interrupting  the  fineness  and  smooth- 
ness of  its  body ;  so  are  the  steps  and  de- 
clensions of  him  that  does  not  grow  in 
grace.    At  first,  when  he  springs  up  from 


Serm.  XXXIX. 


GROWTH  IxN  GRACE. 


293 


his  impurity  by  the  waters  of  baptism  and 
repentance,  he  grows  straight  and  strong, 
and  suffers  but  few  interruptions  of  piety; 
and  his  constant  courses  of  religion  are  but 
rarely  intermitted,  till  they  ascend  up  to  a 
full  age,  or  towards  the  ends  of  their  life ; 
then  they  are  weak,  and  their  devotions 
often  intermitted,  and  their  breaches  are  fre- 
quent, and  they  seek  excuses,  and  labour 
for  dispensations,  and  love  God  and  religion 
less  and  less, — till  their  old  age,  instead  of  a 
crown  of  their  virtue  and  perseverance,  ends 
in  levity  and  unprofitable  courses ;  light  and 
useless  as  the  tufted  feathers  upon  the  cane, 
every  wind  can  play  with  it  and  abuse  it, 
but  no  man  can  make  it  useful.  When, 
therefore,  our  piety  interrupts  its  greater  and 
more  solemn  expressions,  and,  upon  the  re- 
turn of  the  greater  offices  and  bigger  solem- 
nities, we  find  them  to  come  upon  our  spirits 
like  the  wave  of  a  tide,  which  retired  only 
because  it  was  natural  so  to  do,  and  yet 
came  farther  upon  the  strand  at  the  next 
rolling  ;  when  every  new  confession,  every 
succeeding  communion,  every  time  of  se- 
paration, for  more  solemn  and  intense  prayer, 
is  better  spent,  and  more  affectionate,  leav- 
ing a  greater  relish  upon  the  spirit,  and  pos- 
sessing greater  portions  of  our  affections, 
our  reason,  and  our  choice ;  then  we  may 
give  God  thanks,  who  hath  given  us  more 
grace  to  use  that  grace,  and  a  blessing  to 
endeavour  our  duty,  and  a  blessing  upon 
our  endeavour. 

4.  To  discern  our  growth  in  grace, — we 
must  inquire  concerning  our  passions,  whe- 
ther they  be  mortified  and  quiet,  complying 
with  our  ends  of  virtue,  and  under  com- 
mand 5 — for  since  the  passions  are  the  mat- 
ter of  virtue  and  vice  respectively,  he  that 
hath  brought  into  his  power  all  the  strengths 
of  the  enemy,  and  the  forts  from  whence  he 
did  infest  him,  he  only  hath  secured  his  holy 
walking  with  God.  But  because  this  thing 
is  never  perfectly  done,  and  yet  must  al- 
ways be  doing,  grace  grows  according  as 
we  have  finished  our  portions  of  this  work. 
And  in  this  we  must  not  only  inquire  con- 
cerning our  passions,  whether  they  be  sinful 
and  habitually  prevalent,  for  if  they  be  we 
are  not  in  the  state  of  grace ;  but  whether 
they  return  upon  us  in  violences  and  inde- 
cencies, in  transportation,  and  unreasonable 
and  impudent  expressions ;  for  although  a 
good  man  may  be  incident  to  a  violent  pas- 
sion, and  that  without  sin,  yet  a  perfect 
man  is  not ;  a  well-grown  Christian  hath 
seldom  such  sufferings.    To  suffer  such 


things  sometimes  may  stand  with  the  being 
of  virtue,  but  not  with  its  security ;  for  if 
passions  range  up  and  down,  and  transport 
us  frequently  and  violently,  we  may  keep  in 
our  forts  and  in  our  dwellings  ;  but  our  ene- 
my is  master  of  the  field,  and  our  virtues 
are  restrained,  and  apt  to  be  starved,  and 
will  not  hold  out  long.  A  good  man  may 
be  spotted  with  a  violence,  but  a  wise  man 
will  not;  and  he  that  does  not  add  wisdom 
to  his  virtue,  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  his  virtuous  habits,  will  be  a  good  man  but 
till  a  storm  come.  But,  beyond  this,  inquire 
after  the  state  of  your  passions  in  actions  of 
religion.  Some  men  fast  to  mortify  their 
lust,  and  their  fasting  makes  them  peevish ; 
some  reprove  a  vice,  but  they  do  it  with 
much  impatience;  some  charitably  give  ex- 
cellent counsel,  but  they  do  that,  also,  with 
a  pompous  and  proud  spirit ;  and  passion, 
being  driven  from  open  hostilities,  is  forced 
to  march  along  in  the  retinue  and  troops  of 
virtue.  And  although  this  be  rather  a  de- 
ception and  a  cozenage  than  an  imperfec- 
tion, and  supposes  a  state  of  sin,  rather  than 
an  imperfect  grace ;  yet,  because  it  tacitly 
and  secretly  creeps  along  among  the  circum- 
stances of  pious  actions, — as  it  spoils  a  vir- 
tue in  some,  so  it  lessens  it  in  others,  and 
therefore  is  considerable  also  in  this  question. 

And  although  no  man  must  take  accounts 
of  his  being  in  or  out  of  the  state  of  grace, 
by  his  being  dispassionate,  and  free  from  all 
the  assaults  of  passion ;  yet,  as  to  the  secur- 
ing his  being  in  the  state  of  grace,  he  must 
provide  that  he  be  not  a  slave  of  passion : 
so,  to  declare  his  growth  in  grace,  he  must 
be  sure  to  take  the  measures  of  his  affections, 
and  see  that  they  be  lessened,  more  apt  to  be 
suppressed;  not  breaking  out  to  inconveni- 
ence and  imprudences ;  not  rifling  our  spirit, 
and  drawing  us  from  our  usual  and  more 
sober  tempers.  Try,  therefore,  if  your  fear 
be  turned  into  caution  ;  your  lust,  into  chaste 
friendships;  your  imperious  spirit,  into  pru- 
dent government ;  your  revenge,  into  justice ; 
your  anger,  into  charity ;  and  your  peevish- 
ness and  rage,  into  silence  and  suppression 
of  language.  Is  our  ambition  changed  into 
virtuous  and  noble  thoughts?  Can  Ave 
emulate  without  envy?  Is  our  covetousness 
lessened  into  good  husbandry,  and  mingled 
with  alms,  that  we  may  certainly  discern  the 
love  of  money  to  be  gone?  Do  we  leave  to 
despise  our  inferiors?  and  can  we  willingly 
endure  to  admit  him  that  excels  us  in  any 
gift  or  grace  whatsoever,  and  to  commend  it 
I  without  abatement,  and  mingling  allays  with 
z2 


294 


GROWTH 


IN  GRACE. 


Serm.  XL. 


the  commendation,  and  disparagements  to  the 
man  ?  If  we  be  arrived  but  thus  far  it  is 
well,  and  we  must  go  farther.  But  we  use 
to  think  that  all  disaffections  of  the  body- 
are  removed,  if  they  be  changed  into  the 
more  tolerable,  although  we  have  not  an 
athletic  health,  or  the  strength  of  porters  or 
wrestlers.  For,  although  it  be  felicity  to  be 
quit  of  all  passion  that  may  be  sinful  or  vio- 
lent, and  part  of  the  happiness  of  heaven 
shall  consist  in  that  freedom;  yet  our  growth 
in  grace  consists  in  the  remission  and  lessen- 
ing of  our  passions :  only  he  that  is  incon- 
tinent in  his  lust,  or  in  his  anger ;  in  his  de- 
sires of  money,  or  of  honour;  in  his  revenge,, 
or  in  his  fear;  in  his  joys,  or  in  his  sorrows; 
that  man  is  not  grown  at  all  in  the  grace  and 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This 
only  :  in  the  scrutiny  and  consequent  judg- 
ment concerning  our  passions,  it  will  con- 
cern the  curiosity  of  our  care  to  watch 
against  passions  in  the  reflex  act,  against 
pride  or  lust ;  complacency  and  peevishness 
attending  upon  virtue.  For  he  was  noted 
for  a  vain  person,  who,  being  overjoyed  for 
the  cure  (as  he  thought)  of  his  pride,  cried 
out  to  his  wife:  "Cerne,  Dionysia,  deposui 
fastum;"  "Behold,  I  have  laid  aside  all  my 
pride :"  and  of  that  very  dream  the  silly  man 
thought  he  had  reason  to  boast;  but  consider- 
ed not  that  it  was  an  act  of  pride  and  levity 
besides.  If  thou  hast  given  a  noble  present 
to  thy  friend  ;  if  thou  hast  rejected  the  unjust 
desire  of  thy  prince;  if  thou  hast  endured 
thirst  and  hunger  for  religion  or  continence  ; 
if  thou  hast  refused  an  offer  like  that  which 
was  made  to  Joseph ;  sit  down  and  rest  in 
thy  good  conscience,  and  do  not  please  thy- 
self in  opinions  and  fantastic  noises  abroad ; 
and  do  not  despise  him  that  did  not  do  so, 
as  thou  hast  done,  and  reprove  no  man  with 
an  upbraiding  circumstance;  for  it  will  give 
thee  but  an  ill  return,  and  a  contemptible  re- 
ward, if  thou  shalt  overlay  thy  infant  virtue, 
or  drown  it  with  a  flood  of  breast-milk. 


SERMON  XL. 

PART  II. 

5.  He  is  well  grown  in  or  towards  the 
state  of  grace,  who  is  more  patient  of  a  sharp 
reproof  than  of  a  secret  flattery.  For  a  re- 
prehension contains  so  much  mortification 
to  the  pride  and  complacencies  of  a  man,  is  j 


so  great  an  affront  to  an  easy  and  undisturb- 
ed person,  is  so  empty  of  pleasure  and  so  full 
of  profit,  that  he  must  needs  love  virtue  in  a 
great  degree,  who  can  take  in  that  which  only 
serves  her  end,  and  is  displeasant  to  himself 
and  all  his  gaieties.  A  severe  reprehender 
of  another's  vice  comes  dressed  like  Jacob, 
when  he  went  to  cozen  his  brother  of  the 
blessing;  his  outside  is  "rough  and  hairy," 
but  "the  voice  is  Jacob's  voice:"  rough 
hands  and  a  healthful  language  get  the  bless- 
ing, even  against  the  will  of  him  that  shall 
feel  it ;  but  he  that  is  patient  and  even,  not 
apt  to  excuse  his  fault,  that  is  less  apt  to 
anger,  or  to  scorn  him  that  snatches  him 
rudely  from  the  flames  of  hell,  he  is  virtue's 
confessor,  and  suffers  these  lesser  stripes  for 
that  interest,  which  will  end  in  spiritual  and 
eternal  benedictions. 

They  who  are  furious  against  their  moni- 
tors, are  incorrigible ;  but  it  is  one  degree  of 
meekness  to  suffer  discipline ;  and  a  meek 
man  cannot  easily  be  an  ill  man,  especially 
in  the  present  instance  ;  he  appears,  at  least, 
to  have  a  healthful  constitution ;  he  hath 
good  flesh  to  heal ;  his  spirit  is  capable  of 
medicine ;  and  that  man  can  never  be  de- 
spaired of,  who  hath  a  disposition  so  near  his 
health  as  to  improve  all  physic,  and  whose 
nature  is  relieved  from  every  good  accident 
from  without.  But  that  which  I  observe  is, 
that  this  is  not  only  a  good  disposition  to- 
wards repentance  and  restitution,  but  is  a 
sign  of  growth  in  grace,  according  as  it  be- 
comes natural,  easy,  habitual.  Some  men 
chide  themselves  for  all  their  misdemeanors, 
because  they  would  be  represented  to  the 
censures  and  opinions  of  other  men  with  a 
fair  character,  and  such  as  need  not  to  be 
reproved :  others,  out  of  inconsideration, 
sleep  in  their  own  dark  rooms,  and,  until  the 
charity  of  a  guide  or  a  friend  draws  the  cur- 
tain, and  lets  in  a  beam  of  light,  dream  on, 
until  the  grave  opens,  and  hell  devours  them ; 
but  if  they  be  called  upon  by  the  grace  of 
God,  let  down  with  a  sheet  of  counsels  and 
friendly  precepts,  they  are  presently  inclined 
to  be  obedient  to  the  heavenly  monitions;  but 
unless  they  be  dressed  with  circumstances 
of  honour  and  civility,  with  arts  of  entertain- 
ment and  insinuation,  they  are  rejected  utter- 
ly, or  received  unwillingly.  Therefore,  al- 
though upon  any  terms  to  endure  a  sharp  re- 
proof be  a  good  sign  of  amendment,  yet  the 
growth  of  grace  is  not  properly  signified  by 
every  such  sufferance :  for  when  this  dis- 
position begins,  amendment  also  begins,  and 
goes  on  in  proportion  to  the  increment  of 


Serm.  XL. 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 


295 


this.  To  endure  a  reproof  without  adding 
a  new  sin  is  the  first  step  to  amendment ;  that 
is,  to  endure  it  without  scorn,  or  hatred,  or 
indignation.  2.  The  next  is  to  suffer  reproof 
without  excusing  ourselves;  for  he  that  is 
apt  to  excuse  himself,  is  only  desirous  in  a 
civil  manner  to  set  the  reproof  aside,  and  to 
represent  the  charitable  monitor  to  be  too 
hasty  in  his  judgment,  and  deceived  in  his 
information  ;  and  the  fault  to  dwell  there,  not 
with  himself.  3.  Then  he  that  proceeds  in 
this  instance,  admits  the  reprover's  sermon 
or  discourse  without  a  private  regret;  he  hath 
no  secret  murmurs  or  unwillingnesses  to  the 
humiliation,  but  is  only  ashamed  that  he 
should  deserve  it ;  but  for  the  reprehension 
itself,  that  troubles  him  not,  but  he  looks  on  it 
as  his  own  mediciue,  and  the  other's  charity. 
4.  But  if  to  this  he  adds,  that  he  voluntarily 
confesses  his  own  fault,  and  of  his  own 
accord  vomits  out  the  loads  of  his  own  in- 
temperance,  and  eases  his  spirit  of  the  in- 
fection ;  then  it  is  certain  he  is  not  only  a 
professed  and  hearty  enemy  against  sin,  but 
a  zealous,  and  a  prudent,  and  an  active  per- 
son against  all  its  interest;  and  never  counts 
himself  at  ease  but  while  he  rests  upon  the 
banks  of  Sion,  or  at  the  gates  of  the  temple ;  I 
never  pleased  but  in  virtue  and  religion  : 
then  he  knows  the  state  of  his  soul  and  the 
State  of  his  danger;  he  reckons  it  no  objec- 
don  to  be  abased  in  the  face  of  man,  so  he 
may  be  gracious  in  the  eyes  of  God :  and 
that  is  a  sign  of  a  good  grace  and  a  holy  j 
wisdom ;  that  man  is  "  grown  in  the  grace  of 
God,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ"  " Justus  in  principio  sermonis  est! 
accusator  sui,"  said  the  wise  man  ;  "The  I 
righteous  accuseth  himself  in  the  beginning;" 
that  is,  quickly,  lest  he  be  prevented.  And 
certain  it  is,  he  cannot  be  either  wise  or  good, 
that  had  rather  have  a  real  sin  within  him, 
than  that  a  good  man  should  believe  him  to 
be  a  repenting  sinner ;  that  had  rather  keep  I 
his  crime  than  lose  his  reputation  ;  that  is,  j 
rather  to  be  so  than  to  be  thought  so ;  rather  | 
be  without  the  favour  of  God  than  of  his 
neighbour.  Diogenes  once  spied  a  young 
man  coming  out  of  a  tavern  or  place  of  en- 
tertainment, who,  peceiving  himself  observ- 
ed by  the  philosopher,  with  some  confusion 
stepped  back  again,  that  he  might,  if  possible, 
preserve  his  fame  with  that  severe  person. 
But  Diogenes  told  him,  "Quanto  magis  in- 
traveris,  tanto  magis  eris  in  caupona;"  "The 
more  you  go  back,  the  longer  you  are  in  the 
place  where  you  are  ashamed  to  be  seen." 
And  he  that  conceals  his  sin,  still  retains  that 


which  he  counts  his  shame  and  his  burden. 
Hippocrates  was  noted  for  an  ingenuous 
person,  that  he  published  and  confessed  his 
error  concerning  the  sutures  of  the  head :  and 
all  ages  since  St.  Austin  have  called  him 
pious,  for  writing  his  book  of  Retractations, 
in  which  he  published  his  former  ignorances, 
and  mistakes,  and  so  set  his  shame  off  to  the 
world  invested  with  a  garment  of  modesty, 
and  above  half  changed  before  they  were 
seen.  I  did  the  rather  insist  upon  this  par- 
ticular, because  it  is  a  consideration  of  huge 
concernment,  and  yet  much  neglected  in  all 
its  instances  and  degrees.  We  neither  con 
fess  our  shame  nor  endure  it:  we  are  pri 
vately  troubled,  and  publicly  excuse  it;  we 
turn  charity  into  bitterness,  and  our  reproof 
into  contumacy  and  scorn  ;  and  who  is  there 
amongst  us  that  can  endure  a  personal 
charge,  or  is  not  to  be  taught  his  personal 
duty  by  general  discoursings,  by  parable  and 
apologue,  by  acts  of  insinuation  and  wary 
distances?  But  by  this  state  of  persons  we 
know  the  estate  of  our  own  spirits. 

When  God  sent  his  prophets  to  the  people, 
and  "they  stoned  them  with  stones,  and 
sawed  them  asunder,  and  cast  them  into  dun- 
geons, and  made  them  beggars,"  the  people 
fell  into  the  condition  of  Babylon,  "Q,uam 
curavimus,  et  non  est  sanata  ;"  "We  healed 
her,"  said  the  prophets,  "but  she  would  not 
be  cured:"  " Derelinquamus  earn,"  that  is 
her  doom ;  let  her  enjoy  her  sins,  and  all  the 
fruits  of  sin  laid  up  in  treasures  of  wrath 
against  the  day  of  vengeance  and  retribu- 
tion. 

6.  He  that  is  grown  in  grace  and  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  esteems  no  sin  to  be 
little  or  contemptible,  none  fit  to  be  cherished 
or  indulged  to.  For  it  is  not  only  inconsist- 
ent with  the  love  of  God,  to  entertain  any 
indecency  or  beginning  of  a  crime,  any  thing 
that  displeases  him ;  but  he  always  remem- 
bers how  much  it  cost  him  to  arrive  at  the 
state  of  good  things,  whither  the  grace  of 
God  hath  already  brought  him ;  he  thinks  of 
his  prayers  and  tears,  his  restless  nights  and 
his  daily  fears,  his  late  escape  and  his  pre- 
sent danger,  the  ruins  of  his  former  state,  and 
the  difficulty  and  imperfect  reparations  of 
this  new,  his  proclivity  and  aptness  to  vice, 
and  natural  averseness  and  uneasy  inclina- 
tions to  the  strictness  of  holy  living;  and 
when  these  are  considered  truly,  they  natu- 
rally make  a  man  unwilling  to  entertain  any 
beginnings  of  a  state  of  life  contrary  to  that, 
which,  with  so  much  danger  and  difficulty, 
through  so  many  objections  and  enemies,  he 


296 


GROWTH 


IN  GRACE. 


Serm.  XL. 


nath  attained.    And  the  truth  is,  when  a 
man  hath  escaped  the  dangers  of  his  first  state 
of  sin,  he  cannot  but  be  extremely  unwilling 
to  return  again  thither,  in  which  he  can  never 
hope  for  heaven.    And  so  it  must  be;  for  a 
man  must  not  flatter  himself  in  a  small  crime, 
and  say,  as  Lot  did,  when  he  begged  a  re- 
prieve for  Zoar,  **  Alas !  Lord,  is  it  not  a 
little  one,  and  my  soul  shall  live  ?"  And  it 
is  not,  therefore,  to  be  entertained  because  it 
is  little  :  for  it  is  the  more  without  excuse,  if 
it  be  little  :  the  temptations  to  it  are  not  great, 
the  allurements  not  mighty,  the  promises 
not  insnaring,  the  resistance  easy ;  and  a 
wise  man  considers  it  is  a  greater  danger  to 
be  overcome  by  a  little  sin,  than  by  a  great 
one:  a  greater  dange;  I  say;  not  directly, 
but  accidentally ;  not  in  respect  of  the  crime, 
but  in  relation  to  the  person:  for  he  that 
cannot  overcome  a  small  crime,  is  in  the 
state  of  infirmity  so  great,  that  he  perishes 
infallibly,  when  he  is  arrested  by  the  sins  of 
a  stronger  temptation  :  but  he  that  easily 
can,  and  yet  will  not,  he  is  in  love  with  sin, 
and  courts  his  danger,  that  he  may  at  least 
kiss  the  apples  of  Paradise,  or  feast  himself 
with  the  parings,  since  he  is,  by  some  dis- 
pleasing instrument,  affrighted  from  glutting 
himself  with  the  forbidden  fruit  in  ruder  and 
bigger  instances.   But  the  well-grown  Chris- 
tian is  curious  of  his  newly-trimmed  soul ; 
and,  like  a  nice  person  with  clean  clothes,  is 
careful  that  no  spot  or  stain  sully  the  virgin 
whiteness  of  his  robe ;  whereas  another, 
whose  albs  of  baptism  are  sullied  in  many 
places  wiih  the  smoke  and  filth  of  Sodom 
and  uncleanness,  cares  not  in  what  paths  he 
treads ;  and  a  shower  of  dirt  changes  not  his 
state,  who  already  lies  wallowing  in  the 
puddles  of  impurity.    It  makes  men  negli- 
gent and  easy,  when  they  have  an  opinion, 
or  certain  knowledge,  that  they  are  persons 
extraordinary  in  nothing,  that  a  little  care 
will  not  mend  them,  that  another  sin  cannot 
make  them  much  worse :  but  it  is  a  sign  of 
a  tender  conscience,  and  a  reformed  spirit, 
when  it  is  sensible  of  every  alteration,  when 
an  idle  word  is  troublesome,  when  a  wander- 
ing thought  puts  the  whole  spirit  upon  its 
guard,  when  too  free  a  merriment  is  wiped 
off  with  a  sigh  and  a  sad  thought,  and  a 
severe  recollection,  and  a  holy  prayer.  Poly- 
cletus  was  wont  to  say,  "  That  they  had  work 
enough  to  do,  who  were  to  make  a  curious 
picture  of  clay  and  dirt,  when  they  were  to 
take  accounts  for  the  handling  of  mud  and 
mortar."  A  man's  spirit  is  naturally  careless 
of  baser  and  uncostly  materials;  but  if  a  man 


be  to  work  in  gold,  then  he  will  save  the 
filings  of  his  dust,  and  suffer  not  a  grain  to 
perish:  and  when  a  man  hath  laid  his 
foundations  in  precious  stones,  he  will  not 
build  vile  matter,  stubble,  and  dirt,  upon  it. 
So  it  is  in  the  spirit  of  a  man ;  if  he  have  built 
upon  the  Rock,  Christ  Jesus,  and  is  grown  up 
to  a  good  stature  in  Christ,  he  will  not  easily 
dishonour  his  building,  or  lose  his  labours,  by 
an  incurious  entertainment  of  vanities  and 
little  instances  of  sin ;  which  as  they  can 
never  satisfy  any  lust  or  appetite  to  sin,  so 
they  are  like  a  fly  in  a  box  of  ointment,  or  like 
little  follies  to  a  wise  man  ;  they  are  extreme- 
ly full  of  dishonour  and  disparagement,  they 
disarray  a  man's  soul  of  his  virtue,  and  dis- 
honour him  for  cockle-shells  and  baubles, 
and  tempt  to  a  greater  folly  ;  which  every 
man,  who  is  grown  in  the  knowledge  of 
Christ,  therefore  carefully  avoids,  because 
:e  fears  a  relapse  with  a  fear  as  great  as  his 
flopes  of  heaven  are ;  and  knows  that  the  en- 
tertainment of  small  lins  does  but  entice  a 
man's  resolutions  to  disband  ;  they  unravel 
and  untwist  his  holy  purposes,  and  begin 
in  infirmities,  and  proceed  in  folly,  and  end 
in  death. 

7.  He  that  is  grown  in  grace,  pursies 
virtue  for  its  own  interest,  purely  and  simply 
without  the  mixture  and  allay  of  collateral  de- 
signs and  equally-inclining  purposes.  God, 
in  the  beginning  of  our  returns  to  him,  en- 
tertains us  with  promises  and  threatenings, 
the  apprehensions  of  temporal  advantages, 
with  fear  and  shame,  and  with  reverence  of 
friends  and  secular  respects,  with  reputation 
and  coercion  of  human  laws ;  and  at  first, 
men  snatch  at  the  lesser  and  lower  ends  of 
virtue ;  and  such  rewards  as  are  visible,  and 
which  God  sometimes  gives  in  hand,  to  en- 
tertain our  weak  and  imperfect  desires.  The 
young  philosophers  were  very  forward  to 
get  the  precepts  of  their  sect,  and  the  rules 
of  severity,  that  they  might  discourse  with 
kings,  not  that  they  might  reform  their  own 
manners ;  and  some  men  study  to  get  the 
ears  and  tongues  of  the  people,  rather  than 
to  gain  their  souls  to  God  ;  and  they  obey 
good  laws  for  fear  of  punishment,  or  to  pre- 
serve their  own  peace  ;  and  some  are  worse, 
they  do  good  deeds  out  of  spite,  and  "  preach 
Christ  out  of  envy,"  or  to  lessen  the  au- 
thority and  fame  of  others.  Some  of  these 
lessen  the  excellency  of  the  act,  others  spoil 
it  quite  :  it  is  in  some  imperfect,  in  others 
criminal ;  in  some  it  is  consistent  with  a  be- 
ginning infant-grace,  in  others  it  is  an  argu- 
ment of  the  state  of  sin  and  death ;  but  in 


Serm.  XL. 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE 


297 


all  cases,  the  well-grown  Christian,  he  that  'ations  of  reward.  But  then  I  shall  add  this, 
improves  or  goes  forward  in  his  way  to  that  when  persons  come  to  that  height  of 
heaven,  brings  virtue  forth,  not  into  dis-  grace,  or  contemplation  rather,  and  they  love 
courses  and  panegyrics,  but  into  his  life  and  God  for  himself,  and  do  their  duties  in  order 
manners.  His  virtue,  although  it  serves  to  the  fruition  of  him  and  his  pleasure  ;  all 
many  good  ends  accidentally,  yet,  by  his  that  is  but  heaven  in  another  sense,  and 
intention,  it  only  suppresses  his  inordinate  ;  under  another  name:  just  as  the  mystical 
passions,  makes  him  temperate  and  chaste,  j  theology  is  the  highest  duty,  and  the  choicest 
casts  out  his  devils  of  drunkenness  and  lust, ;  part  of  obedience  under  a  new  method.  But 
pride  and  rage,  malice  and  revenge ;  it  makes  in  order  to  the  present,  that  which  I  call  a 
him  useful  to  his  brother  and  a  servant  of  signification  of  our  growth  in  grace  is,  a 
God.  And  although  these  flowers  cannot  pursuance  of  virtue  upon  such  reasons  as 
choose  but  please  his  eye  and  delight  his  J  are  propounded  to  us  as  motives  in  Chris- 
smell,  yet  he  chooses  to  gather  honey,  and  itianity,  (such  as  are  to  glorify  God,  and  to 
licks  up  the  dew  of  heaven,  and  feasts  his  enjoy  his  promises  in  the  way,  and  in  our 
spirit  upon  the  manna,  and  dwells  not  in  the  i  country  to  avoid  the  displeasure  of  God,  and 
collateral  usages  and  accidental  sweetnesses,  be  united  to  his  glories,)  and  then  to  exercise 
which  dwell  at  the  gates  of  other  senses  ;  I  virtue  in  such  parts  and  to  such  purposes  as 
but  like  a  bee,  loads  his  thighs  with  wax  are  useful  to  good  life,  and  profitable  to  our 
and  his  bag  with  honey,  that  is,  with  the  neighbours  ;  not  to  such  only  where  they 
useful  parts  of  virtue,  in  order  to  holiness  .  serve  reputation  or  secular  ends.  For  though 
and  felicity  ;  of  which  the  best  signs  and  the  great  Physician  of  our  souls  hath  min- 
notices  we  can  take  will  be ; — if  we  as  ear-  gled  profits  and  pleasures  with  virtue,  to 
nestly  pursue  virtues  which  are  acted  in  make  its  chalice  sweet  and  apt  to  be  drunk 
private,  as  those  whose  scene  lies  in  public  ;  'off;  yet  he  that  takes  out  the  sweet  ingre- 
if  we  pray  in  private,  under  the  only  eyejdient,  and  feasts  his  palate  with  the  less 
of  God  and  his  ministering  angels,  as  in  wholesome  part,  because  it  is  delicious, 
churches;  if  we  give  our  alms  in  secret  ■  serves  a  low  end  of  sense  or  interest,  but 
rather  than  in  public  :  if  we  take  more  '■  serves  not  God  at  all,  and  as  little  does  bene- 
pleasure  in  the  just  satisfaction  of  our  con-  fit  to  his  soul.  Such  a  person  is  like  Homer's 
sciences,  than  securing  our  reputation  :  if  ;  bird,  deplumes  himself  to  feather  all  the 
we  rather  pursue  innocence  than  seek  an  naked  callows  that  he  sees,  and  holds  a  taper 
excuse  ;  if  we  desire  to  please  God,  though  that  may  light  others  to  heaven,  while  he 
we  lose  our  fame  with  men  ;  if  we  be  just  to  ■  burns  his  own  fingers  ;  but  a  well-grown  per- 
the  poorest  servant  as  to  the  greatest  prince ;  ;  son,  out  of  habit  and  choice,  out  of  love  of 
if  we  choose  to  be  among  the  jewels  of  God, 1  virtue  and  just  intention,  goes  on  his  journey 
though  we  be  the  rtspixdeapuara,  "  the  off-  in  straight  ways  to  heaven,  even  when  the 
scouring"  of  the  world ;  if,  when  we  are'  bridle  and  coercion  of  laws,  or  the  spurs  of 
secure  from  witnesses  and  accusers,  and  not  interest  or  reputation,  are  laid  aside  ;  and  de- 
obnoxious  to  the  notices  of  the  law,  we  sires  witnesses  of  his  actions,  not  that  he 
think  ourselves  obliged  by  conscience  and  may  advance  his  fame,  but  for  reverence 
practice,  and  live  accordingly  :  then  our  ser-  and  fear,  and  to  make  it  still  more  necessary 
vices  and  intentions  in  virtue  are  right ;  then  \  to  do  holy  things. 

we  are  past  the  twilights  of  conversion,  and!  8.  Some  men  there  are  in  the  beginning 
the  umbrages  of  the  world,  and  walk  in  the  of  their  holy  walking  with  God,  and  while 
light  of  God,  of  his  word  and  of  his  Spirit,'  they  are  babes  in  Christ,  who  are  presently 
of  grace  and  reason,  as  becometh  not  babes, !  busied  in  delights  of  prayers,  and  rejoice  in 
but  men  in  Christ  Jesus.  In  this  progress  public  communion,  and  count  all  solemn  as- 
of  grace  I  have  not  yet  expressed  that  per- ,  semblies  festival ;  but  as  they  are  pleased  with 
feet  persons  should  serve  God  out  of  mere  j  them,  so  they  can  easily  be  without  them, 
love  of  God  and  the  Divine  excellencies,  It  is  a  sign  of  common  and  vulgar  love,  only 
without  the  considerations  of  either  heaven  to  be  pleased  with  the  company  of  a  friend, 
or  hell ;  such  a  thing  as  that  is  talked  of  in  and  to  be  as  well  without  him  :  " Amoris  at 
mystical  theology.  And  I  doubt  not  but  morsum  qui  vere  senserit,"  "  He  that  has 
many  good  persons  come  to  that  growth  of  felt  the  sting  of  a  sharp  and  very  dear  affec- 
charity,  that  the  goodness  and  excellency  tion,"  is  impatient  in  the  absence  of  his  be- 
of  God  are  more  incumbent  and  actually  |  loved  object :  the  soul  that  is  sick  and  swal- 
pressing  upon  their  spirit  than  any  consider- 1  lowed  up  with  holy  fire.,  loves  nothing  else ; 


298 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 


Serm.  XL. 


all  pleasures  else  seem  unsavoury  ;  company 
is  troublesome,  visiters  are  tedious,  homilies 
of  comfort  are  fiat  and  useless.  The  pleas- 
ures of  virtue,  to  a  good  and  perfect  man, 
are  not  like  the  perfumes  of  nard-pistic, 
which  is  very  delightful  when  the  box  is 
newly  broken,  but  the  want  of  it  is  no  trou- 
ble, we  are  well  enough  without  it :  but  vir- 
tue is  like  hunger  and  thirst,  it  must  be  satis- 
fied or  we  die.  And  when  we  feel  great 
longings  after  religion,  and  faintings  for  want 
of  holy  nutriment,  when  a  famine  of  the 
word  and  sacraments  is  more  intolerable,  and 
we  think  ourselves  really  most  miserable 
when  the  church-doors  are  shut  against  us, 
or  like  the  Christians,  in  the  persecution  of 
the  Vandals, — who  thought  it  worse  than 
death  that  their  bishops  were  taken  from 
them:  if  we  understand  excommunication, 
or  Church-censures,  (abating  the  disreputa- 
tion and  secular  appendages,)  in  the  sense 
of  the  Spirit,  to  be  a  misery  next  to  hell  it- 
self; then  we  have  made  a  good  progress  in 
the  charity  and  grace  of  God  :  till  then  we 
are  but  pretenders,  or  infants,  or  imperfect, 
in  the  same  degree  in  which  our  affections 
are  cold  and  our  desires  remiss.  For  a  con- 
stant and  prudent  zeal  is  the  best  testimony 
of  our  masculine  and  vigorous  heats,  and 
an  hour  of  fervour  is  more  pleasing  to  God 
than  a  month  of  lukewarmness  and  indif- 
ference. 

9.  But  as  some  are  active  only  in  the  pre- 
sence of  a  good  object,  but  remiss  and  care- 
less for  the  want  of  it ;  so,  on  the  other  side, 
an  infant-grace  is  safe  in  the  absence  of  a 
temptation,  but  falls  easily  when  it  is  in 
presence.  He,  therefore,  that  would  under- 
stand if  he  be  grown  in  grace,  may  consider 
if  his  safety  consists  only  in  peace,  or  in  the 
strength  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  good  that  we 
will  not  seek  out  opportunities  to  sin ;  but 
are  not  we  too  apprehensive  of  it  when  it  is 
presented  ?  or  do  we  not  sink  under  it  when 
it  presses  us  ?  Can  we  hold  our  tapers  near 
the  flame,  and  not  suck  it  in  greedily  like 
naphtha  or  prepared  nitre?  or  can  we,  like 
the  children  of  the  captivity,  walk  in  the 
midst  of  flames,  and  not  be  scorched  or  con- 
sumed ?  Many  men  will  not,  like  Judah,  go 
into  highways,  and  untie  the  girdles  of  har- 
lots ;  but  can  you  reject  the  importunity  of  a 
beauteous  and  imperious  lady,  as  Joseph 
did?  We  had  need  pray  that  we  be  "  not 
led  into  temptation  :"  that  is,  not  only  into 
the  possession,  but  not  into  the  allurements 
and  neighbourhood  of  it,  lest  by  little  and 
little,  our  strongest  resolutions  be  untwist, 


and  crack  in  sunder,  like  an  easy  cord  sever- 
ed into  single  threads  ;  but  if  we,  by  the  ne- 
cessity of  our  lives  and  manner  of  living, 
dwell  where  a  temptation  will  assault  us, 
then  to  resist  is  the  sign  of  a  great  grace ; 
but  such  a  sign,  that  without  it  the  grace 
turns  to  wantonness,  and  the  man  into  a 
beast,  and  an  angel  into  a  devil.  R.  Moses 
will  not  allow  a  man  to  be  a  true  penitent, 
until  he  hath  left  all  his  sin,  and  in  all  the 
like  circumstances  refuses  those  temptations, 
under  which  formerly  he  sinned  and  died  ; 
and  indeed  it  may  happen,  that  such  a  trial 
only  can  secure  our  judgment  concerning 
ourselves.  And  although  to  be  tried  in  all 
the  same  accidents  be  not  safe,  nor  always 
contingent,  and  in  such  cases  it  is  sufficient 
to  resist  all  the  temptations  we  have,  and 
avoid  the  rest,  and  decree  against  all ; — yet 
if  it  please  God  we  are  tempted,  as  David 
was  by  his  eyes,  or  the  martyrs  by  tortures, 
or  Joseph  by  his  wanton  mistress,  then  to 
stand  sure,  and  to  ride  upon  the  temptation 
like  a  ship  upon  a  wave,  or  to  stand  like  a 
rock  in  an  impetuous  storm,  that  is  the  sign  of 
a  great  grace,  and  of  a  well-grown  Christian. 

10.  No  man  is  grown  in  grace,  but  he  that 
is  ready  for  every  wrork,  that  chooses  not  his 
employment,  that  refuses  no  imposition  from 
God  or  his  superior.  A  ready  hand,  an  obe- 
dient heart,  and  a  willing,  cheerful  soul,  in 
all  the  work  of  God,  and  in  every  office  of 
religion,  is  a  great  index  of  a  good  proficient 
in  the  ways  of  godliness.  The  heart  of  a 
man  is  like  a  wounded  hand  or  arm,  which, 
if  it  be  so  cured  that  it  can  only  move  one 
way,  and  cannot  turn  to  all  postures  and 
natural  uses,  it  is  but  imperfect,  and  still 
half  in  health  and  half  wounded  :  so  is  our 
spirit ;  if  it  be  apt  for  prayer  and  close-fisted 
in  alms,  if  it  be  sound  in  faith,  and  dead  in 
charity,  if  it  be  religious  to  God  and  unjust 
to  our  neighbour,  there  wants  some  integral 
part,  or  there  is  a  lameness  ;  and  "  the  defi- 
ciency in  any  one  duty  implies  the  guilt  of 
all,"  said  St.  James  ;  and,  "  Bonum  ex  in- 
tegra  causa,  malum  ex  quavis  particulari :" 
every  fault  spoils  a  grace,  but  one  grace 
alone  cannot  make  a  good  man.  But  as  to 
be  universal  in  our  obedience  is  necessary 
to  our  being  in  the  state  of  grace,  so,  readily 
to  change  employment  from  the  better  to  the 
worse,  from  the  honourable  to  the  poor,  from 
useful  to  seemingly  unprofitable,  is  a  good 
character  of  a  well-grown  Christian,  if  he 
takes  the  worst  part  with  indifference,  and 
a  spirit  equally  choosing  all  the  events  of  the 
Divine  Providence.    Can  you  be  content  to 


Serm.  XL. 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 


299 


descend  from  ruling  of  a  province  to  the 
keeping  of  a  herd,  from  the  work  of  an  apos-  j 
tie  to  be  confined  in  a  prison,  from  disputing 
before  princes  to  a  conversation  with  shep- ; 
herds  ?    Can  you  be  willing  to  all  that  God 
is  willing,  and  suffer  all  that  he  chooses,  as  I 
willingly  as  if  you  had  chosen  your  own 
fortune?    In  the  same  degree  in  which  you ! 
can  conform  to  God,  in  the  same  you  have 
approached  towards  that  perfection,  whither 
we  must,  by  degrees,  arrive,  in  our  journey 
towards  heaven. 

This  is  not  to  be  expected  of  beginners  ; 
for  they  must  be  enticed  with  apt  employ- 
ments ;  and,  it  may  be,  their  office  and 
work  so  fits  their  spirits,  that  it  makes  them 
first  in  love  with  it,  and  then  with  God  for 
giving  it.  And  many  a  man  goes  to  heaven 
in  the  days  of  peace,  whose  faith,  and  hope, 
and  patience,  would  have  been  dashed  in 
pieces,  if  he  had  fallen  into  a  storm  of  perse- 
cution. '*  Oppression  will  make  a  wise 
man  mad,"  saith  Solomon  :  there  are  some 
usages  that  will  put  a  sober  person  out  of 
all  patience,  such  which  are  besides  the 
customs  of  this  life,  and  contrary  to  all  his 
hopes,  and  unworthy  of-  a  person  of  his 
quality.  And  when  Nero  durst  not  die, 
yet  when  his  servants  told  him,  that  the 
senators  had  condemned  him  to  be  put  to 
death,  "  more  majorum,"  that  is,  "  by 
scourging  like  a  slave,"  he  was  forced  into 
preternatural  confidence,  and  fell  upon  his 
own  sword.  But  when  God  so  changes 
thy  estate,  that  thou  art  fallen  into  accidents, 
to  which  thou  art  no  otherwise  disposed  but 
by  grace  and  a  holy  spirit,  and  yet  thou 
canst  pass  through  them  with  quietness, 
and  do  the  work  of  suffering  as  well  as  the 
works  of  prosperous  employment ; — this  is 
an  argument  of  a  great  grace  and  an  extra- 
ordinary spirit.  For  many  persons,  in  a 
change  of  fortune,  perish,  who,  if  they  had 
still  been  prosperous,  had  gone  to  prison, 
being  tempted  in  a  persecution  to  perjuries, 
and  apostasy,  and  unhandsome  compliances, 
and  hypocrisy,  and  irreligion ;  and  many 
men  are  brought  to  virtue,  and  to  God,  and 
to  felicity,  by  being  persecuted  and  made 
unprosperous.  And  these  are  effects  of  a 
more  absolute  and  irrespective  predestina- 
tion. But  when  the  grace  of  God  is  great, 
and  prudent,  and  masculine,  and  well 
grown,  it  is  unaltered  in  all  changes;  save 
only  that  every  accident  mat  is  new  and 
violent,  brings  him  nearer  to  God,  and 
makes  him,  with  greater  caution  and  seve- 
rity, to  dwell  in  virtue. 


11.  Lastly  :  Some  there  are,  who  are  firm 
in  all  great  and  foreseen  changes,  and  have 
laid  up  in  the  storehouses  of  the  spirit, — 
reason  and  religion, — arguments  and  dis- 
courses enough  to  defend  them  against  all 
violences,  and  stand  at  watch  so  much, 
that  they  are  safe,  where  they  can  consider 
and  deliberate ;  but  there  may  be  something 
wanting  yet ;  and  in  the  direct  line,  in  the 
straight  progress  to  heaven,  I  call  that  an 
infallible  sign  of  a  great  grace,  and  indeed 
the  greatest  degree  of  a  great  grace,  when  a 
man  is  prepared  against  sudden  invasions 
of  the  spirit,  surreptitious  and  extemporary 
assaults.  Many  a  valiant  person  dares  fight 
a  battle,  who  yet  will  be  timorous  and  sur- 
prised in  a  midnight  alarm,  or  if  he  falls 
into  a  river.  And  how  many  discreet  per- 
sons are  there,  who,  if  you  offer  them  a  sin, 
and  give  them  time  to  consider,  and  tell 
them  of  it  beforehand,  will  rather  die  than 
be  perjured,  or  tell  a  deliberate  lie,  or  break 
a  promise;  who  it  may  be,  tell  many  sudden 
lies,  and  excuse  themselves,  and  break  their 
promises,  and  yet  think  themselves  safe 
enough,  and  sleep  without  either  affright- 
ments  or  any  apprehension  of  dishonour 
done  to  their  persons  or  their  religion ! 
Every  man  is  not  armed  for  all  sudden 
arrests  of  passions.  Few  men  have  cast 
such  fetters  upon  their  lusts,  and  have  their 
passions  in  so  strict  confinement,  that  they 
may  not  be  overrun  with  a  midnight  flood 
or  an  unlooked-for  inundation.  He  that  does 
not  start,  when  he  is  smitten  suddenly,  is  a 
constant  person.  And  that  is  it  which  I 
intend  in  this  instance;  that  he  is  a  per- 
fect man,  and  well  grown  in  grace,  who 
hath  so  habitual  a  resolution,  and  so  unhasty 
and  wary  a  spirit,  as  that  he  decrees  upon 
no  act,  before  he  hath  considered  maturely, 
and  changed  the  sudden  occasion  into  a 
sober  counsel.  David,  by  chance,  spied 
Bathsheba  washing  herself;  and,  being  sur- 
prised, gave  his  heart  away,  before  he  could 
consider;  and  when  it  was  once  gone,  it 
was  hard  to  recover  it ;  and  sometimes  a 
man  is  betrayed  by  a  sudden  opportunity, 
and  all  things  fitted  for  his  sin  ready  at  the 
door;  the  act  stands  in  all  its  dress,  and 
will  not  stay  for  an  answer;  and  inconsider- 
ation  is  the  defence  and  guard  of  the  sin, 
and  makes  that  his  conscience  can  the  more 
easily  swallow  it :  wh»t  shall  the  man  do 
then?  Unless  he  be  strong  by  his  old 
strengths,  by  a  great  grace,  by  an  habitual 
virtue,  and  a  sober  unmoved  spirit, — he 
falls  and  dies  the  death,  and  hath  no  new 


300 


GROWTH  IN 


GRACE. 


Serm.  XL. 


strengths,  but  such  as  are  to  be  employed 
for  his  recovery ;  none  for  his  present 
guard,  unless  upon  the  old  stock,  and  if  he 
be  a  well  grown  Christian. 

These  are  the  parts,  acts,  and  offices  of 
our  growing  in  grace ;  and  yet  I  have  some- 
times called  them  signs  ;  but  they  are  signs, 
as  eating  and  drinking  are  signs  of  life  ; 
they  are  signs  so  as  also  they  are  parts  of 
life ;  and  these  are  parts  of  our  growth  in 
grace,  so  that  a  man  can  grow  in  grace  to 
no  other  purpose  but  to  these  or  the  like 
improvements. 

Concerning  which  I  have  a  caution  or 
two  to  interpose.  1.  The  growth  of  grace 
is  to  be  estimated  as  other  moral  things  are, 
not  according  to  the  growth  of  things  natu- 
ral. Grace  does  not  grow  by  observation, 
and  a  continual  efflux,  and  a  constant  pro- 
portion :  and  a  man  cannot  call  himself  to 
an  account  for  the  growth  of  every  day,  or 
week,  or  month :  but,  in  the  greater  portions 
of  our  life,  in  which  we  have  had  many 
occasions  and  instances  to  exercise  and  im- 
prove our  virtues,  we  may  call  ourselves  to 
account ;  but  it  is  a  snare  to  our  consciences 
to  be  examined  in  the  growth  of  grace  in 
every  short  revolution  of  solemn  duty,  as 
against  every  communion  or  great  festival. 

2.  Growth  in  grace  is  not  always  to  be 
discerned,  either  in  single  instances  or  in 
single  graces.  Not  in  single  instances ;  for 
every  time  we  are  to  exercise  a  virtue,  we 
are  not  in  the  same  natural  dispositions,  nor 
do  we  meet  with  the  same  circumstances ; 
and  it  is  not  always  necessary  that  the  next 
act  should  be  more  earnest  and  intense  than 
the  former:  all  single  acts  are  to  be  done 
after  the  manner  of  men,  and,  therefore, 
are  not  always  capable  of  increasing,  and 
they  have  their  times,  beyond  which  they 
cannot  easily  swell;  and,  therefore,  if  it  be 
a  good  act  and  zealous,  it  may  proceed  from 
a  well-grown  grace ;  and  yet  a  younger  and 
weaker  person  may  do  some  acts  as  great 
and  as  religious  as  it.  But  neither  do  single 
graces  always  afford  a  regular  and  certain 
judgment  in  this  affair.  For  some  persons, 
at  the  first,  had  rather  die  than  be  unchaste 
or  perjured;  and  "greater  love  than  this 
no  man  hath,  that  he  lay  down  his  life"  for 
God  :  he  cannot  easily  grow  in  the  sub- 
stance of  that  act;  and  if  other  persons  or 
himself,  in  process  of  time,  do  it  more  cheer- 
fully or  with  fewer  fears,  it  is  not  always  a 
sign  of  a  greater  grace,  but  sometimes  of 
greater  collateral  assistances,  or  a  better 
habit  of  body,  or  more  fortunate  circum- 


stances: for  he  that  goes  to  the  block  trem- 
bling for  Christ,  and  yet  endures  his  death 
certainly,  and  endures  his  trembling  too, 
and  runs  through  all  his  infirmities  and  the 
bigger  temptations,  looks  not  so  well  many 
times  in  the  eyes  of  men,  but  suffers  more 
for  God,  than  those  confident  martyrs  that 
courted  death  in  the  primitive  church;  and 
therefore,  may  be  much  dearer  in  the  eyes 
of  God.  But  that  which  I  say  in  this  par- 
ticular is,  that  a  smallness  in  one  is  not  an 
argument  of  the  imperfection  of  the  whole 
estate :  because  God  does  not  always  give 
to  every  man  occasions  to  exercise,  and 
therefore  not  to  improve,  every  grace ;  and 
the  passive  virtues  of  a  Christian  are  not  to 
be  expected  to  grow  so  fast  in  prosperous  as 
in  suffering  Christians.  But  in  this  case  we 
are  to  take  accounts  of  ourselves  by  the  im- 
provement of  those  graces  which  God  makes 
to  happen  often  in  our  lives ;  such  as  are 
charity  and  temperance  in  young  men ; 
liberality  and  religion  in  aged  persons  ;  in- 
genuity and  humility  in  scholars;  justice  in 
merchants  and  artificers ;  forgiveness  of  in- 
juries in  great  men  and  persons  tempted  by 
law-suits  :  for  since  virtues  grow  like  other 
moral  habits,  by  use,  diligence,  and  assi- 
duity,— there  where  God  hath  appointed 
our  work  and  our  instances,  there  we  must 
consider  concerning  our  growth  in  grace  ; 
in  other  things  we  are  but  beginners.  But 
it  is  not  likely  that  God  will  try  us  concern- 
ing degrees  hereafter,  in  such  things,  of 
which,  in  this  world,  he  was  sparing  to 
give  us  opportunities. 

3.  Be  careful  to  observe  that  these  rules 
are  not  all  to  be  understood  negatively,  but 
positively  and  affirmatively :  that  is,  that  a 
man  may  conclude  that  he  is  grown  in 
grace,  if  he  observes  these  characters  in 
himself,  which  I  have  here  discoursed  of; 
but  he  must  not  conclude  negatively,  that 
he  is  not  grown  in  grace,  if  he  cannot  ob- 
serve such  signal  testimonies :  for  some- 
times God  covers  the  graces  of  his  servants, 
and  hides  the  beauty  of  his  tabernacle  with 
goat's  hair  and  the  skins  of  beasts,  that  he 
may  rather  suffer  them  to  want  present 
comfort  than  the  grace  of  humility.  For  it 
is  not  necessary  to  preserve  the  gayeiies  and 
their  spiritual  pleasures ;  but  if  their  humility 
fails,  (which  may  easily  be  under  the  sun- 
shine of  conspicuous  and  illustrious  graces,) 
their  virtues  and  themselves  perish  in  a  sad 
declension.  But  sometimes  men  have  not 
skill  to  make  a  judgment;  and  all  this  dis- 
course seems  too  artificial  to  be  tried  by,  in 


Serm.  XL. 


GROWTH  IN  GRACE. 


301 


the  hearty  purposes  of  religion.  Sometimes 
they  let  pass  much  of  their  life,  even  of 
their  better  days,  without  observance  of 
particulars ;  sometimes  their  cases  of  con- 
science are  intricate,  or  allayed  with  un- 
avoidable infirmities ;  sometimes  they  are 
so  uninstructed  in  the  more  secret  parts  of 
religion,  and  there  are  so  many  illusions 
and  accidental  miscarriages,  that  if  we  shall 
conclude  negatively  in  the  present  question, 
we  may  produce  scruples  infinite,  but  un- 
derstand nothing  more  of  our  estate,  and  do 
much  less  of  our  duty. 

4.  In  considering  concerning  our  growth 
in  grace,  let  us  take  more  care  to  consider 
matters  that  concern  justice  and  charity, 
than  that  concern  the  virtue  of  religion  ; 
because  in  this  there  may  be  much,  in  the 
other  there  cannot  easily  be  any,  illusion 
and  cozenage.  That  is  a  good  religion  that 
believes,  and  trusts,  and  hopes  in  God, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  and  for  his  sake  does 
all  justice  and  all  charity  that  he  can ;  and 
our  blessed  Lord  gives  no  other  description 
of  "  love"  to  God,  but  obedience  and 
"  keeping  his  commandments. "  Justice 
and  charity  are  like  the  matter,  religion  is 
the  form,  of  Christianity  :  but  although  the 
form  be  more  noble  and  the  principle  of  life, 
yet  it  is  less  discernible,  less  material,  and 
less  sensible ;  and  we  judge  concerning  the 
form  by  the  matter,  and  by  material  acci- 
dents, and  by  actions :  and  so  we  must  of 
our  religion,  that  is,  of  our  love  to  God, 
and  of  the  efficacy  of  our  prayers,  and  the 
usefulness  of  our  fastings ;  we  must  make 
our  judgments  by  the  more  material  parts 
of  our  duty,  that  is,  by  sobriety,  and  by  jus- 
tice, and  by  charity. 

I  am  much  prevented  in  my  intention  for 
the  perfecting  of  this  so  very  material  con- 
sideration :  I  shall  therefore  only  tell  you, 
that  to  these  parts  and  actions  of  a  good  life, 
or  of  our  growth  in  grace,  some  have  added 
some  accidental  considerations,  which  are 
rather  signs  than  parts  of  it.  Such  are:  1. 
To  praise  all  good  things,  and  to  study  to 
imitate  what  we  praise.  2.  To  be  impatient 
that  any  man  should  excel  us;  not  out  of 
envy  to  the  person,  but  of  noble  emulation 
to  the  excellency.  For  so  Themistocles 
could  not  sleep,  after  the  great  victory  at 
Marathon  purchased  by  Miltiades,  till  he 
made  himself  illustrious  by  equal  services 
to  his  country.  3.  The  bearing  of  sickness 
patiently,  and  ever  with  improvement,  and 
the  addition  of  some  excellent  principle,  and 
the  firm  pursuing  it.    4.  Great  devotion, 


and  much  delight  in  our  prayers.  5.  Fre- 
quent inspirations,  and  often  whispers,  of 
the  Spirit  of  God,  prompting  us  to  devotion 
and  obedience ;  especially  if  we  add  to  this 
a  constant  and  ready  obedience  to  all  those 
holy  invitations.  6.  Offering  peace  to  them 
that  have  injured  me,  and  the  abating  of  the 
circumstances  of  honour  or  of  right,  when 
either  justice  or  charity  is  concerned  in  it. 
7.  Love  to  the  brethren.  8.  To  behold  our 
companions,  or  our  inferiors,  full  of  honour 
and  fortune ;  and  if  we  sit  still  at  home  and 
murmur  not,  or  if  we  can  rejoice  both  in  their 
honour  and  our  own  quiet,  that  is  a  fair  work 
of  a  good  man.  And  now,  9.  After  all  this, 
I  will  not  trouble  you  with  reckoning  a 
freedom  from  being  tempted,  not  only  from 
being  overcome,  but  from  being  tried:  for 
though  that  be  a  rare  felicity,  and  hath  in  it 
much  safety  :  yet  it  hath  less  honour,  and 
fewer  instances  of  virtue,  unless  it  proceed 
from  a  confirmed  and  heroical  grace;  which 
is  indeed  a  little  image  of  heaven  and  of  a 
celestial  charity,  and  never  happens  sig- 
nally to  any,  but  to  old  and  very  eminent 
persons.  10.  But  some  also  add  an  excel- 
lent habit  of  body  and  material  passions, 
such  as  are  chaste  and  virtuous  dreams ; 
and  suppose,  that,  as  a  disease  abuses  the 
fancy,  and  a  vice  doth  prejudice  it,  so  may 
an  excellent  virtue  of  the  soul  smooth  and 
calcine  the  body,  and  make  it  serve  per- 
fectly, and  without  rebellious  indispositions. 
11.  Others  are  in  love  with  Mary  Magda- 
len's tears,  and  fancy  the  hard  knees  of  St. 
James,  and  the  sore  eyes  of  St.  Peter,  and 
the  very  recreations  of  St.  John ;  "  Proh ! 
quam  virtu te  praeditos  omnia  decent!" 
thinking  "  all  things  become  a  good  man," 
even  his  gestures  and  little  incuriosities. 
And  though  this  may  proceed  from  a  great 
love  of  virtue,  yet  because  some  men  do 
thus  much  and  no  more,  and  this  is  to  be 
attributed  to  the  lustre  of  virtue,  which 
shines  a  little  through  a  man's  eyelids, 
though  he  perversely  winks  against  the 
light;  yet  (as  the  former  of  these  two  is  too 
metaphysical,  so  is  the  latter  too  fantastical) 
he  that,  by  the  foregoing  material  parts  and 
proper  significations  of  a  growing  grace, 
does  not  understand  his  own  condition, 
must  be  content  to  work  on  still  u  super 
totam  materiam,"  without  considerations 
of  particulars  ;  he  must  pray  earnestly,  and 
watch  diligently,  and  consult  with  prudent 
guides,  and  ask  of  God  great  measures  of 
his  Spirit,  and  "hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness:"  for  he  that  does  so,  shall 
2  A 


302 


GROWTH  IN  SIN. 


Serm.  XL1. 


certainly  "  be  satisfied."  And  if  he  under- 
stands not  his  present  good  condition,  yet 
if  he  be  not  wanting  in  the  downright  en- 
deavours of  piety,  and  in  hearty  purposes, 
he  shall  then  find  that  he  is  grown  in  grace, 
when  he  springs  up  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
just,  and  shall  be  ingrafted  upon  a  tree  of 
paradise,  which  beareth  fruit  for  ever,  glory 
to  God,  rejoicing  to  saints  and  angels,  and 
eternal  felicity  to  his  own  pious,  though 
undiscerning  soul.  "  Prima  sequentem, 
honestura  est  in  secundis  aut  tertiis  con- 
sistere."* 


SERMON  XL  I. 

OF  GROWTH  IN  SIN  :  OR,  THE  SEVERAL 
STATES  AND  DEGREES  OF  SINNERS,  WITH 
THE  MANNER  HOW  THEY  ARE  TO  BE 
TREATED. 


PART  I  . 

And  of  some  have  compassion,  making  a  difference  : 
and  others  save  with  fear,  pulling  them  out  of  the 
frc.—Jude  Epist.  ver.  22,  23. 

Man  hath  but  one  entrance  into  the  world; 
but  a  thousand  ways  to  pass  from  thence. 
And  as  it  is  in  the  natural,  so  it  is  in  the 
spiritual :  nothing  but  the  union  of  faith 
and  obedience  can  secure  our  regeneration, 
and  our  new  birth,  and  can  bring  us  to  see 
the  light  of  heaven  ;  but  there  are  a  thou- 
sand passages  of  turning  into  darkness. 
And  it  is  not  enough,  that  our  bodies  are 
exposed  to  so  many  sad  infirmities  and  dis- 
honourable imperfections,  unless  our  soul 
also  be  a  subject  capable  of  so  many  dis- 
eases, irregular  passions,  false  principles, 
accursed  habits  and  degrees  of  perverseness, 
that  the  very  kinds  of  them  are  reducible  to 
a  method,  and  make  up  the  part  of  a  sci- 
ence. There  are  a  variety  of  stages  and  de- 
scents to  death,  as  there  are  diversity  of 
torments,  and  of  sad  regions  of  misery  in 
hell,  which  is  the  centre  and  kingdom  of 
sorrows.  But  that  we  may  a  little  refresh 
the  sadness  of  this  consideration;  for  every 
one  of  these  stages  of  sin,  God  hath  mea- 
sured out  a  proportion  of  mercy:  for,  "  If  sin 
abounds,  grace  shall  much  more  abound;" 
and  "  God  hath  concluded  all  under  sin," 
not  with  purpose  to  destroy  us,  but  "  ut 
omnium  misereatur,"  "  that  he  might  have 
mercy  upon  all;"  that  light  may  break  forth 
from  the  deepest  enclosures  of  darkness, 
and  morcy  may  rejoice  upon  the  recessions 
of  justice,  and  grace  may  triumph  upon  the 

*  Cicero. 


ruins  of  sin,  and  God  may  be  glorified  in 
the  miracles  of  our  conversion,  and  the 
wonders  of  our  preservation,  and  glories  of 
our  being  saved.  There  is  no  state  of  sin, 
but,  if  we  be  persons  capable  (according  to 
God's  method  of  healing)  of  receiving  anti- 
dotes, we  shall  find  a  sheet  of  mercy  spread 
over  our  wounds  and  nakedness.  If  our 
diseases  be  small,  almost  necessary,  scarce 
avoidable;  then  God  does,  and  so  we  are 
commanded  to  cure  them,  and  cover  them 
with  a  veil  of  pity,  compassion,  and  gentle 
remedies  :  if  our  evils  be  violent,  inveterate, 
gangrened,  and  incorporated  into  our  nature 
by  evil  customs,  they  must  be  pulled  from 
the  flames  of  hell  with  censures,  and  caute- 
ries, and  punishments,  and  sharp  remedies, 
quickly  and  rudely;  their  danger  is  present 
and  sudden,  its  effect  is  quick  and  intolera- 
ble, and  there  are  no  soft  counsels  then  to 
be  entertained ;  they  are  already  in  the  fire, 
but  they  may  be  saved  for  all  that.  So 
great,  so  infinite,  so  miraculous  is  God's 
mercy,  that  he  will  not  give  a  sinner  over, 
though  the  hairs  of  his  head  be  singed  with 
the  flames  of  hell.  God's  desires  of  having 
us  to  be  saved  continue,  even  when  we  be- 
gin to  be  damned ;  even  till  we  will  not  be 
saved,  and  are  gone  beyond  God's  method, 
and  all  the  revelations  of  his  kindness.  And 
certainly  that  is  a  bold  and  a  mighty  sinner, 
whose  iniquity  is  swelled  beyond  all  the  bulk 
and  heap  of  God's  revealed  loving-kind- 
nesses: if  sin  hath  swelled  beyond  grace, 
and  superabounds  over  it,  that  sin  is  gone 
beyond  the  measures  of  a  man ;  such  a  man 
is  removed  beyond  all  the  malice  of  human 
nature,  into  the  evil  and  spite  of  devils  and  ac- 
cursed spirits;  there  is  no  greater  sadness  in 
the  world  than  this.  God  hath  not  appointed 
a  remedy  in  the  vast  treasures  of  grace  for 
some  men,  and  some  sins ;  they  have  sinned 
like  the  fallen  angels,  and  having  overrun 
the  ordinary  evil  inclinations  of  their  nature, 
they  are  without  the  protection  of  the  Di- 
vine mercy,  and  the  conditions  of  that  grace, 
which  was  designed  to  save  all  the  world, 
and  was  sufficient  to  have  saved  twenty. 
This  is  a  condition  to  be  avoided  with  the 
care  of  God  and  his  angels,  and  all  the 
whole  industry  of  man.  In  order  to  which 
end,  my  purpose  now  is  to  remonstrate  to 
you  the  several  states  of  sin  and  death,  to- 
gether with  those  remedies  which  God  hath 
proportioned  out  to  them ;  that  we  may  ob- 
serve the  evils  of  the  least,  and  so  avoid  the 
intolerable  mischiefs  of  the  greater,  even  of 
those  sins  which  still  are  within  the  powei 


Seim,  XLI. 


GROWTH  IN  SIN. 


303 


and  possibilities  of  recovery  ;  lest  insensibly 
we  fall  into  those  sins,  and  into  those  cir- 
cumstances of  person,  for  which  Christ 
never  died,  which  the  Holy  Ghost  never 
means  to  cure,  and  which  the  eternal  God 
never  will  pardon :  for  there  are  of  this  kind 
more  than  commonly  men  imagine,  whilst 
they  amuse  their  spirits  with  gayeties  and 
false  principles,  till  they  have  run  into  hor- 
rible impieties,  from  whence  they  are  not 
willing  to  withdraw  their  foot,  and  God 
is  resolved  never  to  snatch  and  force  them 
thence. 

I.  "Of  some  have  compassion." — And 
these  I  shall  reduce  to  four  heads  or  orders 
of  men  and  actions ;  all  which  have  their 
proper  cure  proportionable  to  their  proper 
state,  gentle  remedies  to  the  lesser  irregulari- 
ties of  the  soul.  1.  The  first  are  those  that 
sin  without  observation  of  their  particular 
state ;  either  because  they  are  uninstructed 
in  the  special  cases  of  conscience,  or  be- 
cause they  do  an  evil,  against  which  there 
is  no  express  commandment.  It  is  a  sad 
calamity,  that  there  are  so  many  millions  of 
men  and  women  that  are  entered  into  a 
state  of  sickness  and  danger,  and  yet  are 
made  to  believe  they  are  in  perfect  health ; 
and  they  do  actions,  concerning  which  they 
never  made  a  question  whether  they  were 
just  or  not,  nor  were  ever  taught  by  what 
names  to  call  them.  For  while  they  observe 
that  modesty  is  sometimes  abused  by  a  false 
name,  and  called  clownishness  and  want  of 
breeding ;  and  contentedness  and  temperate 
living  is  suspected  to  be  want  of  courage 
and  noble  thoughts ;  and  severity  of  life  is 
called  imprudent  and  unsociable;  and  sim- 
plicity and  hearty  honesty  is  counted  foolish 
and  impolitic  :  they  are  easily  tempted  to 
honour  prodigality  and  foolish  dissolution 
of  their  estates  with  the  title  of  liberal  and 
noble  usages.  Timorousness  is  called  cau- 
tion, rashness  is  called  quickness  of  spirit, 
covetousness  is  frugality,  amorousness  is 
society  and  gentile,  peevishness  and  anger 
is  courage,  flattery  is  humane  and  cour- 
teous :  and  under  these  false  veils  virtue 
slips  away  (like  truth  from  under  the  hand 
of  them  that  fight  for  her)  and  leaves  vice 
dressed  up  with  the  same  imagery,  and  the 
fraud  not  discovered  till  the  day  of  recom- 
penses, when  men  are  distinguished  by  their 
rewards.  But  so  men  think  they  sleep  free- 
ly, when  their  spirits  are  laden  with  lethar- 
gy ;  and  they  call  a  hectic  fever  the  vigour 
of  a  natural  heat,  till  nature  changes  those 
less  discerned  states  into  the  notorious  im- 


!  ages  of  death.  Very  many  men  never  con- 
sider, whether  they  sin  or  not  in  ten  thousand 
of  their  actions,  every  one  of  which  is  very 
disputable,  and  do  not  think  they  are  bound 
to  consider :  these  men  are  to  be  pitied  and 
instructed,  they  are  to  be  called  upon  to  use 
religion  like  a  daily  diet;  their  consciences 
must  be  made  tender,  and  their  catechism 
enlarged;  teach  them,  and  make  them  sensi- 
ble, and  they  are  cured. 

But  the  other  in  this  place  are  more  con- 
siderable :  men  sin  without  observation,  be- 
cause their  actions  have  no  restraint  of  an 
express  commandment,  no  letter  of  the  law 
to  condemn  them  by  an  express  sentence. 
And  this  happens  when  the  crime  is  com- 
prehended under  a  general  notion,  without 
the  instancing  of  particulars ;  for  if  you 
search  over  all  the  Scripture,  you  shall 
never  find  incest  named  and  marked  with 
the  black  character  of  death ;  and  there  are 
divers  sorts  of  uncleanness  to  which  Scrip- 
ture therefore  gives  no  name,  because  she 
would  have  them  have  no  being.  And  it 
had  been  necessary  that  God  should  have 
described  all  particulars,  and  all  kinds,  if  he 
had  not  given  reason  to  man  :  for  so  it  is  fit 
that  a  guide  should  point  out  every  turning, 
if  he  be  to  teach  a  child  or  a  fool  to  return 
to  his  father's  roof.  But  he  that  bids  us 
avoid  intemperance  for  fear  of  a  fever,  sup- 
poses you  to  be  sufficiently  instructed  that 
you  may  avoid  the  plague :  and,  when  to 
look  upon  a  woman  with  lust  is  condemned, 
it  will  not  be  necessary  to  add,  "  You  must 
not  do  more,"  when  even  the  least  is  for- 
bidden :  and  when  to  uncover  the  naked- 
ness of  Noah  brought  a  universal  plague 
upon  the  posterity  of  Cham,  it  was  not  ne- 
cessary that  the  lawgiver  should  say,  "  You 
must  not  ascend  to  your  father's  bed,  or 
draw  the  curtains  from  your  sister's  retire- 
ments." When  the  Athenians  forbade  to 
transport  figs  from  Athens,  there  was  no 
need  to  name  the  gardens  of  Alcibiades ; 
much  less  was  it  necessary  to  add,  that 
Chabrias  should  send  no  plants  to  Sparta. 
Whatever  is  comprised  under  the  general 
notion,  and  partakes  of  the  common  nature 

I  and  the  same  iniquity,  needs  no  special  pro- 
hibition ;  unless  we  think  we  can  mock 
God,  and  elude  his  holy  precepts  with  an 
absurd  trick  of  mistaken  logic.  I  am  sure 
that  will  not  save  us  harmless  from  a  thun- 
derbolt. 

Men  sin  without  an  express  prohibition, 
when  they  commit  a  thing  that  is  like  a 
forbidden  evil.    And  when  St.  Paul  had 


304 


GROWTH  IN  SIX. 


Sehm.  XLI. 


reckoned  many  works  of  the  flesh,  he  adds, 
"  and  such  like,"  all  that  have  the  same  un- 
reasonableness and  carnality.  For  thus  poly- 
gamy is  unlawful :  for  if  it  be  not  lawful 
for  a  Christian  "to  put  away  his  wife  and 
marry  another,  unless  for  adultery,"  much 
less  may  he  keep  a  first,  and  take  a  second, 
when  the  first  is  not  put  away.  If  a  Chris- 
tian may  not  be  drunk  with  wine,  neither 
may  he  be  drunk  with  passion  ;  if  he  may 
not  kill  his  neighbour,  neither  must  he  tempt 
him  to  sin,  for  that  destroys  him  more ;  if 
he  may  not  wound  him,  then  he  may  not  per- 
suade him  to  intemperance,  and  a  drunken 
fever ;  if  it  be  not  lawful  to  cozen  a  man, 
much  less  is  it  permitted  that  he  make  a 
man  a  fool,  and  a  beast,  and  exposed  to 
every  man's  abuse,  and  to  all  ready  evils. 
And  yet  men  are  taught  to  start  at  the  one 
half  of  these,  and  make  no  conscience  of 
the  other  half;  whereof  some  have  a  greater 
baseness  than  the  other  that  are  named,  and 
all  have  the  same  unreasonableness. 

3.  A  man  is  guilty,  even  when  no  law 
names  his  action,  if  he  does  any  thing  that 
is  a  cause  or  an  effect,  a  part  or  unhand- 
some adjunct,  of  a  forbidden  instance.  He 
that  forbade  all  intemperance,  is  as  much 
displeased  with  the  infinite  of  foolish  talk 
that  happens  at  such  meetings,  as  he  is  at 
the  spoiling  of  the  drink,  and  the  destroying 
the  health.  If  God  cannot  endure  wanton- 
ness, how  can  he  suffer  lascivious  dressings, 
tempting  circumstances,  wanton  eyes,  high 
diet  ?  If  idleness  be  a  sin,  then  all  immo- 
derate mispending  of  our  time,  all  long  and 
tedious  games,  all  absurd  contrivances  how 
to  throw  away  a  precious  hour,  and  a  day 
of  salvation  also,  are  against  God  and  against 
religion.  He  that  is  commanded  to  be  cha- 
ritable, it  is  also  intended  he  should  not 
spend  his  money  vainly,  but  be  a  good  hus- 
band and  provident,  that  he  may  be  able  to 
give  to  the  poor,  as  he  would  be  to  purchase 
a  lordship,  or  pay  his  daughter's  portion. 
And  upon  this  stock  it  is  that  Christian  re- 
ligion forbids  jeering  and  immoderate  laugh- 
ter, and  reckons  "jestings"  amongst  the 
"  things  that  are  unseemly."  This  also 
would  be  considered. 

4.  Besides  the  express  laws  of  our  reli- 
gion, there  is  a  universal  line  and  limit  to 
our  passions  and  designs,  which  is  called 
"  the  analogy  of  Christianity  ;"  that  is,  the 
proportion  of  its  sanctity,  and  the  strictness 
of  its  holy  precepts.  This  is  is  not  forbid- 
den; but  does  this  become  you?  Is  it  de- 
cent to  see  a  Christian  live  in  plenty  and 


ease,  and  heap  up  money,  and  never  to  par- 
take of  Christ's  passions  ?  There  is  no  law 
against  a  judge's  being  a  dresser  of  gardens, 
or  a  gatherer  of  sycamore  fruits;  but  it 
becomes  him  not,  and  deserves  a  reproof. 
If  1  do  exact  justice  to  my  neighbour,  and 
cause  him  to  be  punished  legally  for  all  the 
evils  he  makes  me  suffer,  I  have  not  broken 
a  fragment  from  the  stony  tables  of  the  law  : 
but  this  is  against  the  analogy  of  our  reli- 
gion ;  it  does  not  become  the  disciple  of 
so  gentle  a  Master  to  take  all  advantages 
that  he  can.  Christ,  that  quitted  all  the 
glories  that  were  essential  to  him,  and  that 
grew  up  in  his  nature  when  he  lodged  in 
his  Father's  bosom ;  Christ,  that  suffered 
all  the  evils  due  for  the  sins  of  mankind, 
himself  remaining  most  innocent;  Christ, 
that  promised  persecution,  injuries,  and  af- 
fronts, as  part  of  our  present  portion,  and 
gave  them  to  his  disciples  as  a  legacy,  and 
gave  us  his  Spirit  to  enable  us  to  suffer  in- 
juries, and  made  that  the  parts  of  suffering 
evils  should  be  the  matter  of  three  or  four 
Christian  graces,  of  patience,  of  fortitude,  of 
longanimity,  and  perseverance;  he  that  of 

|  eight  beatitudes,  made  that  five  of  them 
should  be  instanced  in  the  matter  of  humili- 

|  ation  and  suffering  temporal  inconvenience; 
— that  blessed  Master  was  certainly  desirous 
that  his  disciples  should  take  their  crowns 
from  the  cross,  not  from  the  evenness  and 
felicities  of  the  world  ;  he  intended  we  should 
give  something,  and  suffer  more  things,  and 
forgive  all  things,  all  injuries  whatsoever. 
And  though  together  with  this  may  consist 
our  securing  a  just  interest;  yet,  in  very- 
many  circumstances,  we  shall  be  put  to  con- 
sider, how  far  it  becomes  us  to  quit  some- 
thing of  that  to  pursue  peace ;  and  when 
we  have  secured  the  letter  of  the  law,  that 
we  also  look  to  its  analogy;  when  we  do 
what  we  are  strictly  bound  to,  then  also  we 
must  consider  what  becomes  us  who  are  dis- 
ciples of  such  a  Master,  who  are  instructed 
with  such  principles,  charmed  with  so  se- 
vere precepts,  and  invited  with  the  certainty 
of  infinite  rewards.  Now,  although  this 
discourse  may  seem  new  and  strange  and 
very  severe,  yet  it  is  infinitely  reasonable, 
because  Christianity  is  a  law  of  love  and 
voluntary  services ;  it  can  in  no  sense  be 
confined  with  laws  and  strict  measures: 
well  may  the  ocean  receive  its  limits,  and 
the  whole  capacity  of  fire  be  glutted,  and 
the  grave  have  his  belly  so  full  that  it  shall 
cast  up  all  its  bowels  and  disgorge  the  con- 
tinued meal  of  so  many  thousand  years  > 


Serm.  XLI. 


GROWTH  IN  SIN. 


305 


but  love  can  never  have  a  limit;  and  it  is 
indeed  to  be  swallowed  up,  but  nothing  can 
till  it  but  God,  who  hath  no  bound.  Chris- 
tianity is  a  law  for  sons,  not  for  servants  : 
and  God,  that  gives  his  grace  without  mea- 
sure, and  rewards  without  end,  and  acts  of 
favour  beyond  our  askings,  and  provides  for 
us  beyond  our  needs,  and  gives  us  counsels 
beyond  commandments,  intends  not  to  be 
limited  out  by  the  just  evennesses  and 
stricken  measures  of  the  words  of  a  com- 
mandment. Give  to  God  "full  measure, 
shaken  together,  pressed  down,  heaped  up, 
and  running  over  ;"  for  God  does  so  to  us : 
and  when  we  have  done  so  to  him,  we  are 
infinitely  short  of  the  least  measure  of  what 
God  does  for  us  ;  "  we  are  still  unprofitable 
servants."  And  therefore,  as  the  breaking 
any  of  the  laws  of  Christianity  provokes 
God  to  anger,  so  the  prevaricating  in  the 
analogy  of  Christianity  stirs  him  up  to  jea- 
lousy. He  hath  reason  to  suspect  our  hearts 
are  not  right  with  him,  when  we  are  so  re- 
served in  the  matter  and  measures  of  our 
services;  and  if  we  will  give  God  but  just 
what  he  calls  for  by  express  mandate,  it  is 
just  in  him  to  require  all  of  that  at  our  hands 
without  any  abatement,  and  then  we  are 
sure  to  miscarry.  And  let  us  remember, 
that  when  God  said  he  was  a  jealous 
God,"  he  expressed  the  meaning  of  it  to  be, 
he  did  •'•'punish  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation."  "  Jealousy  is  like  the  rage  of 
a  man ;"  but  if  it  be  also  like  the  anger  of 
God,  it  is  insupportable,  and  will  crush  us 
into  the  ruins  of  our  grave. 

But  because  these  things  are  not  fre- 
quently considered,  there  are  very  many 
sins  committed  against  religion,  which,  be- 
cause the  commandment  hath  not  marked, 
men  refuse  to  mark,  and  think  God  requires 
no  more.  I  am  entered  into  a  sea  of  mat- 
ter, which  I  mu-=t  not  now  prosecute  ;  but  I 
shall  only  note  this  to  you,  that  it  is  but  rea- 
sonable we  should  take  accounts  of  our  lives 
by  the  proportions,  as  well  as  by  the  express 
rules,  of  our  religion,  because  in  human 
and  civil  actions  all  the  nations  of  the  world 
use  to  call  their  subjects  to  account.  For 
that  which  in  the  accounts  of  men  is  called 
reputation  and  public  honesty,  is  the  same 
which  in  religion  we  call  analogy  and  pro- 
portion ;  in  both  cases  there  being  some 
things  which  are  besides  the  notices  of  laws, 
and  yet  are  the  most  certain  consignations 
of  an  excellent  virtue.  He  is  a  base  per- 
son that  does  any  thing  against  public  ho- 
nesty j  and  yet  no  man  can  be  punished,  if 
39 


he  marries  a  wife  the  next  day  after  his 
first  wife's  funeral :  and  so  he  that  prevari- 
cates the  proportions  and  excellent  reasons 
of  Christianity,  is  a  person  without  zeal  and 
without  love;  and,  unless  care  be  taken  of 
him,  -he  will  quickly  be  without  religion. 
But  yet  these,  I  say,  are  a  sort  of  persons, 
which  are  to  be  used  with  gentleness,  and 
treated  with  compassion:  for  no  man  must 
be  handled  roughly  to  force  him  to  do  a 
kindness  j  and  coercion  of  laws  and  severity 
of  judges,  Serjeants,  and  executioners,  are 
against  offenders  of  commandments ;  but 
the  way  to  cure  such  persons  is  the  easiest 
and  gentlest  remedy  of  all  others.  Thev 
are  to  be  instructed  in  all  the  parts  of  duty, 
and  invited  forward  by  the  consideration 
of  the  great  rewards  which  are  laid  up  for 
all  the  sons  of  God,  who  serve  him  without 
constraint,  without  measures  and  allays, 
even  as  fire  burns,  and  as  the  roses  grow, 
even  as  much  as  they  can,  and  to  all  the 
extent  of  their  natural  and  artificial  capaci- 
ties. For  it  is  a  thing  fit  for  our  compassion, 
to  see  men  fettered  in  the  iron  bands  of  laws, 
and  yet  to  break  the  golden  chains  of  love : 
but  all  those  instruments,  which  are  proper 
to  enkindle  the  love  of  God  ,  and  to  turn  fear 
into  charity,  are  the  proper  instances  of  that 
compassion,  which  is  to  be  used  towards 
these  men. 

2.  The  next  sort  of  those  who  are  in  the 
state  of  sin,  and  yet  to  be  handled  gentlv 
and  with  compassion,  are  those  who  enter- 
tain themselves  with  the  beginnings  and 
little  entrances  of  sin  :  which  as  they  are 
to  be  more  pitied,  because  they  often  come 
by  reason  of  inadvertency  ,  and  an  unavoid- 
able weakness  in  many  degrees ;  so  they 
are  more  to  be  taken  care  of,  because  they 
are  undervalued,  and  undiscernibly  run  into 
inconvenience.  When  we  see  a  child  strike 
a  servant  rudely,  or  jeer  a  silly  person,  or 
wittingly  cheat  his  play-fellow,  or  talk  words 
light  as  the  skirt  of  a  summer  garment ;  we 
laugh,  and  are  delighted  with  the  wit  and 
confidence  of  the  boy,  and  encourage  such 
hopeful  beginnings  :  and  in  the  mean  time 
we  consider  not,  that  from  these  beginnings 
he  shall  grow  up,  till  he  become  a  tyrant, 
an  oppressor,  a  goat,  and  a  traitor.  •'•  Xemo 
simul  malus  fit,  et  malus  esse  cernitur: 
sicut  nec  scorpiis  turn  innascuntur  stimuli, 
cum  pungunt:"  No  man  is  discerned  to  be 
vicious  so  soon  as  he  is  so  ;"  and  vices  have 
their  infancy  and  their  childhood ;  and  it 
cannot  be  expected  that  in  a  chikTs  age 
should  be  the  vice  of  a  man;  that  were 


306 


GROWTH 


IN  SIN. 


Serm.  XLf. 


monstrous,  as  if  he  wore  a  beard  in  his 
cradle  ;  "  and  we  do  not  believe  that  a  ser- 
pent's sting  does  just  then  grow,  when  he 
strikes  us  in  a  vital  part  the  venom  and 
the  little  spear  was  there,  when  it  first  be- 
gan to  creep  from  his  little  shell.  And  lit- 
tle boldnesses  and  looser  words,  and  wrang- 
ling for  nuts,  and  lying  for  trifles,  are  of  the 
same  proportion  to  the  malice  of  a  child, 
as  impudence,  and  duels,  and  injurious  law- 
suits, and  false  witness  in  judgment,  and 
perjuries,  are  in  men.  And  the  case  is  the 
same  when  men  enter  upon  a  new  stock 
of  any  sin  :  the  vice  is  at  first  apt  to  be  put 
out  of  countenance,  and  a  little  thing  dis- 
courages it,  and  it  amuses  the  spirit  with 
words,  and  fantastic  images,  and  cheap  in- 
stances of  sin  ;  and  men  think  themselves 
safe,  because  they  are  as  yet  safe  from  laws, 
and  the  sin  does  not  as  yet  outcry  the  healthful 
noise  of  Christ's  loud  cryings  and  interces- 
sion with  his  Father,  nor  call  for  thunder  or 
an  amazing  judgment:  but,  according  to 
the  old  saying,  "  The  thorns  of  Dauphine 
will  never  fetch  blood,  if  they  do  not  scratch 
ihe  first  day and  we  shall  find  that  the 
little  indecencies  and  riflings  of  our  souls, 
the  first  openings  and  disparklings  of  our 
virtue,  differ  only  from  the  state  of  perdition, 
as  infancy  does  from  old  age,  as  sickness 
from  death ;  it  is  the  entrance  into  those  re- 
gions, whither  whosoever  passes  finally, 
shall  lie  down  and  groan  with  an  eternal 
sorrow.  Now  in  this  case  it  may  happen, 
that  a  compassion  may  ruin  a  man,  if  it  be 
the  pity  of  an  indiscreet  mother,  and  nurse 
ihe  sin  from  its  weakness  to  the  strength  of 
habit  and  impudence.  The  compassion  that 
is  to  be  used  to  such  persons,  is  the  compas- 
sion of  a  physician  or  a  severe  tutor  :  chas- 
tise thy  infant-sin  by  discipline,  and  acts  of 
virtue;  and  never  begin  that  way,  from 
whence  you  must  return  with  some  trouble 
and  much  shame ;  or  else,  if  you  proceed, 
you  finish  your  eternal  ruin. 

He  that  means  to  be  temperate,  and  avoid 
the  crime  and  dishonour  of  being  a  drunk- 
ard, must  not  love  to  partake  of  the  songs, 
or  to  bear  a  part  in  the  foolish  scenes  of 
laughter,  which  distract  wisdom,  and  fright 
her  from  the  company.  And  Lavina,  that 
was  chaster  than  the  elder  Sabines,  and  se- 
verer than  her  philosophical  guardian,  was 
well  instructed  in  the  great  lines  of  honour 
and  cold  justice  to  her  husband  :  but  when 
she  gave  way  to  the  wanton  ointments  and 
looser  circumstances  of  Baiae,  and  bathed 
often  in  Avernus,  and  from  thence  hurried  I 


to  the  companies  and  dressings  of  Lucrinus, 
she  quenched  her  honour,  and  gave  her  vir- 
tue and  her  body  as  a  spoil  to  the  follies 
and  intemperance  of  a  young  gentleman. 
For  so  have  I  seen  the  little  purls  of  a 
spring  sweat  through  the  bottom  of  a  bank, 
and  internate  the  stubborn  pavement,  till  it 
hath  made  it  fit  for  the  impression  of  a 
child's  foot ;  and  it  was  despised,  like  the 
descending  purls  of  a  misty  morning,  till  it 
had  opened  its  way,  and  made  a  stream 
large  enough  to  carry  away  the  ruins  of  the 
undermined  strand,  and  to  invade  the  neigh- 
bouring gardens ;  but  then  the  despised  drops 
were  grown  into  an  artificial  river,  and  an 
intolerable  mischief.  So  are  the  first  en- 
trances of  sin  stopped  with  the  antidotes 
of  a  hearty  prayer,  and  checked  into  so- 
briety by  the  eye  of  a  reverend  man,  or  the 
counsels  of  a  single  sermon  :  but  when  such 
beginnings  are  neglected,  and  our  religion 
hath  not  in  it  so  much  philosophy  as  to 
think  any  thing  evil  as  long  as  we  can  en- 
dure it,  they  grow  up  to  ulcers  and  pestilen- 
tial evils ;  they  destroy  the  soul  by  their 
abode,  who,  at  their  first  entry,  might  have 
been  killed  with  the  pressure  of  a  little 
finger. 

Those  men  are  in  a  condition,  in  which 
they  may,  if  they  please,  pity  themselves ; 
keep  their  green  wound  from  festering  and 
uncleanness,  and  it  will  heal  alone:  "Non 
procul  absunt,"  "They  are  not  far"  from 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  they  are  not 
yet  within  its  portion.  And  let  me  say 
this,  that  although  little  sins  have  not  yet 
made  our  condition  desperate, ,  but  left  it 
easily  recoverable ;  yet  it  is  a  condition 
that  is  quite  out  of  God's  favour :  although 
they  are  not  far  advanced  in  their  progress 
to  ruin,  yet  they  are  not  at  all  in  the  state 
of  grace ;  and,  therefore,  though  they  are  to  be 
pitied  and  relieved  accordingly,  yet  that  sup- 
poses the  incumbency  of  a  present  misery. 

3.  There  are  some  very  much  to  be  pitied 
and  assisted,  because  they  are  going  into 
hell,  and,  as  matters  stand  with  them,  they 
cannot,  or  they  think  they  cannot,  avoid  it. 
"Gluidam  ad  alienum  dormiunt  somnum, 
ad  alienum  edunt  appetitum:  amare  et  odis- 
se  (res  omnium  maxime  liberas)  juben- 
tur:"  "There  are  some  persons  whose  life 
is  so  wholly  in  dependence  from  others,  that 
they  sleep  when  others  please,  they  eat  and 
drink  according  to  their  masters'  appetite  or 
I  intemperance :  they  are  commanded  to  love 


Serm.  XLI. 


GROWTH  IN  SIN. 


307 


or  hate,  and  are  not  left  free  in  the  very 
charter  and  privileges  of  nature."  "  Mise- 
rum  est,  servire  sub  dominis  parum  felici- 
bus."  For  suppose  the  prince  or  the  patron 
be  vicious ;  suppose  he  calls  his  servants  to 
bathe  their  souls  in  the  goblets  of  intem- 
perance; if  he  be  also  imperious,  (for  such 
persons  love  not  to  be  contradicted  in  their 
vice?,)  it  is  the  loss  of  that  man's  fortune 
not  to  lose  his  soul ;  and  it  is  the  servant's 
excuse,  and  he  esteems  it  also  his  glory, 
that  he  can  tell  a  merry  tale,  how  his  master 
and  himself  did  swim  in  drink,  till  they  both 
talked  like  fools,  and  then  did  lie  down  like 
beasts.  "Facinus  quos  inquinat,  oequat:" 
There  is  then  no  difference,  but  that  the  one 
is  the  fairest  bull,  and  the  master  of  the 
herd.  And  how  many  tenants  and  relatives 
are  known  to  have  a  servile  conscience,  and 
to  know  no  affirmation  or  negation  but  such 
as  shall  serve  their  landlord's  interest !  Alas ! 
the  poor  men  live  by  it,  and  they  must  beg 
their  bread,  if  ever  they  turn  recreant,  or 
shall  offer  to  be  honest.  There  are  trades 
whose  very  foundation  is  laid  in  the  vice  of 
others ;  and  in  many  others,  if  a  thread  of 
deceit  do  not  quite  run  through  all  their  ne- 
gotiations, they  decay  into  the  sorrows  of 
beggary  ;  and,  therefore,  they  will  support 
their  neighbour's  vice,  that  he  may  support 
their  trade.  And  what  would  you  advise 
those  men  to  do,  to  whom  a  false  oath  is 
offered  to  their  lips  and  a  dagger  to  their 
heart  ?  Their  reason  is  surprised,  and  their 
choice  is  seized  upon,  and  all  their  consulta- 
tion is  arrested  ;  and  if  they  did  not  prepare 
beforehand,  and  stand  armed  with  religion 
and  perfect  resolution,  would  not  any  man 
fall,  and  think  that  every  good  man  will  say 
his  case  is  pitiable  ?  Although  no  tempta- 
tion is  bigger  than  the  grace  of  God,  yet 
many  temptations  are  greater  than  our 
strengths ;  and  we  do  not  live  at  the  rate  of 
a  mighty  and  a  victorious  grace. 

Those  persons  which  cause  those  vicious 
necessities  upon  their  brethren,  will  lie  low 
in  hell ;  but  the  others  will  have  but  small 
comfort  in  feeling  a  lesser  damnation. 

Of  the  same  consideration  it  is,  when 
ignorant  people  are  catechized  into  false 
doctrine,  and  know  nothing  but  such  princi- 
ples which  weaken  the  nerves  and  enfeeble 
the  joints  of  holy  living ;  they  never  heard 
of  any  other.  Those  that  follow  great  and 
pvil  examples,  the  people  that  are  engaged 
in  the  public  sins  of  a  kingdom,  which  they 
understand  not,  and  either  must  venture  to 
be  undone  upon  the  strength  of  their  own 


little  reasonings  and  weak  discoursings,  or 
else  must  go  "  qua  itur,  non  qua  eundum 
est,"  there  where  the  popular  misery  hath 
made  the  way  plain  before  their  eyes,  though 
it  be  uneven  and  dangerous  to  their  con- 
sciences. In  these  cases  I  am  forced  to 
reckon  a  catalogue  of  mischiefs ;  but  it  will 
be  hard  to  cure  any  of  them.  Aristippus, 
in  his  discourses,  was  a  great  flatterer  of 
Dionysius  of  Sicily,  and  did  own  doctrines 
which  might  give  an  easiness  to  some  vices, 
and  knew  not  how  to  contradict  the  plea- 
sures of  his  prince,  but  seemed  like  a  person 
disposed  to  partake  of  them,  that  the  exam- 
ple of  a  philosopher  and  the  practice  of  a 
king  might  do  countenance  to  a  shameful 
life.  But  when  Dionysius  sent  him  two 
women-slaves,  fair  and  young,  he  sent  them 
back,  and  shamed  the  easiness  of  his  doc- 
trine by  the  severity  of  his  manners;  he 
daring  to  be  virtuous  when  he  was  alone, 
though,  in  the  presence  of  him  whom  he 
thought  it  necessary  to  flatter,  he  had  no 
boldness  to  own  the  virtue.  So  it  is  with 
too  many:  if  they  be  left  alone,  and  that 
they  stand  unshaken  with  the  eye  of  their 
tempter,  or  the  authority  of  their  lord,  they 
go  whither  their  education  or  their  custom 
carries  them :  but  it  is  not  in  some  natures 
to  deny  the  face  of  a  man  and  the  boldness 
of  a  sinner,  and,  which  is  yet  worse,  it  is 
not  in  most  men's  interest  to  do  it.  These 
men  are  in  a  pitiable  condition,  and  are  to 
be  helped  by  the  following  rules. 

1.  Let  every  man  consider  that  he  hath 
two  relations  to  serve,  and  he  stands  between 
God  and  his  master  and  his  nearest  relative ; 
and  in  such  cases  it  comes  to  be  disputed 
whether  interest  be  preferred,  which  of  the 
persons  is  to  be  displeased,  God  or  my  mas- 
ter, God  or  my  prince,  God  or  my  friend. 
If  we  be  servants  of  the  man,  remember 
also  that  I  am  a  servant  of  God :  add  to 
this,  that  if  my  present  service  to  the  man 
be  a  slavery  in  me,  and  a  tyranny  in  him, 
yet  God's  service  is  a  noble  freedom.  And 
Apollonius  said  well,  n  It  was  for  slaves  to 
lie,  and  for  freemen  to  speak  the  truth." 
"  If  you  be  freed  by  the  blood  of  the  Son  o: 
God,  then  you  are  free  indeed :"  and  then 
consider  how  dishonourable  it  is  to  lie,  to 
the  displeasure  of  God,  and  only  to  please 
your  fellow-servant.  The  difference  here  is 
so  great,  that  it  might  be  sufficient  only  to 
consider  the  antithesis.  Did  the  man  make 
you  what  you  are?  Did  he  pay  his  blood 
for  you,  to  save  you  from  death )  Does  he 
keep  you  from  sickness?    True:  vou  eat  at 


308  GROWTH  IN  SIN.  Serm.  XLI. 


his  table ;  but  they  are  of  God's  provisions 
that  he  and  you  feed  of.  Can  your  master 
free  you  from  a  fever,  when  you  have  drunk 
yourself  into  it;  and  restore  your  innocence, 
when  you  have  forsworn  yourself  for  his 
interest?  Is  the  change  reasonable?  He 
gives  you  meat  and  drink,  for  which  you  do 
him  service :  but  is  he  not  a  tyrant  and  a 
usurper,  an  oppressor  and  an  extortioner,  if 
he  will  force  thee  to  give  thy  soul  for  him, 
to  sell  thy  soul  for  old  shoes  and  broken 
bread  ?  But  when  thou  art  to  make  thy 
accounts  of  eternity,  will  it  be  taken  for  an 
answer,  My  patron  or  my  governor,  my 
prince  or  my  master,  forced  me  to  it?  or  if 
it  will  not,  will  he  undertake  a  portion  of 
thy  flames?  or,  if  that  may  not  be,  will  it 
be,  in  the  midst  of  all  thy  torments,  any  ease 
to  thy  sorrows  to  remember  all  the  rewards 
and  clothes,  all  the  money  and  civilities,  all 
the  cheerful  looks  and  familiarity  and  fellow- 
ship of  vices,  which,  in  your  lifetime,  made 
your  spirit  so  gay  and  easy?  It  will,  in  the 
eternal  loads  of  sorrow,  add  a  duplicate  of 
groans  and  indignation,  when  it  shall  be  re- 
membered for  how  base  and  trifling  an  inter- 
est, and  upon  what  weak  principles,  we  fell 
sick  and  died  eternally. 

2.  The  next  advice  to  persons  thus  tempt- 
ed is,  that  they  would  learn  to  separate  duty 
from  mistaken  interest,  and  let  them  be  both 
served  in  their  just  proportions,  when  we 
have  learned  to  make  a  difference.  A  wife 
is  bound  to  her  husband  in  all  his  just  de- 
signs, and  in  all  noble  usages  and  Christian 
comportments  :  but  a  wife  is  no  more  bound 
to  pursue  her  husband's  vicious  hatreds, 
than  to  serve  and  promote  his  unlawful  and 
wandering  loves.  It  is  not  always  a  part  of 
duty  to  think  the  same  propositions,  or  to 
curse  the  same  persons,  or  to  wish  him 
success  in  unjust  designs:  and  yet  the 
sadness  of  it  is,  that  a  good  woman  is 
easily  tempted  to  believe  the  cause  to  be 
just ;  and  when  her  affection  hath  forced 
her  judgment,  her  judgment  for  ever  after 
shall  carry  the  affection  to  all  its  erring  and 
abused  determinations.  A  friend  is  turned 
a  flatterer,  if  he  does  not  know  that  the 
limits  of  friendship  extend  no  further  than 
the  pale  and  enclosures  of  reason  and  reli- 
gion. No  master  puts  it  into  his  covenant 
that  his  servant  shall  be  drunk  with  him,  or 
give  in  evidence  in  his  master's  cause,  ac- 
cording to  his  master's  scrolls :  and,  there- 
fore, it  is  besides  and  against  the  duly  of  a 
servant  to  sin  by  that  authority  ;  it  is  as  if 


he  should  set  mules  to  keep  his  sheep,  or 
make  his  dogs  to  carry  burdens ;  it  is  be- 
sides their  nature  and  design.  And  if  any 
person  falls  under  so  tyrannical  relation,  let 
him  consider  how  hard  a  master  he  serves, 
where  the  devil  gives  the  employment,  and 
shame  is  his  entertainment,  and  sin  is  his 
work,  and  hell  is  his  wages.  Take,  there- 
fore, the  counsel  of  the  son  of  Sirach :  "  Ac- 
cept no  person  against  thy  soul,  and  let  not 
the  reverence  of  any  man  cause  thee  to  fall."* 

3.  When  passion  mingles  with  duty,  and 
is  a  necessary  instrument  of  serving  God, 
let  not  passion  run  its  own  course,  and  pass 
on  to  liberty,  and  thence  to  license  and  dis- 
solution; but  let  no  more  of  it  be  entertain- 
ed than  will  just  do  the  work.  For  no  zeal 
of  duty  will  warrant  a  violent  passion  to 
prevaricate  a  duty.  I  have  seen  some  offi- 
cers of  war,  in  passion  and  zeal  of  their 
duty,  have  made  no  scruple  to  command  a 
soldier  with  a  dialect  of  cursing  and  accents 
of  swearing,  and  pretended  they  could  not 
else  speak  words  effective  enough,  and  of 
sufficient  authority  :  and  a  man  may  easily 
be  overtaken  in  the  issues  of  his  govern- 
ment, while  his  authority  serves  itself  with 
passion ;  if  he  be  not  curious  in  his  mea- 
sures, his  passion  also  will  serve  itself  upon 
the  authority,  and  overrule  the  ruler. 

4.  Let  every  such  tempted  person  remem- 
ber, that  all  evil  comes  from  ourselves,  and 
not  from  others;  and,  therefore,  all  pretences 
and  prejudices,  all  commands  and  tempta- 
tions, all  opinions  and  necessities,  are  but 
instances  of  our  weakness,  and  arguments 
of  our  folly ;  for,  unless  we  listed,  no  man 
can  make  us  drink  beyond  our  measures ;  and 
if  I  tell  a  lie  for  my  master's  or  my  friend's  ad- 
vantage, it  is  because  I  prefer  a  little  end  of 
money  or  flattery  before  my  honour  and  my 
innocence.  They  are  huge  follies  which  go 
up  and  down  in  the  mouths  and  heads  of  men. 
"  He  that  knows  not  how  to  dissemble,  knows 
not  how  to  reign:"  he  that  will  not  do  as 
his  company  does,  must  go  out  of  the  world, 
and  quit  all  society  of  men.  We  create  ne- 
cessities of  our  own,  and  then  think  we  have 
reason  to  serve  their  importunity.  "  Non 
ego  sum  ambitiosus,  sed  nemo  aliter  Roma; 
potest  vivere  ;  non  ego  sumptuosus,  sed  urbs 
ipsa  magnas  impensas  exigit.  Non  est 
meum  vitium  qudd  iracundus  sum,  quod 
nondum  constitui  certum  vita?  genus ;  ado- 
lescentia  hoec  facit:"  "The  place  we  live 


*  Ecclus.  iv  22. 


Serm.  XLII. 


GROWTH  IN  SIN. 


309 


in  makes  us  expensive,  the  state  of  life  I 
have  chosen  renders  me  ambitious,  my  age 
makes  me  angry  or  lustful,  proud  or  pee- 
vish." These  are  nothing  else  but  resolu- 
tions never  to  amend  as  long  as  we  can  have 
excuses  for  our  follies,  and  until  we  can 
cozen  ourselves  no  more.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  necessity  for  a  prince  to  dissemble, 
or  for  a  servant  to  lie,  or  for  a  friend  to  flat- 
ter, for  a  civil  person  and  a  sociable  to  be 
drunk;  we  cozen  ourselves  with  thinking 
the  fault  is  so  much  derivative  from  others, 
till  the  smart  and  the  shame  falls  upon  our- 
selves, and  covers  our  heads  with  sorrow. 
And  unless  this  gap  be  stopped,  and  that  we 
build  our  duty  upon  our  own  bottoms,  as 
supported  with  the  grace  of  God,  there  is 
no  vice  but  may  find  a  patron, — and  no 
age,  or  relation,  or  state  of  life,  but  will  be 
an  engagement  to  sin ;  and  we  shall  think 
it  necessary  to  be  lustful  in  our  youth,  and 
revengeful  in  our  manhood,  and  covetous 
in  our  old  age;  and  we  shall  perceive  that 
every  state  of  men,  and  every  trade  and  pro- 
fession, lives  upon  the  vices  of  others,  or 
upon  their  miseries,  and,  therefore,  they 
will  think  it  necessary  to  promote  or  to  wish 
it.  If  men  were  temperate,  physicians  would 
be  poor ;  and  unless  some  princes  were  am- 
bitious, or  others  injurious,  there  would  be 
no  employment  for  soldiers.  The  vintner's 
retail  supports  the  merchant's  trade,  and  it 
is  a  vice  that  supports  the  vintner's  retail ; 
and  if  all  men  were  wise  and  sober  persons, 
we  should  have  fewer  beggars  and  fewer 
rich.  And  if  our  lawgivers  should  imitate 
Demades  of  Athens,  who  condemned  a  man 
that  lived  by  selling  things  belonging  to  fune- 
rals, as  supposing  he  could  not  choose  but 
wish  the  death  of  men,  by  whose  dying  he 
got  his  living;  we  should  find  most  men 
accounted  criminals,  because  vice  is  so  in- 
volved in  the  affairs  of  the  world,  that  it  is 
made  the  support  of  many  trades,  and  the 
business  of  great  multitudes  of  men.  Cer- 
tainly from  hence  it  is  that  iniquity  does  so 
much  abound;  and  unless  we  state  our 
questions  right,  and  perceive  the  evil  to  be 
designed  only  from  ourselves,  and  that  no 
such  pretence  shall  keep  ofT  the  punishment 
or  the  shame  from  ourselves,  we  shall  fall 
into  a  state  which  is  only  capable  of  com- 
passion, because  it  is  irrecoverable;  and 
then  we  shall  be  infinitely  miserable,  when 
we  can  only  receive  a  useless  and  ineffective 
pity.  Whatsoever  is  necessary  cannot  be 
avoided;  he,  therefore,  that  shall  say,  he 
cannot  avoid  his  sin,  is  out  of  the  mercies 


of  this  text :  they  who  are  appointed  guides 
and  physicians  of  souls,  cannot,  to  any  pur 
pose,  do  their  offices  of  pity.  It  is  necessa- 
ry that  we  serve  God,  and  do  our  duty,  and 
secure  the  interest  of  our  souls,  and  be  as 
careful  to  preserve  our  relations  to  God  as 
to  our  friend  or  prince.  But  if  it  can  be  ne- 
cessary for  any  man,  in  any  condition,  to 
sin,  it  is  also  necessary  for  that  man  to 
perish. 


SERMON  XLII. 

PART  II. 

4.  The  last  sort  of  them  that  sin,  and 
yet  are  to  be  treated  with  compassion,  is  of 
them  that  interrupt  the  course  of  an  honest 
life  with  single  acts  of  sin,  stepping  aside 
and  "  starting  like  a  broken  bow ;"  whose 
resolution  stands  fair,  and  their  hearts  are 
towards  God,  and  they  sojourn  in  religion, 
or  rather  dwell  there ;  but  that,  like  evil 
husbands,  they  go  abroad,  and  enter  into 
places  of  dishonour  and  unthriftiness.  Such 
as  these  all  stories  remember  with  a  sad 
character;  and  every  narrative  concerning 
David,  which  would  end  in  honour  and  fair 
report,  is  sullied  with  the  remembrance  of 
Bathsheba;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  called 
him  "  a  man  after  God's  own  heart,  save  in 
the  matter  of  Uriah  :"  there,  indeed,  he  was 
a  man  after  his  own  heart ;  even  then, 
when  his  reason  was  stolen  from  him  by 
passion,  and  his  religion  was  sullied  by  the 
beauties  of  a  fair  woman.  I  wish  we  lived 
in  an  age,  in  which  the  people  were  to  be 
treated  with  concerning  renouncing  the 
single  actions  of  sin,  and  the  seldom  inter- 
ruptions of  piety.  Men  are  taught  to  say, 
that  every  man  sins  in  every  action  he  does; 
and  this  is  one  of  the  doctrines,  for  the  be- 
lieving of  which  he  shall  be  accounted  a 
good  man  :  and  upon  this  ground  it  is  easy 
for  men  to  allow  themselves  some  sins, 
when,  in  all  cases  and  in  every  action,  it  is 
unavoidable.  I  shall  say  nothing  of  the 
question,  save  that  the  scriptures  reckon 
otherwise ;  and  in  the  accounts  of  David's 
life  reckon  but  one  great  sin;  and  in 
Zachary  and  Elizabeth  give  a  testimony  of 
an  unblamable  conversation  ;  and  Hezekiah 
did  not  make  his  confession  when  he  prayed 
to  God  in  his  sickness,  and  said,  "  he  had 
walked  uprightly  before  God:"  and,  there- 
fore, St.  Paul,  after  his  conversion,  designed 


310 


GROWTH 


IN  SIN. 


Serm.  XLII. 


and  laboured  hard,  and  therefore,  certainly, 
with  hopes  to  accomplish  it,  that  "he  might 
keep  his  conscience  void  of  offence,  both 
towards  God  and  towards  man ;"  and  one 
of  Christ's  great  purposes  is,  l(  to  present 
his  whole  church  pure  and  spotless  to 
the  throne  of  grace;"  and  St.  John  the 
Baptist  offended  none  but  Herod ;  and  no 
pious  Christian  brought  a  bill  of  accusation 
against  the  holy  virgin-mother.  Certain  it 
is,  that  God  hath  given  us  precepts  of  such 
a  holiness  and  such  a  purity,  such  a  meek- 
ness and  such  humility,  as  hath  no  pattern 
but  Christ,  no  precedent  but  the  purities  of 
God:  and,  therefore,  it  is  intended  we 
should  live  with  a  life,  whose  actions  are 
not  chequered  with  white  and  black,  half 
sin  and  half  virtue.  God's  sheep  are  not 
like  Jacob's  flock,  "  streaked  and  spotted  ;" 
it  is  an  entire  holiness  that  God  requires, 
and  will  not  endure  to  have  a  holy  course 
interrupted  by  the  dishonour  of  a  base  and 
ignoble  action.  I  do  not  mean  that  a  man's 
life  can  be  as  pure  as  the  sun,  or  the  rays 
of  celestial  Jerusalem;  but  like  the  moon, 
in  which  there  are  spots,  but  they  are  no 
deformity ;  a  lessening  only  and  an  abate- 
ment of  light,  no  cloud  to  hinder  and  draw 
a  veil  before  its  face,  but  sometimes  it  is  not  so 
serene  and  bright  as  at  other  times.  Every 
man  hath  his  indiscretions  and  infirmities, 
his  arrests  and  sudden  incursions,  his  neigh- 
bourhoods and  semblances  of  sin,  his  little 
violences  to  reason,  and  peevish  melan- 
choly, and  humorous,  fantastic  discourses  ; 
unaptness  to  a  devout  prayer,  his  fondness 
to  judge  favourably  in  his  own  cases,  little 
deceptions,  and  voluntary  and  involuntary 
cozenages,  ignorances,  and  inadvertences, 
careless  hours,  and  unwatchful  seasons. 
But  no  good  man  ever  commits  one  act  of 
adultery ;  no  godly  man  will,  at  any  time, 
be  drunk ;  or  if  he  be,  he  ceases  to  be  a 
godly  man,  and  is  run  into  the  confines  of 
death,  and  is  sick  at  heart,  and  may  die  of 
the  sickness,  die  eternally.  This  happens 
more  frequently  in  persons  of  an  infant 
piety,  when  the  virtue  is  not  corroborated 
by  a  long  abode,  and  a  confirmed  resolu- 
tion, and  a  usual  victory,  and  a  trium- 
phant grace ;  and  the  longer  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  piety,  the  more  unfrequent  will  be 
the  little  breaches  of  folly,  and  a  return- 
ing to  sin.  But  as  the  needle  of  a  compass, 
when  it  is  directed  to  its  beloved  star,  at  the 
first  addresses  waves  on  either  side,  and 
seems  indifferent  in  his  courtship  of  the 
rising  or  declining  sun  ;  and  when  it  seems 


first  determined  to  the  north,  stands  awhile 
trembling,  as  if  it  suffered  inconvenience  in 
the  first  fruition  of  its  desires,  and  stands 
not  still  in  full  enjoyment  till  after  first 
a  great  variety  of  motion,  and  then  an 
undisturbed  posture;  so  is  the  piety  and  so  is 
the  conversion  of  a  man  wrought  by  degrees 
and  several  steps  of  imperfection ;  and  at  first 
our  choices  are  wavering ;  convinced  by  the 
grace  of  God,  and  yet  not  persuaded ;  and 
then  persuaded,  but  not  resolved,  and  then 
resolved,  but  deferring  to  begin;  and  then 
beginning,  but,  as  all  beginnings  are,  in 
weakness  and  uncertainty  ;  and  we  fly  out 
often  into  huge  indiscretions,  and  look  back 
to  Sodom,  and  long  to  return  to  Egypt ;  and 
when  the  storm  is  quite  over,  we  find  little 
bubblings  and  unevenness  upon  the  face  of 
the  waters,  we  often  weaken  our  own  pur- 
poses by  the  returns  of  sin ;  and  we  do  not 
call  ourselves  conquerors,  till  by  the  long 
possession  of  virtues  it  is  a  strange  and 
unusual,  and,  therefore,  an  uneasy  and  un- 
pleasant thing,  to  act  a  crime.  When  Pole- 
mon  of  Athens,  by  chance  coming  into  the 
schools  of  Xenocrates,  was  reformed  upon 
the  hearing  of  that  one  lecture,  some  wise 
men  gave  this  censure  of  him :  "  Peregri- 
natus  est  hujus  animus  in  nequitiae,  non 
habitavit:"  "  His  mind  wandered  in  wick- 
edness, and  travelled  in  it,  but  never  dwelt 
there."  The  same  is  the  case  of  some 
men;  they  make  inroads  into  the  enemy's 
country,  not  like  enemies  to  spoil,  but  like 
Dinah,  to  be  satisfied  with  the  stranger 
beauties  of  the  land,  till  their  virtues  are 
deflowered,  and  they  enter  into  tragedies, 
and  are  possessed  by  death  and  intolerable 
sorrows.  But  because  this  is  like  the  fate 
of  Jacob's  daughter,  and  happens  not  by 
design,  but  folly ;  not  by  malice,  but  sur- 
prise ;  not  by  the  strength  of  will,  but  by 
the  weakness  of  grace ;  and  yet  carries  a 
man  to  the  same  place  whither  a  great  vice 
usually  does ;  it  is  hugely  pitiable,  and  the 
persons  are  to  be  treated  with  compassion, 
and  to  be  assisted  by  the  following  consi- 
derations and  exercises. 

First,  let  us  consider,  that  for  a  good  man 
to  be  overtaken  in  a  single  crime  is  the 
greatest  dishonour  and  unthriftiness  in  the 
whole  world.  "  As  a  fly  in  a  box  of  oint- 
ment, so  is  a  little  folly  to  him  who  is  ac- 
counted wise,"  said  the  son  of  Sirach.  No 
man  chides  a  fool  for  his  weakness,  or 
scorns  a  child  for  playing  with  flies,  and 
preferring  the  present  appetite  before  all 
the  possibilities  of  to-morrow's  event;  but 


Serm.  XLII. 


GROWTH  IN  SIN. 


31J 


men  wondered  when  they  saw  Socrates 
ride  upon  a  cane ;  and  when  Solomon  laid 
his  wisdom  at  the  foot  of  Pharaoh's  daugh- 
ter, and  changed  his  glory  for  the  interest 


his  pardon  and  restitution,  and  that  he  is  in 
some  hopes  to  return  to  God's  favour,  and 
that  he  shall  become  an  heir  of  heaven ; 
when  some  of  his  amazing  fears  and  dis- 


of  wanton  sleep,  he  became  the  discourse ;  tracting  cares  begin  to  be  taken  off;  when 
of  heaven  and  earth  :  and  men  think  them-  \  he  begins  to  think  that  now  it  is  not  certain 
selves  abused,  and  their  expectation  cozened.,  \  he  shall  perish  in  a  sad  eternity,  but  he 
when  they  see  a  wise  man  do  the  actions  of  j  hopes  to  be  saved,  and  he  considers  how  ex- 
a  fool,  and  a  good  man  seized  upon  by  the  |  cellent  a  condition  that  is ;  he  hopes,  when 
dishonours  of  a  crime.  But  the  loss  of  his  he  dies,  to  go  to  God,  and  that  he  shall 
reputation  is  the  least  of  his  evil.  It  is  the  never  enter  into  the  possession  of  devils ; 
greatest  improvidence  in  the  world  to  let  a  and  this  state,  which  is  but  the  twilight  of  a 
healthful  constitution  be  destroyed  in  the  j  glorious  felicity,  he  hath  obtained  with  great 


surfeit  of  one  night.  For  although  when  a 
man,  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  a  long  en- 
deavour, hath  obtained  the  habit  of  Christian 
graces,  every  single  sin  does  not  spoil  the 
habit  of  virtue,  because  that  cannot  be  lost 
but  as  it  was  gotten,  that  is,  by  parts  and 
succession ;  yet  every  crime  interrupts  the 
acceptation  of  the  grace,  and  makes  the 
man  to  enter  into  the  state  of  enmity  and 
displeasure  with  God.  The  habit  is  only 
lessened  naturally,  but  the  value  of  it  is 
wholly  taken  away.  And  in  this  sense  is 
that  of  Joseph  us,  To  yap  tiri  i*,ixpoi$  xai 
fwyaXotj'  rtapai<ojiA£tV  irsobwauov  iatc  which  St. 
James  well  renders,  "He  that  keeps  the 
whole  law,  and  offends  in  one  point,  is 
guilty  of  all  that  is,  if  he  prevaricates  in 
any  commandment,  the  transgression  of 
which,  by  the  law,  was  capital,  he  shall  as 
certainly  die  as  if  he  broke  the  whole  law. 
And  the  same  is  the  case  of  those  single 


labour,  and  much  care,  and  infinite  danger 
that  this  man  should  throw  all  this  structure 
down,  and  then,  when  he  is  ready  to  reap 
the  fruits  of  his  labours,  by  one  indiscreet 
action  to  set  fire  upon  his  corn-fields,  and 
destroy  all  his  dear-earned  hopes,  for  the 
madness  and  loose  wanderings  of  an 
hour :  this  man  is  an  indiscreet  gamester, 
who  doubles  his  stake  as  he  thrives,  and  at 
one  throw,  is  dispossessed  of  all  the  prospe- 
rities of  a  lucky  hand . 

They  that  are  poor,  as  Plutarch  observes, 
are  careless  of  little  things ;  because,  by- 
saving  them,  they  think  no  great  moments  can 
accrue  to  their  estates ;  and  they,  despairing 
to  be  rich,  think  such  frugality  impertinent: 
but  they  that  feel  their  banks  swell,  and  are 
within  the  possibilities  of  wealth,  think  it 
useful  if  they  reserve  the  smaller  minutes  of 
expense,  knowing  that  every  thing  will  add 
to  their  heap.   But  then,  after  long  sparing, 


actions  which  the  school  calls  deadly  sins, ;  in  one  night  to  throw  away  the  wealth 


that  is,  actions  of  choice  in  any  sin  that 
hath  a  name ;  and  makes  a  kind,  and  hath 
a  distinct  matter.  And  sins  once  pardoned 
return  again  to  all  the  purposes  of  mischief 
if  we,  bv  a  new  sin,  forfeit  God's  former 


loving-kindness.  "When  the  righteous  i  they  clothe  and  feed, 
man  turneth  from  his  righteousness  and  com- 
mitteth  iniquity,  all  his  righteousness  that  he 
hath  done  shall  not  be  remembered  :  in  the 
trespass  that  he  hath  trespassed,  and  in  the 
sin  that  he  hath  sinned,  in  them  shall  he 
die."f  Now  then  consider  how  great  a  fool 
he  is,  who,  when  he  hath,  with  much 
labour  and,  by  suffering  violence,  contra- 
dicted his  first  desires ;  when  his  spirit  hath 


of  a  long  purchase,  is  an  imprudence  be- 
coming none  but  such  persons  who  are  to 
be  kept  under  tutors  and  guardians^  and 
such  as  are  to  be  chastised  by  their  ser- 
vants, and  to  be  punished  by  them  whom 


 aWxi  xol  tu7irt; 

ALozpov  -tot  brpov  ts  itcmy,  xsvtov  vUa8ai. 

Hom.  II.  <3. 

These  men  sow  much  and  gather  little, 
stay  long  and  return  empty  ;  and  after  a  long 
voyage  they  are  dashed  in  pieces,  when  their 
vessels  are  laden  with  the  spoils  of  provinces. 
Every  deadly  sin  destroys  the  rewards  of  a 


even-years'  piety.  I  add  to  this,  that  God 
been  in  agony  and  care,  and,  with  much  I  is  more  impatient  at  a  sin  committed  by  hi.s 
uneasiness,  hath  denied  to  please  the  lower  |  servants,  than  at  many  by  persons  that  are 
man;  when,  with  many  prayers  and  groans,  his  enemies  ;  and  an  uncivil  answer  from  a 
and  innumerable  sighs,  and  strong  cryings  son  to  a  father,  from  an  obliged  person  to  a 
to  God,  with  sharp  sufferances  and  a  long;  benefactor,  is  a  greater  indecency,  than  if  an 
severity,  he  hath  obtained  of  God  to  begin  j  enemy  should  storm  his  house,  or  revile  him 

to  his  head.    Augustus  Csesar  taxed  all  the 


Chap.  ii.  10. 


t  Ezek.  xviii.  24.       1  world,  and  God  took  no  public  notices  of  it 


312 


GROWTH 


IN  SIN. 


S£HM.  XL1I. 


but  when  David  taxed  and  numbered  a  petty 
province,  it  was  not  to  be  expiated  without 
a  plague ;  because  such  persons,  besides  the 
direct  sin,  add  the  circumstance  of  ingrati- 
tude to  God,  who  hath  redeemed  them  from 
their  vain  conversation,  and  from  death,  and 
from  hell,  and  consigned  them  to  the  inheri- 
tance of  sons,  and  given  them  his  grace  and 
his  Spirit,  and  many  periods  of  comfort,  and 
a  certain  hope,  and  visible  earnests  of  im- 
mortality. Nothing  is  baser  than  that  such 
a  person,  against  his  reason,  against  his  in- 
terest, against  his  God,  against  so  many 
obligations,  against  his  custom,  against  his 
very  habits  and  acquired  inclinations,  should 
do  an  action 

Quam  nisi  seductis  nequeas  committere  divis  ; 

which  a  man  must  forever  be  ashamed  of, 
and,  like  Adam,  must  run  from  God  him- 
self to  do  it,  and  depart  from  the  state  in 
which  he  had  placed  all  his  hopes,  and  to 
which  he  had  designed  all  his  labours.  The 
consideration  is  effective  enough,  if  we  sum 
up  the  particulars;  for  he  that  hath  lived 
well,  and  then  falls  into  a  deliberate  sin,  is 
infinitely  dishonoured,  is  most  imprudent, 
most  unsafe,  and  most  unthankful. 

2.  Let  persons  tempted  to  the  single  in- 
stances of  sin  in  the  midst  of  a  laudable  life, 
be  very  careful  that  they  suffer  not  them- 
selves to  be  drawn  aside  by  the  eminence 
of  great  examples.  For  some  think  drunk- 
enness hath  a  little  honesty  derived  unto  it 
by  the  example  of  Noah  ;  and  adultery  is  not 
so  scandalous  and  intolerably  dishonourable, 
since  Bathsheba  bathed,  and  David  was  de- 
filed j  and  men  think  a  flight  is  no  cowardice, 
if  a  general  turns  his  head  and  runs  : 

"  Pompeio  fugiente  timent."  Lucan. 

Well  might  ail  the  gowned  "  Romans  fear, 
when  Pompey  fled."  And  who  is  there 
that  can  hope  to  be  more  righteous  than 
David,  or  stronger  than  Samson,  or  have 
less  hypocrisy  than  St.  Peter,  or  be  more 
temperate  than  Noah?  These  great  ex- 
amples bear  men  of  weak  discourses  and 
weaker  resolutions  from  the  severity  of  vir- 
tues. But,  as  Diagoras,  to  them  that  show- 
ed to  him  the  votive  garments  of  those  that 
had  escaped  shipwreck,  upon  their  prayers 
and  vows  to  Neptune,  answered,  that  they 
kept  no  account  of  those  that  prayed  and 
vowed,  and  yet  were  drowned :  so  do  these 
men  keep  catalogues  of  those  few  persons, 
who  broke  the  thread  of  a  fair  life  in  sunder 
with  the  violence  of  a  great  crime,  and,  by  | 


the  grace  of  God,  recovered,  and  repented, 
and  lived  ;  but  they  consider  not  concerning 
those  infinite  numbers  of  men,  who  died  in 
their  first  fit  of  sickness,  who,  after  a  fair 
voyage,  have  thrown  themselves  over-board, 
and  perished  in  a  sudden  wildness.  One 
said  well,  "  Si  quid  Socrates  aut  Aristippu3 
contra  morem  et  consuetudinem  fecerunt, 
idem  sibi  ne  arbitretur  quis  licere:  magnis 
enim  illi  et  divinis  bonis  hanc  licentiam 
assequebantur :?'  "  If  Socrates  did  any  un- 
usual thing,  it  is  not  for  thee,  who  art  of  an 
ordinary  virtue,  to  assume  the  same  license ; 
for  he,  by  a  divine  and  excellent  life,  hath 
obtained  leave  or  pardon  respectively''  for 
what  thou  must  never  hope  for,  till  thou 
hast  arrived  to  the  same  glories.  First,  be 
as  devout  as  David,  as  good  a  Christian  as 
St.  Peter,  and  then  thou  wilt  not  dare, 
with  design,  to  act  that  which  they  fell  into 
by  surprise  ;  and  if  thou  dost  fall  as  they  did, 
by  that  time  thou  hast  also  repented  like 
them,  it  may  be  said  concerning  thee,  that 
thou  didst  fall  and  break  thy  bones,  but  God 
did  heal  thee  and  pardon  thee.  Remember 
that  all  the  damned  souls  shall  bear  an  eter- 
nity of  torments  for  the  pleasures  of  a  short 
sinfulness  ;  but  for  a  single  transient  action 
to  die  for  ever,  is  an  intolerable  exchange, 
and  the  effect  of  so  great  a  folly,  that  who- 
soever falls  into  it,  and  then  considers  it,  it 
will  make  him  mad  and  distracted  for  ever. 

3.  Remember,  that  since  no  man  can 
please  God,  or  be  partaker  of  any  promises, 
or  reap  the  reward  of  any  actions  in  the  re- 
turns of  eternity,  unless  he  performs  to  God 
an  entire  duty,  according  to  the  capacities 
of  a  man  so  taught,  and  so  tempted,  and  so 
assisted  ;  such  a  person  must  be  curious, 
that  he  be  not  cozened  with  the  duties  and 
performances  of  any  one  relation.  1.  Some 
there  are,  that  think  all  our  religion  consists 
in  prayers  and  public  or  private  offices  of 
devotion,  and  not  in  moral  actions,  or  inter- 
courses of  justice  and  temperance,  of  kind- 
ness and  friendships,  of  sincerity  and  liber- 
ality, of  chastity  and  humility,  of  repentance 
and  obedience.  Indeed  no  humour  is  so 
easy  to  be  counterfeited  as  devotion;  and 
yet  no  hypocrisy  is  more  common  among 
men,  nor  any  so  useless  as  to  God  :  for  it 
being  an  address  to  him  alone,  who  knows 
the  heart  and  all  the  secret  purposes,  it  can 
do  no  service  in  order  to  heaven,  so  long  as 
it  is  without  the  power  of  godliness,  and  the 
energy  and  vivacity  of  a  holy  life.  God  will 
not  suffer  us  to  commute  a  duty,  because  all 
is  his  due ;  and  religion  shall  not  pay  for 


Suv.  XLII. 


GROWTH  IN  SIN. 


313 


want  of  temperance.    If  the  devoutest  her-  i 
mit  be  proud,  or  he  that  "  fasts  thrice  in  the ; 
week,"  be  uncharitable  once;  or  he  that 
gives  much  to  the  poor  gives  also  too  much 
liberty  to  himself;  he  hath  planted  a  fair! 
garden,  and  invited  a  wild  boar  to  refresh: 
himself  under  the  shade  of  the  fruit-trees ;  j 
and  his  guest,  being  something  rude,  hath  | 
disordered  his  paradise,  and  made  it  become 
a  wilderness.    2.  Others  there  are,  that 
judge  themselves  by  the  censures  that  kings 
and  princes  give  concerning  them,  or  as  they 
are  spoken  of  by  their  betters ;  and  so  make 
false  judgments  concerning  their  condition. 
For,  our  betters,  to  whom  we  show  our  best 
parte,  to  whom  we  speak  with  caution  and 
consider  what  we  represent,  they  see  our 
arts  and  our  dressings,  but  nothing  of  our  \ 
nature  and  deformities  :  trust  not  their  cen- 
sures concerning  thee  ;  but  to  thy  own  opin- 
ion of  thyself,  whom  thou  knowest  in  thy 
retirements,  and  natural  peevishness,  and 
unhandsome  inclinations,  and  secret  base-  j 
ness.    3.  Some  men  have  been  admired 
abroad,  in  whom  the  wife  and  the  servant 
never  saw  any  thing  excellent :  a  rare  judge 
and  a  good  commonwealth's  man  in  the 
streets  and  public  meetings,  and  a  just  man 
to  his  neighbour,  and  charitable  to  the  poor: 
for  in  all  these  places  the  man  is  observed, 
and  kept  in  awe  by  the  sun,  by  light,  and  bv 
Voices  :  but  this  man  is  a  tyrant  at  home,  an 
unkind  husband,  an  imperious  master.  And 
such  men  are  like  "  prophets  in  their  own 
countries,"  not  honoured  at  home  ;  and  can 
never  be  honoured  by  God,  who  will  not 
endure  that  many  virtues  should  excuse  a  j 
few  vices,  or  that  any  of  his  servants  shall  i 
take  pensions  of  the  devil,  and  in  the  pro-  ; 
fession  of  his  service  do  his  enemy  single 
advantages. 

4.  He  that  hath  passed  many  stages  of  a  { 
good  life,  to  prevent  his  being  tempted  to  a  | 
single  sin,  must  be  very  careful  that  he 
never  entertain  his  spirit  with  the  remem- 
brances of  his  past  sin,  nor  amuse  it  with 
the  fantastic  apprehensions  of  the  present. 
When  the  Israelites  fancied  the  sapid  ness 
and  relish  of  the  flesh  pots,  they  longed  to 
taste  and  to  return. 

So  when  a  Libyan  tiger,  drawn  from  his 
wilder  foragings,  is  shut  up,  and  taught  to 
eat  civil  meat,  aud  suffer  the  authority  of  a 
man,  he  sits  down  tamely  in  his  prison,  and  | 
pays  to  his  keeper  fear  and  reverence  for 
his  meat :  but  if  he  chance  to  come  again, 
and  taste  a  draught  of  warm  blood,  he  pre- 
sentlv  leaps  into  his  natural  cruelty.  He 
40 


scarce  abstains  from  eating  those  hands  that 
brought  him  discipline  and  food.*  So  is  the 
nature  of  a  man  made  tame  and  gentle  by 
the  grace  of  God,  and  reduced  to  reason, 
and  kept  in  awe  by  religion  and  laAvs,  and, 
by  an  awful  virtue,  is  taught  to  forget  those 
alluring  and  sottish  relishes  of  sin  :  but  if  he 
diverts  from  his  path,  and  snatches  handl'uls 
from  the  wanton  vineyards,  and  remembers 
the  lasciviousness  of  his  unwholesome  food, 
that  pleased  his  childish  palate;  then  he 
grows  sick  again,  and  hungry  after  un- 
wholesome diet,  and  longs  for  the  apples  of 
Sodom.  A  man  must  walk  through  the 
world  without  eyes  or  ears,  fancy  or  ap- 
petites, but  such  as  are  created  and  sanctified 
by  the  grace  of  God :  and  being  once  made 
a  new  man,  he  must  serve  all  the  needs  of 
nature  by  the  appetites  and  faculties  of 
grace;  nature  must  be  wholly  a  servant: 
and  we  must  so  look  towards  the  delicious- 
ness  of  our  religion  and  the  ravishments  of 
heaven,  that  our  memory  must  be  for  ever 
useless  to  the  affairs  and  perceptions  of  sin. 
We  cannot  stand,  we  cannot  live,  unless  we 
be  curious  and  watchful  in  this  particular. 

By  these,  and  all  other  arts  of  the  spirit, 
if  we  stand  upon  our  guard,  never  indulging 
to  ourselves  one  sin  because  it  is  but  one,  as 
knowing  that  one  sin  brought  in  death  upon 
all  the  world,  and  one  sin  brought  slavery 
upon  the  posterity  of  Cham ;  and  always 
fearing  lest  death  surprise  us  in  that  one  sin  ; 
we  shall,  by  the  grace  of  God,  either  not  need  , 
or  else  easily  perceive  the  effects  and  bless- 
ings of  that  compassion  which  God  reserves, 
in  the  secrets  of  his  mercy,  for  such  persons 
whom  his  grace  hath  ordained  and  dis- 
posed with  excellent  dispositions  unto  lite 
eternal. 

These  are  the  sorts  of  men  which  are  to 
be  used  with  compassion,  concerning  whom 
we  are  to  make  a  difference ;  M  making  a 
difference,"  so  says  the  text.  And  it  is  of 
high  concernment  that  we  should  do  so, 
that  we  may  relieve  the  infirmities  of  the 
men,  and  relieve  their  sicknesses,  and  tran- 
scribe the  copy  of  the  Divine  mercy,  who 
loves  not  to  "  quench  the  smoking  flax,  nor 
break  the  bruised  reed."  For  although  all 
sins  are  against  God's  commandments  direct- 
ly, or  by  certain  consequents,  by  line,  or  by 

*  Sic  obi,  desuetce  sylvis,  incarcere  clausae, 
Mansuevere  ferae,  e't  vultus  posuere  minaces 
Atque  hominem  didicere  pati :  si  torrida  parvus. 
Venit  in  ora  cruor.  redeunt  rabiesque  furorque, 
Admonitaeque  tument  gustato  sanguine  fauces  ; 
Fervet,  et  a  trepido  vLx  abstinet  ira  magistro. 

Phar* 

2B 


314 


GROWT 


H  IN  SIN. 


Serm.  XLII. 


analogy ;  yet  they  are  not  all  of  the  same 
tincture  and  mortality. 

Nec  vincit  ratio  hoc,  tantundem  ut  peccet 
idemque, 

Qui  teneros  caules  alieni  fregerit  horti, 
Et  qui  nocturnus  divum  sacra  legerit. 

"  He  that  robs  a  garden  of  coleworts,  and 
carries  away  an  armful  of  spinage,  does  not 
deserve  hell,  as  he  that  steals  the  chalice 
from  the  Church,  or  betrays  a  prince  ;"  and 
therefore  men  are  distinguished  accordingly. 

Est  inter  Tanaim  quiddam  socerumque  Viselli. — 

Hor. 

The  poet  that  Sejanus  condemned  for  dis- 
honouring the  memory  of  Agamemnon,  was 
not  an  equal  criminal  with  Cataline  or  Grac- 
chus :  and  Simon  Magus  and  the  Nicolaitans 
committed  crimes  which  God  hated  more 
than  the  complying  of  St.  Barnabas,  or  the 
dissimulation  of  St.  Peter;  and  therefore  God 
does  treat  these  persons  severally.  Some 
of  these  are  restrained  with  a  fit  of  sickness, 
some  with  a  great  loss,  and  in  these  there 
are  degrees ;  and  some  arrive  at  death.  And 
in  this  manner  God  scourged  the  Corin- 
thians, for  their  irreverent  and  disorderly  re- 
ceiving the  holy  sacrament.  For  although 
even  the  least  of  the  sins  that  I  have  dis- 
coursed of  will  lead  to  death  eternal,  if  their 
course  be  not  interrupted,  and  the  disorder 
chastised  ;  yet  because  we  do  not  stop  their 
progress  instantly,  God  many  times  does, 
and  visits  us  with  proportionable  judgments  ; 
and  so  not  only  checks  the  rivulet  from 
swelling  into  rivers  and  a  vastness,  but  plain- 
ly tells  us  that  although  smaller  crimes  shall 
not  be  punished  with  equal  severity  as  the 
greatest,  yet  even  in  hell  there  are  eternal 
rods  as  well  as  eternal  scorpions ;  and  the 
smallest  crime  that  we  act  with  an  infant 
malice  and  manly  deliberation,  shall  be  re- 
venged with  the  lesser  strokes  of  wrath,  but 
yet  with  the  infliction  of  a  sad  eternity.  But 
then  that  we  also  should  make  a  difference, 
is  a  precept  concerning  church-discipline, 
and  therefore  not  here  proper  to  be  consider- 
ed, but  only  as  it  may  concern  our  own 
particulars  in  the  actions  of  repentance,  and 
our  brethren  in  fraternal  correction. 

 adsi  t 

Regula,  quae  paenas  peccatis  irroget  aequas, 
Ne  scutica  disrnum  horribili  secterc  flagelto. 

Hor. 

Let  us  be  sure  that  we  neglect  no  sin,  but 
repent  for  every  one,  and  judge  ourselves 
for  every  one,  according  to  the  proportion 
of  the  malice,  or  the  scandal,  or  the  danger. 


And  although  in  this  there  is  no  fear  that 
we  would  be  excessive ;  yet,  when  we  are 
to  reprove  a  brother,  we  are  sharp  enough, 
and,  e  ther  by  pride  or  by  animosity,  by  the 
itch  of  government  or  the  indignation  of  an 
angry  mind,  we  run  beyond  the  gentleness 
of  a  Christian  monitor.  We  must  remem- 
ber, that  by  Christ's  law  some  are  to  be  ad- 
monished privately,  some  to  be  shamed  and 
corrected  publicly  ;  and,  beyond  these,  there 
is  an  abscission,  or  a  cutting  off  from  the 
communion  of  faithful  people,  "a  delivering 
over  to  Satan."  And  to  this  purpose  is  that 
old  reading  of  the  words  of  my  text,  which 
is  still  in  some  copies,  xai  tov$  fih  t?Jyztt£ 
^Laxpivofxtvovs,  "  Reprove  them  sharply,  when 
they  are  convinced,"  or  "  separate  by  sen- 
tence." But  because  this  also  is  a  design 
of  mercy  acted  with  an  instance  of  disci- 
pline, it  is  a  punishment  of  the  flesh,  that 
the  soul  may  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the 
Lord  ;  it  means  the  same  with  the  usual  read- 
ing and  with  the  last  words  of  the  text,  and 
teaches  us  our  usage  towards  the  worst  of 
recoverable  sinners. 

1 1 .  "  Others  save  with  fear,  pulling  them 
out  of  the  fire."  Some  sins  there  are,  which 
in  their  own  nature  are  damnable,  and  some 
are  such  as  will  certainly  bring  a  man  to 
damnation :  the  first  are  curable,  but  with 
much  danger;  the  second  are  desperate  and 
irrecoverable.  When  a  man  is  violently 
tempted,  and  allured  with  an  object  that  is 
proportionable  and  pleasant  to  his  vigorous 
appetite,  and  his  unabated,  unmodified  na- 
ture, this  man  falls  into  death ;  but  yet  we 
pity  him,  as  we  pity  a  thief  that  robs  for  his 
necessity :  this  man  did  not  tempt  himself, 
but  his  spirit  suffers  violence,  and  his  rea- 
son is  invaded,  and  his  infirmities  are  mighty, 
and  his  aids  not  yet  prevailing.  But  when 
this  single  temptation  hath  prevailed  for  a 
single  instance,  and  leaves  a  relish  upon  the 
palate,  and  this  produces  another,  and  that 
also  is  fruitful,  and  swells  into  a  family  and 
kindred  of  sin,  that  is,  it  grows,  first  into 
approbation,  then  to  a  clear  assent  and 
an  untroubled  conscience,  thence  into  fre- 
quency, from  thence  unto  a  custom,  and 
easiness,  and  a  habit;  this  man  is  fallen 
into  the  fire.  There  are  also  some  single 
acts  of  so  great  a  malice,  that  they  must 
suppose  a  man  habitually  sinful,  before  he 
could  arrive  at  that  height  of  wickedness. 
No  man  begins  his  sinful  course  with  kill- 
ing of  his  father  or  his  prince :  and  Simon 
Magus  had  preambulatory  impieties;  he 
was  covetous  and  ambitious  long  before  he 


Serm.  XLIL 


GROWTH    ZS*  SIN. 


315 


offered  to  buy  the  Holy  Ghost.  "Nemo 
repente  fuit  turpissimus."  And  although 
such  actions  may  have  in  them  the  malice 
and  the  mischief,  the  disorder  and  the  wrong, 
the  principle  and  the  permanent  effect  of  a 
habit  and  a  long  course  of  sin;  yet  because 
they  never,  or  very  seldom,  go  alone,  but 
after  the  predisposition  of  other  ushering 
crimes,  we  shall  not  amiss  comprise  them 
under  the  name  of  habitual  sins ;  for  such 
they  are,  either  formally  or  equivalently. 
And  if  any  man  hath  fallen  into  a  sinful 
habit,  into  a  course  and  order  of  sinning, 
his  case  is  little  less  than  desperate;  but 
that  little  hope  that  is  remanent,  hath  its 
degree,  according  to  the  infancy  or  the 
growth  of  the  habit. 

L  For  all  sins  less  than  habitual,  it  is 
certain  a  pardon  is  ready  to  penitent  persons  ; 
that  is,  to  all  that  sin  in  ignorance  or  in  in- 
firmity, by  surprise  or  inadvertency,  in 
smaller  instances  or  infrequent  returns,  with 
involuntary  actions  or  imperfect  resolutions. 
'Ext fivats  Ta$  £Kpaj  vuZjv  rtpoj  tbv  avToxpaTopa  I 
Osbv,  lxstevoits$  avtov  iteuv  ysvea^ac,  ft  rt  ' 
axov-tss  f-udpte-tt,  said  Clemens  in  his  epistle  :  ] 
Lift  up  your  hands  to  Almighty  God,  and  j 
pray  him  to  be  merciful  to  you  in  all  things,  j 
when  you  sin  unwillingly;"  that  is,  in 
which  you  sin  with  an  imperfect  choice. 
For  no  man  sins  against  his  will  directly, 
but  when  his  understanding  is  abused  by 
an  inevitable  or  an  intolerable  weakness,  or 
their  wills  follow  their  blind  guide,  and  are 
not  the  perfect  mistresses  of  their  own 
actions ;  and  therefore  leave  a  way  and  easi- 
ness to  repent,  and  be  ashamed  of  them, 
and  therefore  a  possibility  and  readiness  for 
pardon.  And  these  are  the  sins  that  we 
are  taught  to  pray  to  God  that  he  would 
pardon,  as  he  gives  us  our  bread,  that  is, 
every  day.  For  "in  many  things  we  offend  i 
all,"  said  St.  James ;  that  is,  in  many  smaller 
matters,  in  matters  of  surprise  or  inevitable 
infirmity.  And  therefore  Possidonius  said, 
that  St.  Austin  was  used  to  say,  that  "  he 
would  not  have  even  good  and  holy  priests 
go  from  this  world  without  the  susception 
of  equal  and  worthy  penances:"  and  the 
most  innocent  life  in  our  account  is  not  a 
competent  instrument  of  a  peremptory  con- 
fidence, and  of  justifying  ourselves.  "I  am 
guilty  of  nothing,"  said  St.  Paul;  that  is,  of 
no  ill  intent,  or  negligence,  in  preaching  the 
gospel;  "yet  I  am  not  hereby  justified;" 
for  God,  it  may  be,  knows  many  little  irre- 
gularities and  insinuations  of  sin.  In  this 
case  we  are  to  make  a  difference ;  but  hu- 


mility, and  prayer,  and  watchfulness,  are 
the  direct  instruments  of  the  expiation  of 
such  sins. 

But  then,  secondly,  whosoever  sins  with- 
out these  abating  circumstances,  that  is,  in 
great  instances,  in  which  a  man's  under- 
standing cannot  be  cozened,  as  in  drunken- 
ness, murder,  adultery  ;  and  in  the  frequent 
repetitions  of  any  sort  of  sin  whatsoever,  in 
which  a  man's  choice  cannot  be  surprised, 
and  in  which  it  is  certain  there  is  a  love  of 
the  sin,  and  a  delight  in  it,  and  a  power 
over  a  man's  resolutions ;  in  these  cases  it 
is  a  miraculous  grace,  and  an  extraordinary 
change,  that  must  turn  the  current  and  the 
stream  of  the  iniquity ;  and  when  it  is  be- 
gun, the  pardon  is  more  uncertain,  and  the 
repentance  more  difficult,  and  the  effect 
much  abated,  and  the  man  must  be  made 
miserable,  that  he  may  not  be  accursed 
for  ever. 

1.  I  say,  his  pardon  is  uncertain ;  because 
there  are  some  sins  which  are  unpardonable, 
(as  I  shall  show.)  and.  they  are  not  all 
named  in  particular;  and  the  degrees  of 
malice  being  uncertain,  the  salvation  of  that 
man  is  to  be  wrought  with  infinite  fear 
and  trembling.  It  was  the  case  of  Simon 
Magus :  "  Repent,  and  ask  pardon  for  thy 
sin,  if  peradventure  the  thought  of  thy  heart 
may  be  forgiven  thee."*  If  peradventure  ; 
it  was  a  new  crime,  and  concerning  its  pos- 
sibility of  pardon  no  revelation  had  been 
made,  and  by  analogy  to  other  crimes  it 
was  very  like  an  unpardonable  sin :  for  it 
was  "a  thinking  a  thought"  against  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  that  was  next  to  "  speak- 
ing a  word"  against  him.  Cain's  sin  was 
of  the  same  nature  :  "  It  is  greater  than  it 
can  be  forgiven :"  his  passion  and  his  fear 
was  too  severe  and  decretory  ;  it  was  par- 
donable, but  truly  we  never  find  that  God 
did  pardon  it. 

2.  But  besides  this,  it  is  uncertain  in  the 
pardon,  because  it  may  be  the  time  of  par- 
don is  past :  and  though  God  hath  pardoned 
to  other  people  the  same  sins,  and  to  thee 
too  sometimes  before,  yet  it  may  be,  he  will 
not  now :  he  hath  not  promised  pardon  so 
often  as  we  sin,  and  in  all  the  returns  of 
impudence,  apostasy,  and  ingratitude;  and 
it  may  be,  "  thy  day  is  past,"  as  was  Jeru- 
salem's in  the  day  that  they  crucified  the 
Saviour  of  the  world. 

3.  Pardon  of  such  habitual  sins  is  uncer- 
tain, because  life  is  uncertain ;  aud  such 

*  Acts  viii.  22. 


316 


GROWTH 


IN  SIN. 


Serm.  XLII. 


sins  require  much  time  for  their  abolition 
and  expiation.  And  therefore,  although 
these  sins  are  not  "necessarid  mortifera," 
That  is,  unpardonable  j  yet  by  consequence 
they  become  deadly ;  because  our  life  may 
be  cut  off,  before  we  have  finished  or  per- 
formed those  necessary  parts  of  repentance, 
which  are  the  severe,  and  yet  the  only  con- 
dition of  getting  pardon.  So  that  you  may 
perceive,  that  not  only  every  great  single 
crime,  but  the  habit  of  any  sin  is  danger- 
ous :  and  therefore  these  persons  are  to  be 
u  snatched  from  the  fire,"  if  you  mean  to 
rescue  them :  Ik  tov  rtrpoj  aprta£Wt 5.  If  you 
stay  a  day,  it  may  be  you  stay  too  long. 

4.  To  which  I  add  this  fourth  considera- 
tion, that  every  delay  of  return  is,  in  the 
case  of  habitual  sins,  an  approach  to  despe- 
ration ;  because  the  nature  of  habits  is  like 
that  of  crocodiles,  they  grow  as  long  as  they 
live ;  and  if  they  come  to  obstinacy  or  con- 
firmation, they  are  in  hell  already,  and  can 
never  return  back.  For  so  the  Pannonian 
bears,  when  they  iiave  clasped  a  dart  in  the 
region  of  their  liver,  wheel  themselves  upon 
the  wound,  and  with  anger  and  malicious 
revenge  strike  the  deadly  barb  deeper,  and 
cannot  be  quit  from  that  fatal  steel;  but,  in 
living,  bear  along  that  which  themselves 
make  the  instrument  of  a  more  hasty  death  : 
so  is  every  vicious  person  struck  with  a 
deadly  wound,  and  his  own  hands  force  it 
into  the  entertainments  of  the  heart;  and 
because  it  is  painful  to  draw  it  forth  by  a 
sharp  and  salutary  repentance,  he  still  rolls 
and  turns  upon  his  wound,  and  carries  his 
death  in  his  bowels,  where  it  first  entered 
by  choice,  and  then  dwelt  by  love,  and  at 
last  shall  finish  the  tragedy  by  Divine  judg- 
ments and  an  unalterable  decree. 

But  as  the  pardon  of  these  sins  is  uncer- 
tain, so  tbe  conditions  of  restitution  are  hard 
even  to  them  who  shall  be  pardoned  :  their 
pardon,  and  themselves  too,  must  be  fetched 
from  the  fire ;  water  will  not  do  it ;  tears 
and  ineffective  sorrow  cannot  take  off  a 
habit,  or  a  great  crime. 

O  nimium  faciles,  qui  tritia  crimina  caedis 
Tolli  fluminea  posse  putatis  aqua! 

Bion,  seeing  a  prince  weep  and  tearing 
his  hair  for  sorrow,  asked  if  baldness  would 
cure  his  grief?  Such  pompous  sorrows 
may  be  good  indices,  but  no  perfect  instru- 
ments of  restitution.  St.  James  plainly  de- 
clares the  possibilities  of  pardon  to  great 
sins,  in  the  cases  of  contention,  adultery,  lust, 
and  envy,  which  are  the  four  great  inde- 


cencies that  are  most  contrary  to  Chris- 
tianity :*  and  in  the  fifth  chapler,+  he  im- 
plies also  a  possibility  of  pardon  to  an 
habitual  sinner,  whom  he  calls  tbv  7t%avrj- 
§ivta  a7totiji  6Sov  trjsafafetlas,  "  one  that  errs 
from  the  truth,"  that  is,  from  the  life  of  a 
Christian,  the  life  of  the  Spirit  of  truth :  and 
he  adds,  that  such  a  person  may  be  reduced, 
and  so  be  pardoned,  though  he  have  sinned 
long;  f'He  that  converts  such  a  one,  shall 
hide  a  multitude  of  sins."  But  then  the 
way  that  he  appoints  for  the  restitution  of 
such  persons,  is  humility  and  humiliation, 
penances  and  sharp  penitential  sorrows,  and 
afflictions,  resisting  the  devil,  returning  to 
God,  weeping  and  mourning,  confessions, 
and  prayers,  as  you  may  read  at  large  in 
the  fourth  and  fifth  chapters :  and  there  it 
is  that  you  shall  find  it  a  duty,  that  such 
persons  should  "  be  afflicted,"  and  should 
"  confess  to  their  brethren  :"  and  these  are 
harder  conditions  than  God  requires  in  the 
former  cases;  these  are  a  kind  of  fiery  trial. 

I  have  now  done  with  my  text;  and 
should  add  no  more,  but  that  the  nature  of 
these  sins  is  such,  that  they  may  increase 
in  their  weight  and  duration  and  malice,  and 
then  they  increase  in  mischief  and  fatality, 
and  so  go  beyond  the  text.  Cicero  said  well, 
"  Ipsa  consuetudoassentiendipericulosaesse 
videtur  et  lubrica  :"J  "  The  very  custom  of 
consenting  in  the  matters  of  civility  is  dan- 
gerous and  slippery,"  and  will  quickly  en- 
gage us  in  error :  and  then  we  think  we  are 
bound  to  defend  them ;  or  else  we  are  made 
flatterers  by  it,  and  so  become  vicious  :  and 
we  love  our  own  vices  that  we  are  used  to, 
and  keep  them  till  they  are  incurable,  that 
is,  till  we  will  never  repent  of  them ;  and 
some  men  resolve  never  to  repent,  that  is, 
they  resolve  they  will  not  be  saved,  they 
tread  under  foot  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant.  Those  persons  are  in  the  fire  too, 
but  they  will  not  be  pulled  out :  concerning 
whom  God's  prophets  must  say  as  once 
concerning  Babylon,  Curavimus,  et  non 
est  sanata;  derelinquamus  earn:"— "We 
would  have  healed  them,  but  they  would 
not  be  healed ;  let  us  leave  them  in  their 
sins,  and  they  shall  have  enough  of  it." 
Only  this  :  those  that  put  themselves  out  of 
the  condition  of  mercy,  are  not  to  be  en- 
dured in  Christian  societies ;  they  deserve  it 
not,  and  it  is  not  safe  that  they  should  be 
suffered. 


*  Chap.  iv.  1,3.   t  Ver.  ult.    X  Acad.  Qu.  lib.  iv. 


Serm.  XLIII. 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


317 


But  besides  all  this,  I  shall  name  one 
thing  more  unto  you  ;  lor 

 nunquam  adeo  foedis  adedque  pudendis 

Ufimur  exemplis,  ut  non  pejora  supersint. 

Juv. 

There  are  some  single  actions  of  sin  of 
so  great  a  malice,  that  in  their  own  nature 
they  are  beyond  the  limit  of  gospel  pardon : 
they  are  not  such  things  for  the  pardon  of 
which  God  entered  into  covenant,  because 
they  are  such  sins  which  put  a  man  into 
perfect  indispositions  and  incapacities  of  en- 
tering into  or  being  in  the  covenant.  In  the 
first  ages  of  the  world  atheism  was  of  that 
nature,  it  was  against  their  whole  religion ; 
and  the  sin  is  worse  now,  against  the  whole 
religion  still,  and  against  a  brighter  light. 
In  the  ages  after  the  flood,  idolatry  was  also 
just  such  another:  for  God  was  known 
first  only  as  the  Creator ;  then  he  began  to 
manifest  himself  in  special  contracts  with 
men,  and  he  quickly  was  declared  the  God 
of  Israel;  and  idolatry  perfectly  destroyed 
ail  that  religion,  and  therefore  was  never 
pardoned  entirely,  but  God  did  visit  it  upon 
them  that  sinned ;  and  when  he  pardoned  it 
in  some  degrees,  yet  he  also  punished  it  in 
some:  and  yet  rebellion  against  the  supreme 
power  of  Moses  and  Aaron  was  worse ;  for 
that  also  was  a  perfect  destruction  of  the 
whole  religion,  because  it  refused  to  submit 
to  those  hands,  upon  which  God  had  placed 
all  the  religion  and  all  the  government. 
And  now,  if  we  would  know  in  the  gos- 
pel what  answers  these  precedent  sins  ;  I 
answer,  first,  the  same  sins  acted  by  a  rea- 
sonable hand  and  heart  are  worse  now  than 
ever  they  were :  and  a  third  or  fourth  is  also 
to  be  added ;  and  that  is  apostasy,  or  a  volun- 
tary malicious  renouncing  the  faith.  The 
church  hath  often  declared  that  sin  to  be 
unpardonable.  Witchcraft,  or  final  impeni- 
tence and  obstinacy  in  any  sin,  are  infallibly 
desperate ;  and  in  general,  and  by  a  certain 
parity  of  reason,  whatsoever  does  destroy 
charity,  or  the  good  life  of  a  Christian,  with 
the  same  general  venom  and  deletery  as 
apostasy  destroys  faith :  and  he  that  is  a 
renegado  from  charity,  is  as  unpardonable 
as  he  that  returns  to  solemn  atheism  or  infi- 
delity :  for  all  that  is  directly  the  sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  that  is,  a  throwing  that  away 
whereby  only  we  can  be  Christians,  whereby 
only  we  can  hope  to  be  saved.  To  "  speak 
a  word  against  the  Holy  Ghost,"  in  the 
Pharisees  was  declared  unpardonable,  be- 
cause it  was  such  a  woid  which,  if  it  had 


been  true  or  believed,  would  have  destroyed 
the  whole  religion  ;  for  they  said  that  Christ 
wrought  by  Beelzebub,  and  by  consequence 
did  not  come  from  God.  He  that  destroys 
all  the  whole  order  of  priesthood,  destroys 
one  of  the  greatest  parts  of  the  religion,  and 
one  of  the  greatest  effects  of  the  Holy  Ghost : 
he  that  destroys  government,  destroys  ano- 
ther part.  But  that  we  may  come  nearer  to 
ourselves:  To  "  quench  the  Spirit  of  God" 
is  worse  than  to  speak  some  words  against 
him ;  to  "grieve  the  Spirit  of  God"  is  a  part 
of  the  same  impiety;  to  "resist  the  Holy 
Ghost"  is  another  part :  and  if  we  consider 
that  every  great  sin  does  this  in  proportion, 
it  would  concern  us  to  be  careful  lest  we  fall 
into  "  presumptuous  sins,  lest  they  get  the 
dominion  over  us."  Out  of  this  that  I  have 
spoken,  you  may  easily  gather  what  sort  of 
men  those  are.  who  cannot  be  "  snatched 
from  the  fire ;"  for  whom  as  St.  John  says, 
"we  are  not  to  pray;"  and  how  near  men 
come  to  it  that  continue  in  any  known  sin. 
If  I  should  descend  to  particulars,  I  might 
lay  a  snare  to  scrupulous  and  nice  con- 
sciences. This  only :  every  confirmed  habit- 
ual sinner  does  manifest  the  divine  justice 
in  puftishing  the  sins  of  a  short  life  with  a 
never-dying  worm  and  a  never-quenched 
flame ;  because  he  that  hath  an  affection  to 
sin,  that  no  time  will  diminish,  but  such  as 
would  increase  to  eternal  ages ;  and  accord- 
ingly, as  any  man  hath  a  degree  of  love,  so 
he  hath  lodged  in  his  soul  a  spark,  which, 
unless  it  be  speedily  and  effectively  quench- 
ed, will  break  forth  into  unquenchable  fire. 


SERMON  XLIII. 

THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 
PART  I. 

For  what  is  a  man  profited,  if  ke  shall  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  oion  sonl  ?  or  what  shall 
a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ? — Matt, 
xvi.  26. 

When  the  eternal  mercy  of  God  had  de- 
creed to  rescue  mankind  from  misery  and 
infelicity,  and  so  triumphed  over  his  own 
justice;  the  excellent  wisdom  of  God  re- 
solved to  do  it  in  ways  contradictory  to  the 
appetites  and  designs  of  man,  that  it  also 
might  triumph  over  our  weaknesses  and  im- 
perfect conceptions.  So  God  decreed  to  glo- 
2  b  2 


318 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


Serm.  XLIII. 


rify  his  mercy  by  curing  our  sins,  and  to  1 
exalt  his  wisdom  by  the  reproof  of  our  ig- 
norance, and  the  representing  upon  what 
weak  and  false  principles  we  had  built  our 
hopes  and  expectations  of  felicity ;  pleasure 
and  profit,  victory  over  our  enemies,  riches 
and  pompous  honours,  power  and  revenge, 
desires  according  to  sensual  appetites^  and 
prosecutions  violent  and  passionate  of  those 
appetites,  health,  and  long  life,  free  from 
trouble,  without  poverty  or  persecution. 

Haec  sunt,  jucundissime  Martialis, 
Vitam  quae  faciunt  beatiorem. 

Mart. 

These  are  the  measures  of  good  and  evil, 
the  object  of  our  hopes  and  fears,  the  secur- 
ing our  content,  and  the  portion  of  this 
world ;  and  for  the  other,  let  it  be  as  it  may. 
But  the  blessed  Jesus, — having  made  reve- 
lations of  an  immortal  duration,  of  another 
world,  and  of  a  strange  restitution  to  it,  even 
by  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  a  new 
investiture  of  the  soul  with  the  same  upper 
garment,  clarified  and  made  pure,  so  as  no 
fuller  on  earth  can  whiten  it; — hath  also 
preached  a  new  philosophy,  hath  cancelled 
all  the  old  principles,  reduced  the  appetites 
of  sense  to  the  discourses  of  reason,  and 
heightened  reason  to  the  sublimities  of  the 
Spirit,  teaching  us  abstractions  and  imma- 
terial conceptions,  giving  us  new  eyes,  and 
new  objects,  and  new  proportions  :  for  new 
sensual  pleasures  are  not  delightful,  riches 
are  dross,  honours  are  nothing  but  the  ap- 
pendages of  virtue,  and  in  relation  to  it  are 
to  receive  their  account.  But  now  if  you 
would  enjoy  life,  you  must  die;  if  you 
would  be  at  ease,  you  must  take  up  Christ's 
cross,  and  conform  to  his  sufferings ;  if  you 
would  "  save  your  life,"  you  must  "lose  it;" 
and  if  you  would  be  rich,  you  must  abound 
in  good  works,  you  must  be  "poor  in  spirit," 
and  despise  the  world,  and  be  rich  unto  God : 
for  whatsoever  is  contrary  to  the  purchases 
and  affections  of  this  world,  is  an  endear- 
ment of  our  hopes  in  the  world  to  come. 
And,  therefore,  he  having  stated  the  ques- 
tion so,  that  either  we  must  quit  this  world 
or  the  other;  our  affections,  I  mean,  and 
adherences  to  this,  or  our  interest  and  hopes 
of  the  other :  the  choice  is  rendered  very 
easy  by  the  words  of  my  text,  because  the 
distance  is  not  less  than  infinite,  and  the 
comparison  hath  terms  of  a  vast  difference; 
heaven  and  hell,  eternity  and  a  moment, 
vanity  and  real  felicity,  life  and  death  eter- 
nal, all  that  can  be  hoped  for,  and  all  that 


can  be  feared ;  these  are  the  terms  of  our 
choice :  and  if  a  man  have  his  wits  about 
him,  and  be  not  drunk  with  sensuality  and 
senselessness,  he  need  not  much  to  dispute 
before  he  pass  the  sentence.  For  nothing 
can  be  given  to  us  to  recompense  the  loss 
of  heaven ;  and  if  our  souls  be  lost,  there  is 
nothing  remaining  to  us  whereby  we  can  be 
happy. 

"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man?"  or,  "  What 
shall  a  man  give?"  Is  there  any  exchange 
for  a  man's  soul  ?  The  question  is  an  avfy- 
oi;  of  the  negative.  Nothing  can  be  given 
for  an  wiaxkayiw,,  or  "  a  price,"  to  satisfy 
for  its  loss. 

The  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  was  given 
to  recover  it,  or  as  an  avtcmayixa  to  God ; 
and  when  our  souls  were  forfeit  to  him 
nothing  less  than  the  life  and  passion  of 
God  and  man  could  pay  the  price,  I  say,  to 
God ;  who  yet  was  not  concerned  in  the 
loss,  save  only  that  such  was  his  goodness, 
that  it  pitied  him  to  see  his  creature  lost. 
But  to  us  what  shall  be  the  tuvtd^jxy^o.^ 
what  can  make  us  recompence  when  we 
have  lost  our  own  souls,  and  are  lost  in  a 
miserable  eternity  ?  What  can  then  recom- 
pense us?  Not  all  the  world,  not  ten  thou- 
sand worlds  :  and  of  this  that  miserable  man 
whose  soul  is  lost  is  the  best  judge.  For 
the  question  is  o&wrflixbv,  and  hath  a  poten- 
tial signification,  and  means  rcooa  av  8u><sr' 
that  is,  Suppose  a  man  ready  to  die,  con- 
demned to  the  sentence  of  a  horrid  death, 
heightened  with  the  circumstances  of  trem- 
bling and  amazement,  "  what  would  he 
give"  to  save  his  life  ?  "  Eye  for  eye,  tooth 
for  tooth,  and  all  that  a  man  hath,  will  he 
give  for  his  life."  And  this  turned  to  a  pro- 
verb among  the  Jews ;  for  so  the  last  words 
of  the  text  are,  ti  Sw<?£t  dvdpu>7io$  avtd.%?jxy/.uj. 

4^5  5  which  proverb  being  usually 
meant  concerning  a  temporal  death,  and  in- 
tended to  represent  the  sadness  of  a  con- 
demned person,  our  blessed  Saviour  fits  to 
his  own  purpose,  and  translates  to  the  sig- 
nification of  death  eternal,  which  he  first 
revealed  clearly  to  the  world.  And  because 
no  interest  of  the  world  can  make  a  man 
recompence  for  his  life,  because  to  lose  that 
makes  him  incapable  of  enjoying  the  ex- 
change, (and  he  were  a  strange  fool,  who, 
having  no  design  upon  immortality  or  virtue, 
should  be  willing  to  be  hanged  for  a  thou- 
sand pounds  "per  annum,")  this  argument 
increases  infinitely  in  the  purpose  of  our 
blessed  Saviour;  and  to  gain  the  world,  and 
to  lose  our  souls,  in  the  Christian  sense,  is 


Serm.  XLIII. 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


319 


infinitely  more  madness,  and  a  worse  ex-!  himself  the  gentle  and  benign  influences  of 
change,  than  when  our  souls  signify  noth- 1  any  one  constellation?  Are  not  his  sub- 
ing  but  a  temporal  life.  And  although  pos-  j  jects'  fields  bedewed  with  the  same  show- 
sibly  the  indefinite  hopes  of  Elysium,  or  an:ers  that  water  his  gardens  of  pleasure? 
honourable  name,  might  tempt  some  hardy  !  Nay,  those  things  which  he  esteems  his 
persons  to  leave  this  world,  hoping  for  a  ornament,  and  the  singularity  of  his  posses- 
better  condition,  even  among  the  heathen ;  |  sions,  are  they  not  of  more  use  to  others 
yet  no  excuse  will  acquit  a  Christian  fiomithan  to  himself?  For  suppose  his  gar- 
madness,  if,  for  the  purchase  of  this  world  ,  ments  splendid  and  shining,  like  the  robe  of 
he  lose  his  eternity.  a  cherub,  or  the  clothing  of  the  fields,  all 

Here,  then,  first,  we  will  consider  the  pro- 1  that  he  that  wears  them  enjoys,  is,  that  they 
positions  of  the  exchange,  the  "  world  and  I  keep  him  warm,  and  clean,  and  modest ;  and 
a  man's  soul,"  by  way  of  supposition,  sup-  all  this  is  done  by  clean  and  less  pompous 
posing  all  that  is  propounded  were  obtained, 1  vestments  j  and  the  beauty  of  them,  which 
"the  whole  world."  Secondly,  we  will  con-  distinguishes  him  from  others,  is  made  to 


sider,  what  is  likely  to  be  obtained  "  really" 
and  "  indeed"  of  the  world,  and  what  are 
really  the  miseries  of  a  lost  soul.  For  it  is 
propounded  in  the  text,  by  way  of  suppo- 


please  the  eyes  of  the  beholders;  and  he  is 
like  a  fair  bird,  or  the  meretricious  paintings 
of  a  wanton  woman,  made  wholly  to  be 
looked  on,  that  is,  to  be  enjoyed  by  every  one 


sition,  "if  a  man  should  gain  the  world,"  j  but  himself:  and  the  fairest  face  and  the 
which  no  man  ever  did  nor  ever  can  ;  and  he  \  sparkling  eye  cannot  perceive  or  enjoy  their 
that  gets  most,  gets  too  little  to  be  exchanged  own  beauties  but  by  reflection.  It  is  I  that 
for  a  temporal  life.  And,  thirdly,  I  shall  j  am  pleased  with  beholding  his  gaiety  ;  and 
apply  it  to  your  practice,  and  make  mate- 1  the  gay  man,  in  his  greatest  bravery,  is 
rial  considerations.  only  pleased  because  I  am  pleased  with  the 

1.  First,  then,  suppose  a  man  gets  all  the  I  sight;  so  borrowing  his  little  and  imaginary 
world,  what  is  it  that  he  gets?  It  is  a  bub-  complacency  from  the  delight  that  I  have, 
ble  and  a  fantasm,  and  hath  no  reality  beyond  j  not  from  any  inherency  of  his  own  pos- 
a  present  transient  use ;  a  thing  that  is  impos-  j  session. 

sible  to  be  enjoyed,  because  its  fruits  and  The  poorest  artizan  of  Rome,  walking  in 
usages  are  transmitted  to  us  by  parts  and  by  j  Caesar's  gardens,  had  the  same  pleasures 
succession.  He  that  hath  all  the  world,  (if  we  ;  which  they  ministered  to  their  lord;  and 
can  suppose  such  a  man.)  cannot  havea  dish  !  although,  it  maybe,  he  was  put  to  gather 
of  fresh  summer-fruits  in  the  midst  of  wmter,  fruits  to  eat  from  another  place,  yet  his 
not  so  much  as  a  green  fig;  and  very  much  other  senses  were  delighted  equally  with 
of  its  possessions  is  so  hid,  so  fugacious, ;  Caesar's  ;  the  birds  made  him  as  good  music, 
and  of  so  uncertain  purchase,  that  it  is  like  the  flowers  gave  him  as  sweet  smells  ; 
the  riches  of  the  sea  to  the  lord  of  the  shore;  1  he  there  sucked  as  good  air,  and  delighted 
all  the  fish  and  wealth  within  all  its  hoi-  j  in  the  beauty  and  order  of  the  place,  for  the 
lownesses  are  his,  but  he  is  never  the  better! same  reason  and  upon  the  same  perception 
for  what  he  cannot  get :  all  the  shell-fishes  '  as  the  prince  himself;  save  only  that  Caesar 
that  produce  pearl,  produce  them  not  for! paid,  for  all  that  pleasure,  vast  sums  of 
him;  and  the  bowels  of  the  earth  shall  hide 'money,  the  blood  and  treasure  of  a  pro- 
her  treasures  in  undiscovered  retirements;  j  vince,  which  the  poor  man  had  for  nothing, 
so  that  it  will  signify  as  much  to  this  great  3.  Suppose  a  man  lord  of  all  the  world 
purchaser  to  be  entitled  to  an  inheritance  in  j  (for  still  we  are  but  in  supposition);  yet 
the  upper  region  of  the  air;  he  is  so  far  j  since  every  thing  is  received,  not  according 
from  possessing  all  its  riches,  that  he  does; to  its  own  greatness  and  worth,  but  accord- 
not  so  much  as  know  of  them,  nor  under-  jng  to  the  capacity  of  the  receiver,  it  signi- 
stand  the  philosophy  of  her  minerals.         jfies  very  little  as  to  our  content  or  to  the 

2.  I  consider,  that  he  that  is  the  greatest  riches  of  our  possession.  If  any  man  should 
possessor  in  the  wrorld,  enjoys  its  best  and  give  to  a  lion  a  fair  meadow  full  of  hay,  or 
most  noble  parts,  and  those  which  are  of  a  thousand  quince  trees:  or  should  give  to 
most  excellent  perfection,  but  in  common  j  the  goodly  bull,  the  master  and  the  fairest 
with  the  inferior  persons,  and  the  most  despi- ;  of  the  whole  herd,  a  thousand  fair  stags; 
cable  of  his  kingdom.  Can  the  greatest  if  a  man  should  present  to  a  child  a  ship 
prince  enclose  the  sun,  and  set  one  little  star  laden  with  Persian  carpets,  and  the  ingre- 
in  his  cabinet  for  his  own  use,  or  secure  to  |dients  of  the  rich  scarlet;  all  these,  being 


320 


THE  FOOLISH 


EXCHANGE. 


Serm.  XLIII. 


disproportionate  either  to  the  appetite  or  to 
the  understanding,  could  add  nothing  of 
content,  and  might  declare  the  freeness  of 
the  presenter,  but  they  upbraid  the  inca- 
pacity of  the  receiver.  And  so  it  does  if 
God  should  give  the  whole  world  to  any 
man.  He  knows  not  what  to  do  with  it ; 
he  can  use  no  more  but  according  to  the 
capacities  of  a  man ;  he  can  uee  nothing 
but  meat,  and  drink,  and  clothes ;  and  in- 
finite riches,  that  can  give  him  changes  of 
raiment  every  day  and  a  full  table,  do  but 
give  him  a  clean  trencher  every  bit  he  eats ; 
it  signifies  no  more  but  wantonness  and  va- 
riety to  the  same,  not  to  any  new  purposes. 
He  to  whom  the  world  can  be  given  to  any 
purpose  greater  than  a  private  estate  can 
minister,  must  have  new  capacities  created 
in  him ;  he  needs  the  understanding  of  an 
angel,  to  take  the  accounts  of  his  estate ;  he 
had  need  have  a  stomach  like  fire  or  the 
grave,  for  else  he  can  eat  no  more  than  one 
of  his  healthful  subjects  ;  and  unless  he  hath 
an  eye  like  the  sun,  and  a  motion  like  that 
of  a  thought,  and  a  bulk  as  big  as  one  of  the 
orbs  of  heaven,  the  pleasures  of  his  eye  can 
be  no  greater  than  to  behold  the  beauty  of  a 
little  prospect  from  a  hill,  or  to  look  upon 
the  heap  of  gold  packed  up  in  a  little  room, 
or  to  dote  upon  a  cabinet  of  jewels,  better 
than  which  there  is  no  man  that  sees  at  all, 
but  sees  every  day.  For,  not  to  name  the 
beauties  and  sparkling  diamonds  of  heaven, 
a  man's,  or  a  woman's,  or  a  hawk's  eye,  is 
more  beauteous  and  excellent  than  all  the 
jewels  of  his  crown.  And  when  we  re- 
member that  a  beast,  who  hath  quicker 
senses  than  a  man,  yet  hath  not  so  great 
delight  in  the  fruition  of  any  object,  because 
he  wants  understanding  and  the  power  to 
make  reflex  acts  upon  his  perception ;  it 
will  follow,  that  understanding  and  know- 
ledge is  the  greatest  instrument  of  pleasure, 
and  he  that  is  most  knowing,  hath  a  capa- 
city to  become  happy,  which  a  less  know- 
ing prince,  or  a  rich  person,  hath  not ;  and 
in  this  only  a  man's  capacity  is  capable  of 
enlargement.  But  then,  although  they  only 
have  power  to  relish  any  pleasure  rightly, 
who  rightly  understand  the  nature,  and  de- 
grees, and  essences,  and  ends  of  things;  yet 
they  that  do  so,  understand  also  the  vanity 
and  the  unsatisfyingness  of  the  things  of 
this  world,  so  that  the  relish,  which  could 
not  be  great  but  in  a  great  understanding, 
appears  contemptible,  because  its  vanity  ap- 
pears at  the  same  time ;  the  understanding 
sees  all,  and  sees  through  it. 


4.  The  greatest  vanity  of  this  world  is  re- 
markable in  this,  that  all  its  joys  summed 
up  together  are  not  big  enough  to  counter- 
poise the  evil  of  one  sharp  disease,  or  to 
allay  a  sorrow.  For  imagine  a  man  great 
in  his  dominion  as  Cyrus,  rich  as  Solomon, 
victorious  as  David,  beloved  like  Titus, 
learned  as  Trismegist,  powerful  as  all  the 
Roman  greatness;  all  this,  and  the  re- 
sults of  all  this,  give  him  no  more  pleasure, 
in  the  midst  of  a  fever  or  the  tortures  of  the 
stone,  than  if  he  were  only  lord  of  a  little 
dish,  and  a  dishful  of  fountain  water.  In- 
deed the  excellency  of  a  holy  conscience  is 
a  comfort  and  a  magazine  of  joy,  so  great, 
that  it  sweetens  the  most  bitter  potion  of  the 
world,  and  ma'kes  tortures  and  death  not 
only  tolerable,  but  amiable  ;  and,  therefore, 
to  part  with  this,  whose  excellency  is  so 
great,  for  the  world,  that  is  of  so  incon- 
siderable a  worth,  as  not  to  have  in  it  re- 
compence  enough  for  the  sorrows  of  a  sharp 
disease,  is  a  bargain  fit  to  be  made  by  none 
but  fools  and  madmen.  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes,  and  Herod  the  Great,  and  his  grand- 
child, Agrippa,  were  sad  instances  of  this 
great  truth;  to  every  of  which  it  hap- 
pened, that  the  grandeur  of  their  fortune 
the-  greatness  of  their  possessions,  and  the 
increase  of  their  estate,  disappeared  and  ex- 
pired like  camphire,  at  their  arrest  by  those 
several  sharp  diseases,  which  covered  their 
head  with  cypress,  and  hid  their  crowns  in 
an  inglorious  grave. 

For  what  can  all  the  world  minister  to  a 
sick  person,  if  it  represents  all  the  spoils 
of  nature,  and  the  choicest  delicacies  of  land 
and  sea  ?  Alas !  his  appetite  is  lost,  and  to 
see  a  pebble-stone  is  more  pleasing  to  him  : 
for  he  can  look  upon  that  without  loathing, 
but  not  so  upon  the  most  delicious  fare  that 
ever  made  famous  the  Roman  luxury.  Per- 
fumes make  his  head  ache ;  if  you  load  him 
with  jewels,  you  press  him  with  a  burden 
as  troublesome  as  his  grave-stone ;  and  what 
pleasure  is  in  all  those  possessions  that  can- 
not make  his  pillow  easy,  nor  tame  the  re- 
bellion of  a  tumultuous  humour,  nor  restore 
the  use  of  a  withered  hand,  or  straighten  a 
crooked  finger?  Vain  is  the  hope  of  that 
man,  whose  soul  rests  upon  vanity  and  such 
unprofitable  possessions. 

5.  Suppose  a  man  lord  of  all  this  world, 
a  universal  monarch,  as  some  princes  have 
lately  designed ;  all  that  cannot  minister 
content  to  him;  not  that  content  which  a 
poor  contemplative  man,  by  the  strength  of 
Christian  philosophy,  and  the  support  of  a 


Serm.XLIII.        the  foolish  exchange. 


321 


very  small  fortune,  daily  does  enjoy.  All 
his  power  and  greatness  cannot  command 
the  sea  to  overflow  his  shores,  or  to  stay 
from  retiring  to  the  opposite  strand  :  it  can- 
not make  his  children  dutiful  or  wise.  And 
though  the  world  admired  at  the  greatness 
of  Philip  the  Second's  fortune,  in  the  acces-j 
sion  of  Portugal  and  the  East  Indies  to  hisj 
principalities,  yet  this  could  not  allay  the  in- 1 
felicity  of  his  family,  and  the  unhandsome-' 
ness  of  his  condition,  in  having  a  proud,  and 
indiscreet,  and  vicious  young  prince,  likely ! 
to  inherit  all  his  greatness.  And  if  nothing 
appears  in  the  face  of  such  a  fortune  to  tell 
all  the  world  that  it  is  spotted  and  imperfect ; 
yet  there  is,  in  all  conditions  of  the  world, 
such  weariness  and  tediousness  of  the  spirits, 
that  a  man  is  ever  more  pleased  with  hopes 
of  going  off  from  the  present,  than  in  dwell- 
ing upon  that  condition,  which,  it  may  be, 
others  admire  and  think  beauteous,  but  none 
knoweth  the  smart  of  it  but  he  that  drank 
off  the  little  pleasure,  and  felt  the  ill  relish 
of  the  appendage.  How  many  kings  have 
groaned  under  the  burden  of  their  crowns,' 
and  have  sunk  down  and  died  !  How  many 
have  quitted  their  pompous  cares,  and  re- 
tired into  private  lives,  there  to  enjoy  the  | 
pleasures  of  philosophy  and  religion,  which 
their  thrones  denied ! 

And  if  we  consider  the  supposition  of  the 
text,  the  thing  will  demonstrate  itself.  For 
he  who  can  be  supposed  the  owner  and 
purchaser  of  the  whole  world,  must  either 
be  a  king  or  a  private  person.  A  private 
person  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  be  the 
man  ;  for  if  he  be  subject  to  another,  how 
can  he  be  lord  of  the  whole  world?  But 
if  he  be  a  king,  it  is  certain  that  his  cares 
are  greater  than  any  man's,  his  fears  are 
bigger,  his  evils  mountainous,  the  accidents 
that  discompose  him  are  more  frequent,  and 
sometimes  intolerable ;  and  of  all  his  great 
possessions  he  hath  not  the  greatest  use  and 
benefit ;  but  they  are  like  a  great  harvest, 
which  more  labourers  must  bring  in,  and 
more  must  eat  of;  only  he  is  the  centre  of 
all  the  cares,  and  they  fix  upon  him,  but 
the  profits  run  out  to  all  the  lines  of  the  cir- 
cle, to  all  that  are  about  him,  whose  good  is 
therefore  greater  than  the  good  of  the  prince, 
because  what  they  enjoy  is  the  purchase  of 
the  prince's  care;  and  so  they  feed  upon  his 
rost. 

Privatusque  magis  vivam  te  rego  beatus. 

Hor.  1.  i.  sat.  3. 

Servants  live  the  best  lives,  for  their  care 
41 


is  single,  only  how  to  please  their  lord ;  but 
all  the  burden  of  a  troublesome  providence 
and  ministration  makes  the  outside  pompous 
and  more  full  of  ceremony,  but  intricates  the 
condition  and  disturbs  the  quiet  of  the  great 
possessor. 

And  imagine  a  person  as  blest  as  can  be 
supposed  upon  the  stock  of  worldly  interest ; 
when  all  his  accounts  are  cast  up,  he  differs 
nothing  from  his  subjects  or  his  servants  but 
in  mere  circumstance,  nothing  of  reality  or 
substance.  He  hath  more  to  wait  at  his 
tables,  or  persons  of  higher  rank  to  do  the 
meanest  offices  ;  more  ceremonies  of  address, 
a  fairer  escutcheon,  louder  titles :  but  can 
this  multitude  of  dishes  make  him  have  a 
good  stomach,  or  does  not  satiety  cloy  it? 
when  his  high  diet  is  such,  that  he  is  not 
capable  of  being  feasted,  and  knows  not  the 
frequent  delights  and  oftener  possibilities  a 
poor  man  hath  of  being  refreshed,  while 
not  only  his  labour  makes  hunger,  and  so 
makes  his  meat  delicate  (and  then  it  cannot 
be  ill  fare,  let  it  be  what  it  will) ;  but  also 
his  provision  is  such,  that  every  little  addi- 
tion is  a  direct  feast  to  him,  while  the 
greatest  owner  of  the  world,  giving  to  him- 
self the  utmost  of  his  desires,  hath  nothing 
left  beyond  his  ordinary,  to  become  the  en- 
tertainment of  his  festival  days,  but  more 
loads  of  the  same  meat.*  And  then  let  him 
consider  how  much  of  felicity  can  this  con- 
dition contribute  to  him,  in  which  he  is  not 
further  gone  beyond  a  person  of  a  little  for- 
tune in  the  greatness  of  his  possession,  than 
he  is  fallen  short  in  the  pleasures  and  possi- 
bility of  their  enjoyment. 

And  that  is  a  sad  condition,  when,  like 
Midas,  all  that  the  man  touches  turns  to  gold : 
and  his  is  no  better,  to  whom  a  perpetual 
full  table,  not  recreated  with  fasting,  not 
made  pleasant  with  intervening  scarcity, 
ministers  no  more  good  than  a  heap  of  gold 
does ;  that  is,  he  hath  no  benefit  of  it,  save 
the  beholding  of  it  with  his  eyes.  Cannot  a 
man  quench  his  thirst  as  well  out  of  an  urn 
or  chalice  as  out  of  a  whole  river?  It  is  an 
ambitious  thirst,  and  a  pride  of  draught,  that 
had  rather  lay  his  mouth  to  Euphrates  than 
to  a  petty  goblet ;  but  if  he  had  rather,  it 
adds  not  so  much  to  his  content  as  to  his 
danger  and  his  vanity. 

 eo  fit, 

Plenior  ut  siquos  delectet  copia  justo, 
Cum  ripa  simul  avulsos  ferat  Aufidus  acer. 

Hor. 


•  Rare  volte  ha  fame  chista  sempre  a  tavola. 


322 


THE  FOOLISH 


EXCHANGE. 


Serm.  XLIII. 


For  so   I  have  heard  of  persons  whom  I 
the  river  hath  swept  away,  together  with 
!he  turf  they  pressed,  when  they  stooped 
to  drown  their  pride  rather  than  their  thirst. 

6.  But  this  supposition  hath  a  lessening 
term.  If  a  man  could  be  born  heir  of  all  the 
world,  it  were  something ;  but  no  man  ever 
was  so  except  him  only  who  enjoyed  the 
least  of  it,  the  Son  of  man,  that  "  had  not 
where  to  lay  his  head."  But  in  the  suppo- 
sition it  is,  "  If  a  man  could  gain  the  whole 
world,"  which  supposes  labour  and  sorrow, 
trouble  and  expense,  venture  and  hazard, 
and  so  much  time  expired  in  its  acquist 
and  purchase,  that,  besides  the  possession  is 
not  secured  to  us  for  a  term  of  life,  so  our 
lives  are  almost  expired  before  we  become 
estated  in  our  purchases.  And,  indeed,  it  is 
a  sad  thing  to  see  an  ambitious  or  a  covetous 
person  make  his  life  unpleasant,  trouble- 
some, and  vexatious,  to  grasp  a  power  big- 
ger than  himself,  to  fight  for  it  with  infinite 
hazards  of  his  life,  so  that  it  is  a  thousand 
to  one  but  he  perishes  in  the  attempt,  and 
gets  nothing  at  all  but  an  untimely  grave,  a 
reproachful  memory,  and  an  early  damna- 
tion. But  suppose  he  gets  a  victory,  and 
that  the  unhappy  party  is  put  to  begin  a  new 
game ;  then  to  see  the  fears,  the  watchful- 
ness, the  diligence,  the  laborious  arts  to  se- 
cure a  possession,  lest  the  desperate  party 
should  recover  a  desperate  game.  And  sup- 
pose this,  with  a  new  stock  of  labours,  dan- 
ger, and  expense,  be  seconded  by  a  new  suc- 
cess ;  then  to  look  upon  the  new  emergen- 
cies, and  troubles,  and  discontents,  among 
;his  friends,  about  parting  the  spoil;  the 
envies,  the  jealousies,  the  slanders,  the  un- 
derminings, and  the  perpetual  insecurity  of 
his  condition  :  all  this,  I  say,  is  to  see  a 
man  take  infinite  pains  to  make  himself  mi- 
serable. But  if  he  will  be  so  unlearned  as 
to  call  this  gallantry  or  a  splendid  fortune  ; 
yet,  by  this  time,  when  he  remembers  he 
hath  certainly  spent  much  of  I  s  time  in 
trouble,  and  how  long  he  shall  enjuy  this  he 
is  still  uncertain ;  he  is  not  certain  of  a 
month  ;  and  suppose  it  be  seven  years,  yet 
when  he  comes  to  die,  and  cast  up  his  ac- 
counts, and  shall  find  nothing  remaining 
but  a  sad  remembrance  of  evils  and  troubles 
past,  and  expectations  of  worse,  infinitely 
worse,  he  must  acknowledge  himself  con- 
vinced, that  to  gain  all  this  world  is  a  fortune 
not  worth  the  labour  and  the  dangers,  the 
fears  and  transportations  of  passions,  though 
the  soul's  loss  be  not  considered  in  the 
bargain. 


II.  But  I  told  you  all  this  while  that  this 
is  buta  supposition  still,  the  putting  of  a  case, 
or  like  a  fiction  of  law;  nothing  real.  For 
if  we  consider,  in  the  second  place,  how 
much  every  man  is  likely  to  get,  really,  and 
how  much  it  is  possible  for  any  man  to  get, 
we  shall  find  the  account  far  shorter  yet,  and 
the  purchase  most  trifling  and  inconsider- 
able. For,  first,  the  world  is  at  the  same 
time  enjoyed  by  all  its  inhabitants,  and  the 
same  portion  of  it  by  several  persons  in  their 
several  capacities.  A  prince  enjoys  his  whole 
kingdom,  not  as  all  his  people  enjoy  it,  but 
in  the  manner  of  a  prince;  the  subject  in  the 
manner  of  subjects.  The  prince  hath  ceitain 
regalia  beyond  the  rest ;  but  the  feudal  right 
of  subjects  does  them  more  emolument,  and 
the  regalia  does  the  prince  more  honour:  and 
those  that  hold  the  fees  in  subordinate  right, 
transmit  it  also  to  their  tenants,  beneficiaries, 
and  dependants,  to  public  uses,  to  charity, 
and  hospitality;  all  which  is  a  lessening  of 
the  lord's  possessions,  and  a  cutting  his  river 
into  little  streams,  not  that  himself  alone, 
but  that  all  his  relatives,  may  drink  to  be  re- 
freshed. Thus  the  well  where  the  woman 
of  Samaria  sat,  was  Jacob's  well,  and  he 
drank  of  it;  but  so  did  his  wives,  and  his 
children,  and  his  cattle.  So  that  what  we 
call  ours,  is  really  ours  but  for  our  portion  of 
expense  and  use ;  we  have  so  little  of  it,  that 
our  servants  have  far  more;  and  that  which 
is  ours,  is  nothing  but  the  title,  and  the  care, 
and  the  trouble  of  securing  and  dispensing; 
save  only  that  God,  whose  stewards  we  all 
are,  will  call  such  owners  (as  they  are  pleas- 
ed to  call  themselves)  to  strict  accounts  for 
their  disbursements.  And  by  this  account, 
the  possession  or  dominion  is  but  a  word, 
and  serves  a  fancy,  or  a  passion,  or  a  vice, 
but  no  real  end  of  nature.  It  is  the  use  and 
spending  it  that  makes  a  man,  to  all  real 
purposes  of  nature,  to  be  the  owner  of  it; 
and  in  this  the  lord  and  master  hath  but  a 
share. 

2.  But,  secondly,  consider  how  far  short 
of  the  whole  world  the  greatest  prince  that 
ever  reigned  did  come.  Alexander,  that 
wept  because  he  had  no  more  worlds  to  con- 
quer, was  in  his  knowledge  deceived  and 
brutish  as  in  his  passion :  he  overran  much 
of  Asia;  but  he  could  never  pass  the  Ganges, 
and  never  thrust  his  sword  in  the  bowels  of 
Europe,  and  knew  nothing  of  America. 
And  the  oixovfxtvrj,  or  "the  whole  world," 
began  to  have  an  appropriate  sense;  and  was 
rather  put  to  the  Roman  greatness,  as  an 
honourable  appellative,  than  did  signify  that 


Serm.  XLIIT. 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


323 


they  were  lords  of  the  world,  who  never  went 
beyond  Persia,  Egypt,  or  Britain. 

But  why  do  I  talk  of  great  things  in  this 
question  of  the  exchange  of  the  soul  for  the 
world?    Because  it  is  a  real  bargain  which 
many  men  (too  many,  God  knows)  do  make, 
we  must  consider  it  as  applicable  to  prac- 
tice.   Every  man  that  loses  his  soul  for  the 
purchase  of  the  world,  must  not  look  to  have 
the  portion  of  a  king.    How  few  men  are  I 
princes!  and  of  those  that  are  not  born  so, 
bow  seldom  instances  are  found  in  story  of  1 
persons,  that,  by  their  industry,  became  so  1 1 
But  we  must  come  far  lower  yet.  Thousands 
there  are  that  damn  themselves ;  and  yet  their ! 
purchase,  at  long  running,  and  after  a  base ' 
and  weary  life  spent,  is  but  five  hun- 
dred pounds  a  year:  nay,  it  may  be,  they  | 
only  cozen  an  easy  person  out  of  a  good  j 
estate,  and  pay  for  it  at  an  easy  rate,  which  ; 
they  obtain  by  lying,  by  drinking,  by  flattery,  | 
by  force ;  and  the  gain  is  nothing  but  a  thou- 
sand pounds  in  the  whole,  or,  it  may  be, 
nothing  but  a  convenience.  Nay,  how  many 
men  hazard  their  salvation  for  an  acre  of 
ground,  for  twenty  pounds,  to  please  a 
master,  to  get  a  small  and  a  kind  usage  from 
a  superior !   These  men  get  but  little,  though 
they  did  not  give  so  much  for  it :  so  little,  that  I 
Epictetus  thought  the  purchase  dear  enough,  \ 
though  you  paid  nothing  for  it  but  flattery  : 
and  observance  -  Ov  rfapcxfe^s  *V  ^nWi- 
rcvoj;  oi  yap  E&oseag  ta  xa?.ovvti  osou  Ttutteitai  to 
Seirtvov'  irtcxvov  S'  avto  rtcotet,  ^fpartaas  rfti&et' 
n  Observance  was  the  price  of  his  meal ;"  i 
and  he  paid  too  dear  for  one  that  gave  his 
birthright  for  it;  but  he  that  exchanges  his  | 
soul  for  it,  knows  not  the  vanity  of  his  pur- 
chase  nor  the  value  of  his  loss.    He  that : 
gains  the  purchase  and  spoil  of  a  kingdom, 
hath  got  that,  which  to  all  that  are  placed  in 
heaven,  or  to  a  man  that  were  seated  in  the 
paths  of  the  sun,  seems  but  like  a  spot  in 
SB  eye,  or  a  mathematical  point,  so  without ; 
vastness,  that  it  seems  to  be  without  dimen- 
sions.   But  he  whose  purchase  is  but  his  ; 
neighbour's  field,  or  a  few  unjust  acres,  hath 
got  that  which  is  inconsiderable,  below  the 
notice  and  description  of  the  map :  for  by 
such  hieroglyphical  rep  resentments,  Socrates  J 
chid  the  vanity  of  a  proud  Athenian. 

3.  Although  these  premises  may  suffice 
io  show  that  the  supposed  purchase  is  but 
vain,  and  that  all  which  men  use  really  to 
obtain,  is  less  than  trifles ;  yet  even  the  pos- 
session of  it,  whatsoever  it  be,  is  not  mere  1 
and  unmixed,  but  allayed  with  sorrow  and 
uneasiness;  the  gain  hath  but  enlarged  his 


appetite,  and,  like  a  draught  to  an  hydropic 
person,  hath  enraged  his  thirst ;  and  still  that 
which  he  hath  not,  is  infinitely  bigger  than 
what  he  hath,  since  the  first  enlargement  of 
his  purchase  was  not  to  satisfy  necessity,  but 
his  passion,  his  lust  or  his  avarice,  his  pride 
or  his  revenge.  These  things  cease  not  by 
their  fuel ;  but  their  flames  grow  bigger,  and 
the  capacities  are  stretched,  and  they  want 
more  than  they  did  at  first.  For  who  wants 
most,  he  that  wants  five  pounds,  or  he  that 
wants  five  thousand  ?  And  supposing  a  man 
naturally  supported  and  provided  for,  in  the 
dispensation  of  nature  there  is  no  difference, 
but  that  the  poor  hath  enough  to  fill  his  belly, 
and  the  rich  man  can  never  have  enough 
to  fill  his  eye.  The  poor  man's  wants  are 
no  greater  than  what  may  be  supplied  by 
charity ;  and  the  rich  man's  wants  are  so 
big  that  none  but  princes  can  relieve  them ; 
and  they  are  left  to  all  the  temptations  of 
great  vices  and  huge  cares  to  make  their 
reparations. 

Dives  eget  gemmis,  Cereali  munere  pauper  : 
Sed  cum  egeant  ambo,  pauper  egens  minus  est. 

Auson. 

If  the  greatness  of  the  world's  possessions 
produce  such  fruits,  vexation,  and  care,  and 
want ;  the  ambitious  requiring  of  great  estates 
is  but  like  the  selling  of  a  fountain  to  buy  a 
fever,*  parting  with  content  to  buy  necessity, 
and  the  purchase  of  an  unhandsome  condition 
at  the  price  of  infelicity. 

4.  He  that  enjoys  a  great  portion  of  this 
world,  hath  most  commonly  the  allay  of  some 
great  cross,  which,  although  sometimes  God 
designs  in  mercy,  to  wean  his  affections  from 
the  world,  and  for  the  abstracting  them  from 
sordid  adherences  and  cohabitation,  to  make 
his  eyes  like  stars,  to  fix  them  in  the  orbs  of 
heaven  and  the  regions  of  felicity,  yet  they 
are  an  inseparable  appendant  and  condition 
of  humanity.  Solomon  observed  the  vanity 
of  some  persons,  that  heaped  up  great  riches 
for  their  heirs,  and  yet  "  knew  not  whether 
a  wise  man  or  a  fool  should  possess  them  ; 
this  is  a  great  evil  under  the  sun."  And  if 
we  observe  the  great  crosses  many  times 
God  permits  in  great  families,  as  discontent 
in  marriages,  artificial  or  natural  bastardies, 
a  society  of  man  and  wife  like  the  conjunc- 
tion of  two  politics,  full  of  state,  and  cere- 
mony, and  design,  but  empty  of  those  sweet 
caresses,  and  natural  hearty  complications 
and  endearments,  usual  in  meaner  and  in- 
nocent persons;  the  perpetual  sickness,  ful- 
ness of  diet,  fear  of  dying,  the  abuse  of  fiat. 


324 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


Serm.  XLIII. 


terers,  the  trouble  and  noise  of  company,  the 
tedious  officiousness  of  impertinent  and  cere- 
monious visits,  the  declension  of  estate,  the 
sadness  of  spirit,  the  notoriousness  of  those 
dishonours  which  the  meanness  of  lower 
persons  conceals,  but  their  eminency  makes 
as  visible  as  the  spots  in  the  moon's  face  ; 
we  shall  find  him  to  be  most  happy  that' 
hath  most  of  wisdom  and  least  of  the  world, 
because  he  only  hath  the  least  danger  and 
the  most  security. 

5.  And  lastly,  his  soul  so  gets  nothing  that 
wins  all  this  world,  if  he  loses  his  soul,  that 
it  is  ten  to  one  but  he  that  gets  the  one  there- 
fore shall  lose  the  other:  for  to  a  great  and 
opulent  fortune,  sin  is  so  adherent  and  in- 
sinuating, that  it  comes  to  him  in  the  nature 
of  civility.  It  is  a  sad  sight  to  see  a  great 
personage  undertake  an  action  passionately 
and  upon  great  interest ;  and  let  hirn  man- 
age it  as  indiscreetly,  let  the  whole  design 
be  unjust,  let  it  be  acted  with  all  the  malice 
and  impotency  in  the  world,  he  shall  have 
enow  to  tell  him  that  he  proceeds  wisely 
enough,  to  be  servants  of  his  interest,  and  pro- 
moters of  his  sin,  instruments  of  his  malice, 
and  actors  of  revenge,  But  which  of  all  his 
relatives  shall  dare  to  tell  him  of  his  indis- 
cretion, of  his  rage,  and  of  his  folly  ?  He 
had  need  be  a  bold  man  and  a  severe  person 
that  shall  tell  him  of  his  danger,  and  thai  he 
is  in  a  direct  progress  towards  hell.  And 
indeed  such  personages  have  been  so  long 
nourished  up  in  softness,  flattery,  and  effemi- 
nacy, that  too  often  themselves  are  impatient 
of  a  monitor,  and  think  the  charity  and  duty 
of  a  modest  reprehension  to  be  a  rudeness 
and  incivility.  That  prince  is  a  wise  man 
that  loves  to  have  it  otherwise;  and,certainlv, 
it  is  a  strange  civility  and  dutifulness  in 
friends  and  relatives,  to  suffer  him  to  go  to 
hell  uncontrolled,  rather  than  to  seem  un- 
mannerly towards  a  great  sinner.  But, 
certainly,  this  is  none  of  the  least  infelicities 
of  them  who  are  lords  of  the  world,  and 
masters  of  great  possessions. 

I  omit  to  speak  of  the  habitual  intemper- 
ance which  is  too  commonly  annexed  to 
festival  and  delicious  tables,  where  there  is 
no  other  measure  or  restraint  upon  the  ap- 
petite, but  its  fulness  and  satiety,  and  when 
it  cannot  or  dare  not  eat  more.  Oftentimes 
it  happens,  that  the  intemperance  of  a  poor 
table  is  more  temperate  and  hath  less  of 
luxury  in  it  than  the  temperance  of  a  rich. 
To  this  are  consequent  all  the  evil  accidents 
and  effects  of  fulness,  pride,  lust,  wanton- 
ness, softnesses  of  disposition,  and  dissolu- 


tion of  manners,  huge  talking,  imperious- 
ness,  despite  and  contempt  of  poor  persons  ; 
and,  at  the  best,  it  is  a  great  temptation  for 
a  man  to  have  in  his  power  whatsoever  he 
can  have  in  his  sensual  desires.  Who  then 
shall  check  his  voracity,  or  calm  his  revenge, 
or  allay  his  pride,  or  mortify  his  lust,  or  hum- 
ble his  spirit  ?  It  is  like  as  when  a  lustful, 
young,  and  tempted  person  lives  perpetually 
with  his  amorous  and  delicious  mistress  : 
if  he  escapes  burning  that  is  inflamed  from 
within  and  set  on  fire  from  without,  it  is 
a  greater  miracle  than  the  escaping  from  the 
flames  of  the  furnace  by  the  three  children 
of  the  captivity.  And  just  such  a  thing  is 
the  possession  of  the  world  ;  it  furnishes  us 
with  abilities  to  sin  and  opportunities  of 
ruin,  and  it  makes  us  to  dwell  with  poisons, 
and  dangers,  and  enemies. 

And  although  the  grace  of  God  is  suffi- 
cient to  great  personages  and  masters  of  the 
world,  and  that  it  is  possible  for  a  young 
man  to  be  tied  upon  a  bed  of  flowers,  and 
fastened  by  the  arms  and  band  of  a  cour- 
tesan, and  tempted  wantonly,  and  yet  to 
escape  the  danger  and  the  crime,  and  to  tri- 
umph gloriously  ;  (for  so  St.  Jerome  reports 
of  the  son  of  the  king  of  Nicomedia ;)  and 
riches  and  a  free  fortune  are  designed  by 
God  to  be  a  mercy,  and  an  opportunity  of 
doing  noble  things,  and  excellent  charity, 
and  exact  justice,  and  to  protect  innocence, 
and  to  defend  oppressed  people  ;  yet  it  is  a 
mercy  mixed  with  much  danger ;  yea,  it  is 
like  the  present  of  a  whole  vintage  to  a  man 
in  an  hectic  fever;  he  will  be  shrewdly 
tempted  to  drink  of  it,  and,  if  he  does,  he  is 
inflamed,  and  may  chance  to  die  with  the 
kindness.  Happy  are  those  persons  who 
use  the  world,  and  abuse  it  not;  who  pos- 
sess a  part  of  it,  and  love  it  for  no  other 
ends  but  for  necessities  of  nature,  and  con- 
veniences of  person,  and  discharge  of  all 
their  duty  and  the  offices  of  religion,  and 
charity  to  Christ  and  all  Christ's  members. 
But  since  he  that  hath  all  the  world  cannot 
command  nature  to  do  him  one  office  extra- 
ordinary, and  enjoys  the  best  part  but  in 
common  with  the  poorest  man  in  the  world, 
and  can  use  no  more  of  it  but  according  to 
a  limited  and  a  very  narrow  capacity  ;  and 
whatsoever  he  can  use  or  possess,  cannot 
outweigh  the  present  pressure  of  a  sharp 
disease,  nor  can  it  at  all  give  him  content, 
without  which  there  can  be  nothing  of  feli- 
city ;  since  a  prince,  in  the  matter  of  using 
I  the  world,  differs  nothing  from  his  subjects, 
[but  in  mere  accidents  and  circumstances, 


Serm.  XLIV 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


325 


and  yet  these  very  many  trifling  differences 
are  not  to  be  obtained  but  by  so  much  labour 
and  care,  so  great  expense  of  time  and 
trouble,  that  the  possession  will  not  pay 
thus  much  of  the  price;  and,  after  all  this, 
the  man  may  die  two  hours  after  he  hath 
made  his  troublesome  and  expensive  pur- 
chase, and  is  certain  not  to  enjoy  it  long. 
Add  to  this  last,  that  most  men  get  so  little 
of  the  world,  that  it  is  altogether  of  a  trifling 
and  inconsiderable  interest;  that  they  who 
have  the  most  of  this  world,  have  the  most 
of  that  but  in  title  and  in  supreme  rights 
and  reserved  privileges,  the  real  use  de- 
scending upon  others  to  more  substantial 
purposes  ;  that  the  possession  of  this  trifle  is 
mixed  with  sorrow  upon  other  accidents,  and 
is  allayed  with  fear ;  and  that  the  greatness 
of  men's  possessions  increases  their  thirst, 
and  enlarges  their  wants,  by  swelling  their 
capacity ;  and,  above  all,  is  of  so  great 
danger  to  a  man's  virtue,  that  a  great  for- 
tune and  a  very  great  virtue  are  not  always 
observed  to  grow  together.  He  that  observes 
all  this,  and  much  more  he  may  observe,  will 
see  that  he  that  gains  the  whole  world,  hath 
made  no  such  great  bargain  of  it,  although 
he  had  it  for  nothing  but  the  necessary 
unavoidable  troubles  in  getting  it.  But  how 
great  a  folly  it  is  to  buy  so  great  a  trouble, 
so  great  a  vanity,  with  the  loss  of  our  pre- 
cious souls,  remains  to  be  considered  in  the 
following  parts  of  the  text. 


SERMON  XLIV. 

PART  II. 

••  An  lose  his  own  soul?"  or,  "What 
shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?" 
And  now  the  question  is  finally  stated,  and 
the  dispute  is  concerning  the  sum  of  affairs. 

De  raorte  hominis  nulla  est  cunctatio  longa.  Juv. 

And,  therefore,  when  the  soul  is  at  stake, 
not  for  its  temporal,  but  for  its  eternal  in- 
terest, it  is  not  good  to  be  hasty  in  determin- 
ing, without  taking  just  measures  of  the 
exchange.  Solomon  had  the  good  things 
of  the  world  actually  in  possession  ;  and  he 
tried  them  at  the  touchstone  of  prudence 
and  natural  value,  and  found  them  allayed 
with  vanity  and  imperfection  :  and  we  that 
see  them  "  weighed  in  the  balance  of  the 
sanctuary,"  and  tried  by  the  touchstone  of 


the  Spirit,  find  them  not  only  light  and  un- 
profitable, but  pungent  and  dolorous.  But 
now  we  are  to  consider  what  it  is  that  men 
part  with  and  lose,  when,  with  passion  and 
impotency,  they  get  the  world  ;  and  that 
will  present  the  bargain  to  be  an  huge 
infelicity.  And  this  I  observe  to  be  inti- 
mated in  the  word  lose.  For  he  that  gives 
gold  for  cloth,  or  precious  stones  for  bread, 
serves  his  needs  of  nature,  and  loses  nothing 

,  by  it;  and  the  merchant  that  found  a  pearl 
of  great  price,  and  sold  all  that  he  had  to 
make  the  purchase  of  it,  made  a  good  ven- 
ture; he  was  no  loser  :  but  here  the  case  is 
otherwise ;  when  a  man  gains  the  whole 
world,  and  his  soul  goes  in  the  exchange, 
he  hath  not  done  like  a  merchant,  but  like  a 
child  or  prodigal;  he  hath  given  himself 
away,  he  hath  lost  all  that  can  distinguish 
him  from  a  slave  or  a  miserable  person,  he 
loses  his  soul  in  the  exchange.  For  the 
soul  of  a  man  all  the  world  cannot  be  a  just 
price ;  a  man  may  lose  it,  or  throw  it  away, 

,  but  he  can  never  make  a  good  exchange 
when  he  parts  with  this  jewel ;  and  there- 

i  fore  our  blessed  Saviour  rarely  well  ex- 
presses it  by  £Viuovx,  which  is  fully  opposed 
to  MtfSog,  *•  gain  ;"  it  is  such  an  ill  market  a 

:  man  makes,  as  if  he  should  proclaim  his 

'  riches  and  goods  vendible  for  a  garland  of 
thistles  decked  and  trimmed  up  with  the 
stinking  poppy. 

But  we  shall  better  understand  the  nauire 

:  of  this  bargain  if  we  consider  the  soul  that 
is  exchanged  ;  what  it  is  in  itself,  in  order, 
not  of  nature,  but  to  felicity  and  the  capaci- 
ties of  joy ;  secondly,  what  price  the  Son 
of  God  paid  for  it ;  and,  thirdly,  what  it  is 
to  lose  it;  that  is,  what  miseries  and  tor- 
tures are  signified  by  losing  a  soul. 

L  First,  if  we  consider  what  the  soul  is 
in  its  own  capacity  to  happiness,  we  shall 
find  it  to  be  an  excellency  greater  than  the 
sun,  of  an  angelical  substance,  sister  to  a 
cherubim,  an  image  of  the  Divinity,  and 
the  great  argument  of  that  mercy  whereby 
God  did  distinguish  us  from  the  lower  form 
of  beasts,  and  trees,  and  minerals. 

For,  so  it  was,  the  Scripture  alrirms  that 
"  God  made  man  after  his  own  image," 
that  is,  "  secundum  illam  imaginem  et 
ideam  quam  concepit  ipse;"  nor  according 
to  the  likeness  of  any  of  tnose  creatures 
which  were  pre-existent  to  man's  produc- 
tion, nor  according  to  any  of  those  images 
or  ideas  whereby  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,  but  by  a  new  form,  to  dis- 
tinguish him  from  all  other  substances ; 
2  C 


326 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE.  Serm.  XLIV. 


<e  he  made  him  by  a  new  idea  of  his  own," 
by  an  uncreated  exemplar.  And  besides, 
that  this  was  a  donation  of  intelligent  facul- 
ties, such  as  we  understand  to  be  perfect 
and  essential,  or  rather  the  essence  of  God, 
it  is  also  a  designation  of  him  to  a  glorious 
immortality,  and  communication  of  the 
rays  and  reflections  of  his  own  essential 
felicities. 

But  the  soul  is  all  that  whereby  we  may 
be,  and  without  which  we  cannot  be,  happy. 
It  is  not  the  eye  that  sees  the  beauties  of  the 
heaven,  nor  the  ear  that  hears  the  sweetness 
of  music,  or  the  glad  tidings  of  a  prosperous 
accident,  but  the  soul  that  perceives  all  the 
relishes  of  sensual  and  intellectual  perfec- 
tions ;  and  the  more  noble  and  excellent  the 
soul  is,  the  greater  and  more  savoury  are  its 
perceptions.  And  if  a  child  beholds  the  rich 
ermine,  or  the  diamonds  of  a  starry  night, 
or  the  order  of  the  world,  or  hears  the  dis- 
courses of  an  apostle;  because  he  makes 
no  reflex  acts  upon  himself,  and  sees  not 
that  he  sees,  he  can  have  but  the  pleasure 
of  a  fool,  or  the  deliciousness  of  a  mule. 
But,  although  the  reflection  of  its  own  acts 
be  a  rare  instrument  of  pleasure  or  pain 
respectively,  yet  the  soul's  excellency  is, 
upon  the  same  reason,  not  perceived  by  us, 
by  which  the  sapidness  of  pleasant  things 
of  nature  are  not  understood  by  a  child ; 
even  because  the  soul  cannot  reflect  far 
enough.  For  as  the  sun,  which  is  the 
fountain  of  light  and  heat,  makes  violent 
and  direct  emissions  of  his  rays  from  him- 
self, but  reflects  them  no  farther  than  to  the 
bottom  of  a  cloud,  or  the  lowest  imaginary 
circle  of  the  middle  region,  and,  therefore, 
receives  not  a  duplicate  of  his  own  heat: 
so  is  the  soul  of  man  ;  it  reflects  upon  its 
own  inferior  actions  of  particular  sense, 
or  general  understanding;  but,  because  it 
knows  little  of  its  own  nature,  the  manners 
of  volition,  the  immediate  instruments  of 
understanding,  the  way  how  it  comes  to 
meditate ;  and  cannot  discern  how  a  sudden 
thought  arrives,  or  the  solution  of  a  doubt 
not  depending  upon  preceding  premises ; 
therefore,  above  half  its  pleasure  are  abated, 
and  its  own  worth  less  understood;  and, 
possibly,  it  is  the  better  it  is  so.  If  the 
elephant  knew  his  strength,  or  the  horse 
the  vigorousness  of  his  own  spirit,  they 
would  be  as  rebellious  against  their  rulers 
as  unreasonable  men  against  government; 
nay,  the  angels  themselves,  because  their 
light  reflected  home  to  their  orbs,  and  they 
understood  all  the  secrets  of  their  own  per- 


fection, they  grew  vertiginous,  and  fell  from 
the  battlements  of  heaven.  But  the  excellen- 
cy of  a  human  soul  shall  then  be  truly  un- 
derstood, when  the  reflection  will  make  no 
distraction  of  our  faculties,  nor  enkindle  any 
irregular  fires ;  when  we  may  understand 
ourselves  without  danger. 

In  the  mean  this  consideration  is  gone 
high  enough,  when  we  understand  the  soul 
of  a  man  to  be  so  excellently  perfect,  that 
we  cannot  understand  how  excellently  per- 
fect it  is ;  that  being  the  best  way  of  ex- 
pressing our  conceptions  of  God  himself. 
And  therefore,  I  shall  not  need  by  distinct 
discourses  to  represent  that  the  will  of  man 
is  the  last  resort  and  sanctuary  of  true  plea- 
sure, which,  in  its  formality,  can  be  nothing 
else  but  a  conformity  of  possession  or  of 
being  to  the  will;  that  the  understanding, 
being  the  channel  and  conveyance  of  the 
noblest  perceptions,  feeds  upon  pleasures 
in  all  its  proportionate  acts,  and  unless  it  be 
disturbed  by  intervening  sins  and  remem- 
brances derived  hence,  keeps  a  perpetual 
festival ;  that  the  passions  are  every  of  them 
fitted  with  an  object,  in  which  they  rest  as 
in  their  centre ;  that  they  have  such  delight 
in  these  their  proper  objects,  that  too  often 
they  venture  a  damnation  rather  than  quit 
their  interest  and  possession.  But  yet  from 
these  considerations  it  would  follow,  that  to 
lose  a  soul,  which  is  designed  to  be  an 
immense  sea  of  pleasure,  even  in  its  natural 
capacities,  is  to  lose  all  that  whereby  a  man 
can  possibly  be,  or  be  supposed  happy. 
And  so  much  the  rather  is  this  understood 
to  be  an  insupportable  calamity,  because 
losing  a  soul  in  this  sense  is  not  a  mere  pri- 
vation of  those  felicities,  of  which  a  soul  is 
naturally  designed  to  be  a  partaker,  but  it  is 
an  investing  it  with  contrary  objects,  and 
cross  effects,  and  dolorous  perceptions  :  for 
the  will,  if  it  misses  its  desires,  is  afflicted ; 
and  the  understanding,  when  it  ceases  to 
be  ennobled  with  excellent  things,  is  made 
ignorant  as  a  swine,  dull  as  the  foot  of  a 
rock;  and  the  affections  are  in  the  destitu- 
tion of  their  perfective  actions  made  tumul- 
tuous, vexed,  and  discomposed  to  the  height 
of  rage  and  violence.  But  this  is  but  the 
apxv  «£&W,  "the  beginning  of  those  throes," 
which  end  not  but  in  eternal  infelicity. 

2.  Secondly  :  If  we  consider  the  price 
that  the  Son  of  God  paid  for  the  redemption 
of  a  soul,  we  shall  better  estimate  of  it,  than 
from  the  weak  discourses  of  our  imperfect 
and  unlearned  philosophy.  Not  the  spoil 
of  rich  provinces,  net  the  estimate  of  king- 


Serm.  XLIV. 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


327 


doms,  nor  the  price  of  Cleopatra's  draught, 
nor  any  thing  that  was  corruptible  or  perish- 
ing; for  that  which  could  not  one  minute 
retard  the  term  of  its  own  natural  dissolu- 
tion, could  not  be  a  price  for  the  redemption 
of  one  perishing  soul.  And  if  we  list  but  to 
remember,  and  then  consider,  that  a  miser- 
able, lost,  and  accursed  soul,  does  so  infi- 
nitely undervalue  and  disrelish  all  the  goods 
and  riches  that  this  world  dotes  on,  that  he 
hath  no  more  gust  in  them,  or  pleasure, 
than  the  fox  hath  in  eating  a  turf ;  that,  if 
he  could  be  imagined  to  be  the  lord  of  ten 
thousand  worlds,  he  would  give  them  all 
for  any  shadow  of  hope  of  a  possibility  of 
returning  to  life  again;  that  Dives  in  hell 
would  have  willingly  gone  on  embassy  to 
his  father's  house,  that  he  might  have  been 
quit  a  little  from  his  flames,  and  on  that 
condition  would  have  given  Lazarus  the 
fee-simple  of  all  his  temporal  possessions, 
though  he  had  once  denied  to  relieve  him 
with  the  superfluities  of  his  table  ;  we  shall 
soon  confess  that  a  moment  of  time  is  no 
good  exchange  for  an  eternity  of  duration  : 
and  a  light  unprofitable  possession  is  not 
to  be  put  in  the  balance  against  a  soul, 
which  is  the  glory  of  the  creation ;  a  soul 
with  whom  God  had  made  a  contract,  and 
contracted  excellent  relations,  it  being  one 
of  God's  appellatives,  that  he  is,  "  the 
Lover  of  the  souls." 

When  God  made  a  soul,  it  was  only, 
"  Faciamus  hominem  ad  imaginem  nos- 
tram."  He  spake  the  word,  and  it  was 
done.  But,  when  man  hath  lost  this  soul 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  breathed  into  him, 
it  was  not  so  soon  recovered.  It  is  like  the 
resurrection,  which  hath  troubled  the  faith 
of  many,  who  are  more  apt  to  believe  that 
God  made  a  man  from  nothing,  than  that 
he  can  return  a  man  from  dust  and  corrup- 
tion. But  for  this  resurrection  of  the  soul, 
for  the  reimplacing  the  Divine  image,  for 
the  rescuing  it  from  the  devil's  power,  for 
the  re-entitling  it  to  the  kingdoms  of  grace 
and  glory,  God  did  a  greater  work  than  the 
creation  ;  he  was  fain  to  contract  Divinity  to 
a  span,  to  send  a  person  to  die  for  us,  who, 
of  himself,  could  not  die,  and  was  constrain- 
ed to  use  rare  and  mysterious  arts  to  make 
him  capable  of  dying  ;  he  prepared  a  person 
instrumental  to  his  purpose,  by  sending  his 
Son  from  his  own  bosom,  a  person  both  God 
and  man,  an  enigma  to  all  nations  and  to 
all  sciences ;  one  that  ruled  over  all  the  an- 
gels, that  walked  upon  the  pavements  of 
neaven,  whose  feet  were  clothed  with  stars, 


whose  eyes  were  brighter  than  the  sun, 
whose  voice  is  louder  than  thunder,  whose 
understanding  is  larger  than  that  infinite 
space,  which  we  imagine  in  the  uncircum- 
scribed  distance  beyond  the  first  orb  of  hea- 
ven ;  a  person  to  whom  felicity  was  as  es- 
sential as  life  to  God:  this  was  the  only  per- 
son that  was  designed,  in  the  eternal  decrees 
of  the  Divine  predestination,  to  pay  the  price 
of  a  soul,  to  ransom  us  from  death  ;  less  than 
this  person  could  not  do  it.  For  although 
a  soul  in  its  essence  is  finite,  yet  there  were 
many  infinites  which  were  incident  and  an- 
nexed to  the  condition  of  lost  souls.  For  all 
which  because  provision  was  to  be  made, 
nothing  less  than  an  infinite  excellence  could 
satisfy  for  a  soul  who  was  lost  to  infinite 
and  eternal  ages,  who  was  to  be  afflicted 
with  insupportable  and  undetermined,  that 
is,  next  to  infinite,  pains ;  who  was  to  bear 
the  load  of  an  infinite  anger  from  the  pro- 
vocation of  an  eternal  God.  And  yet  if  it 
be  possible  that  infinite  can  receive  degrees, 
this  is  but  one-half  of  the  abyss,  and  I  think 
the  lesser.  For  that  this  person,  who  was 
God  eternal,  should  be  lessened  in  all  his 
appearances  to  a  span,  to  the  little  dimen- 
.  sions  of  a  man ;  and  that  he  should  really 
become  very  contemptibly  little,  although, 
!  at  the  same  time,  he  was  infinitely  and  un- 
alterably great ;  that  is,  essential,  natural, 
and  necessary  felicity  should  turn  into  an 
intolerable,  violent,  and  immense  calamity 
j  to  his  person  ;  that  this  great  God  should 
;  not  be  admitted  to  pay  the  price  of  our  re- 
demption, unless  he  would  suffer  that  hor- 
rid misery,  which  that  lost  soul  should  suf- 
fer ;  as  it  represents  the  glories  of  his  good- 
|  ness,  who  used  such  rare  and  admirable 
instruments  in  actuating  the  designs  of  his 
i  mercy,  so  it  shows  our  condition  to  have 
I  been  very  desperate,  and  our  loss  invaluable. 

A  soul  in  God's  account  is  valued  at  the 
price  of  the  blood,  and  shame,  and  tortures 
|  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  yet  we  throw  it 
away  for  the  exchange  of  sins,  that  a  man 
naturally  is  ashamed  to  own  ;  we  lose  it 
;  for  the  pleasure,  the  sottish,  beastly  pleas- 
I  ure,  of  a  night.    I  need  not  say,  we  lose 
j  our  soul  to  save  our  lives  ;  for,  though  that 
I  was  our  blessed  Saviour's  instance  of  the 
\  great  unreasonableness  of  men,  who  by 
:"  saving  their  lives,  lose  them,"  that  is,  in 
the  great  account  of  doomsday  ;  though  this. 
,  I  say,  be  extremely  unreasonable,  yet  there 
!  is  something  to  be  pretended  in  the  bar- 
gain  ;  nothing  to  excuse  him  with  God,  but 
something  in  the  accounts  of  timorous  men  ; 


328 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


Serm.  XLIV. 


but  to  lose  our  souls  with  swearing,  that 
unprofitable,  dishonouralie,  and  unpleasant 
vice  ;  to  lose  our  souls  with  disobedience  or 
rebellion,  a  vice  that  brings  a  curse  and  dan- 
ger all  the  way  in  this  life ;  to  lose  our  souls 
with  drunkenness,  a  vice  which  is  painful 
and  sickly  in  the  very  acting  it,  which  has- 
tens our  damnation  by  shortening  our  lives  ; 
are  instances  fit  to  be  put  in  the  stories  of 
fools  and  madmen.  And  all  vice  is  a  de- 
gree of  the  same  unreasonableness ;  the  most 
splendid  temptation  being  nothing  but  a 
pretty  well-weaved  fallacy,  a  mere  trick,  a 
sophism,  and  a  cheating  and  abusing  the 
understanding.  But  that  which  I  consider 
here  is,  that  it  is  an  affront  and  contradic- 
tion to  the  wisdom  of  God,  that  we  should 
so  slight  and  undervalue  a  soul,  in  which 
our  interest  is  so  concerned  ;  a  soul,  which 
he  who  made  it,  and  who  delighted  not  to 
see  it  lost,  did  account  a  fit  purchase  to  be 
made  by  the  exchange  of  his  Son,  the  eternal 
Son  of  God.  To  w  hich  also  I  add  this  addi- 
tional account,  that  a  soul  is  so  greatly  valued 
by  God,  that  we  are  not  to  venture  the  loss 
of  it  to  save  all  the  world.  For,  therefore, 
whosoever  should  commit  a  sin  to  save 
kingdoms  from  perishing ;  or,  if  the  case 
could  be  put,  that  all  the  good  men,  and 
good  causes,  and  good  things  in  this  world, 
were  to  be  destroyed  by  tyranny,  and  it  were 
in  our  power  by  perjury  to  save  all  these ; 
that  doing  this  sin  would  be  so  far  from  hal- 
lowing the  crime,  that  it  were  to  offer  to 
God  a  sacrifice  of  what  he  most  hates,  and 
to  serve  him  with  swine's  blood ;  and  the 
rescuing  of  all  these  from  a  tyrant,  or  a  hang- 
man, could  not  be  pleasing  to  God  upon  those 
terms,  because  a  soul  is  lost  by  it,  which  is, 
in  itself,  a  greater  loss  and  misery  than  all 
the  evils  in  the  world  put  together  can  out- 
balance, and  a  loss  of  that  thing  for  which 
Christ  gave  his  blood  a  price.  Persecutions 
and  temporal  death  in  holy  men,  and  in  a 
just  cause,  are  but  seeming  evils,  and,  there- 
fore, not  to  be  bought  off  with  the  loss  of  a 
soul,  which  is  a  real,  but  an  intolerable  ca- 
lamity. And  if  God,  forhis  own  sake,  would 
not  have  all  the  world  saved  by  sin,  that  is, 
by  the  hazarding  of  a  soul,  we  should  do 
well,  for  our  own  sakes,  not  to  lose  a  soul 
for  trifles,  for  things  that  make  us  here  to 
be  miserable,  and  even  here  also  to  be 
ashamed. 

3.  But  it  may  be,  some  natures,  or  some 
understandings,  care  not  for  all  this  ;  there- 
fore, I  proceed  to  the  third  and  most  material 
consideration  as  to  us,  and  I  consider  what 


it  is  to  lose  a  soul.  Which  Hierocles  thus 
;  explicates,  lQ$  olov  it  Itq  d&avata  ovola  $avdiov 
fioipas  /AstoJkaxtt'V ,  ov  iyj  ti$  to  fxr\  tlvcu,  ixfiarsti, 
aXfox  ty  igv  ti>  dvataTtoTitiian,  "  An  immortal 
substance  can  die,  not  by  ceasing  to  be,  but 
by  losing  all  being  well,"  by  becoming  mis- 
erable. And  it  is  remarkable,  when  our 
blessed  Saviour  gave  us  caution  that  we 
should  "not  fear  them  that  can  kill  the  body 
only,  but  fear  him,"  (he  says  not  that  can 
kill  the  soul,  but  ibv  hwdptvov  xoi  ^vx^v  xai  ou>(mj, 
artcJhioat  h  y^wrj)  "  that  is  able  to  destroy 
the  body  and  soul  in  hell  ;"*  which  word 
signifieth  not "  death,"  but  "  tortures."  For 
some  have  chosen  death  for  sanctuary,  and 
fled  to  it  to  avoid  intolerable  shame,  to  give 
a  period  to  the  sense  of  a  sharp  grief,  or  to 
cure  the  earthquakes  of  fear ;  and  the 
damned  perishing  souls  shall  wish  for  death 
with  a  desire  as  impatient  as  their  calamity  ; 
but  this  shall  be  denied  them,  because  death 
were  a  deliverance,  a  mercy,  and  a  pleasure, 
of  which  these  miserable  persons  must 
despair  for  ever. 

I  shall  not  need  to  represent  to  your  con- 
siderations those  expressions  of  Scripture, 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  set  down  to 
represent  to  our  capacities  the  greatness  of 
this  perishing,  choosing  such  circumstances 
of  character  as  were  then  usual  in  the  world, 
!  and  which  are  dreadful  to  our  understand- 
ing as  any  thing ;  "  hell-fire"  is  the  com- 
mon expression  ;  for  the  Eastern  nations  ac- 
counted burnings  the  greatest  of  these  miser- 
able punishments,  and  burning  malefactors 
was  frequent.  "  Brimstone  and  fire,"  so  St. 
Johnf  calls  the  state  of  punishment,  "  pre- 
pared for  the  devil  and  all  his  servants  ;"  he 
added  the  circumstance  of  brimstone,  for  by 
this  time,  the  devil  had  taught  the  world 
more  ingenious  pains,  and  himself  was  new- 
ly escaped  out  of  boiling  oil  and  brimstone, 
and  such  bituminous  matter ;  and  the  Spirit 
of  God  knew  right  well  the  worst  expression 
was  not  bad  enough.  'Zxoios  t&ttpot,  so 
our  blessed  Saviour  calls  it,  "  the  outer  dark- 
ness ;"  that  is,  not  only  an  abjection  from 
the  beatific  regions,  where  God,  and  his 
angels,  and  his  saints,  dwell  for  ever ;  but 
then  there  is  a  positive  state  of  misery  ex- 
pressed by  darkness,  £6$ov  ox6tov$,  as  two 
apostles,  St.  Peter  and  St.  Jude,  call  it, 
"  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever."  In 
which,  although  it  is  certain  that  God, 
whose  justice  there  rules,  will  inflict  but  just 
so  much  as  our  sins  deserve,  and  not  super- 


*  Matt.  xix.  28. 


t  Revel,  xiv.  10. 


Serm.  XLIV. 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


329 


add  degrees  of  undeserved  misery,  as  he  I  prophet  prophesies  of  the  great  destruction 
does  to  the  saints  of  glory  ;  (for  God  gives  ,  of  Jerusalem  for  all  her  great  iniquities  :  "  It 
to  blessed  souls  in  heaven  more,  infinitely  j  is  the  day  of  the  Lord's  vengeance,  and  the 

year  of  recompenses  for  the  controversy  of 
Sion.  And  the  streams  thereof  shall  be 
turned  into  pitch,  and  the  dust  thereof  into 
brimstone,  and  the  land  thereof  shall  become 
burning  pitch.    It  shall  not  be  quenched 


more,  than  all  their  good  works  could  possi- 
bly deserve ;  and  therefore  their  glory  is 
infinitely  bigger  glory  than  the  pains  of  hell 
are  great  pains;)  yet  because  God's  justice 
in  hell  rules  alone,  without  the  allays  and 
sweeter  abatements  of  mercy,  they  shall  night  nor  day,  the  smoke  thereof  shall  go  up 


have  pure  and  unmingled  misery  ;  no  pleas- 
ant thought  to  refresh  their  weariness,  no 
comfort  in  another  accident  to  alleviate  their 
pressures,  no  waters  to  cool  their  flames. 
But  because  when  there  is  a  great  calamity 
upon  a  man,  every  such  man  thinks  him- 
self the  most  miserable ;  and  though  there 
are  great  degrees  of  pain  in  hell,  yet  there 
are  none  perceived  by  him  that  thinks  he 
suffers  the  greatest;  it  follows,  that  every 
man  that  loses  his  soul  in  this  darkness,  is 
miserable  beyond  all  those  expressions, 
which  the  tortures  of  this  world  could  furnish 
to  the  writers  of  the  Holy  Scripture. 

But  I  shall  choose  to  represent  this  con- 
sideration in  that  expression  of  our  blessed 
Saviour,  Mark  ix.  44,  which  himself  took 
out  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  lxvi.  24,  "  Where 
the  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not 
quenched."  This  is  the  ovrfetelas  iptyutfts 
spoken  of  by  Daniel  the  prophet :  for  al- 
though this  expression  was  a  prediction  of 
that  horrid  calamity  and  abscission  of  the 
Jewish  nation,  when  God  poured  out  a  full 
vial  of  his  wrath  upon  the  crucifiers  of  his 
Son,  and  that  this,  which  was  the  greatest 
calamity  which  ever  did,  or  ever  shall,  hap- 
pen to  a  nation,  Christ,  with  great  reason, 
took  to  describe  the  calamity  of  accursed 
souls,  as  being  the  greatest  instance  to  sig- 
nify the  greatest  torment :  yet  we  must  ob- 
serve that  the  difference  of  each  state  makes 


for  ever ;  from  generation  to  generation  it 
shall  lie  waste,  none  shall  pass  through  it, 
for  ever  and  ever."  This  is  the  final  destruc- 
tion of  the  nation  ;  but  this  destruction  shall 
have  an  end,  because  the  nation  shall  end, 
and  the  anger  also  shall  end  in  its  own  period, 
even  then  when  God  shall  call  the  Jews 
into  the  common  inheritance  with  the  gen- 
tiles, and  all  "  become  the  sons  of  God." 
And  this  also  was  the  period  of  their 
"  worm,"  as  it  is  of  their  "  fire,"  the  fire  of 
the  Divine  vengeance  upon  the  nation : 
which  was  not  to  be  extinguished  till  they 
were  destroyed,  as  we  see  it  come  to  pass. 
And  thus  also  in  St.  Jude,  "the  angels  who 
kept  not  their  first  state,"  are  said  to  be  "  re- 
served" by  God  in  everlasting  chains  under 
darkness  :"  which  word,  "everlasting,"  sig- 
nifies not  absolutely  to  eternity,  but  to  the 
utmost  end  of  that  period :  for  so  it  follows, 
"unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day  ;"  that 
"  everlasting"  lasts  no  longer.  And  in  ver. 
7.  the  word  "  eternal"  is  just  so  used.  The 
men  of  "Sodom  and  Gomorrah  are  set  forth 
for  an  example,  suffering  the  vengeance  of 
eternal  fire  ;"  that  is,  of  a  fire  which  burned 
till  they  were  quite  destroyed,  and  the  cities 
and  the  country  with  an  irreparable  ruin, 
never  to  be  rebuilt  and  reinhabited  as  long 
as  this  world  continues.  The  effect  of  which 
observation  is  this : 

That   these  words,   "  for  ever, — ever- 


the  same  words  in  the  several  cases  to  be  of  |  lasting, — eternal,— the  never-dying  worm,— 
infinite  distinction.  The  worm  stuck  close  1  the  fire  unquenchable,"  being  words  bor- 
rowed by  our  blessed  Saviour  and  his  apos- 
tles from  the  style  of  the  Old  Testament, 
must  have  a  signification  just  proportionable 
to  the  state  in  which  they  signify :  so  that 
as  this  worm,  when  it  signifies  a  temporal 
infliction,  means  a  worm  that  never  ceases 
storm,  to  show  the  greatness  of  the  storm  j  giving  torment  till  the  bodv  is  consumed  :  so 


to  the  Jewish  nation,  and  the  fire  of  God's 
■wrath  flamed  out  till  they  were  consumed 
with  a  great  and  unheard-of  destruction, 
till  many  millions  did  die  accursedly,  and 
the  small  remnant  became  vagabonds,  and 
were  reserved,  like  broken  pieces  after  a 


and  misery  of  the  shipwreck :  but  then  this 
being  translated  to  signify  the  state  of  ac- 
cursed souls,  whose  dying  is  a  continual 
perishing,  who  cannot  cease  to  be,  it  must 
mean  an  eternity  of  duration,  in  a  proper 
and  natural  signification. 

And  that  we  may  understand  it  fully,  ob- 
serve the  place  in  Isa.  xxxiv.  8,  &c.  The 
42 


when  it  is  translated  to  an  immortal  state,  it 
must  signify  as  much  in  that  proportion : 
that  "  eternal,"  that  "  everlasting,"  hath  no 
end  at  all ;  because  the  soul  cannot  be  killed 
in  the  natural  sense,  but  is  made  miserable 
and  perishing  for  ever;  that  is,  the  "  worm 
shall  not  die"  so  long  as  the  soul  shall 
be  unconsumed;  "the  fire  shall  not  be 
2c2 


330 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE.         Serm.  XLIV. 


quenched"  till  the  period  of  an  immortal  na- 
ture comes.  And  that  this  shall  be  absolutely 
for  ever,  without  any  restriction,  appears 
unanswerable  in  this,  because  the  same 
"  for  ever"  that  is  for  the  blessed  souls,  the 
same  "  for  ever"  is  for  the  accursed  souls  : 
but  the  blessed  souls,  "  that  die  in  the  Lord, 
henceforth  shall  die  no  more,  death  hath  no 
power  over  them  ;  for  death  is  destroyed,  it 
is  swallowed  up  in  victory,"  sailh  St.  Paul ; 
and  "  there  shall  be  no  more  death,"  saith 
St.  John.*  So  that,  because  "  for  ever" 
hath  no  end,  till  the  thing  or  the  duration 
itself  have  end,  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
the  saints  and  angels  "  give  glory  to  God 
for  ever,"  in  the  same  sense  the  lost  souls 
shall  suffer  the  evils  of  their  sad  inheritance  : 
and  since,  after  this  death  of  nature,  which 
is  a  separation  of  soul  and  body,  there  re- 
mains no  more  death,  but  this  second  death, 
this  eternal  perishing  of  miserable  accursed 
souls,  whose  duration  must  be  eternal ;  it 
follows,  that  f*  the  worm  of  conscience," 
and  "  the  unquenchable"  fire  of  hell,  have 
no  period  at  all,  but  shall  last  as  long  as 
God  lasts,  or  the  measures  of  a  proper  eter- 
nity ;  that  they  who  provoke  God  to  wrath 
by  their  base,  unreasonable,  and  sottish  prac- 
tices, may  know  what  their  portion  shall  be 
in  the  everlasting  habitations.  And  yet, 
suppose  that  Origen's  opinion  had  been  true, 
and  that  accursed  souls  should  have  ease 
and  a  period  to  their  tortures  after  a  thou- 
sand years ;  I  pray,  let  it  be  considered, 
whether  it  be  not  a  great  madness  to  choose 
the  pleasures  or  the  wealth  of  a  few  years 
here,  with  trouble,  with  danger,  with  uncer- 
tainty, with  labour,  with  intervals  of  sick- 
ness ;  and  for  this  to  endure  the  flames  of 
hell  for  a  thousand  years  together.  The 
pleasures  of  the  world  no  man  can  have  for 
a  hundred  years ;  and  no  mail  hath  pleasure 
for  a  hundred  days  together,  but  he  hath 
some  trouble  intervening,  or  at  least  a  wea- 
riness and  a  loathing  of  the  pleasure  :  and 
therefore,  to  endure  insufferable  calamities, 
suppose  it  be  for  a  hundred  years,  without 
any  interruption,  without  so  much  comfort 
as  the  light  of  a  candle,  or  a  drop  of  water 
amounts  to  in  a  fever,  is  a  bargain  to  be 
made  by  no  man  that  loves  himself,  or  is  not 
in  love  with  infinite  affliction. 

If  a  man  were  condemned  but  to  lie  still, 
or  to  lie  in  bed  in  one  posture  without  turn- 
ing, for  seven  years  together,  would  he  not 
buy  it  off  with  the  loss  of  all  his  estate?  If 


*  Rev.  xxi.  4. 


a  man  vere  to  be  put  upon  the  rack  for 
every  day  for  three  months  together,  (sup- 
pose him  able  to  live  so  long,)  what  would 
not  he  do  to  be  quit  of  his  torture  ?  Would 
any  man  curse  the  king  to  his  face,  if  he 
were  sure  to  have  both  his  hands  burnt  off, 
and  to  be  tormented  with  torments  three 
years  together.  Would  any  man  in  his 
wits  accept  of  a  hundred  pounds  a  year  for 
forty  years,  if  he  were  sure  to  be  tormented 
in  the  fire  for  the  next  hundred  years  to- 
gether without  intermission?  Think  then 
what  a  thousand  years  may  signify  ;  ten 
ages,  the  ages  of  two  empires.  But  this  ac- 
count, I  must  tell  you,  is  infinitely  short, 
though  I  thus  discourse  to  you  how  great 
fools  wicked  men  are,  though  this  opinion 
should  be  true.  A  goodly  comfort,  surely, 
that  for  two  or  three  years'  sottish  pleasure, 
a  man  shall  be  infinitely  tormented  but  for  a 
thousand  years!  But  then  when  we  cast 
up  the  minutes,  and  years,  and  ages  of 
eternity,  the  consideration  itself  is  a  great 
hell  to  those  persons,  who,  by  their  evil 
lives,  are  consigned  to  such  sad  and  miser- 
able portions. 

A  thousand  years  is  a  long  while  to  be  in 
torment :  we  find  a  fever  of  one  and  twenty 
days  to  be  like  an  age  in  length ;  but  when 
the  duration  of  an  intolerable  misery  is  for 
ever  in  the  height,  and  for  ever  beginning, 
and  ten  thousand  years  have  spent  no  part 
of  its  term,  but  it  makes  a  perpetual  efflux, 
and  is  like  the  centre  of  a  circle,  which  ever 
transmits  lines  to  the  circumference  :  this  is 
a  consideration  so  sad,  that  the  horror  of  it, 
and  the  reflection  upon  its  abode  and  du- 
ration, make  a  great  part  of  the  hell :  for 
hell  could  not  be  hell  without  the  despair  of 
accursed  souls  ;  for  any  hope  were  a  refresh- 
ment, and  a  drop  of  water,  which  would 
help  to  allay  those  flames,  which  as  they 
burn  intolerably,  so  they  must  burn  for  ever. 

And  I  desire  you  to  consider,  that  al- 
though the  Scripture  uses  the  word  "fire" 
to  express  the  torments  of  accursed  souls, 
yet  fire  can  no  more  equal  the  pangs  of  hell 
than  it  can  torment  an  immaterial  substance; 
the  pains  of  perishing  souls  being  as  much 
more  afflictive  than  the  smart  of  fire,  as  the 
smart  of  fire  is  troublesome  beyond  the  soft- 
ness of  Persian  carpets,  or  the  sensuality  of 
the  Asian  luxury.  For  the  pains  of  hell, 
and  the  perishing  or  losing  the  soul,  is,  to 
suffer  the  wrath  of  God:  xal  yap  6  0s6$ 
q/j,<AV  ?tvp  xatavduaxw ,  "  our  God  is  a  con- 
suming fire,"  that  is,  the  fire  of  hell.  When 
God  takes  away  all  com  ton  from  us,  nothing 


Serm.  XLIV. 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


331 


to  support  our  spirit  is  left  us;  when  sorrow 
is  our  food,  aud  tears  our  drink ;  when  it  is 
eternal  night,  without  sun,  or  star,  or  lamp, 
or  sleep;  when  we  burn  with  fire  without 
light,  that  is,  are  laden  with  sadness  with- 
out remedy,  or  hope  of  ease;  and  that  this 
wrath  is  to  be  expressed  and  to  fall  upon  us 
in  spiritual,  immaterial,  but  most  accursed, 
most  pungent,  and  dolorous  emanations ; 
then  we  feel  what  it  is  to  lose  a  soul. 

We  may  guess  at  it  by  the  terrors  of  a 
guilty  conscience,  those  "  verbera  et  lania- 
tus,"  those  secret  "  lashings  and  whips"  of 
the  exterminating  angel,  those  thorns  in  the 
soul,  when  a  man  is  haunted  by  an  evil 
spirit;  those  butcheries, — which  the  soul  of 
a  tyrant,  or  a  violent  or  a  vicious  person, 
when  he  falls  into  fear  or  any  calamity, 
does  feel, — are  the  infinite  arguments,  that 
hell, — which  is  the  consummation  of  the  tor- 
ment of  conscience,  just  as  manhood  is  the 
consummation  of  infancy,  or  as  glory  is  the 
perfection  of  grace, — is  an  affliction  greater 
than  the  bulk  of  heaven  and  earth ;  for  there 
it  is  that  God  pours  out  the  treasures  of  his 
wrath,  and  empties  the  whole  magazine  of 
thunderbolts,  and  all  the  armory  of  God  is 
employed,  not  in  the  chastising,  but  in  the 
tormenting,  of  a  perishing  soul.  Lucian 
brings  in  Radamanthus,  telling  the  poor 
wandering  souls  upon  the  banks  of  Ely- 
sium, 'Orto5a  a.v  rtj  i-uutv  rtoj-rpoj  EpyOAftfCU 
rtapd  tor  j3ior,  xaS*  sxa,3?ov  avtujv  aqavri  atiy- 
fiara  ini  trts  ifept$epctj  "  For  every 

wickedness  that  any  man  commits  in  his 
life,  when  he  comes  to  hell,  he  hath  stamped 
upon  his  soul  an  invisible  brand"  and  mark 
of  torment,  and  this  begins  here,  and  is  not 
cancelled  by  death,  but  there  is  enlarged  by 
the  greatness  of  infinite,  and  the  abodes  of 
eternity.  How  great  these  torments  of  con- 
science are  here,  let  any  man  imagine  that 
can  but  understand  what  despair  means ; 
despair  upon  just  reason  :  let  it  be  what  it 
will,  no  misery  can  be  greater  than  despair. 
And  because  I  hope  none  here  have  felt 
those  horrors  of  an  evil  conscience  which 
are  consignations  to  eternity,  you  may  please 
to  learn  it  by  your  own  reason,  or  else  by 
the  sad  instances  of  story.  It  is  reported  of 
Petrus  Ilosuanus,  a  Polonian  schoolmaster, 
that  having  read  some  ill-managed  discourses 
of  absolute  decrees  and  Divine  reprobation, 
began  to  be  fantastic  and  melancholic,  and 
apprehensive  that  he  might  be  one  of  those 
many  whom  God  had  decreed  for  hell  from 
all  eternity.  From  possible  to  probable, 
from  probable  to  certain,  the  temptation  soon 


carried  him :  and  when  he  once  began  to  be- 
lieve himself  to  be  a  person  inevitably  per- 
ishing, it  is  not  possible  to  understand  per- 
fectly what  infinite  fears,  and  agonies,  and 
despairs,  what  tremblings,  what  horrors, 
what  confusion  and  amarrenient,  the  poor 
man  felt  within  him,  to  consider  that  he  was 
to  be  tormented  extremely,  without  remedy, 
even  to  eternal  ages.  This,  in  a  short  con- 
tinuance, grew  insufferable,  and  prevailed 
upon  him  so  far,  that  he  hanged  himself, 
|  and  left  an  account  of  it  to  this  purpose  in 
writing  in  his  study:  "  I  am  gone  from 
1  hence  to  the  flames  of  hell,  and  have  forced 
J  my  way  thither,  being  impatient  to  try  what 
those  great  torments  are,  which  here  I  have 
!  feared  with  an  insupportable  amazement." 
i  This  instance  may  suffice  to  show  what  it  is 
:  to  lose  a  soul.  But  I  will  take  off  from  this 
'sad  discourse;  only  I  shall  crave  your  at- 
tention to  a  word  of  exhortation, 
i  That  you  take  care,  lest  for  the  purchase 
I  of  a  little,  trifling,  inconsiderable  portion  of 
the  world,  you  come  into  this  place  and 
I  state  of  torment.  Although  Homer  was 
I  pleased  to  compliment  the  beauty  of  Helena 
!  to  such  a  height,  as  to  say,  ft  it  was  a  suffi- 
icient  price  for  all  the  evils  which  the  Greeks 
and  Trojans  suffered  in  ten  years  :" 

Ov  »£U£3ij  Tpwaj  xai  £vxiruiba$  'A^aiol-j 
Toir  d'duipi  ymmua  Ttdkbv  %povov  otf.yfanda^j-ii'. 

Iliad,  y. 

i yet  it  was  a  more  reasonable  conjecture  of 
j  Herodotus,  that,  during  the  ten  years'  siege 
jof  Troy,  Helena,  for  whom  the  Greeks 
■  fought,  was  in  Egypt,  not  in  the  city;  be- 
jcauseitwas  unimaginable  but  the  Trojans 
j  would  have  thrown  her  over  the  walls, 
i  rather  than,  for  the  sake  of  such  a  trifle, 
have  endured  so  great  calamities.    We  are 
more  sottish  than  the  Trojans,  if  we  retain 
lour  Helena,  any  one  beloved  lust,  a  painted 
devil,  any  sugared  temptation,  with  (not  the 
|  hazard,  but)  the  certainty  of  having  such 
horrid   miseries,   such   invaluable  losses. 
And  certainly  it  is  a  strange  stupidity  of 
spirit  that  can  sleep  in  the  midst  of  such 
thunder;  when  God  speaks  from  heaven 
with  his  loudest  voice,  and  draws  aside  his 
curtain,  and  shows  his  arsenal  and  his  ar- 
moury, full  of  arrows  steeled  with  wrath, 
headed  and  pointed,  and  hardened  with  ven- 
geance, still  to  snatch  at  those  arrows,  if  they 
!  came  but  in  the  retinue  of  a  rich  fortune  or  a 
,  vain  mistress,  if  they  wait  but  upon  pleasure 
or  profit,  or  in  the  rear  of  an  ambitious  design. 
But  let  us  not  have  such  a  hardiness 


332 

against  the  threats  and  representments  of  { 
the  Divine  vengeance,  as  to  take  the  little 
imposts  and  revenues  of  the  world,  and 
stand  in  defiance  against  God  and  the  fears 
of  hell;  unless  we  have  a  charm  that  we 
can  be  dopatfot,  ^9  xpcty,  "  invisible  to  the 
Judge"  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  are  im- 
pregnable against,  or  are  sure  we  shall  be  in- 
sensible of,  the  miseries  of  a  perishing  soul. 

There  is  a  sort  of  men,  who,  because  they 
will  be  vicious  and  atheistical  in  their  lives, 
have  no  way  to  go  on  with  any  plaisance 
and  without  huge  disturbances,  but  by  being 
also  atheistical  in  their  opinions  ;  and  to  be- 
lieve that  the  story  of  hell  is  but  a  bug-bear 
to  affright  children  and  fools,  easy-believing 
people,  to  make  them  soft  and  apt  for  gov- 
ernment and  designs  of  princes.  And  this 
is  an  opinion  that  befriends  none  but  im- 
pure and  vicious  persons.  Others  there  are, 
that  believe  God  to  be  all  mercy,  that  he 
forgets  his  justice  ;  believing  that  none  shall 
perish  with  so  sad  a  ruin,  if  they  do  but  at 
their  death-bed  ask  God  forgiveness,  and 
say  they  are  sorry,  but  yet  continue  their 
impiety  till  their  house  be  ready  to  fall;  be- 
ing like  the  Circassians,  whose  gentlemen 
enter  not  in  the  church  till  they  be  three- 
score years  old,  that  is,  in  effect,  till  by 
their  age  they  cannot  any  longer  use  rapine ; 
till  then  they  hear  service  at  their  windows, 
dividing  unequally  their  life  between  sin  and 
devotion,  dedicating  their  youth  to  robbery, 
and  their  old  age  to  &  repentance  without 
restitution. 

Our  youth,  and  our  manhood,  and  old 
age,  are  all  of  them  due  to  God,  and  justice 
and  mercy  are  to  him  equally  essential: 
and  as  this  life  is  a  time  of  the  possibilities 
of  mercy,  so  to  them  that  neglect  it,  the  next 
world  shall  be  a  state  of  pure  and  unmin- 
gled  justice. 

Remember  the  fatal  and  decretory  sen- 
tence which  God  hath  passed  upon  all  man- 
kind :  "  It  is  appointed  to  all  men  once  to 
die,  and  after  death  comes  judgment."  And 
if  any  of  us  were  certain  to  die  next  morn- 
ing, with  what  earnestness  should  we  pray ! 
with  what  hatred  should  we  remember  our 
sins!  with  what  scorn  should  we  look  upon 
the  licentious  pleasures  of  the  world  !  Then 
nothing  could  be  welcome  unto  us  but  a 
prayer-book,  no  company  but  a  comforter 
and  a  guide  of  souls,  no  employment  but 
repentance,  no  passions  but  in  order  to  reli- 
gion, no  kindness  for  a  lust  that  hath  un- 
done us.  And  if  any  of  you  have  been 
arrested  with  alarms  of  death,  or  been  in 


Serm.  XLIV. 

hearty  fear  of  its  approach,  remember  what 
thoughts  and  designs  then  possessed  you, 
how  precious  a  soul  was  then  in  your  ac- 
count, and  what  then  you  would  give  that 
you  had  despised  the  world,  and  done  your 
duty  to  God  and  man,  and  lived  a  holy  life. 
It  will  come  to  that  again ;  and  we  shall  be 
in  that  condition  in  which  we  shall  per- 
fectly understand,  that  all  the  things  and 
pleasures  of  the  world  are  vain,  and  unpro- 
fitable, and  irksome,  and  that  he  only  is  a 
wise  man  who  secures  the  interest  of  his 
soul,  though  it  be  with  the  loss  of  all  this 
world,  and  his  own  life  into  the  bargain. 
When  we  are  to  depart  this  life,  to  go  to 
strange  company  and  stranger  places,  and 
to  an  unknown  condition,  then  a  holy  con- 
science will  be  the  best  security,  the  best 
possession ;  it  will  be  a  horror,  that  every 
friend  we  meet  shall,  with  triumph,  upbraid 
to  us  the  sottishness  of  our  folly  :  "  Lo,  this 
is  the  goodly  change  you  have  made !  you 
had  your  good  things  in  your  lifetime,  and 
how  like  you  the  portion  that  is  reserved  to 
you  for  ever?"  The  old  rabbins,  those 
poets  of  religion,  report  of  Moses,  that  w"hen 
the  courtiers  of  Pharaoh  were  sporting 
with  the  child  Moses,  in  the  chamber  of 
Pharaoh's  daughter,  they  presented  to  his 
choice  an  ingot  of  gold  in  one  hand  and 
a  coal  of  fire  in  the  other;  and  that  the 
child  snatched  at  the  coal,  thrust  it  into 
his  mouth,  and  so  singed  and  parched  his 
tongue,  that  he  stammered  ever  after.  And 
certainly  it  is  infinitely  more  childish  in 
us,  for  the  glittering  of  the  small  glow- 
worms and  the  charcoal  of  worldly  posses- 
sions, to  swallow  the  flames  of  hell  greedily 
in  our  choice :  such  a  bit  will,  produce  a 
worse  stammering  than  Moses  had  :  for  so 
the  accursed  and  lost  souls  have  their  ugly 
and  horrid  dialect ;  they  roar  and  blaspheme, 
blaspheme  and  roar,  for  ever.  And  suppose 
God  should  now,  at  this  instant,  send  the 
great  archangel  with  his  trumpet,  to  sum- 
mon all  the  world  to  judgment,  would  not 
all  this  seem  a  notorious  visible  truth,  a 
truth  which  you  will  then  wonder  that 
every  man  did  not  lay  to  his  heart  and  pre- 
serve there,  in  actual,  pious,  and  effective 
consideration?  Let  the  trumpet  of  God 
perpetually  sound  in  your  ears,  "  Surgite 
mortui,etvenite  ad  judicium  :"  place  your- 
selves, by  meditation,  every  day  upon  your 
death-bed,  and  remember  what  thoughts  shall 
then  possess  you,  and  let  such  thoughts  dwell 
in  your  understanding  for  ever,  and  be  the 
parent  of  all  your  resolutions  and  actions. 


THE  FOOLISH  EXCHANGE. 


Serm.  XLV. 


CHRISTIAN   PRUDENCE.  333 


The  doctors  of  the  Jews  report,  that  when  j 
Absalom  hanged  among  the  oaks  by  the 
hair  of  the  head,  he  seemed  to  see  under 
him  hell  gaping  wide  ready  to  receive  him; 
and  he  durst  not  cut  off  the  hair  that  en- 
tangled  him,  for  fear  he  should  fall  into  the; 
horrid  lake,  whose  portion  is  flames  and 
torment,  but  chose  to  protract  his  miserable 
life  a  few  minutes  in  that  pain  of  posture, 
and  to  abide  the  stroke  of  his  pursuing  ene- 
mies :  his  condition  was  sad  when  his  arts 
of  remedy  were  so  vain. 

Tt  yap  j3porwv  av  ow  xaxotj  rtB/Juypsvov 
(dvrjaxtiv  o  fttUur  tov  %povov  x£p8oj  ^>£pft ;  j 

Soph. 

A  condemned  man  hath  but  small  com- 
fort to  stay  the  singing  of  a  long  psalm ;  it  is 
the  case  of  every  vicious  person.  Hell  is 
wide  open  to  every  impenitent  persevering 
sinner,  to  every  unpurged  person. 

Noctes  at  que  dies  patet  atri  janua  Ditis. 

Ms. 

And  although  God  hath  lighted  his  can- 
dle, and  the  lantern  of  his  word  and  clearest 
revelations  is  held  out  to  us,  that  we  can  see 
heli  in  its  worst  colours  and  most  horrid  re- 
presentments  ;  yet  we  run  greedily  after 
baubles,  unto  that  precipice  which  swallows 
up  the  greatest  part  of  mankind ;  and  then 
only  we  begin  to  consider,  when  all  conside- 
ration is  fruitless. 

He,  therefore,  is  a  huge  fool,  that  heaps 
up  riches,  that  greedily  pursues  the  world, 
and  at  the  same  time  (for  so  it  must  be) 
"  heaps  up  wrath  to  himself  against  the  day 
of  wrath;"  when  sickness  and  death  arrest 
him,  then  they  appear  unprofitable,  and 
himself  extremely  miserable  ;  and  if  you 
would  know  how  great  that  misery  is,  you 
may  take  account  of  it  by  those  fearful  words 
and  killing  rhetoric  of  Scripture:  "It  is  a 
fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
living  God;"  and,  "Who  can  dwell  with 
the  everlasting  burnings  V  That  is,  no  pa- 
tience can  abide  there  one  hour,  where  they 
dwell  forever. 


SERMON  XLV. 

OF  CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 
PART  I . 

Be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents,  and  harmless  as 
doves. — Matt.  x.  latter  part  of  verse  16. 

When  our  blessed  Saviour  entailed  a  law 

and  a  condition  of  sufferings,  and  promised 


a  state  of  persecution  to  his  servants ;  and 
withal  had  charmed  them  with  the  bands 
and  unactive  chains  of  so  many  passive 
graces,  that  they  should  not  be  able  to  stir 
against  the  violence  of  tyrants,  or  abate  the 
edge  of  axes,  by  any  instrument  but  their 
own  blood ;  being  "  sent  forth  as  sheep 
among  wolves,"  innocent  and  silent,  harm- 
less and  defenceless,  certainly  exposed  to 
sorrow,  and  uncertainly  guarded  in  their  per- 
sons ;  their  condition  seemed  nothing  else 
but  a  designation  to  slaughter :  and  when 
they  were  drawn  into  the  folds  of  the  church, 
they  were  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  evil 
men,  infinitely  and  unavoidably  :  and  when 
an  apostle  invited  a  proselyte  to  come  to 
Christ,  it  was  in  effect  a  snare  laid  for  his 
life ;  and  he  could  neither  conceal  his  reli- 
gion, nor  hide  his  person,  nor  avoid  a  cap- 
tious question,  nor  deny  his  accusation,  nor 
elude  the  bloody  arts  of  orators  and  inform- 
ers, nor  break  prisons,  nor  any  thing  but 
die.  If  the  case  stood  just  thus,  it  was  welt 
eternity  stood  at  the  outer  days  of  our  life, 
ready  to  receive  such  harmless  people  :  but 
surely  there  could  be  no  art  in  the  design, 
no  pitying  of  human  weaknesses,  no  com- 
plying with  the  condition  of  man,  no  allow- 
ances made  for  customs  and  prejudices  of  the 
world,  no  inviting  men  by  the  things  of 
men,  no  turning  nature  into  religion  :  but  it 
was  all  the  way  a  direct  violence,  and  an 
open  prostitution  of  our  lives,  and  a  throw- 
ing away  our  fortune  into  a  sea  of  rashness 
and  credulity.  But,  therefore,  God  ordered 
the  affairs  and  necessities  of  religion  in  other 
ways,  and  to  other  purposes.  Although  God 
bound  our  hands  behind  us,  yet  he  did  not 
tie  our  understandings  up:  although  we 
might  not  use  our  swords,  yet  we  might 
use  our  reason  :  we  were  not  suffered  to  be 
violent,  but  we  might  avoid  violence  by  all 
the  arts  of  prudence  and  innocence :  if  we 
did  take  heed  of  sin,  we  might  also  take 
heed  of  men.  And  because  in  all  conten- 
tions between  wit  and  violence,  prudence 
and  rudeness,  learning  and  the  sword,  the 
strong  hand  took  it  first,  and  the  strong 
head  possessed  it  last ;  the  strong  man  first 
governed,  and  the  witty  man  succeeded 
him,  and  lasted  longer ;  it  came  to  pass,  that 
the  wisdom  of  the  Father  hath  so  ordered 
it,  that  all  his  disciples  should  overcome 
the  power  of  the  Roman  legions  by  a  wise 
religion ;  and  prudence  and  innocence  should 
become  the  mightiest  guards  ;  and  the  Chris- 
tian, although  exposed  to  persecution,  yet 
is  so  secured  that  he  shall  never  need  to 


334 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


Seem.  XLV. 


die,  but  when  the  circumstances  are  so  or- 
dered, that  his  reason  is  convinced  that  then 
it  is  fit  he  should ;  fit,  I  say,  in  order  to 
God's  purposes  and  his  own. 

For  he  that  is  innocent,  is  safe  against  all 
the  rods  and  the  axes  of  all  the  consuls  of 
the  world,  if  they  rule  by  justice  ;  and  he 
that  is  prudent,  will  also  escape  from  many 
rudenesses  and  irregular  violences  that  can 
come  by  injustice  :  and  no  wit  of  man,  no 
government,  no  armies,  can  do  more.  For 
Caesar  perished  in  the  midst  of  all  his  legions 
and  ail  his  honours;  and  against  chance 
and  irregularities  there  is  no  provision  less 
than  infinite  that  can  give  security.  And 
although  prudence  alone  cannot  do  this,  yet 
innocence  gives  the  greatest  title  to  that 
Providence  which  only  can,  if  he  pleases, 
and  will,  if  it  be  fitting.  Here,  then,  are  the 
two  arms  defensive  of  a  Christian  :  pru- 
dence against  the  evils  of  men,  innocence 
against  the  evils  of  devils  and  all  that  relates 
to  his  kingdom. 

Prudence  fences  against  persecution  and 
the  evil  snares,  against  the  opportunities 
and  occasions  of  sin  ;  it  prevents  surprises, 
it  fortifies  all  its  proper  weaknesses,  it  im- 
proves our  talents,  it  does  advantage  to  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  and  the  interests  of  the 
gospel,  it  secures  our  condition,  and  in- 
structs our  choice  in  all  the  ways  and  just 
passages  to  felicity,  it  makes  us  to  live  pro- 
fitably and  die  wisely  ;  and  without  it,  sim- 
plicity would  turn  to  silliness,  zeal  into  pas- 
sion, passion  into  fury,  religion  into  scan- 
dal, conversation  into  a  snare,  civilities  into 
temptation,  courtesies  into  danger,  and  an 
imprudent  person  falls  into  the  condition; 
of  harmless,  rich,  and  unwary  fools,  orj 
rather  of  birds,  sheep,  and  beavers,  who  are' 
hunted  and  persecuted  for  the  spoils  of  their; 
fleece  or  their  flesh,  their  skins  or  their  en- 
trails, and  have  not  the  foresight  to  avoid  a 
snare,  but  by  their  fear  and  undefending 
follies  are  driven  thither  where  they  die  in- 
fallibly. Xxacolat  rtoTJiots  sl$  tfo$>6j  StoM.vr'ou.* 
Every  good  man  is  encircled  with  many 
enemies  and  dangers;  and  his  virtue  shall] 
be  rifled,  and  the  decency  of  his  soul  and 
spirit  shall  be  discomposed,  and  turned 
into  a  heap  of  inarticulate  and  disorder- 
ly fancies,  unless,  by  the  methods  and 
guards  of  prudence,  it  be  managed  and  se- 
cured. 

But  in  order  to  the  following  discourse 


Stobasus. 


and  its  method,  we  are  first  to  consider, 
whether  this  be,  or,  indeed,  can  be,  a  com- 
mandment, or,  what  it  is.  For  can  all  men 
that  give  up  their  names  in  baptism,  be  en- 
joinedjo  be  wise  and  prudent?  It  is  as  if 
God  would  command  us  to  be  eloquent  or 
witty  men,  fine  speakers,  or  straight-bodied, 
or  excellent  scholars,  or  rich  men :  if  he 
please  to  make  us  so,  we  are  so.  And  pru- 
dence is  a  gift  of  God,  a  blessing  of  an  ex- 
cellent nature,  and  of  great  leisure,  and  a 
wise  opportunity,  and  a  severe  education, 
and  a  great  experience,  and  a  strict  ob- 
servation, and  good  company ;  all  which, 
being  either  wholly  or  in  part  out  of  our 
power,  may  be  expected  as  free  gifts,  but 
cannot  be  imposed  as  commandments. 

To  this  I  answer,  that  Christian  prudence 
is,  in  very  many  instances,  a  direct  duty  ;  in 
some,  an  instance  and  advice,  in  order  to 
degrees  and  advantages.  Where  it  is  a 
duty,  it  is  put  into  every  man's  power  ; 
where  it  is  an  advice,  it  is  only  expected 
according  to  what  a  man  hath,  and  not  ac- 
cording to  what  he  hath  not:  and  even 
here,  although  the  events  of  prudence  are 
out  of  our  power,  yet  the  endeavours  and 
the  observation,  the  diligence  and  caution, 
the  moral  part  of  it,  and  the  plain  conduct 
of  our  necessary  duty,  (which  are  portions 
of  this  grace),  are  such  things  which  God 
will  demand  in  proportion  to  the  talent 
which  he  hath  entrusted  into  our  banks. 
There  are,  indeed,  some  Christians  very  un- 
wary and  unwise  in  the  conduct  of  their 
religion  ;  and  they  cannot  at  all  help  it,  at 
least  not  in  all  degrees;  but  yet  they  may 
be  taught  to  do  prudent  things,  though  not 
to  be  prudent  persons  :  if  they  have  not  the 
prudence  of  advice  and  conduct,  yet  thev 
may  have  the  prudence  of  obedience  and 
of  disciples.  And  the  event  is  this:  with- 
out prudence  their  virtue  is  unsafe,  and 
their  persons  defenceless,  and  their  interest 
is  unguarded ;  for  prudence  is  a  handmaid 
waiting  at  the  production  and  birth  of  vir- 
tue;  it  is  a  nurse  to  it  in  its  infancy,  its 
patron  in  assaults,  its  guide  in  temptations, 
its  security  in  all  portions  of  chance  and 
contingencies ;  and  he  that  is  imprudent,  if 
he  have  many  accidents  and  varieties,  is  in 
great  danger  of  being  none  at  all ;  or,  if  he 
be,  at  the  best  he  is  but  a  "  weak  and  an 
unprofitable  servant,"  useless  to  his  neigh- 
bour, vain  in  himself,  and  as  to  God,  "the 
least  in  the  kingdom:"  his  virtue  is  con- 
tingent and  by  chance,  not  proportioned  to 


Serm.  XLV. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


335 


the  reward  of  wisdom,  and  the  election  of  a 
wise  religion. 

KipSoj  ?a3hv  ausivor,  ov8k  rov  aotyov. 

SOPHOCL. 

No  purchase,  no  wealth,  no  advantage, 
is  great  enough  to  be  compared  to  a  wise  soul 
and  a  prudent  spirit ;  and  he  that  wants  it, 
hath  a  less  virtue,  and  a  defenceless  mind, 
and  will  suffer  a  mighty  hazard  in  the  in- 
terest of  eternity.  Its  parts  and  proper  acts 
consist  in  the  following  particulars. 

1.  It  is  the  duty  of  Christian  prudence  to 
choose  the  end  of  a  Christain,  that  which  is 
perfective  of  a  man,  satisfactory  to  reason, 
the  rest  of  a  Christian,  and  the  beatification 
of  his  spirit :  and  that  is,  to  choose,  and  de- 
sire, and  propound  to  himself  heaven,  and 
the  fruition  of  God,  as  the  end  of  all  his  acts 
and  arts,  his  designs  and  purposes.  For,  in 
the  nature  cf  things,  that  is  most  eligible  and 
most  to  be  pursued,  which  is  most  perfective 
of  our  nature,  and  is  the  acquiescence,  the 
satisfaction,  and  proper  rest  of  our  most 
reasonable  appetites.  Now  the  things  of 
this  world  are  difficult  and  uneasy,  full  of 
thorns  and  empty  of  pleasures  5  they  fill  a 
diseased  faculty  or  an  abused  sense,  but  are 
an  infinite  dissatisfaction  to  reason  and  the 
appetites  of  the  soul:  they  are  short  and 
transient,  and  they  never  abide,  unless  sor- 
row, like  a  chain,  be  bound  about  their  leg, 
and  then  they  never  stir  till  the  grace  of  God 
and  religion  breaks  it,  or  else  that  the  rust 
of  time  eats  the  chain  in  pieces ;  they  are 
dangerous  and  doubtful,  few  and  difficult, 
sordid  and  particular,  not  only  not  communi- 
cable to  a  multitude,  but  not  diffusive  upon 
the  whole  man,  there  being  no  one  pleasure 
or  object  in  this  world  that  delights  all  the 
parts  of  man :  and,  arter  all  this,  they  are 
originally  from  earth  and  from  the  creatures, 
only  that  they  oftentimes  contract  alliances 
with  hell  and  the  grave,  with  shame  and 
sorrow  ;  and  all  these  put  together  make  no 
great  amability  or  proportion  to  a  wise  man's 
choice.  But,  on  the  other  side,  the  things 
of  God  are  the  noblest  satisfactions  to  those 
desires  which  ought  to  be  cherished  and 
swelled  up  to  infinite  ;  their  deliciousness 
is  vast  and  full  of  relish,  and  their  very  ap- 
pendant thorns  are  to  be  chosen ;  for  they 
are  gilded,  they  are  safe  and  medicinal,  they 
heal  the  wound  they  make,  and  bring  forth 
fruit  of  a  blessed  and  a  holy  life.  The  things 
of  God  and  of  religion  are  easy  and  sweet, 
they  bear  entertainments  in  their  hand,  and 


reward  at  their  back ;  their  good  is  certain 
and  perpetual,  and  they  make  us  cheerful 
to-day  and  pleasant  to-morrow :  and  spiritual 
songs  end  not  in  a  sigh  and  a  groan  :  neither, 
like  unwholesome  physic,  do  they  let  loose 
a  present  humour,  and  introduce  an  habitual 
indisposition ;  but  they  bring  us  to  the  feli- 
city of  God,  "the  same  yesterday,  and  to- 
day, and  for  ever  :"  they  do  not  give  a  pri- 
vate and  particular  delight,  but  their  benefit 
is  public ;  like  the  incense  of  the  altar,  it 
sends  up  a  sweet  smell  to  heaven,  and 
makes  atonement  for  the  religious  man  that 
kindled  it,  and  delights  all  the  standers-by, 
and  makes  the  very  air  wholesome.  There 
is  no  blessed  soul  goes  to  heaven,  but  he 
makes  a  general  joy  in  all  the  mansions 
where  the  saints  do  dwell,  and  in  all  the 
chapels  where  the  angels  sing:  and  the  joys 
of  religion  are  not  univocal,  but  productive 
of  rare,  and  accidental,  and  preternatural 
pleasures  ;  for  the  music  of  holy  hymns  de- 
lights the  ear,  and  refreshes  the  spirit,  and 
makes  the  very  bones  of  the  saint  to  re- 
joice. And  charity,  or  the  giving  alms  to 
the  poor,  does  not  only  ease  the  poverty  of 
the  receiver,  but  makes  the  giver  rich,  and 
heals  his  sickness,  and  delivers  from  death : 
and  temperance,  though  it  be  in  the  matter 
of  meat,  and  drink,  and  pleasures,  yet  hath 
an  effect  upon  his  understanding,  and  makes 
the  reason  sober,  and  the  will  orderly,  and 
the  affections  regular,  and  does  things  be- 
side and  beyond  their  natural  and  proper 
efficacy :  for  all  the  parts  of  our  duty  are 
watered  with  the  showers  of  blessing,  and 
bring  forth  fruit  according  to  the  influence 
of  heaven,  and  beyond  the  capacities  of 
nature. 

And  now  let  the  voluptuous  person  go 
and  try  whether  putting  his  wanton  hand 
to  the  bosom  of  his  mistress  will  get  half 
such  honour  as  Scaevola  put  upon  his  head, 
when  he  put  his  hand  into  the  fire.  Let 
him  see  whether  a  drunken  meeting  will 
cure  a  fever  or  make  him  wise :  a  hearty 
and  persevering  prayer  will.  Let  him  tell 
me,  if  spending  great  sums  of  money  upon 
his  lusts  will  make  him  sleep  soundly,  or  be 
rich :  charity  will ;  alms  will  increase  his  for- 
tune, and  a  good  conscience  shall  charm  all 
his  cares  and  sorrows  into  a  most  delicious 
slumber.  Well  may  a  full  goblet  wet  the 
drunkard's  tongue,  and  then  the  heat  rising 
from  the  stomach  will  dry  the  sponge,  and 
heat  it  into  the  scorchings  and  little  images 
of  hell:  and  the  follies  of  a  wanton  bed  will 
turn  the  itch  into  a  smart,  and  empty  the 


336 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


Serm.  XLV. 


reins  of  all  their  lustful  powers :  but  can 
they  do  honour  or  satisfaction  in  any  thing 
that  must  last,  and  that  ought  to  be  provided 
for  ?  No ;  all  the  things  of  this  world  are 
little,  and  trifling,  and  limited,  and  particu- 
lar, and  sometimes  necessary,  because  men 
are  miserable,  wanting,  and  imperfect ;  but 
they  never  do  any  thing  toward  perfection, 
but  their  pleasure  dies  like  the  time  in  which 
it  danced  awhile ;  and  when  the  minute  is 
gone,  so  is  the  pleasure  too,  and  leaves  no 
footstep  but  the  impression  of  a  sigh,  and 
dwells  no  where  but  in  the  same  house 
where  you  shall  find  yesterday,  that  is,  in 
forgetfulness  and  annihilation ;  unless  its 
only  child,  sorrow,  shall  marry,  and  breed 
more  of  its  kind,  and  so  continue  its  memo- 
ry and  name  to  eternal  ages.  It  is,  there- 
fore, the  most  necessary  part  of  prudence  to 
choose  well  in  the  main  stake :  and  the  dis- 
pute is  not  much ;  for  if  eternal  things  be 
better  than  temporal,  the  soul  more  noble 
than  the  body,  virtue  more  honorable  than 
the  basest  vices,  a  lasting  joy  to  be  chosen 
before  an  eternal  sorrow,  much  to  be  prefer- 
red before  little,  certainty  before  danger,  pub- 
lic good  things  before  private  evils,  eternity 
before  moments ;  then  let  us  sit  down  in  re- 
ligion, and  make  heaven  to  be  our  end,  God 
to  be  our  Father,  Christ  our  elder  Brother, 
the  Holy  Ghost  the  earnest  of  our  inheri- 
tance, virtue  to  be  our  employment;  and 
then  we  shaL  never  enter  into  the  portion 
of  fools  and  accursed  ill-choosing  spirits. 
Nazianzen  said  well,  "  Mahm  prudentise 
guttam  quani  foecundioris  fortunse  pela- 
gus:"  "One  drop  of  prudence  is  more 
useful  than  an  ocean  of  a  smooth  fortune 
for  prudence  is  a  rare  instrument  towards 
heaven ;  and  a  great  fortune  is  made  often- 
times the  highway  to  hell  and  destruction. 
However,  thus  far  prudence  is  our  duty; 
every  man  can  be  so  wise,  and  is  bound  to 
it,  to  choose  heaven,  and  a  cohabitation 
with  God,  before  the  possessions  and  trans- 
ient vanities  of  the  world. 

2.  It  is  a  duty  of  Christian  prudence  to 
pursue  this  great  end  with  apt  means  and 
instruments  in  proportion  to  that  end.  No 
wise  man  will  sail  to  Ormus  in  a  cock-boat, 
or  use  a  child  for  his  interpreter;  and  that 
general  is  a  Cyclops  without  an  eye,  who 
chooses  the  sickest  men  to  man  his  towns 
and  the  weakest  to  fight  his  battles.  It  can- 
not be  a  vigorous  prosecution,  unless  the 
means  have  an  efficacy  or  worth  commen- 
surate to  all  the  difficulty,  and  something  of 
the  excellency  of  that  end  which  is  designed. 


'  And,  indeed,  men  use  not  to  be  so  weak  in 
acquiring  the  possessions  of  their  temporals ; 
■  but  in  matters  of  religion  they  think  any 
i  thing  effective  enough  to  secure  the  greatest 
j  interest :  as  if  all  the  fields  of  heaven  and  the 
regions  of  that  kingdom  were  waste  ground, 
and  wanted  a  colony  of  planters;  and  that 
God  invited  men  to  heaven  upon  any  terms, 
that  he  might  rejoice  in  the  multitude  of  sub- 
jects. For  certain  it  is,  men  do  more  to  get 
a  little  money  than  for  all  the  glories  of 
heaven:  men  "rise  up  early,"  and  "sit 
up  late,"  and  "eat  the  bread  of  careful- 
ness," to  become  richer  than  their  neigh- 
bours ;  and  are  amazed  at  every  loss,  and 
impatient  of  an  evil  accident,  and  feel  a  di- 
rect storm  of  passion  if  they  suffer  in  their 
interest.  But  in  order  to  heaven  they  are 
cold  in  their  religion,  undevout  in  their 
prayers,  incurious  in  their  walking,  un- 
watchful  in  their  circumstances,  indifferent 
in  the  use  of  their  opportunities,  infrequent 
in  their  discoursings  of  it,  not  inquisitive  of 
the  way,  and  yet  think  they  shall  surely  go 
to  heaven.  But  a  prudent  man  knows,  that 
by  the  greatness  of  the  purchase  he  is  to 
make  an  estimate  of  the  value  and  the  price. 
When  we  ask  of  God  any  great  thing, — as 
wisdom,  delivery  from  sickness,  his  Holy 
Spirit,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  grace  of 
chastity,  restitution  to  his  favour,  or  the 
like, — do  we  hope  to  obtain  them  without  a 
high  opinion  of  the  things  we  ask?  and  if 
we  value  them  highly,  must  we  not  de- 
sire them  earnestly  ?  and  if  we  desire  them 
earnestly,  must  we  not  beg  for  them  fer- 
vently? and  whatsoever  we  ask  for  fervent- 
ly, must  not  we  beg  for  frequently?  And 
then,  because  prayer  is  but  one  hand  toward 
the  reaching  a  blessing,  and  God  requires 
our  co-operation  and  endeavour,  and  we 
must  work  with  both  hands,  are  we  not  con- 
vinced that  our  prayers  are  either  faint,  or  a 
design  of  laziness,  when  we  either  ask  cold- 
ly, or  else  pray  loudly,  hoping  to  receive  the 
graces  we  need  without  labour?  A  prudent 
person,  that  knows  to  value  the  best  ob- 
ject of  his  desires,  will  also  know  that  he 
must  observe  the  degrees  of  labour,  accord- 
ing to  the  excellency  of  the  reward.  That 
prayer  must  be  effectual,--fervent,--frequent, 
— continual, — holy,— passionate,— that  must 
get  a  grace  or  secure  a  blessing :  the  love 
that  we  must  have  to  God,  must  be  such  as 
to  keep  his  commandments,  and  make  us 
willing  to  part  with  all  our  estate,  and  all 
our  honour,  and  our  life,  for  the  testimony 
of  a  holy  conscience :  our  charity  to  our 


Skrm.  XLV 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


337 


neighbour  must  be  expressive  in  a  language 
of  a  real  friendship,  aptness  to  forgive,  readi- 
ness to  forbear,  in  pitying  infirmities,  in  re- 
lieving necessities,  in  giving  our  goods  and 
our  lives,  and  quitting  our  privileges  to  save 
his  soul,  to  secure  and  support  his  virtue  : 
our  repentance  must  be  full  of  sorrows  and 
care,  of  diligence  and  hatred  against  sin;  it 
must  drive  out  all,  and  leave  no  affections 
towards  it;  it  must  be  constant  and  perse- 
vering, fearful  of  relapse,  and  watchful  of 
all  accidents :  our  temperance  must  some- 
times turn  into  abstinence,  and  most  com- 
monly be  severe,  and  ever  without  reproof: 
"  He  that  striveth  for  masteries  is  tempe- 
rate," saith  St.  Paul,  "  in  all  things."  He 
that  does  all  this,  may,  with  some  pretence 
and  reason,  say,  he  intends  to  go  to  heaven. 
But  they  that  will  not  deny  a  lust,  nor  re- 
strain an  appetite  j  they  that  will  be  drunk 
when  their  friends  do  merrily  constrain  them, 
or  love  a  cheap  religion,  and  a  gentle  and 
lame  prayer,  short  and  soft,  quickly  said  and 
soon  passed  over,  seldom  returning  and  but 
little  observed ;  how  is  it  possible  that  they 
should  think  themselves  persons  disposed  to 
receive  such  glorious  crowns  and  sceptres, 
such  excellent  conditions,  which  they  have 
DOi  faith  enough  to  believe,  nor  attention 
enough  to  consider,  and  no  man  can  have 
wit  enough  to  understand  ?  But  so  might 
an  Arcadian  shepherd  look  from  the  rocks, 
or  through  the  clefts  of  the  valley  where  his 
sheep  graze,  and  wonder  that  the  messenger 
stays  so  long  from  coming  to  him  to  be 
crowned  king  of  all  the  Greek  islands,  or  to 
be  adopted  heir  to  the  Macedonian  monar- 
chy. It  is  an  infinite  love  of  God  that  we 
have  heaven  upon  conditions  which  we 
can  perform  with  greatest  diligence :  but 
truly  the  lives  of  men  are  generally  such, 
that  they  do  things  in  order  to  heaven, 
things,  I  say,  so  few,  so  trifling,  so  un- 
worthy, that  they  are  not  proportionable  to 
the  reward  of  a  crown  of  oak,  or  a  yellow 
riband,  the  slender  reward  with  which  the  j 
Romans  paid  their  soldiers  for  their  extra- 
ordinary  valour.  True  it  is,  that  heaven  j 
is  not,  in  a  just  sense  of  a  commutation,  a 
reward,  but  a  gift,  and  an  infinite  favour : 
but  yet  it  is  not  reached  forth  but  to  persons 
disposed  by  the  conditions  of  God,  which 
conditions  when  we  pursue  in  kind,  let  us 
be  very  careful  we  do  not  fail  of  the  mighty 
prize  of  our  high  calling,  for  want  of  de- 
grees and  just  measures,  the  measures  of 
zeal  and  a  mighty  love. 


3.  It  is  an  office  of  prudence  to  serve  God 
so  that  we  may,  at  the  same  time,  preserve 
our  lives  and  our  estates,  our  interest  and 
reputation,  for  ourselves  and  our  relatives,  so 
far  as  they  can  consist  together.  St.  Paul,  in 
the  beginning  of  Christianity,  was  careful 
to  instruct  the  forwardness  and  zeal  of  the 
new  Christians  into  good  husbandry,  and  to 
catechize  the  men  into  good  trades,  and  the 
women  into  useful  employments,  that  they 
might  not  be  unprofitable.  For  Christian 
religion  carrying  us  to  heaven,  does  it  by 
the  way  of  a  man,  and  by  the  body  it  serves 
the  soul,  as  by  the  soul  it  serves  God; 
and,  therefore,  it  endeavours  to  secure  the 
body  and  its  interest,  that  it  may  continue 
the  opportunities  of  a  crown,  and  prolong 
the  stage  in  which  we  are  to  run  for  the 
mighty  "  prize  of  our  salvation ;"  and  this 
is  that  part  of  prudence  which  is  the  defen- 
sative  and  guard  of  a  Christian  in  the  time  of 
persecution,  and  it  hath  in  it  much  of  duty. 
He  that,  through  an  indiscreet  zeal,  casts 
himself  into  a  needless  danger,  hath  betray- 
ed his  life  to  tyranny,  and  tempts  the  sin 
of  an  enemy;  he  loses  to  God  the  service 
of  many  years,  and  cuts  off  himself  from  a 
fair  opportunity  of  working  his  salvation,  in 
the  main  parts  of  which  we  shall  find  a  long 
life  and  very  many  years  of  reason  to  be  little 
enough  ;  he  betrays  the  interest  of  his  rela- 
tives, which  he  is  bound  to  preserve ;  he  dis- 
ables himself  of  making  "provision  for  them 
of  his  own  house;"  and  he  that  fails  in  this 
duty  by  his  own  fault "  is  worse  than  an  infi- 
del ;"  and  denies  the  faith,  by  such  unseason- 
able dying,  or  being  undone,  which  by  that 
testimony  he  did  intend  gloriously  to  confess ; 
he  serves  the  end  of  ambition  and  popular 
services,  but  not  the  sober  ends  of  religion ;  he 
discourages  the  weak,  and  weakens  the  hands 
of  the  strong,  and  by  upbraiding  their  wea- 
riness, tempts  them  to  turn  it  into  rashness 
or  despair  ;  he  affrights  strangers  from  en- 
tering into  religion,  while  by  such  impru- 
dence he  shall  represent  it  to  be  impossible, 
at  the  same  time,  to  be  wise  and  to  be  reli- 
gious ;  he  turns  all  the  whole  religion  into 
frowardness  of  dying  or  beggary,  leaving  no 
space  for  the  parts  and  offices  of  a  holy  life, 
which,  in  times  of  persecution,  are  infinitely 
necessary  for  the  advantages  of  the  institu- 
tion. But  God  hath  provided  better  things 
for  his  servants:  "Quern  fata  cogunt,  ille 
cum  venia  est  miser;"  "he  whom  God  by 
an  inevitable  necessity  calls  to  sufferance, 
he  hath  leave  to  be  undone ;"  and  that  ruin 
2D 


338 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


Serm.  XLV. 


of  his  estate  or  loss  of  his  life  shall  secure 
first  a  providence,  then  a  crown. 

At  si  quis  ultro  se  malis  offert  volens, 
Seque  ipse  torquet,  perdere  est  dignus  bona, 
Queis  nescit  uii  : —  Sen. 

But  he  that  invites  the  cruelty  of  a 
tyrant  by  his  own  follies,  or  the  indiscre- 
tions of  an  insignificant  and  impertinent 
zeal,  suffers  as  a  wilful  person,  and  enters 
into  the  portion  and  reward  of  fools."  And 
this  is  the  precept  of  our  blessed  Saviour, 
next  after  my  text,  "  Beware  of  men." 
Use  your  prudence  to  the  purposes  of 
avoiding  their  snare.  Twv  $rjpuv  pporoj 
juaM-oi/  dv^fpoj.  "  Man  is  the  most  harm- 
ful of  all  the  wild  beasts."  "  Ye  are  sent 
as*  sheep  among  wolves ;  be,  therefore, 
wise  as  serpents ;"  when  you  can  avoid  it, 
suffer  not  men  to  ride  over  your  heads,  or 
trample  you  under-foot ;  that  is  the  wisdom 
of  serpents.  And  so  must  we ;  that  is,  by 
all  just  compliances,  and  toleration  of  all 
indifferent  changes  in  which  a  duty  is  not 
destroyed,  and  in  which  we  are  not  active, 
so  preserve  ourselves,  that  we  might  be 
permitted  to  live,  and  serve  God,  and  to  do 
advantages  to  religion  :  so  purchasing  time 
to  do  good  in,  by  bending  in  all  those  flex- 
ures of  fortune  and  condition  which  we 
cannot  help,  and  which  we  do  not  set  for- 
ward, and  which  we  never  did  procure. 
And  this  is  the  direct  meaning  of  St.  Paul : 
"  See  then  that  ye  walk  circumspectly,  not 
as  fools,  but  as  wise,  redeeming  the  lime, 
because  the  days  are  evil  ;"*  that  is,  we  are 
fallen  into  limes  that  are  troublesome,  dan- 
gerous, persecuting,  and  afflictive;  pur- 
chase as  much  respite  as  you  can ;  buy  or 
"  redeem  the  time"  by  all  honest  arts,  by 
humility,  by  fair  carriage  and  sweetnesses 
of  society,  by  civility  and  a  peaceful  con- 
versation, by  good  words  and  all  honest 
offices,  by  praying  for  your  persecutors,  by 
patient  sufferance  of  what  is  unavoidable. 
And  when  the  tyrant  draws  you  forth  from 
aril  these  guards  and  retirements,  and  offers 
violence  to  your  duty,  or  tempts  you  to  do 
a  dishonest  act,  or  to  omit  an  act  of  obliga- 
tion, then  come  forth  into  the  theatre,  and 
lay  your  necks  down  to  the  hangman's  axe, 
and  fear  not  to  die  the  most  shameful  death 
of  the  cross  or  the  gallows.  Fox  so  have  I 
known  angels  ascending  and  descending 
upon  those  ladders  ;  and  the  Lord  of  glory 
suffered  sharne  and  purchased  honour  upon 
.•the  cross.   Thus  we  are,  "  to  walk  in  wis- 


dom towards  them  that  are  without,  re- 
deeming the  time  :"*  for  so  St.  Paul  renews 
that  permission  or  commandment;  give 
them  no  just  cause  of  offence;  with  all 
humility,  and  as  occasion  is  offered,  repre- 
sent their  duty,  and  invite  them  sweetly  to 
felicities  and  virtue,  but  do  not,  in  ruder 
language,  upbraid  and  reproach  their  base- 
ness ;  and,  when  they  are  incorrigible,  let 
them  alone,  lest,  like  cats,  they  run  mad 
with  the  smell  of  delicious  ointments.  And, 
therefore,  Pothinus,  Bishop  of  Lyons,  being 
asked  by  the  unbaptized  president,  f  Who 
was  the  God  of  Christians?"  answered, 
'Edy  d|ioj  yv&np,  "  If  you  be  disposed  with 
real  and  hearty  desires  of  learning,  what 
you  ask  you  shall  quickly  know;"  but  if 
your  purpose  be  indirect,  I  shall  not  preach 
to  you,  to  my  hurt,  and  your  no  advantage. 
Thus  the  wisdom  of  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians was  careful  not  to  profane  the  temples 
of  the  heathen,  not  to  revile  their  false  gods; 
and,  when  they  were  in  duty  to  reprehend 
the  follies  of  their  religion,  they  chose  to  do 
it  from  their  own  writings,  and  as  relators 
of  their  own  records;  they  fled  from  the 
fury  of  a  persecution,  they  hid  themselves 
in  caves,  and  wandered  about  in  disguises, 
and  preached  in  private,  and  celebrated  their 
synaxes  and  communions  in  grottoes  and 
retirements ;  and  made  it  appear  to  all  the 
world  they  were  peaceable  and  obedient, 
charitable  and  patient,  and  at  this  price 
bought  their  time. 

Koupojydp,  wtfrtfp  wSpacft 

Mfyitffos  epyov  rCavtos  irst1  IrtMStWtffi. 

Soph. 

As  knowing  that,  even  in  this  sense,  time 
was  very  precious,  and  the  opportunity  of 
giving  glory  to  God  by  the  offices  of  an  ex- 
cellent religion  was  not  too  dear  a  purchase 
at  that  rate.  But  then  when  the  wolves  had 
entered  into  the  folds,  and  .  seized  upon  a 
lamb,  the  rest  fled,  and  used  all  the  inno- 
cent art  of  concealment.  St.  Athanasius 
being  overtaken  by  his  persecutors,  but  not 
known,  and  asked  whether  he  saw  Athana- 
sius passing  that  way,  pointed  out  forward 
with  his  finger,  "Non  longe  abest  Athana- 
sius," "the  man  is  not  far  off,"  a  swift 
footman  will  easily  overtake  him.  And  St. 
Paul  divided  the  counsel  of  his  judges,  and 
made  the  Pharisees  his  parties  by  a  witty 
insinuation  of  his  own  belief  of  the  resur- 
rection, which  was  not  the  main  question, 
but  an  incident  to  the  matter  of  h:3  accusa- 


*  Eph.  v.  15.  16. 


*  Col.  iv.  5. 


Serm.  XLVT.  CHRISTIAN 


PRUDENCE. 


339 


tion.  And  when  Plinius  Secundus,  in  the 
face  of  a  tyrant  court,  was  pressed  so  in- 
viduously  to  give  his  opinion  concerning  a 
good  man  in  banishment,  and  under  the  dis- 
advantage of  an  unjust  sentence,  he  diverted 
the  snare  of  Marcus  Regulus,  by  referring 
his  answer  to  a  competent  judicatory,  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  ;  being  pressed  again, 
by  offering  a  direct  answer  upon  a  just  con- 
dition, which  he  knew  they  would  not 
accept  ;  and,  the  third  time,  by  turning  the 
envy  upon  the  impertinent  and  malicious 
orator ;  that  he  won  great  honour,  the 
honour  of  a  severe  honesty,  and  a  witty 
man,  and  a  prudent  person.  The  thing  I 
have  noted,  because  it  is  a  good  pattern  to 
represent  the  arts  of  honest  evasion,  and 
religious,  prudent  honesty  5  which  any  good 
man  may  transcribe  and  turn  into  his  own 
instances,  if  any  equal  case  should  occur. 

For  in  this  case,  the  rule  is  easy ;  if  we 
are  commanded  to  be  *'  wise"  and  "  redeem 
our  time,"  that  we  serve  God  and  religion, 
we  must  not  use  unlawful  arts  which  set 
us  back  in  the  accounts  of  our  time,  no 
lying  subterfuges,  no  betraying  of  a  truth, 
no  treachery  to  a  good  man,  no  insnaring 
of  a  brother,  no  secret  renouncing  of  any 
part  or  proposition  of  our  religion,  no  deny- 
ing to  confess  the  article  when  we  are  called 
to  it.  For  when  the  primitive  Christians 
had  got  a  trick  to  give  money  for  certificates 
that  they  had  sacrificed  to  idols,  though 
indeed  they  did  not  do  it,  but  had  corrupted 
the  officers  and  ministers  of  state,  they  dis- 
honoured their  religion,  and  were  marked 
with  the  appellative  of  " libellatici,"  "libel- 
lers ;"  and  were  excommunicated,  and  cast 
off  from  the  society  of  Christians,  and  the 
hopes  of  heaven,  till  they  had  returned  to 
God  by  a  severe  repentance.  "  Optandum 
est,  ut,  quod  libenter  facis,  diu  facere 
possis;"  "  It  is  good  to  have  time  long  to  do 
that  which  we  ought  to  do ;"  but  to  pretend 
that  which  we  dare  not  do,  and  to  say  we 
have  when  we  have  not,  if  we  know  we 
ought  not,  is  to  dishonour  the  cause  and  the 
person  too ;  it  is  expressly  against  confes- 
sion of  Christ,  of  which  St.  Paul  saith, 
4<  By  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto 
salvation;"  and  our  blessed  Saviour,  "He 
that  confesseth  me  before  men,  I  will  con- 
fess him  before  my  heavenly  Father ;"  and 
if  here  he  refuseth  to  own  me,  I  will  not 
own  him  hereafter.  It  is  also  expressly 
against  Christian  fortitude  and  nobleness, 
and  against  the  simplicity  and  sincerity  of 
our  religion,  and  it  turns  prudence  into 


craft,  and  brings  the  devil  to  wait  in  the 
temple,  and  to  minister  to  God ;  and  it  is  a 
lesser  kind  of  apostasy.  And  it  is  well  that 
the  man  is  tempted  no  farther ;  for,  if  the 
persecutors  could  not  be  corrupted  with 
money,  it  is  odds  but  the  complying  man 
would  3  and  though  he  would,  with  the 
money,  hide  his  shame,  yet  he  will  not, 
with  the  loss  of  all  his  estate,  redeem  his 
religion.  Awt^pwj  §'  f^ft,  ei  tol$  ifxavtrj 
tbv  $Cov  <tu£u  xaxotj.  "  Some  men  will  lose 
their  lives,  rather  than  a  fair  estate :"  and 
do  not  almost  all  the  armies  of  the  world  (I 
mean  those  that  fight  in  the  justest  causes) 
pretend  to  fight  and  die  for  their  lands  and 
liberties?  and  there  are  too  many  also,  that 
will  die  twice,  rather  than  be  beggars  once, 
although  we  all  know  that  the  second  deatli 
is  intolerable.  Christian  prudence  forbids 
us  to  provoke  a  danger;  and  they  were  fond 
persons  that  ran  to  persecution,  and.  when 
the  proconsul  sat  on  the  life  and  death,  and 
made  strict  inquisition  after  Christians,  went 
and  offered  themselves  to  die ;  and  he  was 
a  fool,  that,  being  in  Portugal,  ran  to  the 
priest  as  he  elevated  the  host,  and  overthrew 
the  mysteries,  and  openly  defied  the  rites  of 
that  religion.  God,  when  he  sends  a  per- 
secution, will  pick  out  such  persons  whom 
he  will  have  to  die,  and  whom  he  will  con- 
sign to  banishment,  and  whom  to  poverty. 
In  the  mean  time,  let  us  do  our  duty  when 
we  can,  and  as  long  as  we  can,  and  with  as 
much  strictness  as  we  can ;  walking  d^pt,Swj, 
(as  the  apostle's  phrase  is,)  "  not  prevari- 
cating" in  the  least  tittle ;  and  then,  if  we 
can  be  safe  with  the  arts  of  civil,  innocent, 
inoffensive  compliance,  let  us  bless  God  for 
his  permissions  made  to  us,  and  his  assist- 
ances in  the  using  them.  But  if  either  we 
turn  our  zeal  into  the  ambition  of  death,  and 
the  follies  of  an  unnecessary  beggary ;  or  on 
the  other  side  turn  our  prudence  into  craft 
and  covetousness ;  to  the  first  I  say,  that 
"  God  hath  no  pleasure  in  fools ;"  to  the 
latter,  "  If  you  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
lose  your  own  soul,"  your  loss  is  infinite 
and  intolerable. 


SERMON  XLVI. 

PART  II. 

4.  It  is  the  office  of  Christian  prudence  so 
to  order  the  affairs  of  our  life,  as  that,  in  all 


340 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


Serm.  XLVI. 


the  offices  of  our  souls  and  conversation, 
we  do  honour  and  reputation  to  the  religion 
we  profess.  For  the  follies  and  vices  of  the 
professors  give  great  advantages  to  the  ad- 
versary to  speak  reproachfully,  and  do 
alienate  the  hearts,  and  hinder  the  com- 
pliance of  those  undetermined  persons,  who 
are  apt  to  be  persuaded,  if  their  understand- 
ings be  not  prejudiced. 

But  as  our  necessary  duty  is  bound  upon 
us  by  one  ligament  more,  in  order  to  the 
honour  of  the  cause  of  God,  so  it  particu- 
larly binds  us  to  many  circumstances,  ad- 
juncts, and  parts  of  duty,  which  have  no 
other  commandment  but  the  law  of  pru- 
dence. There  are  some  sects  of  Christians 
which  have  some  one  constant  indisposi- 
tion, which,  as  a  character,  divides  them 
from  all  others,  and  makes  them  reproved 
on  all  hands.  Some  are  so  suspicious  and 
ill-natured,  that,  if  a  person  of  a  facile 
nature  and  gentle  disposition  fall  into  their 
hands,  he  is  presently  soured,  and  made 
morose,  unpleasant,  and  uneasy  in  his  con- 
versation. Others  there  are,  that  do  things 
so  like  to  what  themselves  condemn,  that 
they  are  forced  to  take  sanctuary  and  labour 
in  the  mine  of  insignificant  distinctions, 
to  make  themselves  believe  they  are  inno- 
cent ;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  they  offend  all 
men  else,  and  open  the  mouths  of  their 
adversaries  to  speak  reproachful  things,  true 
or  false  (as  it  happens).  And  it  requires  a 
great  wit  to  understand  all  the  distinctions 
and  devices  thought  of  for  legitimating  the 
worshipping  of  images  ;  and  those  people 
that  are  liberal  in  their  excommunications, 
make  men  think  they  have  reason  to  say, 
"  their  judges  are  proud,  or  self-willed,  or 
covetous,  or  ill-natured  people."  These 
that  are  the  faults  of  governors,  and  con- 
tinued, are  quickly  derived  upon  the  sect, 
and  cause  a  disreputation  to  the  whole 
society  and  institution.  And  who  can 
think  that  congregation  to  be  a  true  branch 
of  the  Christian,  which  makes  it  their  pro- 
fession to  kill  men  to  save  their  ,souls 
against  their  will,  and  against  their  under- 
standing? who,  calling  themselves  disciples 
of  so  meek  a  Master,  do  live  like  bears  upon 
prey,  and  spoil,  and  blood?  It  is  a  huge 
dishonour  to  the  sincerity  of  a  man's  pur- 
poses, to  be  too  busy  in  fingering  money  in 
the  matters  of  religion ;  and  they  that  are 
zealous  for  their  rights,  and  tame  in  their 
devotion,  furious  against  sacrilege,  and 
companions  of  drunkards,  implacable 
against  breakers  of  a  canon,  and  careless 


and  patient  enough  with  them  that  break 
the  fifth  or  sixth  commandments  of  the 
decalogue,  tell  all  the  world  their  private 
sense  is  to  preserve  their  own  interest 
with  scruple  and  curiosity,  and  leave  God 
to  take  care  for  his. 

Thus  Christ  reproved  the  Pharisees  for 
"  straining  at  a  gnat,  and  swallowing  a 
camel the  very  representation  of  the  man- 
ner and  matter  of  fact  discovers  the  vice  by 
reproving  the  folly  of  it.  They  that  are 
factious  to  get  a  rich  proselyte,  and  think 
the  poor  not  worth  saving,  dishonour  their 
zeal,  and  teach  men  to  call  it  covetousness  : 
and  though  there  may  be  a  reason  of  pru- 
dence to  desire  one  more  than  the  other,  be- 
cause of  a  bigger  efficacy  the  example  of  the 
one  may  have  more  than  the  other;  yet  it 
will  quickly  be  discovered,  if  it  be  done  by 
secular  design;  and  the  Scripture,  that  did 
not  allow  the  preferring  of  a  gay  man  before 
a  poor  saint  in  the  matter  of  place,  will  not 
be  pleased,  that  in  the  matter  of  souls,  which 
are  all  equal,  there  should  be  a  faction,  and 
design,  and  an  acceptation  of  persons.  Nev- 
er let  sins  pollute  our  religion  with  arts  of 
the  world,  nor  offer  to  support  the  ark  with 
unhallowed  hands,  nor  mingle  false  propo- 
sitions with  true,  nor  make  religion  a  pre- 
tence to  profit  or  preferment,  nor  do  things 
which  are  like  a  vice  ;  neither  ever  speak 
things  dishonourable  of  God,  nor  abuse  thy 
brother  for  God's  sake  ;  nor  be  solicitous  and 
over-busy  to  recover  thy  own  little  things, 
neither  always  think  it  fit  to  lose  thy  charity 
by  forcing  thy  brother  to  do  justice ;  and  all 
those  things  which  are  the  outsides  and 
faces,  the  garments  and  most  discerned  parts 
of  religion,  be  sure  that  they  be  dressed  ac- 
cording to  all  the  circumstances  of  men,  and 
by  all  the  rules  of  common  honesty  and 
public  reputation.  Is  it  not  a  sad  thing  that 
the  Jew  should  say  the  Christians  worship 
images  ?  or  that  it  should  become  a  proverb, 
that  "  the  Jew  spends  all  in  his  passover,  the 
Moor  in  his  marriage,  and  the  Christian  in 
his  law-suits  V  that  what  the  first  sacrifice 
to  religion,  and  the  second  to  public  joy,  we 
should  spend  in  malice,  covetousness,  and 
revenge  ? 

 Pudet  haec  opprobria  nobis 

Et  dici  potuisse,  ct  non  potuisse  rcfelli. 

But  among  ourselves  also  we  serve  the 
devil's  ends,  and  minister  to  an  eternal  dis- 
union, by  saying  and  doing  things  which 
look  unhandsomely.  One  sort  of  men  is 
superstitious,  fantastical,  greedy  of  honour, 


SfiRM.  XLVI. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


341 


and  tenacious  of  propositions  lo  fill  the  purse,  I  nor  the  devils  furnished  with  a  libel  in  the 
and  his  religion  is  thought  nothing  but  day  of  our  great  account. 


policy  and  opinion.  Another  says,  "'he 
hath  a  good  religion,"  but  he  is  the  most  in- 


To  this  rule  appertains,  that  we  be  curious 
in  observing  the  circumstances  of  men,  and 


different  and  cold  person  in  the  world  either  :  satisfying  all  their  reasonable  expectations, 


to  maintain  it,  or  to  live  according  to  it.  The 
one  dresses  the  images  of  saints  with  fine 
clothes  :  the  other  lets  the  poor  go  naked, 
and  disrobes  the  priests  that  minister  in  the 
religion.  A  third  uses  God  worse  than  all 
this,  and  says  of  him  such  things  that  are 


and  doing  things  at  that  rate  of  charity  and 
religion,  which  they  are  taught  to  be  pre- 
scribed in  the  institution.  There  are  some 
things  which  are  indecencies  rather  than 
sins,  such  which  may  become  a  just  heathen, 
but  not  a  holy  Christian  ;  a  man  of  the 


scandalous  even  to  an  honest  man,  and  such  j  world,  but  not  a  man  "  professing  godli- 
which  would  undo  a  good  man's  reputation.  j  ness  :"  because  when  the  greatness  of  the 
And  a  fourth,  yet,  endures  no  governor  but  man,  or  the  excellency  of  the  law,  hath  en- 
himself,  and  pretends  to  set  up  Christ,  and  gaged  us  upon  great  severity  or  an  exem- 


make  himself  his  lieutenant.  And  a  fifth 
hates  all  government.  And  from  all  this  it 
comes  to  pass,  that  it  is  hard  for  a  man  to 
choose  his  side;  and  he  that  chooses  wisest, 
takes  that  which  hath  in  it  least  hurt :  but  some 
he  must  endure,  or  live  without  communion  ; 
and  every  church  of  one  denomination  is,  or 
hath  been,  too  incurious  of  preventing  infamy 
or  disreputation  to  their  confessions 


plary  virtue,  whatsoever  is  less  than  it,  ren- 
ders the  man  unworthy  of  the  religion,  or 
the  religion  unworthy  its  fame.  Men  think 
themselves  abused,  and,  therefore,  return 
shame  for  payment.  We  never  read  of  an 
apostle  that  went  to  law;  and  it  is  but  rea- 
sonable to  expect,  that,  of  all  men  in  the 
world,  Christians  should  not  be  such  fight- 
ing people,  and  clergymen  should  not  com- 


One  thing  I  desire  should  be  observed,   mand  armies,  and  kings  should  not  be  drunk. 


that  here  the  question  being  concerning  pru 
dence,  and  the  matter  of  doing  reputation  to 


and  subjects  should  not  strike  princes  for 
justice,  and  an  old  man  should  not  be  youth- 


our  religion,  it  is  not  enough  to  say,  we  ful  in  talk  or  in  his  habit,  and  women  should 


can  with  learning  justify  all  that  we  do,  and 
make  all  whole  with  three  or  four  distinc- 
tions :  for  possibly  that  man  that  went  to 
visit  the  Corinthian  Lais,  if  he  had  been 
asked  why  he  dishonoured  himself  with  so 
unhandsome  an  entrance,  might  find  an  ex- 
cuse to  legitimate  his  act,  or  at  least  to  make 
himself  believe  well  of  his  own  person  ;  but 
he  that  intends  to  do  himself  honour,  must 
take  care  that  he  be  not  suspected,  that  he 
give  no  occasion  of  reproachful  language ;  for 
fame  and  honour  is  a  nice  thing,  tender  as 
a  woman's  chastity,  or  like  the  face  of  the 
purest  mirror,  which  a  foul  breath,  or  an  un- 
wholesome air,  or  a  watery  eye  can  sully, 
and  the  beauty  is  lost,  although  it  be  not 
dashed  in  pieces.  When  a  man,  or  a  sect, 
is  put  to  answer  for  themselves  in  the  mat- 
ter of  reputation,  they,  with  their  distinc- 
tions, wipe  the  glass,  and  at  last  can  do 
nothing  but  make  it  appear  it  was  not  bro- 
ken; but  their  very  abstersion  and  labori- 
ous excuses  confess  it  was  foul  and  faulty. 
We  must  know  that  all  sorts  of  men,  and 
all  sects  of  Christians,  have  not  only  the  mis- 
takes of  men  and  their  prejudices  to  contest 
withal,  but  the  calumnies  and  aggravation 
of  devils ;  and,  therefore,  it  will  much  ease 
our  account  of  doomsday,  if  we  are  now  so 
prudent  that  men  will  not  be  offended  here, 


not  swear,  and  great  men  should  not  lie,  and 
a  poor  man  should  not  oppress;  for,  besides 
the  sin  of  some  of  them,  there  is  an  indecen- 
cy in  all  of  them  ;  and  by  being  contrary  to 
the  end  of  an  office,  or  to  the  reputation  of 
a  state,  or  the  sobrieties  of  a  graver  or  sub- 
limed person,  they  asperse  the  religion  as 
insufficient  to  keep  the  persons  within  the 
bounds  of  fame  and  common  reputation. 

But,  above  all  things,  those  sects  of  Chris- 
tians whose  professed  doctrine  brings  de- 
struction and  diminution  to  government, 
give  the  most  intolerable  scandal  and  dis- 
honour to  the  institution  ;  and  it  had  been 
impossible  that  Christianity  should  have 
prevailed  over  the  wisdom  and  power  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  if  it  had  not  been  hum 
ble  to  superiors,  patient  of  injuries,  chari- 
table to  the  needy,  a  great  exactor  of  obe 
dience  to  kings,  even  to  heathens,  that  they 
might  be  won  and  convinced ;  and  to  perse- 
cutors, that  they  might  be  sweetened  in  their 
anger,  or  upbraided  for  their  cruel  injustice; 
for  so  doth  the  humble  vine  creep  at  the  foot 
of  an  oak,  and  leans  upon  its  lowest  base, 
and  begs  shade  and  protection,  and  leave  to 
grow  under  its  branches,  and  to  give  and  take 
mutual  refreshment,  and  pay  a  friendly  in- 
fluence for  a  mighty  patronage;  and  they 
grow  and  dwell  together,  and  are  the  most 
2d2 


342  CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE.  Serm.  XLVI. 


remarkable  of  friends  and  married  pairs  of  j 
all  the  leafy  nation.    Religion  of  itself  is ! 
soft,  easy,  and  defenceless;  and  God  hath! 
made  it  grow  up  with  empires,  and  lean  j 
upon  the  arms  of  kings,  and  it  cannot  well 
grow  alone ;  and  if  it  shall,  like  the  ivy, 
suck  the  heart  of  the  oak,  upon  whose  body  j 
it  grew  and  was  supported,  it  will  be  pulled  j 
down  from  its  usurped  eminence,  and  fire 
and  shame  shall  be  its  portion.    We  cannot  j 
complain,  if  princes  arm  against  those  Chris- 
tians, who,  if  they  were  suffered  to  preach, 
will  disarm  the  princes  :  and  it  will  be  hard  j 
to  persuade  that  kings  are  bound  to  protect 
and  nourish  those  that  will  prove  ministers 
of  their  own  exauctoration  ;  and  no  prince 
can  have  juster  reason  to  forbid,  nor  any 
man  have  greater  reason  to  deny,  commu- 
nion to  a  family,  than  when  they  go  about 
to  destroy  the  power  of  the  one,  or  corrupt 
the  duty  of  the  other.    The  particulars  of 
this  rule  are  very  many:  I  shall  only  in- 
stance in  one  more,  because  it  is  of  great 
concernment  to  the  public  interest  of  Chris- 
tendom. 

There  are  some  persons  whose  religion 
is  hugely  disgraced,  because  they  change 
their  propositions,  according  as  their  tem- 
poral necessities  or  advantages  do  return. 
They  that,  in  their  weakness  and  beginning, 
cry  out  against  all  violence  as  against  per- 
secution, and  from  being  sufferers  swell  up 
till  they  be  prosperous,  and  from  thence  to 
power,  and  at  last  to  tyranny,  and  then 
suffer  none  but  themselves,  and  trip  up  those 
feet  which  they  humbly  kissed,  that  them- 
selves should  not  be  trampled  upon  ; — these 
men  tell  all  the  world,  that,  at  first,  they 
were  pusillanimous,  or  at  last  outrageous  ; 
that  their  doctrine  at  first  served  their  fear, 
and  at  last  served  their  rage,  and  that  they 
did  not  at  all  intend  to  serve  God :  and  then 
who  shall  believe  them  in  any  thing  else? 
Thus  some  men  declaim  against  the  faults 
of  governors,  that  themselves  may  govern ; 
and  when  the  power  is  in  their  hands,  what 
was  a  fault  in  others,  is  in  them  necessity; 
as  if  a  sin  could  be  hallowed  for  coming  into 
their  hands.  Some  Greeks,  at  Florence, 
subscribed  the  article  of  purgatory,  and  con- 
demned it  in  their  own  diocesses :  and  the 
king's  supremacy  in  causes  ecclesiastical 
was  earnestly  defended  against  the  pretences 
of  the  bishop  of  Rome ;  and  yet  when  he 
was  thrust  out,  some  men  were,  and  are, 
violent  to  submit  the  king  to  their  con- 
sistories ;  as  if  he  were  supreme  in  defiance 
of  the  pope,  and  ret  not  supreme  over  his 


own  clergy.  These  articles  are  managed 
too  suspiciously. 

Omnia  si  perdas,  famam  servare  memento: 

"  You  lose  all  the  advantages  to  your  cause, 
if  you  lose  your  reputation." 

5.  It  is  a  duty  also  of  Christian  prudence, 
that  the  teachers  of  others  by  authority,  or 
reprovers  of  their  vices  by  charity,  should 
also  make  their  persons  apt  to  do  it  without 
objection. 

Loripedem  rectus  derideat,  iEthiopem  albus. — 

Juv. 

"  No  man  can  endure  the  Gracchi  preaching 
against  sedition,  nor  Verres  prating  against 
thievery,"  or  Milo  against  homicide:  and 
if  Herod  had  made  an  oration  of  humility, 
or  Antiochus  of  mercy,  men  would  have 
thought  it  had  been  a  design  to  evil  purposes. 
He  that  means  to  gain  a  sou],  must  not 
make  his  sermon  an  ostentation  of  his  elo- 
quence, but  the  law  of  his  own  life.  If  a 
grammarian  should  speak  solecisms,  or  a 
musician  sing  like  a  bittern,  he  becomes 
ridiculous  for  offending  in  the  faculty  he  pro- 
fesses. So  it  is  in  them  who  minister  to  the 
conversion  of  souls  :  if  they  fail  in  their  own 
life,  when  they  profess  to  instruct  another, 
they  are  defective  in  their  proper  part,  and 
are  unskilful  to  all  their  purposes ;  and  the 
cardinal  of  Crema  did,  with  ill  success, 
tempt  the  English  priests  to  quit  their  chaste 
marriages,  when  himself  was  deprehended 
in  unchaste  embraces.  For  good  counsel 
seems  to  be  unhallowed,  when  it  is  reached 
forth  by  an  impure  hand  ;  and  he  can  ill  be 
believed  by  another,  whose  life  so  confutes 
his  rules,  that  it  is  plain  he  does  not  believe 
himself.  Those  churches  that  are  zealous 
for  souls,  must  send  into  their  ministries  men 
so  innocent,  that  evil  persons  may  have  no 
excuse  to  be  any  longer  vicious.  When 
Gorgias  went  about  to  persuade  the  Greeks 
to  be  at  peace,  he  had  eloquence  enough  to 
do  advantage  to  his  cause,  and  reason  enough 
to  press  it ;  but  Melanthius  was  glad  to  put 
him  off,  by  telling  him  that  he  was  not  fit  to 
persuade  peace,  who  could  not  agree  at 
home  with  his  wife,  nor  make  his  wife 
agree  with  her  maid  ;  and  he  that  could  not 
make  peace  between  three  single  persons, 
was  unapt  to  prevail  for  the  reuniting  four- 
teen or  fifteen  commonwealths.  And  this 
thing  St.  Paul  remarks,  by  enjoining  that  a 
bishop  should  be  chosen  such  a  one  as  knew 
well  to  rule  his  own  house;  or  else  he  is 
not  fit  to  rule  the  church  of  God.  And 
when  thou  persuadest   thy  brother  to  be 


Serm.  XLVI. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


343 


chaste,  let  him  not  deride  thee  for  thy  in- 
temperance ;  and  it  will  ill  become  thee  to 
be  severe  against  an  idle  servant,  if  thou 
thyself  beest  useless  to  the  public ;  and 
every  notorious  vice  is  infinitely  against  the 
spirit  of  government,  and  "  depresses  the 
man  to  an  evenness"  with  common  persons  : 
i(  Facinus  quos  inquinat  aequal."  To  re- 
prove belongs  to  a  superior ;  and  as  inno- 
cence gives  a  man  advantage  over  his 
brother,  giving  him  an  artificial  and  adven- 
titious authority  ;  so  the  follies  and  scandals 
of  a  public  and  governing  man,  destroy  the 
efficacy  of  that  authority  that  is  just  and  na- 
tural. Now  this  is  directly  an  office  of  Chris- 
tian prudence,  that  good  offices  and  great  au- 
thority become  not  ineffective  by  ill  conduct. 

Hither  also  it  appertains,  that  in  public 
or  private  reproofs  we  observe  circumstances 
of  time, — of  place, — of  person, — of  disposi- 
tion. The  vices  of  a  king  are  not  to  be 
opened  publicly,  and  princes  must  not  be 
reprehended  as  a  man  reproves  his  servant ; 
but  by  categorical  propositions,  by  abstracted 
declamations,  by  reprehensions  of  a  crime 
in  its  single  nature,  in  private,  with  hu- 
mility and  arts  of  insinuation  ;  and  it  is 
against  Christian  prudence,  not  only  to  use 
a  prince  or  great  personage  with  common 
language,  but  it  is  as  great  an  imprudence 
to  pretend,  for  such  a  rudeness,  the  exam- 
ples of  the  prophets  in  the  Old  Testament. 
For  their  case  was  extraordinary,  their  call- 
ing peculiar,  their  commission  special,  their 
spirit  miraculous,  their  authority  great  as  to 
that  single  mission ;  they  were  like  thunder 
or  the  trump  of  God,  sent  to  do  that  office 
plainly,  for  the  doing  of  which  in  that  man- 
ner, God  had  given  no  commission  to  any 
ordinary  minister.  And  therefore  we  never 
find  that  the  priests  did  use  that  freedom 
which  the  prophets  were  commanded  to 
use,  whose  very  words  being  put  into  their 
mouths,  it  was  not  to  be  esteemed  a  human 
act,  or  a  lawful  manner  of  doing  an  ordinary 
office  ;  neither  could  it  become  a  precedent  to 
them,  whose  authority  is  precarious  and 
without  coercion,  whose  spirit  is  allayed  with 
Christian  graces  and  duties  of  humility,whose 
words  are  not  prescribed,  but  left  to  the  con- 
duct of  prudence,  as  it  is  to  be  advised  by 
public  necessities  and  private  circumstances, 
in  ages  where  all  things  are  so  ordered,  that 
what  was  fit  and  pious  amongst  the  old 
Jews,  would  be  uncivil  and  intolerable  to 
the  latter  Christians.  He  also  that  reproves  j 
a  vice,  should  also  treat  the  persons  with 
honour  and  civilities,  and  by  fair  opinions ' 


and  sweet  addresses  place  the  man  in  the 
regions  of  modesty,  and  the  confines  of 
grace,  and  the  fringes  of  repentance.  For 
some  men  are  more  restrained  by  an  imper- 
fect feared  shame,  so  long  as  they  think  there 
is  a  reserve  of  reputation  which  they  may 
secure,  than  they  can  be  with  all  the  furious 
declamations  of  the  world,  when  themselves 
are  represented  ugly  and  odious,  full  of 
shame,  and  actually  punished  with  the 
worst  of  temporal  evils,  beyond  which  he 
fears  not  here  to  suffer,  and  from  whence, 
because  he  knows  it  will  be  hard  for  him  to 
be  redeemed  by  an  after-game  of  reputation, 
it  makes  him  desperate  and  incorrigible  by 
fraternal  correption. 

A  zealous  man  hath  not  done  his  duty, 
when  he  calls  his  brother  "  drunkard"  and 
"  beast;"  and  he  may  better  do  it  by  telling 
him  he  is  a  man,  and  sealed  with  God's 
spirit,  and  honoured  with  the  title  of  a 
Christian,  and  is,  or  ought  to  be,  reputed  as 
a  discreet  person  by  his  friends,  and  a  go- 
vernor of  a  family,  or  a  guide  in  his  coun- 
try, or  an  example  to  many,  and  that  it  is 
huge  pity  so  many  excellent  things  should 
be  sullied  and  allayed  with  what  is  so  much 
below  all  this.  Then  a  reprover  does  his 
duty  when  he  is  severe  against  the  vice, 
and  charitable  to  the  man,  and  careful  of 
his  reputation,  and  sorry  for  his  real  dis- 
honour, and  observant  of  his  circumstances, 
and  watchful  to  surprise  his  affections  and 
resolutions  there,  where  they  are  most  ten- 
der and  most  tenable :  and  men  will  not  be 
in  love  with  virtue,  whither  they  are  forced 
with  rudeness  and  incivilities ;  but  they  love 
to  dwell  there  whither  they  are  invited 
friendly,  and  where  they  are  treated  civilly, 
and  feasted  liberally,  and  led  by  the  hand 
and  the  eye  to  honour  and  felicity. 

6.  It  is  a  duty  of  Christian  prudence 
not  to  suffer  our  souls  to  walk  alone,  un- 
guarded, unguided,  and  more  single  than  in 
other  actions  and  interests  of  our  lives, 
which  are  of  less  concernment.  "  Vae  soli 
et  singulari,"  said  the  wise  man  :  "  Woe  to 
him  that  is  alone."  And  if  we  consider, 
how  much  God  hath  done  to  secure  our 
souls,  and  after  all  that,  how  many  ways 
there  are  for  a  man's  soul  to  miscarry,  we 
should  think  it  very  necessary  to  call  to  a 
spiritual  man  to  take  us  by  the  hand  to 
walk  in  the  ways  of  God,  and  to  lead  us  in 
all  the  regions  of  duty,  and  through  the 
!  labyrinths  of  danger.  For  God,  who  best 
t  loves  and  best  knows  how  to  value  our  soul, 
'set  a  price  no  less  upon  it  than  the  life- 


344 


CHRISTIAN   PRUDENCE.  Serm.  XLVI. 


blood  of  his  holy  Son;  he  hath  treated  it 
with  variety  of  usages,  according  as  the 
world  had  new  guises  and  new  necessities; 
he  abates  it  with  punishment,  to  make  us 
avoid  greater;  he  shortened  our  life,  that 
we  might  live  for  ever;  he  turns  sickness 
into  virtue;  he  brings  good  out  of  evil,  he 
turns  enmities  to  advantages,  our  very  sins 
into  repentances  and  stricter  walking;  he 
defeats  all  the  follies  of  men  and  all  the  arts 
of  the  devil,  and  lays  snares  and  uses  vio- 
lence to  secure  obedience ;  he  sends  pro- 
phets and  priests  to  invite  us  and  to  threaten 
us  to  felicities ;  he  restrains  us  with  laws, 
and  he  bridles  us  with  honour  and  shame, 
reputation  and  society,  friends  and  foes ;  he 
lays  hold  on  us  by  the  instruments  of  all 
the  passions;  he  is  enough  to  fill  our  love; 
he  satisfies  our  hope ;  he  affrights  us  with 
fear;  he  gives  us  part  of  our  reward  in 
hand,  and  entertains  all  our  faculties  with 
the  promises  of  an  infinite  and  glorious  por- 
tion ;  he  curbs  our  affections  ;  he  directs  our 
wills  ;  he  instructs  our  understandings  with 
scriptures,  with  perpetual  sermons,  with 
good  books,  with  frequent  discourses,  with 
particular  observations  and  great  experience, 
with  accidents  and  judgments,  with  rare 
events  of  providence  and  miracles  ;  he  sends 
his  angels  to  be  our  guard,  and  to  place  us  in 
opportunities  of  virtue,  and  takes  us  off  from 
ill  company  and  places  of  danger,  to  set  us 
near  to  good  examples;  he  gives  us  his 
Holy  Spirit,  and  he  becomes  to  us  a  princi- 
ple of  a  mighty  grace,  descending  upon  us 
in  great  variety  and  undiscerned  events,  be- 
sides all  those  parts  of  it  which  men  have 
reduced  to  a  method  and  an  art:  and,  after 
all  this,  he  forgives  us  infinite  irregularities, 
and  spares  us  every  day,  and  still  expects, 
and  passes  by,  and  waits  all  our  days,  still 
watching  to  do  us  good,  and'  to  save  that 
soul  which  he  knows  is  so  precious,  one  of 
the  chiefest  of  the  works  of  God,  and  an 
image  of  Divinity.  Now  from  all  these  arts 
and  mercies  of  God,  besides  that  we  have 
infinite  reason  to  adore  his  goodness,  we 
have  also  a  demonstration  that  we  ought  to 
do  all  that  possibly  we  can,  and  extend  all 
our  faiultijs,  and  watch  all  our  opportuni- 
ties, and  take  in  all  assistances,  to  secure 
the  interest  of  our  soul,  for  which  God  is 
pleased  to  take  such  care,  and  use  so  many 
arts  for  its  security.  If  it  were  not  highly 
worth  it,  God  would  not  do  it :  if  it  were 
not  all  of  it  necessary,  God  would  not  do  it. 
But  if  it  be  worth  it,  and  all  of  it  be  neces- 
sary, why  should  we  not  labour  in  order  to 


this  great  end  ?  If  it  be  worth  so  much  to 
God,  it  is  so  much  more  to  us :  for  if  we 
perish,  his  felicity  is  undisturbed;  but  we 
|  are  undone,  infinitely  undone.  It  is,  there- 
fore, worth  taking  in  a  spiritual  guide ;  so 
far  we  are  gone. 

But  because  we  are  in  the  question  of 
prudence,  we  must  consider  whether  it  be 
necessary  to  do  so:  for  every  man  thinks 
himself  wise  enough  as  to  the  conduct  of 
his  soul,  and  managing  of  his  eternal  inte- 
rest; and  divinity  is  every  man's  trade,  and 
the  scriptures  speak  our  own  language,  and 
the  commandments  are  few  and  plain,  and 
the  laws  are  the  measure  of  justice ;  and  if 
I  say  my  prayers,  and  pay  my  debts,  my 
duty  is  soon  summed  up:  and  thus  we 
usually  make  our  accounts  for  eternity,  and 
at  this  rale  only  take  care  for  heaven.  But 
let  a  man  be  questioned  for  a  portion  of  his 
estate,  or  have  his  life  shaken  with  diseases  ; 
then  it  will  not  be  enough  to  employ  one 
agent,  or  to  send  for  a  good  woman  to  min- 
ister a  potion  of  the  juices  of  her  country- 
garden;  but  the  ablest  lawyers,  and  the 
skilfullest  physicians,  and  the  advice  of 
friends,  and  huge  caution  and  diligent  at- 
tendances, and  a  curious  watching  concern- 
ing all  the  accidents  and  little  passages  of 
our  disease.  And  truly  a  man's  life  and 
health  is  worth  all  that  and  much  more,  and, 
in  many  cases,  it  needs  it  all. 

But  then  is  the  soul  the  only  safe  and  the 
only  trifling  thing  about  us?  Are  not  there 
a  thousand  dangers,  and  ten  thousand  diffi- 
culties, and  innumerable  possibilities  of  a 
misadventure?  Are  not  all  the  congrega- 
tions in  the  world  divided  in  their  doctrines, 
and  all  of  them  call  their  own  way  neces- 
sary, and  most  of  them  call  all  the  rest 
damnable?  We  had  need  of  a  wise  in- 
structor and  a  prudent  choice,  at  our  first 
entrance  and  election  of  our  side  ;  and  when 
we  are  well  in  the  matter  of  faith  for  its  ob- 
ject and  institution,  all  the  evils  of  myself, 
and  all  the  evils  of  the  church,  and  all  the 
good  that  happens  to  evil  men,  everyday  of 
danger,  the  periods  of  sickness,  and  the  day 
of  death,  are  days  of  tempest  and  storm,  and 
our  faith  will  suffer  shipwreck,  unless  it  be 
strong,  and  supported  and  directed  But 
who  shall  guide  the  vessel,  when  a  stormy 
passion  or  a  violent  imagination  transports 
the  man?  Who  shall  awaken  his  reason, 
and  charm  his  passion  into  slumber  and  in- 
struction ?  How  shall  a  man  make  his 
fears  confident,  and  allay  his  confidence 
with  fear,  and  make  the  allay  with  just  pro- 


Serm.  XLVI. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


345 


portion?,  and  steer  evenly  between  the  ex- 
tremes, or  call  upon  his  sleeping  purposes, 
or  actuate  his  choices,  or  bind  him  to  reason 
in  all  his  wanderings  and  ignorances,  in  his 
passions  and  mistakes  ?  For  suppose  the 
man  of  great  skill  and  great  learning  in  the 
ways  of  religion ;  yet  if  he  be  abused  by 
accident  or  by  his  own  will,  who  shall  then 
judge  his  cases  of  conscience,  and  awaken 
his  duty,  and  renew  his  holy  principle,  and 
actuate  his  spiritual  powers  ?  for  physicians 
that  prescribe  to  others,  do  not  minister  to 
themselves  in  cases  of  danger  and  violent 
sicknesses ;  and  in  matter  of  distemperature 
we  shall  not  find  that  books  alone  will  do 
all  the  work  of  a  spiritual  physician,  more 
than  of  a  natural.  I  will  not  go  about  to  in- 
crease the  dangers  and  difficulties  of  the  soul, 
to  represent  the  assistance  of  a  spiritual 
man  to  be  necessary.  But  of  this  I  am  sure, 
our  not  understanding  and  our  not  consider- 
ing our  soul,  makes  us  first  to  neglect,  and 
then  many  limes  to  lose  it.  But  is  not  every 
man  an  unequal  judge  in  his  own  case? 
and,  therefore,  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the 
laws  hath  appointed  tribunals,  and  judges, 
and  arbitrators.  And  that  men  are  partial 
in  the  matter  of  souls,  it  is  infinitely  certain, 
because  amongst  those  millions  of  souls  that 
perish,  not  one  in  ten  thousand  but  believes 
himself  in  a  good  condition  •  and  all  the 
sects  of  Christians  think  they  are  in  the 
right,  and  few  are  patient  to  inquire  whether 
they  be  or  no.  Then  add  to  this,  that  the 
questions  of  souls,  being  clothed  with  cir- 
cumstances of  matter  and  particular  con- 
tingency, are  or  may  be  infinite ;  and  most 
men  are  so  unfortunate,  that  they  have  so 
entangled  their  cases  of  conscience,  that 
there  where  they  have  done  something  good, 
it  may  be  they  have  mingled  half  a  dozen 
evils  :  and,  when  interests  are  confounded, 
and  governments  altered,  and  power  strives 
with  right,  and  insensibly  passes  into  right, 
and  duty  to  God  would  fain  be  reconciled 
with  duty  to  our  relatives,  will  it  not  be 
more  than  necessary,  that  we  should  have 
some  one  that  we  may  inquire  of  after  the 
way  to  heaven,  which  is  now  made  intri- 
cate by  our  follies  and  inevitable  accidents  ? 
But  by  what  instrument  shall  men  alone, 
and  in  their  own  cases,  be  able  to  discern 
the  spirit  of  truth  from  the  spirit  of  that  illu- 
sion, just  confidence  from  presumption,  fear 
from  pusillanimity  ?  Are  not  all  the  things 
and  assistances  in  the  world  little  enough  to 
defend  us  against  pleasure  and  pain,  the 
two  great  fountains  of  temptation  ?  Is  it 
44 


not  harder  to  cure  a  lust  than  to  cure  a 
fever?  And  are  not  the  deceptions  and  fol- 
lies of  men,  and  the  arts  of  the  devil,  and 
enticements  of  the  world,  and  the  deceptions 
of  a  man's  own  heart,  and  the  evils  of  sin, 
more  evil  and  more  numerous  than  the  sick- 
nesses and  diseases  of  any  one  man  ?  And 
if  a  man  perishes  in  his  soul,  is  it  not  infi- 
nitely more  sad  than  if  he  could  rise  from 
his  grave  and  die  a  thousand  deaths  over? 
Thus  we  are  advanced  a  second  step  in  this 
prudential  motive  :  God  used  many  arts  to 
secure  our  soul's  interest ;  and  there  are  in- 
finite dangers  and  infinite  ways  of  miscar- 
riage in  the  soul's  interest;  and,  therefore, 
there  is  great  necessity  God  should  do  all 
those  mercies  of  security,  and  that  we 
should  do  all  the  under-ministries  we  can 
in  this  great  work. 

But  what  advantage  shall  we  receive  bv 
a  spiritual  guide  ?  Much,  every  way .  For 
this  is  the  way  that  God  hath  appointed,who, 
in  every  age,  hath  sent  a  succession  of  spirit- 
ual persons,  whose  office  is  to  minister  m 
holy  things,  and  to  be  "  stewards  of  God's 
household,"  "shepherds  of  the  flock,"  "dis- 
pensers of  the  mysteries,"  under-mediators, 
and  ministers  of  prayer ;  preachers  of  the 
law,  expounders  of  questions,  monitors  of 
duty,  conveyances  of  blessings ;  and  that 
which  is  a  good  discourse  in  the  mouth  of 
another  man,  is,  from  them,  an  ordinance 
of  God  :  and  besides  its  natural  efficacy  and 
persuasion,  it  prevails  by  the  way  of  bless- 
ing, by  the  reverence  of  his  person,  by  Di- 
vine institution,  by  the  excellency  of  order, 
by  the  advantages  of  opinion  and  assistances 
of  reputation,  by  the  influence  of  the  Spirit, 
who  is  the  president  of  such  ministries,  and 
who  is  appointed  to  all  Christians,  according 
to  the  dispensation  that  is  appointed  to  them  ; 
to  the  people,  in  their  obedience  and  frequent- 
ing of  the  ordinance ;  to  the  priest,  in  his 
ministry  and  public  and  private  offices.  To 
which  also  I  add  this  consideration,  that  as 
the  holy  sacraments  are  hugely  effective  to 
spiritual  purposes,  not  only  because  they 
convey  a  blessing  to  the  worthy  suscipi- 
ents,  but  because  men  cannot  be  worth  y 
suscipients  unless  they  do  many  excellent 
acts  of  virtue,  in  order  to  a  previous  disposi- 
tion ;  so  that  in  the  whole  conjunction  and 
transaction  of  affairs,  there  is  good  done  by- 
way of  proper  efficacy  and  Divine  blessing  : 
so  it  is  in  following  the  conduct  of  a  spi- 
ritual man,  and  consulting  with  him  in  the 
matter  of  our  souls ;  we  cannot  do  it  unless 
we  consider  our  souls,  and  make  religion 


346 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


Serm.  XLVII. 


our  business,  and  examine  our  present  state, 
and  consider  concerning  our  danger,  and 
watch  and  design  for  our  advantages,  which 
things  of  themselves  will  set  a  man  much 
forwarder  in  the  way  of  godliness  :  besides 
that  naturally  every  man  will  less  dare  to 
act  a  sin  for  which  he  knows  he  shall  feel 
a  present  shame  in  his  discoveries  made  to 
the  spiritual  guide,  the  man  that  is  made 
the  witness  of  his  conversation :  Tovj  ix 
Atoj  yap  tix6$  id'ti  7t<xvB'>  opav"-"  "  Holy  men 
ought  to  know  all  things  from  God,''  and 
that  relate  to  God,  in  order  to  the  conduct 
of  souls.  And  there  is  nothing  to  be  said 
against  this,  if  we  do  not  suffer  the  devil  in 
this  affair  to  abuse  us,  as  he  does  many  peo- 
ple, in  their  opinions,  teaching  men  to  suspect 
there  is  a  design  and  a  snake  under  the  plan- 
tain. But  so  may  they  suspect  kings  when 
they  command  obedience,  or  the  Le  vites  when 
they  read  the  law  of  tithes,  or  parents  when 
they  teach  their  children  temperance,  or  tu- 
tors when  they  watch  their  charge.  How- 
ever, it  is  better  to  venture  the  worst  of  the 
design,  than  to  lose  the  best  of  the  assist- 
ance ;  and  he  that  guides  himself,  hath  much 
work  and  much  danger ;  but  he  that  is  under 
the  conduct  of  another,  his  work  is  easy, 
little,  and  secure;  it  is  nothing  but  diligence 
and  obedience  :  and  though  it  be  a  hard  thing 
to  rule  well,  yet  nothing  is  easier  than  to 
follow  and  be  obedient. 


SERMON  XLVII. 


7.  As  it  is  a  part  of  Christian  prudence 
to  take  into  the  conduct  of  our  souls  a  spi- 
ritual man  for  a  guide;  so  it  is  also  of  great 
concernment  that  we  be  prudent  in  the  choice 
of  him,  whom  we  are  to  trust  in  so  great 
an  interest. 

Concerning  which  it  will  be  impossible 
to  give  characters  and  significations  particu- 
lar enough  to  enable  a  choice,  without  the 
interval-assistances  of  prayer,  experience, 
and  the  grace  of  God.  He  that  describes  a 
man,  can  tell  you  the  colour  of  his  hair, 
his  stature,  and  proportion,  and  describe 
some  general  lines  enough  to  distinguish 
him  from  a  Cyclops  or  a  Saracen;  but  when 
you  chance  to  see  the  man,  you  will  dis- 


Sophocl. 


(cover  figures  or  little  features,  of  which  the 
description  had  produced  in  you  no  fantasm 
j  or  expectation.  And  in  the  exterior  signifi- 
cations of  a  sect,  there  are  more  semblances 
than  in  men's  faces,  and  greater  uncertainty 
in  the  signs;  and  what  is  faulty  strives  so 
craftily  to  act  the  true  and  proper  images  of 
things ;  and  the  more  they  are  defective  in 
circumstances,  the  more  curious  they  are  in 
.forms;  and  they  also  use  such  arts  of  gain- 
ing proselytes,  which  are  of  most  advantage 
towards  an  effect,  and,  therefore,  such  which 
'the  true  Christian  ought  to  pursue,  and  the 
apostles  actually  did;  and  they  strive  to  fol- 
low their  patterns  in  arts  of  persuasion,  not 
only  because  they  would  seem  like  them, 
but  because  they  can  have  none  so  good,  so 
effective  to  their  purposes ;  that  it  follows, 
that  it  is  not  more  a  duty  to  take  care  that 
we  be  not  corrupted  with  false  teachers, 
than  that  we  be  not  abused  with  false  signs  : 
for  we  as  well  find  a  good  man  teaching  a 
false  proposition,  as  a  good  cause  managed 
by  ill  men  ;  and  a  holy  cause  is  not  alway« 
dressed  with  healthful  symptoms,  nor  is 
there  a  cross  always  set  upon  the  doors  of 
those  congregations,  who  are  infected  with 
the  plague  of  heresy. 

When  St.  John  was  to  separate  false 
teachers  from  true,  he  took  no  other  course 
but  to  mark  the  doctrine  which  was  of  God, 
and  that  should  be  the  mark  of  cognizance 
to  distinguish  right  shepherds  from  robbers 
and  invaders  :  "  Every  spirit  that  confesseth 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh,  is  of 
God;  he  that  denielh  it,  is  not  of  God." 
By  this,  he  bids  his  scholars  to  avoid  the 
present  sects  of  Ebion,  Cerinthus,  Simon 
Magus,  and  such  other  persons,  as  denied 
that  Christ  was  at  all  before  he  came,  or 
that  he  came  really  in  the  flesh  and  proper 
humanity.  This  is  a  clear  note ;  and  they 
that  conversed  with  St.  John,  or  believed 
his  doctrine,  were  sufficiently  instructed  in 
the  present  questions.  But  this  note  will 
signify  nothing  to  us  :  for  all  sects  of  Chris- 
tians "  confess  Jesus  Christ  come  in  the 
flesh,"  and  the  following  sects  did  avoid 
that  rock,  over  which  a  great  apostle  had 
hung  out  so  plain  a  lantern. 

In  the  following  ages  of  the  Church  men 
have  been  so  curious  to  signify  misbelievers, 
that  they  have  invented  and  observed  some 
signs,  which,  indeed,,  in  some  cases,  were 
true,  real  appendages  of  false  believers  ;  but 
yet  such  which  were  also,  or  might  be,  com- 
mon to  them  with  good  men  and  members 
of  the  Catholic  church.    Some  few  I  shall 


Serm.  xlvii. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


347 


remark,  and  give  a  short  account  of  them, 
that  by  removing  the  uncertain,  we  may  fix 
our  inquiries,  and  direct  them  by  certain 
significations,  lest  this  art  of  prudence  turn 
into  folly  and  faction,  error  and  secular  de- 
sign. 

I.  Some  men  distinguish  error  from  truth 
by  calling  their  adversaries'  doctrine/'new 
and  of  yesterday."  And  certainly  this  is  a 
good  sign,  if  it  be  rightly  applied  ;  for  since 
all  Christian  doctrine  is  that  which  Christ 
taught  his  Church,  and  the  Spirit  enlarged 
or  expounded,  and  the  apostles  delivered  ; 
we  are  to  begin  the  Christian  era  for  our 
faith,  and  parts  of  religion  by  the  period  of 
their  preaching;  our  account  begins  then, 
and  whatsoever  is  contrary  to  what  they 
taught  is  new  and  false,  and  whatsoever  is 
besides  what  they  taught,  is  no  part  of  our 
religion  ; — and  then  no  man  can  be  preju- 
diced for  believing  it  or  not; — and  if  it  be 
adopted  into  the  confessions  of  the  Church, 
the  proposition  is  always  so  uncertain,  that 
it  is  not  to  be  admitted  into  the  faith;  and 
therefore,  if  it  be  old  in  respect  of  our  days, 
it  is  not,  therefore,  necessary  to  be  believed ; 
if  it  be  new  it  may  be  received  into  opinion 
according  to  its  probability,  and  no  sects  nor 
interests  are  to  be  divided  upon  such  ac- 
counts. This  only  I  desire  to  be  observed, 
that  when  a  truth  returns  from  banishment 
by  a  '•'postliminium,"  if  it  was  from  the 
first,  though  the  holy  fire  hath  been  buried, 
or  the  river  ran  under  ground,  yet  we  do 
not  call  that  new;  since  newness  is  not  to 
be  accounted  of  by  a  proportion  to  our  short- 
lived memories,  or  to  the  broken  records 
and  fragments  of  story  left  after  the  inunda- 
tion of  barbarism,  and  war,  and  change  of 
kingdoms,  and  corruption  of  authors;  but, 
by  its  relation  to  the  fountain  of  our  truths, 
and  the  birth  of  our  religion  under  our  fa- 
thers in  Christ,  the  holy  apostles  and  disci- 
ples. A  camel  was  a  new  thing  to  them 
that  saw  it  in  the  fable,  but  yet  it  was  cre- 
ated as  soon  as  a  cow  or  the  domestic  crea- 
tures ;  and  some  people  are  apt  to  call  every 
thing  new  which  they  never  heard  of  before, 
as  if  all  religion  were  to  be  measured  by  the 
standards  of  their  observation  or  country 
customs.  Whatsoever  was  not  taught  by 
Christ  or  his  apostles,  though  it  came  in 
by  Papias  or  Dionysius,  by  Arius  or  Libe- 
rius,  is  certainly  new  as  to  our  account; 
and  whatsoever  is  taught  to  us  by  the  doc- 
tors of  the  present  age,  if  it  can  show  its 
test  from  the  beginning  of  our  period  for 
revelation,  is  not  to  be  called  new,  though 


it  be  pressed  with  a  new  zeal,  and  discoursed 
of  by  unheard-of  arguments ;  that  is,  though 
men  be  ignorant,  and  need  to  learn  it,  yet  it 
is  not  therefore  new  or  unnecessary. 

2.  Some  would  have  false  teachers  suffi- 
ciently signified  by  a  name,  or  the  owning 
of  a  private  appellative,  as  of  Papist,  Lu 
theran,  Calvinist,  Zuinglian.  Socinian ;  and 
think  it  enough  to  denominate  them  not 
of  Christ,  if  they  are  called  by  the  name 
of  a  man.  And,  indeed,  the  thing  is  in  it- 
self ill :  but  then,  if  by  this  mark  we  shall 
esteem  false  teachers  sufficiently  signified, 
we  must  follow  no  man,  no  Church,  nor  no 
communion  ;  for  all  are,  by  their  adversa- 
ries, marked  with  an  appellative  of  separa- 
tion and  singularity,  and  yet  themselves  are 
tenacious  of  a  good  name,  such  as  they 
choose,  or  such  as  is  permitted  to  them  by 
fame,  and  the  people,  and  a  natural  neces- 
sity of  making  a  distinction.  Thus  the  Do- 
nalists  called  themselves  "the  Flock  of 
God,"  and  the  Novatians  called  the  Ca- 
tholics "  Traditors,"  and  the  Eustathians 
called  themselves  "  Catholics ;"  and  the 
worshippers  of  images  made  "  Inconoclast" 
to  be  a  name  of  scorn  ;  and  men  made 
names  as  they  listed,  or  as  the  fate  of  the 
market  went.  And  if  a  doctor  preaches  a 
doctrine  which  another  man  likes  not,  but 
preaches  the  contradictory,  he  that  consents, 
and  he  that  refuses,  have  each  of  them  a 
teacher ;  by  whose  name,  if  they  please  to 
wrangle,  they  may  be  signified.  It  was  so 
in  the  Corinthian  church,  with  this  only 
difference,  that  they  divided  themselves  by 
names  which  signified  the  same  religion; 
"I  am  of  Paul,  and  I  of  Apollos,  and  I  am 
of  Peter,  and  I  of  Christ."  These  apostles 
were  ministers  of  Christ,  and  so  does  every 
teacher,  new  or  old,  among  the  Christians 
pretend  himself  to  be.  Let  that,  therefore, 
be  examined  ;  if  he  ministers  to  the  truth 
of  Christ  and  the  religion  of  his  Master,  let 
him  be  entertained  a  servant  of  the  Lord; 
but,  if  an  appellative  be  taken  from  his 
name,  there  is  a  faction  commenced  in  it, 
and  there  is  a  fault  in  the  man,  if  there  be 
none  in  the  doctrine ;  but  that  the  doctrine 
be  true  or  false,  to  be  received  or  to  be  re- 
jected, because  of  the  name,  is  accidental 
and  extrinsical,  and,  therefore,  not  to  be  de- 
termined by  this  sign. 

3.  Amongst  some  men  a  sect  is  suffi- 
ciently thought  to  be  reproved  if  it  subdi- 
vides and  breaks  into  little  fractions,  or 
changes  its  own  opinions.  Indeed,  if  it  de- 
clines its  own  doctrine,  no  man  hath  reason 


348 


CHRISTIAN 


PRUDENCE.  Serm.  XL VII. 


to  believe  them  upon  their  word,  or  to  take 
them  upon  the  stock  of  reputation,  which 
(themselves  being  judges)  they  have  for- 
feited and  renounced  in  the  changing  that, 
which  at  first  they  obtruded  passionately. 
And,  therefore,  in  this  case  there  is  nothing 
to  be  done,  but  to  believe  the  men  so  far  as 
they  have  reason  to  believe  themselves  ;  that 
is,  to  consider  when  they  prove  what  they 
say  :  and  they  that  are  able  to  do  so,  are  not 
persons  in  danger  to  be  seduced  by  a  bare 
authority  unless  they  list  themselves ;  for 
others  that  sink  under  an  unavoidable  pre- 
judice, God  will  take  care  for  them,  if  they 
be  good  people,  and  their  case  shall  be  con- 
sidered by  and  by.  But  for  the  other  part  of 
the  sign,  when  men  fall  out  among  them- 
selves for  other  interests  or  opinions,  it  is 
no  argument  that  they  are  in  an  error  con- 
cerning that  doctrine,  which  they  all  uni- 
tedly teach  or  condemn  respectively  ;  but  it 
hath  in  it  some  probability,  that  their  union 
is  a  testimony  of  truth,  as  certainly  as  that 
their  fractions  are  a  testimony  of  their  zeal, 
or  honesty,  or  weakness, — as  it  happens. 
And  if  we  Christians  be  too  decretory  in 
this  instance,  it  will  be  hard  for  any  of  us 
to  keep  a  Jew  from  making  use  of  it  against 
the  whole  religion,  which,  from  the  days  of 
the  apostles,  hath  been  rent  into  innumera- 
ble sects  and  under-sects,  springing  from 
mistake  or  interest,  from  the  arts  of  the 
devil  or  the  weakness  of  man.  But  from 
hence  we  may  make  an  'advantage  in  the 
way  of  prudence,  and  become  sure  that  all 
that  doctrine  is  certainly  true,  in  which  the 
generality  of  Christians  who  are  divided  in 
many  things,  yet  do  constantly  agree  ;  and 
that  that  doctrine  is  also  sufficient,  since  it 
is  certain,  that  because  in  all  communions 
and  churches  there  are  some  very  good  men, 
that  do  all  their  duty  to  the  getting  of  truth, 
God  will  not  fail  in  any  thing  that  is  neces- 
sary to  them,  that  honestly  and  heartily  de- 
sire to  obtain  it ;  and,  therefore,  if  they  rest 
in  the  heartiness  of  that,  and  live  accord- 
ingly, and  superinduce  nothing  to  the  de- 
struction of  that,  they  have  nothing  to  do 
but  to  rely  upon  God's  goodness,  and  if  they 
perish,  it  is  certain  they  cannot  help  it ;  and 
that  is  demonstration  enough  that  they  can- 
not perish,  considering  the  justice  and  good- 
ness of  our  Lord  and  Judge. 

4.  Whoever  break  the  bands  of  a  society 
or  communion,  and  go  out  from  that  con- 
gregation in  whose  confession  they  are  bap- 
tized, do  an  intolerable  scandal  to  their  doc- 
trine and  persons,  and  give  suspicious  men 


reason  to  decline  their  assemblies,  and  not 
to  choose  them  at  all  for  any  thing  of  their 
authority  or  outward  circumstances.  And 
St.  Paul  bids  the  Romans  to  "  mark  them 
that  cause  divisions  and  offences;"  but  the 
following  words  make  their  caution  prudent 
and  practicable,  "  contrary  to  the  doctrine 
which  ye  have  learned,  and  avoid  them:" 
they  that  recede  from  the  doctrine  which 
they  have  learned,  they  cause  the  ofifynce, 
and  if  they  also  obtrude  this  upon  their  con- 
gregations, they  also  make  the  division. 
For  it  is  certain,  if  we  receive  any  doctrine 
contrary  to  what  Christ  gave  and  the  apos- 
tles taught,  for  the  authority  of  any  man, 
then  we  "  call  men  master,"  and  leave  "our 
Master  which  is  in  heaven ;"  and  in  that 
case  we  must  separate  from  the  congrega- 
tion, and  adhere  to  Christ.  But  this  is  not 
to  be  done,  unless  the  case  be  evident  and 
notorious.  But  as  it  is  hard  that  the  public 
doctrine  of  a  church  should  be  rifled,  and 
misunderstood,  and  reproved,  and  rejected, 
by  any  of  her  wilful  or  ignorant  sons  and 
daughters;  so  it  is  also  as  hard,  that  they 
should  be  bound  not  to  see,  when  the  case 
is  plain  and  evident.  There  may  be  mis- 
chiefs on  both  sides ;  but  the  former  sort  of 
evils  men  may  avoid  if  they  will ;  for  they 
may  be  humble  and  modest,  and  entertain 
better  opinions  of  their  superiors  than  of 
themselves,  and  in  doubtful  things  give 
them  the  honour  of  a  just  opinion;  and  if 
they  do  not  do  so,  that  evil  will  be  their 
own  private;  for,  that  it  become  not  pub- 
lic, the  king  and  the  bishop  are  to  take  care. 
But  for  the  latter  sort  of  evil,  it  will  cer- 
tainly become  universal;  if,  I  say,  an  autho- 
ritative false  doctrine  be  imposed-,  and  is  to 
be  accepted  accordingly ;  for  then  all  men 
shall  be  bound  to  profess  against  their  con- 
science, that  is,  "with  their  mouths  not  to 
confess  unto  salvation,  what  with  their  hearts 
they  believe  unto  righteousness."  The  best 
way  of  remedying  both  the  evils  is,  that  go- 
vernors lay  no  burden  of  doctrines  or  laws 
but  what  are  necessary  or  very  profitable; 
and  that  inferiors  do  not  contend  for  things 
unnecessary,  nor  call  any  thing  necessary 
that  is  not;  till  then  there  will  be  evils  on 
both  sides.  And  although  the  governors  are 
to  carry  the  question  in  the  point  of  law, 
reputation,  and  public  government,  yet  as  to 
God's  judicature  they  will  bear  the  bigger 
load,  who  in  his  right  do  him  an  injury,  and 
by  the  impresses  of  his  authority  destroy  his 
truth.  But,  in  this  case  also,  although  sepa- 
rating by  a  suspicious  thing,  and  intolerable, 


Serm.  XLV1I. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


S49 


unless  it  be  when  a  sin  is  imposed  ;  yet  to 
separate  is  also  accidental  to  truth,  for  some 
men  separate  with  reason,  some  men  against 
reason.  Therefore,  here  all  the  certainty  that 
is  in  the  thing1,  is  when  the  truth  is  secured, 
and  all  the  security  to  the  men  will  be  in  the 
humility  of  their  persons,  and  the  hearti- 
ness and  simplicity  of  their  intention,  and 
diligence  of  inquiry.  The  church  of  Eng- 
land had  reason  to  separate  from  the  con- 
fession and  practices  of  Rome  in  many  par- 
ticulars; and  yet  if  her  children  separate 
from  her,  they  may  be  unreasonable  and  | 
impious. 

5.  The  ways  of  direction  which  we  have 
from  Holy  Scripture,  to  distinguish  the  false 
apostles  from  true,  are  taken  from  their 
doctrine,  or  their  lives.  That  of  the  doc- 
trine  is  the  more  sure  way,  if  we  can  hit 
upon  it;  but  that  also  is  the  thing  signified, 
and  needs  to  have  other  signs.  St.  John 
and  St.  Paul  took  this  way,  for  they  were 
able  to  do  it  infallibly.  "  All  that  confess 
Jesus  incarnate,  are  of  God,"  said  St.  John. 
Those  men  that  deny  it  are  heretics  ;  avoid 
them.  And  St.  Paul  bids  to  "observe  them 
that  cause  divisions  and  offences  against  the 
doctrine  delivered  ;"  them  also  avoid  that  do  \ 
so.  And  we  might  do  so  as  easily  as  they, 
if  the  world  would  only  make  their  "  deposi-  • 
turn"  that  doctrine  which  they  delivered  to 
all  men,  that  is,  "  the  creed  ;"  and  superin-  j 
duce  nothing  else,  but  suffer  Christian  faith  j 
to  rest  in  its  own  perfect  simplicity,  un- 
mingled  with  arts,  and  opinions,  and  inter- 
ests. This  course  is  plain  and  easy,  and  I 
will  not  intricate  it  with  more  words,  but 
leave  it  directly  in  its  own  truth  and  cer- 
tainty, with  this  only  direction,  that  when  we 
are  to  choose  our  doctrine  or  our  side,  we 
take  that  which  is  in  the  plain  unexpound- 
ed  words  of  Scripture ;  for  in  that  only  our 
religion  can  consist.  Secondly,  choose  that 
which  is  most  advantageous  to  a  holy  life,  to 
the  proper  graces  of  a  Christian,  to  humility, 
to  charity,  to  forgiveness  and  alms,  to  obe- 
dience, and  complying  with  governments, 
to  the  honour  of  God  and  the  exaltation  of 
his  attributes,  and  to  the  conservation  and 
advantages  of  the  public  societies  of  men  ; 
and  this  last  St.  Paul  directs,  "  Let  us  be 
careful  to  maintain  good  works  for  necessa- 
ry uses  :"  for  he  that  heartily  pursues  these 
proportions,  cannot  be  an  ill  man,  though 
he  were  accidentally,  and  in  the  particular 
explications,  deceived. 

6.  But,  because  this  is  an  act  of  wisdom 
rather  than  prudence,  and  supposes  science 


or  knowledge  rather  than  experience,  there- 
fore, it  concerns  the  prudence  of  a  Christian 
to  observe  the  practice  and  the  rules  of  prac- 
tice, their  lives  and  pretences,  the  designs 
and  colours,  the  arts  of  conduct,  and  gain- 
ing proselytes,  which  their  doctors  and  cate- 
chists  do  use  in  order  to  their  purposes,  and 
in  their  ministry  about  souls.  For  although 
many  signs  are  uncertain,  yet  some  are  in- 
fallible, and  some  are  highly  probable. 

7.  Therefore,  those  teachers  that  pretend 
to  be  guided  by  a  private  spirit,  are  certainly 
false  doctors.  I  remember  what  Simmias  in 
Plutarch  tells  concerning  Socrates,  that  if  he 
heard  any  man  say  he  saw  a  divine  vision, 
he  presently  esteemed  him  vain  and  proud ; 
but,  if  he  pretended  only  to  have  heard  a 
voice,  or  the  word  of  God,  he  listened  to 
that  religiously,  and  would  inquire  of  him 
with  curiosity.  There  was  some  reason  in 
his  fancy;  for  God  does  not  communicate 
himself  by  the  eye  to  men,  but  by  the  ear  : 
<f  Ye  saw  no  figure,  but  ye  heard  a  voice/' 
said  Moses  to  the  people  concerning  God. 
And,  therefore,  if  any  man  pretends  to  speak 
the  word  of  God,  we  will  inquire  concern- 
ing it ;  the  man  may  the  better  be  heard, 
because  he  may  be  certainly  reproved  if  he 
speaks  amiss;  but,  if  he  pretends  to  visions 
and  revelations,  to  a  private  spirit,  and  a 
mission  extraordinary,  the  man  is  proud  and 
unlearned,  vicious  and  impudent.  "  No 
scripture  is  of  private  interpretation,"  saith 
St.  Peter;  that  is,  "private  emission"  or 
"  declaration."  God's  words  were  deliver- 
ed indeed  by  single  men,  but  such  as  were 
publicly  designed  prophets,  remarked  with 
a  known  character,  approved  of  by  the  high 
priest  and  Sanhedrim,  endued  with  a  public 
spirit,  and  his  doctrines  were  always  agreea- 
ble to  the  other  scriptures.  But,  if  any  man 
pretends  now  to  the  Spirit,  either  it  must  be 
a  private  or  public.  If  it  be  private,  it  can 
but  be  useful  to  himself  alone,  and  it  may 
cozen  him  too,  if  it  be  not  assisted  by  the 
spirit  of  a  public  man.  But  if  it  be  a  pub- 
lic spirit,  it  must  enter  in  at  the  public  door 
of  ministries  and  Divine  ordinances,  of  God's 
grace  and  man's  endeavour :  it  must  be  sub- 
ject to  the  prophets ;  it  is  discernible  and 
judicable  by  them,  and,  therefore,  may  be 
rejected,  and  then  it  must  pretend  no  longer. 
For  he  that  will  pretend  to  an  extraordinary 
spirit,  and  refuses  to  be  tried  by  the  ordinary 
ways,  must  either  prophesy  or  work  mira- 
cles, or  must  have  a  voice  from  heaven  to 
give  him  testimony.  The  prophets  in  the 
Old  Testament,  and  the  apostles  in  the 
2E 


350 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


Serm.  XLVII. 


New,  and  Christ  between  both,  had  no  other 
way  of  extraordinary  probation ;  and  they 
that  pretend  to  any  thing  extraordinary,  can- 
not, ought  not  to  be  believed,  unless  they 
have  something  more  than  their  own  word: 
"If  I  bear  witness  of  myself,  my  witness  is 
not  true,"  said  Truth  itself,  our  blessed 
Lord.  But,  secondly,  they  that  intend  to 
teach  by  an  extraordinary  spirit,  if  they  pre- 
tend to  teach  according  to  Scripture,  must 
be  examined  by  the  measures  of  Scripture, 
and  then  their  extraordinary  must  be  judged 
by  the  ordinary  spirit,  and  stands  or  falls  by 
the  rules  of  every  good  man's  religion  and 
public  government ;  and  then  we  are  well 
enough.  But  if  they  speak  any  thing  against 
Scripture,  it  is  the  spirit  of  antichrist,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  devil:  "For  if  an  angel  from 
heaven"  (he  certainly  is  a  spirit)  "preach 
any  other  doctrine,  let  him  be  accursed." 

But  this  pretence  of  a  single  and  extra- 
ordinary spirit  is  nothing  else  but  the  spirit 
of  pride,  error,  and  delusion ;  a  snare  to 
catch  easy  and  credulous  souls,  which  are 
willing  to  die  for  a  gay  word  and  a  distorted 
face;  it  is  the  parent  of  folly  and  giddy  doc- 
trine, impossible  to  be  proved,  and,  there- 
fore, useless  to  all  purposes  of  religion,  rea- 
son, or  sober  counsels  ;  it  is  like  an  invisible 
colour,  or  music  without  a  sound;  it  is,  and 
indeed  is  so  intended  to  be,  a  direct  overthrow 
of  order,  and  government,  and  public  minis- 
tries :  it  is  bold  to  say  any  thing,  and  resolv- 
ed to  prove  nothing ;  it  imposes  upon  willing 
people  after  the  same  manner  that  oracles 
and  the  lying  demons  did  of  old  time,  abus- 
ing men,  not  by  proper  efficacy  of  its  own, 
but  because  the  men  love  to  be  abused :  it 
is  a  great  disparagement  to  the  sufficiency 
of  Scripture,  and  asperses  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence, for  giving  so  many  ages  of  the  church 
an  imperfect  religion,  expressly  against  the 
truth  of  their  words,  who  said,  they  "  had 
declared  the  whole  truth  of  God,"  and  "told 
all  the  will  of  God  :"  and  it  is  an  affront  to 
the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and 
knowledge,  of  order,  and  public  ministries. 
But  the  will  furnishes  out  malice,  and  the 
understanding  sends  out  levity,  and  they 
marry,  and  produce  a  fantastic  dream ;  and 
the  daughter,  sucking  wind  instead  of  "the 
milk  of  the  word,"  grows  up  to  madness, 
and  the  spirit  of  reprobation.  Besides  all 
this,  an  extraordinary  spirit  is  extremely  un- 
necessary ;  and  God  does  not  give  emissions 
and  miracles  from  heaven  to  no  purpose, 
and  to  no  necessitips  of  his  church ;  for  the 
supplying  of  which  he  hath  given  apostles 


j  and  evangelists,  prophets  and  pastors,  bish- 
ops and  priests,  the  spirit  of  ordination  and 
;  the  spirit  of  instruction,  catechists  and  teach- 
|  ers,  arts  and  sciences,  scriptures,  and  a  con- 
stant succession  of  expositors,  the  testimony 
of  churches,  and  a  constant  line  of  tradition, 
I  or  delivery  of  apostolical  doctrine,  in  all 
[things  necessary  to  salvation.  And,  after 
all  this,  to  have  a  fungus  arise  from  the 
|  belly  of  mud  and  darkness,  and  nourish  a 
|  glow-worm,  that  shall  challenge  to  outshine 
the  lantern  of  God's  word,  and  all  the  can- 
dles which  God  set  upon  a  hill,  and  all  that 
the  Spirit  hath  set  upon  the  candlesticks, 
and  all  the  stars  of  Christ's  right  hand,  is  to 
annul  all  the  excellent,  established,  orderly, 
and  certain  effects  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  to 
worship  the  false  fires  of  the  night.  He,  there- 
fore, that  will  follow  a  guide  that  leads  him 
by  an  extraordinary  spirit,  shall  go  an  extrar 
ordinary  way,  and  have  a  strange  fortune, 
and  a  singular  religion,  and  a  portion  by 
himself,  a  great  way  off  from  the  common 
inheritance  of  the  saints,  who  are  all  led  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  and  have  one  heart  and 
one  mind,  one  faith  and  one  hope,  the  same 
baptism,  and  the  helps  of  the  ministry,  lead- 
ing them  to  the  common  country,  which  is 
the  portion  of  all  that  are  the  sons  of  adop- 
tion, consigned  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the 
earnest  of  their  inheritance. 

Concerning  the  pretence  of  a  private  spirit 
for  interpretation  of  the  confessed  doctrine 
of  God,  (the  Holy  Scriptures.)  it  will  not  so 
easily  come  into  this  question  of  choosing 
our  spiritual  guides;  because  every  person 
that  can  be  a  candidate  in  this  office,  that 
can  be  chosen  to  guide  others,  must  be  a 
public  man,  that  is,  of  a  holy  calling,  sanc- 
tified or  separate  publicly  to  the  office ;  and 
then  to  interpret  is  part  of  his  calling  and 
employment,  and  to  do  so  is  the  work  of  a 
public  spirit;  he  is  ordained  and  designed, 
he  is  commanded  and  enabled  to  do  it :  and 
in  this  there  is  no  other  caution  to  be  inter- 
posed, but  that  the  more  public  a  man  is,  of 
the  more  authority  his  interpretation  is;  and 
he  comes  nearer  to  a  law  of  order,  and  in 
the  matter  of  government  is  to  be  observed  : 
but  the  more  holy  and  the  more  learned 
the  man  is,  his  interpretation  in  matter  of 
question  is  more  likely  to  be  true;  and, 
though  less  to  be  pressed  as  to  the  public 
confession,  yet  it  may  be  more  effective  to 
a  private  persuasion,  provided  it  be  done 
without  scandal,  or  lessening  the  authority, 
or  disparagement  to  the  more  public  person. 

8.  Those  are  to  be  suspected  for  evil  guides. 


Serm.  XLVII. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


351 


who,  to  get  authority  among  the  people, 
pretend  a  great  zeal,  and  use  a  bold  liberty 
in  reproving  princes  and  governors,  nobility 
and  prelates ;  for  such  homilies  cannot  be 
the  effects  of  a  holy  religion,  which  lay  a 
snare  for  authority,  and  undermine  power, 
and  discontent  the  people,  and  make  them 
bold  against  kings,  and  immodest  in  their 
own  stations,  and  trouble  the  government. 
Such  men  may  speak  a  truth,  or  teach  a 
true  doctrine;  for  every  such  design  does 
not  unhallow  the  truth  of  God  :  but  they 
take  some  truths,  and  force  them  to  minister 
to  an  evil  end.  But,  therefore,  mingle  not 
in  the  communities  of  such  men :  for  they 
will  make  it  a  part  of  your  religion,  to  prose- 
cute that  end  openly,  which  they,  by  arts  of 
the  tempter,  have  insinuated  privately. 

But  if  ever  you  enter  into  the  seats  of 
those  doctors  that  speak  reproachfully  of 
their  superiors,  or  detract  from  government, 
or  love  to  curse  the  king  in  their  heart,  or 
slander  him  with  their  mouths,  or  disgrace 
their  person,  bless  yourself  and  retire  quick- 
ly ;  for  there  dwells  the  plague,  but  tbe 
Spirit  of  God  is  not  president  of  the  assem- 
bly. And.  therefore,  you  shall  observe  in 
all  the  characters  which  the  blessed  apostles 
of  our  Lord  made  for  describing  and  avoid- 
ing societies  of  heretics,  false  guides,  and 
brin^ers  in  of  strange  doctrines, — still  they 
reckon  treason  and  rebellion.  So  St.  Paul : 
"  In  the  last  day  perilous  times  shall  come  ; 
then  men  shall  have  the  form  of  godliness, 
and  deny  the  power  of  it:  they  shall  be 
traitors,  heady,  highminded  ;"*  that  is  the 
characteristic  note.  So  St.  Peter:  "The 
Lord  knoweth  how  to  deliver  the  godly  out 
of  temptations,  and  to  reserve  the  unjust  unto 
the  day  of  judgment  to  be  punished:  but 
chiefly  them  that  walk  after  the  flesh  in  the 
lust  of  uncleanness,  and  despise  govern- 
ment; presumptuous  are  they,  self-willed, 
they  are  not  afraid  to  speak  evil  of  digni- 
ties, "f — The  same  also  is  recorded  and  ob- 
served by  St.  Jude:  "Likewise  also  these 
filthy  dreamers  defile  the  flesh,  despise  domi- 
nion, and  speak  evil  of  dignities.":}:  These 
three  testimonies  are  but  the  declaration  of 
one  great  contingency  :  they  are  the  same 
prophecy,  declared  by  three  apostolical  men 
that  had  the  gift  of  prophecy  j  and  by  this 
character  the  Holy  Ghost  in  all  ages  hath 
given  us  caution  to  avoid  such  assemblies, 
where  the  speaking  and  ruling  man  shall  be 


2  Tim.  iii.  1,  &c.  1 2  Pet.  ii.  9,  10. 

I  Jude  5,  3. 


the  canker  of  government,  and  a  preacher 
of  sedition,  who  shall  either  ungird  the 
priifce's  sword,  or  unloose  the  button  of 
their  mantle. 

9.  But  the  apostles  in  all  these  prophe- 
cies have  remarked  lust  to  be  the  insepara- 
ble companion  of  these  rebel  prophets : 
"  They  are  filthy  dreamers,  thev  defile  the 
flesh,"  so  St.  Jude ;  "  They  walk  after  the 
flesh,  in  the  lust  of  uncleanness,"  so  St. 
Peter ;  "  They  are  lovers  of  pleasure  more 
than  lovers  of  God,  incontinent  and  sen- 
sual," so  St.  Paul.  And  by  this  part  of  the 
character,  as  the  apostles  remarked  the  Ni- 
colaitans,  the  Gnostics,  the  Carpocratians, 
and  all  their  impure  branches,  which  began 
in  their  days,  and  multiplied  after  their 
deaths:  so  they  prophetically  did  fore-sig- 
I  nify  all  such  sects  to  be  avoided,  who,  to 
catch  silly  women  laden  with  sins,  preach 
doctrines  of  ease  and  licentiousness,  apt  to 
countenance  and  encourage  vile  things,  and 
not  apt  to  restrain  a  passion,  or  mortifv  a 
sin  : — such  as  these :  that  God  sees  no  sin 
in  his  children ;  that  no  sin  will  take  us 
from  God's  favour;  that  all  of  such  a  party 
are  elect  people;  that  God  requires  of  us 
nothing  but  faith ;  and  that  faith  which  jus- 
tifies is  nothing  but  a  mere  believing  that 
we  are  God's  chosen ;  that  we  are  not  tied 
to  the  law  of  commandments  ;  that  the  law 
of  grace  is  the  law  of  liberty,  and  that  lib- 
erty- is  to  do  what  we  list ;  that  divorces  are 
to  be  granted  upon  many  and  slight  causes  ; 
that  simple  fornication  is  no  sin.  These 
are  such  doctrines,  that  upon  the  belief  of 
them  men  may  do  any  thing,  and  will  do 
that  which  shall  satisfy  their  own  desires, 
and  promote  their  interests,  and  seduce  their 
she-disciples.  And,  indeed,  it  was  not  with- 
out great  reason  that  these  three  apostles 
joined  lust  and  treason  together ;  because 
the  former  is  so  shameful  a  crime,  and  ren- 
ders a  man's  spirit  naturally  averse  to  gov- 
ernment, that  if  it  falls  upon  the  person  of 
a  ruler,  it  takes  from  him  the  spirit  of  gov- 
iernment,  and  renders  him  diffident,  pusil- 
lanimous, private,  and  ashamed  :  if  it  hap- 
ipen  in  the  person  of  a  subject,  it  makes  him 
!  hate  the  man  that  shall  shame  him  and  pun- 
ish him;  it  hates  the  light  and  the  sun,  be- 
cause that  opens  him,  and,  therefore,  is  much 
more  against  government,  because  that  pub- 
lishes and  punishes  too.  One  thing  I  desire 
to  be  observed,  that  though  the  primitive 
heretics  now  named,  and  all  those  others, 
their  successors,  practised  and  taught  horrid 
impurities,  yet  they  did  not  invade  govern- 


352 


CHRISTIAN 


PRUDENCE. 


Serm.  XLVII. 


ment  al  all;  and,  therefore,  those  sects  that 
these  apostles  did  signify  by  prophecy,  and 
in  whom  both  these  are  concentred, — were 
to  appear  in  some  later  times,  and  the  days 
of  the  prophecy  were  not  then  to  be  fulfilled. 
What  they  are  since,  every  age  must  judge 
by  its  own  experience,  and  for  its  own  in- 
terest. But  Christian  religion  is  so  pure 
and  holy,  that  chastity  is  sometimes  used 
for  the  whole  religion;  and  to  do  an  action 
chastely  signifies  purity  of  intention,  ab- 
straction from  the  world,  and  separation 
from  low  and  secular  ends,  the  virginity  of 
the  soul,  and  its  union  with  God  ;*  and  all 
deviations  and  estrangements  from  God,  and 
adhesion  to  forbidden  objects,  is  called  forni- 
cation and  adultery.  Those  sects,  therefore, 
that  teach,  encourage,  or  practise  impious 
or  unhallowed  mixtures,  and  shameful  lusts, 
are  issues  of  the  impure  spirit,  and  most 
contrary  to  God,  who  can  behold  no  unclean 
thing. 

10.  Those  prophets  and  pastors, — that 
pretend  severity  and  live  loosely,  or  are 
severe  in  small  things,  and  give  liberty  in 
greater,  or  forbid  some  sins  with  extreme 
rigour,  and  yet  practise  or  teach  those  that 
serve  their  interest  or  constitute  their  sect, 
— are  to  be  suspected  and  avoided  accord- 
ingly :  "  Nihil  est  hominum  inepeta  persua- 
sione  falsius,  nec  ficta  severitate  inepetius." 
All  ages  of  the  church  were  extremely  curi- 
ous to  observe,  when  any  new  teachers  did 
arise,  what  kind  of  lives  they  lived ;  and  if 
they  pretended  severely  and  to  a  strict  life, 
then  they  knew  their  danger  doubled  ;  for  it 
is  certain  all  that  teach  doctrines  contrary 
to  the  established  religion  delivered  by  the 
apostles,  all  they  are  evil  men.  God  will 
not  suffer  a  good  man  to  be  seduced  damna- 
bly, much  less  can  he  be  a  seducer  of  others : 
and,  therefore,  you  shall  still  observe  the 
false  apostles  to  be  furious  and  vehement  in 
their  reproofs,  and  severe  in  their  animad- 
versions of  others ;  but  then  if  you  watch 
their  private,  or  stay  till  their  numbers  are 
full,  or  observe  their  spiritual  habits,  you 
shall  find  them  indulgent  to  themselves,  or 
to  return  from  their  disguises,  or  so  spiritu- 
ally wicked,  that  their  pride  or  their  revenge, 
their  envy  or  their  detraction,  their  scorn  or 
their  complacency  in  themselves,  their  de- 
sire of  pre-eminence  and  their  impatience 
of  a  revival,  shall  place  them  far  enough  in 
distance  from  a  poor  carnal  sinner,  whom 
they  shall  load  with  censures  and  an  upbraid- 


*Eloquia  Domini  casta  eloquia. 


|  ing  scorn ;  but  themselves  are  like  devils, 
the  spirits  of  darkness,  "  the  spiritual  wicked- 
nesses in  high  places."  Some  sects  of  men 
are  very  angry  against  servants  for  recrea- 
ting and  easing  their  labours  with  a  less 
prudent  and  unsevere  refreshment:  but  the 
patrons  of  their  sects  shall  oppress  a  wicked 
man  and  unbelieving  person ;  they  shall 
chastise  a  drunkard  and  entertain  murmur- 
ers ;  they  shall  not  abide  an  oath,  and  yet 
shall  force  men  to  break  three  or  four.  This 
sect  is  to  be  avoided,  because  although  it  is 
good  to  be  severe  against  carnal  and  bodily 
sins,  yet  it  is  not  good  to  mingle  with  them 
who  chastise  a  bodily  sin  to  make  way  for 
a  spiritual ;  or  reprove  a  servant,  that  his 
lord  may  sin  alone;  or  punish  a  stranger 
and  a  beggar,  that  will  not  approve  their 
sin,  but  will  have  sins  of  his  own.  Con- 
cerning such  persons,  St.  Paul  hath  told  us, 
that  "  they  shall  not  proceed  far,  but  their 
folly  shall  be  manifest ;"  '(Wyou  #poW  bvvait 
civ  ti$  rthdciaridat,  thv  tportov  tov  ai>tov,  said  Ly- 
sias  :  "  Cito  ad  naturam  ficta  reciderunt 
suam."  They  that  dissemble  their  sin  and 
their  manners,  or  make  severity  to  serve 
looseness,  and  an  imaginary  virtue  to  minis- 
ter to  a  real  vice ;  they  that  abhor  idols,  and 
would  commit  sacrilege ;  chastise  a  drunk- 
ard, and  promote  sedition;  declaim  against 
the  vanity  of  great  persons,  and  then  spoil 
them  of  their  goods ;  reform  manners,  and 
engross  estates  ;  talk  godly,  and  do  impi- 
ously; these  are  teachers  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God  hath,  by  three  apostles,  bid 
us  to  beware  of  and  decline,  as  we  would 
run  from  the  hollowness  of  a  grave,  or  the 
despairs  and  sorrows  of  the  damned. 

11.  The  substance  of  all  is  this:  that  we 
must  not  choose  our  doctrine  by  our  guide, 
but  our  guide  by  the  doctrine ;  and  if  we 
doubt  concerning  the  doctrine,  we  may 
judge  of  that  by  the  lives  and  designs  of 
the  teachers :  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them ;"  and  by  the  plain  words  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, by  the  apostles'  creed,  and  by  the  com- 
mandments, and  by  the  certain  known  and 
established  forms  of  government.  These 
are  the  great  indices,  and  so  plain,  apt,  and 
easy,  that  he  that  is  deceived,  is  so  because 
he  will  be  so ;  he  is  betrayed  into  it  by  his 
own  lust,  and  a  voluntary  chosen  folly. 

12.  Besides  these  premises,  there  are  other 
little  candles  that  can  help  to  make  the  judg- 
ment clearer;  but  they  are  such  as  do  not 
signify  alone,  but  in  conjunction  with  some 
of  the  precedent  characters,  which  are  drawn 
by  the  great  lines  of  Scripture.    Such  as 


SfiRM.  XLVII. 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


353 


are:  1.  When  the  teachers  of  sects  stir  up  i  munities  and  the  superiorly  of  the  ecclesi- 
unprofitable  and  useless  questions.  2.  When  astical  persons  to  secular,,  for  indulgences 
they  causelessly  retire  from  the  universal  and  precious  and  costly  pardons,  and  then 
customs  of  Christendom.  3.  And  cancel  all  so  full  of  devices  to  reconcile  an  evil  life 
the  memorials  of  the  greatest  mysteries  of  with  heaven,  requiring  only  contrition  even 
our  redemption.  4.  When  their  confessions  at  the  last  for  the  abolition  of  eternal  guilt, 
and  catechisms  and  their  whole  religion  con-  and  having  a  thousand  ways  to  commute 
sists  tv  yv^ou,  "in  speculations"  and  inef-  and  take  off  the  temporal;  will  see  he  hath 
fective  notions,  in  discourses  of  angels  and  reason  to  be  jealous  that  interest  is  in  these 
spirits,  in  abstractions  and  raptures,  in  things  bigger  than  the  religion,  and  yet  the  danger 
they  understand  not,  and  of  which  they  have  of  the  soul  is  greater  than  that  interest;  and, 
no  revelation.  5.  Or  else  if  their  religion  therefore,  the  man  is  to  do  accordingly, 
spends  itself  in  ceremonies,  outward  guises,  Here,  indeed,  is  the  great  necessity  that 
and  material  solemnities,  and  imperfect  we  should  have  the  prudence  and  discre- 
forms, drawing  the  heart  of  the  vine  forth  tion,  the  6$v8spx£$  of  serpents. 

into  leaves  and  irregular  fruitless  suckers,  \   magis  £t  cernamus  acutum 

turning  the  substance  into  circumstances,  |  Quam  autaquila,  aut  serpens  Epidaurius.  Hor. 
and  the  love  of  God  into  gestures,  and  the  For  so  serpents,  as  they  are  curious  to 
effect  of  the  Spirit  into  the  impertinent  j  preserve  their  heads  from  contrition  or  a 
offices  of  a  burdensome  ceremonial:  for  j  bruise,  so  also  to  safeguard  themselves  that 
by  these  two  particulars  the  apostles  re-  they  be  not  charmed  with  sweet  and  en- 
proved  the  Jews  and  the  Gnostics,  or  those  ticing  words  of  false  prophets,  who  charm 
that  from  the  school  of  Pythagoras  pre-  j  not  wisely  but  cunningly,  leading  aside  un- 
tended  conversation  with  angels,  and  great  i  stable  souls ;  against  these  we  must  stop 
knowledge  of  the  secrets  of  the  spirits,  our  ears,  or  lend  our  attention  according  to 
choosing  tutelar  angels,  and  assigning  them  ;the  foregoing  measures  and  significations, 
offices  and  charges,  as  in  the  church  of  j  But  here  also  I  am  to  insert  two  or  three 
Rome,  to  this  day,  they  do  to  saints.    To  j  cautions. 

these  add,  6.  That  we  observe  whether  the  j  1.  We  cannot  expect  that  by  these  or  any 
guides  of  souls  avoid  to  suffer  for  their  re-  ;  other  signs  we  shall  be  enabled  to  discover 
ligion;  for  then  the  matter  is  foul,  or  the  concerning  all  men,  whether  they  teach  an 
man  not  fit  to  lead,  that  dares  not  die  in  cold  ,  error  or  no  :  neither  can  a  man  by  these  re- 
blood  for  his  religion.  Will  the  man  lay  prove  a  Lutheran  or  a  Zuinglian,  a  Domini- 
his  life  and  his  soul  upon  the  proposition?  can  or  a  Franciscan,  a  Russian  or  a  Greek, 
If  so,  then  you  may  consider  him  upon  his  'a  Muscovite  or  a  Georgian;  because  those 
proper  grounds ;  but  if  he  refuses  that,  re- 1  that  are  certain  signs  of  false  teachers,  do 
fuse  his  conduct  sure  enough.  7.  You  I  signify  such  men  who  destroy  an  article  of 
may  also  watch  whether  they  do  not  choose  I  faith  or  a  commandment.  God  was  care- 
their  proselytes  among  the  rich  and  vicious;  ful  to  secure  us  from  death  by  removing  the 
that  they  may  serve  themselves  upon  his  lepers  from  the  camp,  and  giving  certain 
wealth,  and  their  disciple  upon  his  vice,  notices  of  distinction,  and  putting  a  term 
8.  If  their  doctrines  evidently  and  greatly  .  between  the  living  and  the  dead :  but  he 
serve  the  interest  of  wealth  or  honour,  and  was  not  pleased  to  secure  every  man  from 
are  ineffective  to  piety.  9.  If  they  strive  to  I  innocent  and  harmless  errors,  from  the  mis- 
gain  any  one  to  their  confession,  and  are  '  takes  of  men  and  the  failings  of  mortality  : 
negligent  to  gain  them  to  good  life.  10.  If,  the  signs  which  can  distinguish  a  living  man 
by  pretences,  they  lessen  the  severity  of  from  a  dead,  will  not  also  distinguish  a 
Christ's  precepts,  and  are  easy  in  dispensa-  black  man  from  a  brown,  or  a  pale  from  a 
tions  and  licentious  glosses.  11.  If  they  white:  it  is  enough  that  we  decline  those 
invent  suppletories  to  excuse  an  evil  man,  guides  that  lead  us  to  hell,  but  not  to  think 
and  yet  to  reconcile  his  bad  life  with  the  that  we  are  enticed  to  death  by  the  weak- 
hopes  of  heaven;  you  have  reason  to  sus-  inesses  of  every  disagreeing  brother, 
pect  the  whole,  and  to  reject  these  parts  of  i  2.  In  all  discerning  of  sects,  we  must  be 
error  and  design,  which  in  themselves  are  so  j  careful  to  distinguish  the  faults  of  men  from 
unhandsome  always,  and  sometimes  crimi-  I  the  evils  of  their  doctrine  ;  for  some  there  are 
nal.  He  that  shall  observe  the  church  of  that  say  very  well  and  do  very  ill;  doi  yap 
Rome  so  implacably  fierce  for  purgatory!  ^  v^xo&poi  xouol,  Bdx%o&  ys  rta:Voi, 
and  the  pope's  supremacv,  for  clerical  im-  1  Multos  thvrsmeros,  paucosest  cerncre  Bacchos 
45'  '  2s  2 


354 


CHRISTIAN  PRUDENCE. 


Semi.  XLVII. 


Many  men  of  holy  calling  and  holy  religion,  j 
that  are  of  unholy  lives  :  u  Homines  ignavi j 
opera,  philosophi   sententia."    But  these  | 
must  be  separated  from  the  institution  :  and  ' 
the  evil  of  the  men  is  only  to  be  noted,  as 
that  such  persons  be  not  taken  to  our  single  | 
conduct  and  personal  ministry.    I  will  be  of  j 
the  man's  religion  if  it  be  good,  though  he; 
be  not  ;  but  I  will  not  make  him  my  con- 
fessor, Mtcrw  aocptatriv,  o6ti$  oi>x  avtcp  oro^oj.* 
If  he  be  not  wise  for  himself,  I  will  not  sit 
down  at  his  feet,  lest  we  mingle  filthiness 
instead  of  being  cleansed  and  instructed. 

3.  Let  us  make  one  separation  more,  and 
then  we  may  consider  and  act  according  to 
the  premises.  If  we  espy  a  design  or  an 
evil  mark  upon  one  doctrine,  let  us  divide  it 
from  the  others  that  are  not  so  spotted.  For 
indeed  the  public  communions  of  men  are 
at  this  day  so  ordered,  that  they  are  as  fond  | 
of  their  errors  as  of  their  truths,  and  some- 
times most  zealous  for  what  they  have  least 
reason  to  be  so.  And  if  we  can,  by  any  arts  of 
prudence,  separate  from  an  evil  proposition, 
and  communicate  in  all  the  good,  then  we 
may  love  colleges  of  religious  persons, 
though  we  do  not  worship  images ;  and  we 
may  obey  our  prelates,  though  we  do  no 
injury  to  princes ;  and  we  may  be  zealous 
against  a  crime,  though  we  be  not  imperious 
over  men's  persons ;  and  we  may  be  diligent 
in  the  conduct  of  souls,  though  we  be  not 
rapacious  of  estates  ;  and  we  may  be  mode- 
rate exactors  of  obedience  to  human  laws, 
though  we  do  not  dispense  with  the  breach 
of  the  Divine ;  and  the  clergy  may  represent 
their  calling  necessary,  though  their  persons 
be  full  of  modesty  and  humility ;  and  we 
may  preserve  our  lights,  and  not  lose  our 
charity.  For  this  is  the  meaning  of  the 
apostle:  "Try  all  things,' and  retain  that 
which  is  good :"  from  every  sect  and  com- 
munity of  Christians  take  any  thing  that  is 
good,  that  advances  holy  religion  and  the 
Divine  honour.  For  one  hath  a  better  go- 
vernment, a  second  a  better  confession,  a 
third  hath  excellent  spiritual  arts  for  the  con- 
duct of  souls,  a  fourth  hath  fewer  errors; 
and  by  what  instrument  soever  a  holy  life 
is  advantaged,  use  that,  though  thou  grind- 
est  thy  spears  and  arrows  at  the  forges  of 
the  Philistines ;  knowing  thou  hast  no  mas- 
ter but  Christ,  no  religion  but  the  Christian, 
no  rule  but  the  Scriptures,  and  the  laws, 
and  right  reason  :  other  things  that  are  helps, 
are  to  be  used  accordingly. 

*  Eurip. 


These  are  the  general  rules  of  Christian 
prudence,  which  I  have  chosen  to  insist 
upon  :  there  are  many  others  more  particu- 
lar indeed,  but  yet  worth  not  only  the  enu- 
merating, but  observing  also,  and  that  they 
be  reduced  to  practice.  For  the  prudence 
of  a  Christian  does  oblige  and  direct  respec- 
tively all  the  children  of  the  institution,  that 
we  be  careful  to  decline  a  danger,  watchful 
against  a  temptation,  always  choosing  that 
that  is  safe  and  fitted  to  all  circumstances  ; 
that  we  be  wise  in  choosing  our  company  , 
reserved  and  wary  in  our  friendships,  and 
communicative  in  our  charity ;  that  we  be 
silent,  and  retentive  of  what  we  hear  and 
what  we  think,  not  credulous,  not  incon- 
stant ;  that  we  be  deliberate  in  our  election 
and  vigorous  in  our  prosecutions ;  that  we 
suffer  not  good  nature  to  discompose  our 
duty,  but  that  we  separate  images  from  sub- 
stances, and  the  pleasing  of  a  present  com- 
pany from  our  religion  to  God  and  our  eter- 
nal interest :  for  sometimes  that  which  is 
counselled  to  us  by  Christian  prudence,  is 
accounted  folly  by  human  prudence,  and  so 
it  is  ever  accounted  when  our  duty  leads  us 
into  a  persecution.  Hither  also  appertain, 
that  we  never  do  a  thing  that  we  know  we 
must  repent  of ;  that  we  do  not  admire  too 
many  things,  nor  any  thing  too  much;  that 
we  be  even  in  prosperity  and  patient  in  ad- 
versity, but  transported  with  neither  into  the 
regions  of  despair  or  levity,  pusillanimity  or 
tyranny,  dejection  or  garishness ;  always  to 
look  upon  the  scar  we  have  impressed  upon 
our  flesh,  and  no  more  to  handle  dangers 
and  knives;  to  abstain  from  ambitious  and 
vexatious  suits ;  not  to  contend  with  a 
mighty  man ;  ever  to  listen  to  him,  who, 
according  to  the  proverb,  *fhath  four  ears, 
reason,  religion,  wisdom,  and  experience;" 
rather  to  lose  a  benefit,  than  to  suffer  a 
detriment  and  an  evil ;  to  stop  the  begin- 
nings of  evil ;  to  pardon  and  not  to  ob- 
serve all  the  faults  of  friends  or  enemies ; 
of  evils  to  choose  the  least,  and  of  goods 
to  choose  the  greatest,  if  it  be  also  safest; 
not  to  be  insolent  in  success,  but  to  pro- 
ceed according  to  the  probability  of  hu- 
man causes  and  contingencies;  ever  to  be 
thankful  for  benefits,  and  profitable  to  others, 
and  useful  in  all  that  we  can ;  to  watch  the 
seasons  and  circumstances  of  actions  ;  to  do 
that  willingly  which  cannot  be  avoided,  lest 
the  necessity  serve  another's  appetite,  and 
it  be  lost  to  all  our  purposes :  "  Insignis 
enim  est  prudentia?  ut  quod  non  facere  non 
possis,  id  ita  facere  ut  libenter  fecisse  vi- 


Serm.  XLVIII. 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


355 


dearis  ;"  not  to  pursue  difficult,  uncertain, 
and  obscure  things,  with  violence  and  pas- 
sion. These  if  we  observe,  we  shall  do  ad- 
vantage to  ourselves  and  to  the  religion ; 
and  avoid  those  evils  which  fools  and  un- 
wary people  suffer  for  nothing,  dying  or 
bleeding  without  cause  and  without  pity. 
I  end  this  with  the  saying  of  Socrates  : 
Xupiffoufra  4>poi'7jTfws,  xai  dWuxtroufva  avti  dx- 
1.it7m>v,  fxr>  (jxiaypu<J>ia  rcj  >}  r  touivtr;  dp?r^  xai 
to  ovtt  avbparcodys  ts,  xai  ovbsv  vyi«$,  ovo' 
c&rOtstw  "Virtue  is  but  a  shadow  and  a 
servile  employment,  unless  it  be  adorned 
and  instructed  with  prudence  ;"*  which 
gives  motion  and  conduct,  spirits  and  vigour- 
ousness  to  religion,  making  it  not  only  hu- 
man and  reasonable,  but  Divine  and  celestial. 


SERMON  XLVIII. 

OF  CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 
PART    I  . 

Atid  harmless  as  doves. — Matt.  x.  latter  part  of 
verse  16. 

Our  blessed  Saviour  having  prefaced  con- 
cerning prudence,  adds  to  the  integrity  of 
the  precept,  and  for  the  conduct  of  our  reli- 
gion, that  we  be  simple  as  well  as  prudent, 
innocent  as  well  as  wary.  Harmless  and 
safe  together  do  well :  for  without  this  bless- 
ed union,  prudence  turns  into  craft,  and 
simplicity  degenerates  into  folly.  "  Prudens 
sirnplicitas"  is  Martial's  character  of  a  good 
man;  a  wary  and  cautious  innocence,  a 
harmless  prudence  and  provision ;  "  Vera 
simplicitate  bonus."  A  true  simplicity  is 
that  which  leaves  to  a  man  arms  defensive, 
his  castles  and  strong  forts  ;  but  takes  away 
his  swords  and  spears,  his  anger  and  his 
malice,  his  peevishness  and  spite.  But  such 
is  the  misery  and  such  is  the  iniquity  of 
mankind,  that  craft  hath  invaded  all  the 
contracts  and  intercourses  of  men,  and  made 
simplicity  so  weak  a  thing,  that  it  is  grown 
into  contempt,  sometimes  with,  and  some- 
times without  reason;  "Et  homines  sim- 
plices,  minime  malos,"  the  Romans  called 
"parum  cautos,  saepe  stolidos;"  unwary 
fools  and  defenceless  people  were  called 
simple.  And  when  the  innocence  of  the 
old  simple  Romans  in  Junius  Brutus's  time, 
in  Fabricius  and  Camillus's,  began  to  de- 
generate, and  to  need  the  Aquilian  law  to 


force  men  to  deal  honestly  ;  quickly  the  mis- 
chief increased,  till  the  Aquilian  law  grew 
as  much  out  of  power  as  honesty  was  out 
of  countenance;  and  there,  and  every  where 
else,  "men  thought  they  got  a  purchase  when 
they  met  with  an  honest  man  :  and  rtu%iov 
Aristotle  calls,  xprjitov,  and  tbv  dpylhov  xa* 
tbv  /xavixbv,  drttovf  u  A  fool  is  a  profitable 
person,  and  he  that  is  simple  is  little  better 
than  mad:"  and  so  it  is  when  simplicity 
wants  prudence.  He  that,  because  he  means 
honestly  himself,  thinks  every  man  else  does 
so,  and  therefore  is  unwary  in  all  or  any  of 
his  intercourses,  is  a  simple  man  in  an  evil 
sense  :  and  therefore  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen 
remarks  Constantius  with  a  note  of  folly, 
for  suffering  his  easy  nature  to  be  abused 
by  Georgius,  Oixnovtai  try  3a5tfia>s  ari7jbtita. 
bvtcc$  yap  fyw  xa'foL  ory  xov^6trtta,  OiSovfUVOf 
try  fvfca,3£iav  "  The  prince's  simplicity,  so 
he  calls  it  for  reverence  ;"*  but  indeed  it 
was  folly,  for  it  was  zeal  without  know- 
ledge. But  it  was  a  better  temper  which  he 
;  observed  in  his  own  father,  ^  arOotr^  xai  to 
tov  rtfaoi  a$o%ov,  such  "  a  simplicity  which 
only  wanted*craft  or  deceit,"  but  wanted  no 
prudence  or  caution :  and  that  is  truly 
Christian  simplicity,  or  the  sincerity  of  an 
'  honest,  and  ingenious,  and  a  fearless  person; 
and  it  is  a  rare  band,  not  only  of  societies 
■  and  contracts,  but  also  of  friendships  and 
advantages  of  mankind. 

We  do  not  live  in  an  age  in  which  there 
is  so  much  need  to  bid  men  be  wary,  as 
to  take  care  that  they  be  innocent.  Indeed 
in  religion  we  are  usually  too  loose  and  un- 
girt,  exposing  ourselves  to  temptation,  and 
,  others  to  offence,  and  our  name  to  disho- 
nour, and  the  cause  itself  to  reproach,  and 
we  are  open  and  ready  to  every  evil  but 
persecution  :  from  that  we  are  close  enough, 
and  that  alone  we  call  prudence;  but  in  the 
matter  of  interest  we  are  wary  as  serpents, 
subtle  as  foxes,  vigilant  as  the  birds  of  the 
night,  rapacious  as  kites,  tenacious  as  grap- 
pling-hooks  and  the  weightiest  anchors,  and 
'.  above  all,  false  and  hypocritical  as  a  thin 
crust  of  ice  spread  upon  the  face  of  a  deep, 
smooth,  and  dissembling  pit ;  if  you  set  your 
foot,  your  foot  slips,  or  the  ice  breaks,  and  you 
sink  into  death,  and  are  wound  in  a  sheet 
of  water,  descending  into  mischief  or  your 
grave,  suffering  a  great  fall  or  a  sudden 
death,  by  your  confidence  and  unsuspecting 
foot.  There  is  a  universal  crust  of  hypoc- 
risy, that  covers  the  face  of  the  greatest  part 


356 


CHRISTIAN 


SIMPLICITY.         Serm.  XLVIII. 


of  mankiQi .  Their  religion  consists  in  forms 
and  oulsides,  and  serves  reputation  or  a  de- 
sign, but  does  not  serve  God.  Their  pro- 
mises are  but  fair  language,  and  the  civili- 
ties of  the  piazzas  or  exchanges,  and  dis- 
band and  untie  like  the  air  that  beat  upon 
their  teeth,  when  they  spake  the  delicious 
and  hopeful  words.  Their  oaths  are  snares 
to  catch  men,  and  make  them  confident ; 
their  contracts  are  arts  and  stratagems  to 
deceive,  measured  by  profit  and  possibility ; 
and  every  thing  is  lawful  that  is  gainful. 
And  their  friendships  are  trades  of  getting  ; 
and  their  kindness  of  watching  a  dying  friend 
is  but  the  office  of  a  vulture,  the  gaping  for 
a  legacy,  the  spoil  of  the  carcass.  And 
their  siefcnesses  are  many  times  policies  of 
state ;  sometimes  a  design  to  show  the  riches 
of  our  bedchamber.  And  their  funeral  tears 
are  but  the  paranymphs  and  pious  solicitors 
of  a  second  bride.  And  every  thing  that  is 
ugly  must  be  hid,  and  every  thing  that  is 
handsome  must  be  seen  ;  and  that  will  make 
a  fair  cover  for  a  huge  deformity.  And 
therefore  it  is,  as  they  think,  necessary  that 
men  should  always  have  some  pretences 
and  forms,  some  faces  of  religion  or  sweet- 
ness of  language,  confident  affirmatives  or 
bold  oaths,  protracted  treaties  or  multitude 
of  words,  affected  silence  or  grave  deport- 
ment, a  good  name  or  a  good  cause,  a  fair 
relation  or  a  worthy  calling,  great  power  or 
a  pleasant  wit;  any  thing  that  can  be  fair 
or  that  can  be  useful,  any  thing  that  can  do 
good  or  be  thought  good,  we  use  it  to  abuse 
our  brother,  or  promote  our  interest.  Lepo- 
rina  resolved  to  die,  being  troubled  for  her 
husband's  danger ;  and  he  resolved  to  die 
with  her  that  had  so  great  a  kindness  for 
him,  as  not  to  outlive  the  best  of  her  hus- 
band's fortune.  It  was  agreed ;  and  she 
tempered  the  poison,  and  drank  the  face  of 
the  unwholesome  goblet ;  but  the  weighty 
poison  sunk  to  the  bottom,  and  the  easy 
man  drank  it  all  off,  and  died,  and  the 
woman  carried  him  forth  to  funeral ;  and 
after  a  little  illness,  which  she  soon  reco- 
vered, she  entered  upon  the  inheritance,  and 
a  second  marriage. 

Tuta  frequensque  via  est  

It  is  a  usual  and  safe  way  to  cozen,  upon 
colour  of  friendship  or  religion  ;  but  that  is 
hugely  criminal :  to  tell  a  lie  to  abuse  a 
man's  belief,  and  by  it  to  enter  upon  any 
thing  of  his  possession  to  his  injury,  is  a 
perfect  destruction  of  all  human  society, 
the  most  ignoble  of  all  human  follies,  per- 


fectly contrary  to  God,  who  is  truth  itself, 
the  greatest  argument  of  a  timorous  and  a 
base,  a  cowardly  and  a  private  mind,  not  at 
all  honest,  or  confident  to  see  the  sun,  "a 
vice  fit  for  slaves  ;"  wtyeov  xai  SovtortptTtsi, 
as  Dio  Chrysostomus*  calls  it ;  opwv  xac 
oil  ^ptwv  la  hiCkotata  xai  aytvt crttpa  la  txdiu 
^vbtiai  rtavtuv  fidktota,  xai  't%aiiaxa'  "for 
the  most  timorous  and  the  basest  of  the 
beasts  use  craft,"  and  lie  in  wait,  and  take 
their  prey,  and  save  their  lives  by  deceit. 
And  it  is  the  greatest  injury  to  the  abused 
person  in  the  world :  for,  besides  that  it 
abuses  his  interest,  it  also  makes  him  for 
ever  insecure,  and  uneasy  in  his  confidence, 
which  is  the  period  of  cares,  the  rest  of  a 
man's  spirit;  it  makes  it  necessary  for  a 
man  to  be  jealous  and  suspicious,  that  is,  to 
be  troublesome  to  himself  and  every  man 
else:  and  above  all,  lying,  or  craftiness,  and 
unfaithful  usages,  rob  a  man  of  the  honour 
of  his  soul,  making  his  understanding  use- 
less and  in  the  condition  of  a  fool,  spoiled, 
and  dishonoured,  and  despised,  ndoa  ^v%rj 
dxovcsa  (Stspelr'at  Tfrji  ahqdsias,  said  Plato  * 
"  Every  soul  loses  truth  very  unwillingly." 
Every  man  is  so  great  a  lover  of  truth, 
that  if  he  hath  it  not,  he  loves  to  believe  he 
hath,  and  would  fain  have  all  the  world  to 
believe  as  he  does ;  either  presuming  that 
he  hath  truth,  or  else  hating  to  be  deceived, 
or  to  be  esteemed  a  cheated  and  an  abused 
person.  "Non  licet  suffurari  mentem  ho- 
minis  etiam  Samaritani,"  said  R.  Moses  ;f 
"  sed  veritatem  loquere,  atque  age  inge- 
nue :"  "  If  a  man  be  a  Samaritan,  that  is, 
a  hated  person,  a  person  from  whom  you 
differ  in  matter  of  religion,  yet  steal  not  his 
mind  away,  but  speak  truth  to  him  honestly 
and  ingenuously."  A  man's  soul  loves  to 
dwell  in  truth,  it  is  his  resting-place ;  and 
if  you  take  him  from  thence,  you  take  him 
into  strange  regions,  a  place  of  banishment 
and  dishonour.  "  Q,ui  ignotos  loedit,  latro 
appellatur  ;  qui  amicos,  pauld  minus  quam 
parricida  :"  "  He  that  hurts  strangers  is  a 
thief;  but  he  that  hurts  his  friend  is  little 
better  than  a  parracide."  This  is  the  branu 
and  stigma  of  hypocrisy  and  lying  :  it  hurts 
our  friends,  "Mendacium  in  damnum  po- 
tens;"  and  makes  the  man  that  owns  it 
guilty  of  a  crime,  that  is  to  be  punished  by 
the  sorrows  usually  suffered  in  the  most  ex- 
ecrable places  of  the  cities.  But  I  must  re- 
duce the  duty  to  particulars,  and  discover 


*  Dissert.  1.  de  Regno.  t  Can.  Eth 


Serm.  XLVIIT. 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


357 


the  contrary  vice  by  several  parts  of  its  pro-!  world,  and  all  religions  j  it  being  so  easy  in 
portion.  nature.,  so  prepared  and  ready  for  mischiefs, 

1.  The  first  office  of  a  Christian  simplicity  I  that  men  should  creep  into  opportunities 
consists  in  our  religion  and  manners;  that  of  devouring  the  flock,  upon  pretence  of  de- 
they  be  open  and  honest,  public  and  justifi- ;  fendiBg  them,  and  to  raise  their  estates  upon 
able,  the  same  at  home  and  abroad;  for,  colour  of  saving  their  souls, 
besides  the  ingenuity ,  and  honesty  of  this, 

there  is  an  indispensable  and  infinite  neces- 1        Introrsum  turpes,  speciosi  pelle  decora.^ 
shy  it  should  be  so;  because  whoever  is 

a  hypocrite  in  his  religion,  mocks  God,  pre-]  Men  that  are  like  painted  sepulchres,  en- 
senting  to  him  the  outside,  and  reserving  the  j  tertainment  for  the  eye,  but  images  of  death, 
inward  for  his  enemy;  which  is  either  a  chambers  of  rottenness,  and  repositories  of 
denying  God  to  be  the  searcher  of  our|dead  men's  bones.  It  may,  sometimes, 
hearts,  or  else  an  open  defiance  of  his  om- :  concern  a  man  to  seem  religious;  God's 
niscience  and  of  his  justice.  To  provoke  I  glory  maybe  shown  by  fair  appearances,  or 
God  that  we  may  deceive  men ;  to  defy  his 'the  edification  of  our  brother,  or  the  repu- 
almightiness,  that  we  may  abuse  our  bro-  Uation  of  a  cause;  but  this  is  but  sometimes : 
ther ;  is,  to  destroy  all  that  is  sacred,  all  that  but  it  always  concerns  us  that  we  be  reli- 
is  prudent ;  it  is  an  open  hostility  to  all  things  j  gious ;  and  we  may  reasonably  think,  that, 
human  and  Divine,  a  breaking  from  all  the  if  the  colours  of  religion  so  well  do  advan- 
bands  of  all  relations;  and  uses  God  so  tage  to  us,  the  substance  and  reality  would  do 
cheaply,  as  if  he  were  to  be  treated  or  could  it  much  more.  For  no  man  can  have  a  good 
be  cozened  like  a  weak  man,  and  an  undis- 1  by  seeming  religious,  and  another  by  not 
cerning  and  easy  merchant.    But  so  is  the  being  so;  the  power  of  godliness  never  de- 


stroys any  well-built  fabric,  that  was  raised 
upon  the  reputation  of  religion  and  its  pre- 
tences. "Nunquam  est  peccare  utile,  quia 
semper  est  turpe,"  said  Cicero ;  c:  It  is 
never  profitable  to  sin,  because  it  is  al- 
ways base  and  dishonest."  And  if  the  face 
of  religion  could  do  a  good  turn,  which 
It  is  a  craftv  life  that  men  live,  carrying  the  heart  and  substance  does  destroy,  then 


life  of  many  men  : 

Vita  fallax  !  abditos  sensus  gerens, 
Animisque  pulchram  turpibus  faciem  induens 
Pudor  impudentem  celat.  audacem  quies, 
Pietas  nefandum  ;  vera  fallaces  probant ; 
Simulantque  molles  dura. 

SXHBC. 


designs,  and  living  upon  secret  purposes. 
Men  pretend  modesty,  and  under  that  red 
veil  are  bold  against  superiors ;  saucy  to 
their  betters  upon  pretences  of  religion  ;  in- 
vaders of  others'  rights  by  false  proposi- 
tions in  theology  :  pretending  humility,  thev 


religion  itself  were  the  greatest  hypocrite  in 
the  world,  and  promises  a  blessing  which  it 
never  can  perform,  but  must  be  beholden  to 
its  enemy  to  verify  its  promises.  No  :  we 
shall  be  sure  to  feel  the  blessings  of  both  the 
worlds,  if  we  serve  in  the  offices  of  religion, 


challenge  superiority  above  all  orders  of  i  devoutly  and  charitably,  before  men  and  be- 
men ;  and  for  being  thought  more  holy,  fore  God  :  if  we  ask  of  God  things  honest 
think  that  they  have  title  to  govern  the, in  the  sight  of  men,  /j^ta  $*oirj  ti-zoutvoi, 
world  :  they  bear  upon  their  face  great  re-}  (as  Pythagoras  gave  in  precept),  "  praying 
ligion,  and  are  impious  in  their  relations,  to  God  with  a  free  heart  and  a  public 
false  to  their  trust,  unfaithful  to  their  friend, !  prayer,"  and  doing  before  men  things  that 


unkind  to  their  dependants  ;  <%>v$  srirpxots^, 
xai  to  fyamfim  ^Vrwvrfj  iv  rotj  rtfptrtaVot?, 
"  turning  up  the  white  of  their  eye,  and 
seeking  for  reputation  in  the  streets  :"  so 
did  some  of  the  old  hypocrites,  the  gentile 
Pharisees;  "Asperum  cultum,  et  intonsum 


are  truly  pleasing  to  God.  turning  our  heart 
outwards  and  our  face  inwards,  that  is,  con- 
versing with  men  as  in  the  presence  of 
God  ;  and  in  our  private  towards  God,  being 
as  holy  and  devout  as  if  we  prayed  in  pub- 
lic, and  in  the  corners  of  the  streets.  Pliny, 


caput,  nes:li<rentiorem  barbam,  et  nitidum  praising  Ariston.  gave  him  the  title  of  an 
argento  odium,  et  cubile  humi  positum,  et 1  honest  and  hearty  religion:  '*Ornat  hunc 
quicquid  aliud  ambitionem  via  perversa  se-  magnitudo  animi,  quae  nihil  ad  ostentatio- 
quitur;"  being  the  softest  persons  under  an  nem,  omnia  ad  conscientiam  refert;  recle- 
austere  habit,  the  loosest  livers  under  a  con-  que  facti,  non  ex  populi  sermone,  mer- 
tracted  brow,  under  a  pale  face  having  the  cedem.sed  ex  facto  petit."*    And  this  does 

reddest  and  most  sprightly  livers.  This  

kind  of  men  have  abused  all  ages  of  the  I 


*  Lib.  i.  ep.  22. 


358 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY.  Serm.  XLVIII. 


well  state  the  question  of  a  sincere  reli- 
gion, and  an  ingenuous  goodness :  it  re- 
quires that  we  do  nothing  for  ostentation, 
but  every  thing  for  conscience ;  and  we 
may  be  obliged  in  conscience  to  publish 
our  manner  of  lives ;  but  then  it  must  be, 
not  that  we  may  have  a  popular  noise  for 
a  reward,  but  that  God  may  be  glorified  by 
our  public  worshippings,  and  others  edified 
by  our  good  examples. 

Neither  doth  the  sincerity  of  our  religion 
require,  that  we  should  not  conceal  our 
sins  :  for  he  that  sins,  and  dares  to  own 
them  publicly,  may  become  impudent :  and, 
so  long  as  in  modesty  we  desire  our  shame 
should  be  hid,  and  men  to  think  better  of 
us  than  we  deserve,  I  say,  for  no  other  rea- 
son but  either  because  we  would  not  derive 
the  ill  examples  to  others,  or  the  shame  to 
ourselves  ;  we  are  within  the  protection  of 
one  of  virtue's  sisters,  and  we  are  not  far 
from  the  gates  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ; 
easy  and  apt  to  be  invited  in,  and  not  very 
unworthy  to  enter. 

But  if  any  other  principle  draws  the  veil, 
if  we  conceal  our  vices  because  we  would 
be  honoured  for  sanctity,  or  because  we 
would  not  be  hindered  in  our  designs,  we 
serve  the  interest  of  pride  and  ambition,  co- 
vetousness  or  vanity.  If  an  innocent  pur- 
pose hides  the  ulcer,  it  does  half  heal  it; 
but  if  it  retires  into  the  secrecy  of  sin  and 
darkness,  it  turns  into  a  plague,  and  infects 
the  heart,  and  it  dies  infallibly  of  a  double 
exulceration.  The  Macedonian  boy, — that 
kept  the  coal  in  his  flesh,  and  would  not 
shake  his  arm,  lest  he  should  disturb  the 
sacrifice,  or  discompose  the  ministry  before 
Alexander  the  Great, — concealed  his  pain 
to  the  honour  of  patience  and  religion  :  but 
the  Spartan  boy,  who  suffered-  the  little  fox 
to  eat  his  bowels,  rather  than  confess  his 
theft,  when  he  was  in  danger  of  discovery, 
paid  the  price  of  a  bold  hypocrisy;  that  is 
the  dissimulation  reprovable  in  matter  of 
manners,  which  conceals  one  sin  to  make 
way  for  another.  Ol  xai  /autm  ss/xvol  xai  6xv- 
6pu>7toi  fa  tfco  xai  fa  fyftorsia  ^cuVojttfvot,  ei  rtcuSos 
CjpOLOv  rj  yvraxscoj  7.a(3covtaL,  oaa  rtoiovdiv ;  Lucian 
notes  it  of  his  philosophical  hypocrites,  dis- 
semblers in  matter  of  deportment  and  reli- 
gion ;  they  seem  severe  abroad,  but  they 
enter  into  the  vaults  of  harlots,  and  are  not 
ashamed  to  see  a  naked  sin  in  the  midst  of 
its  ugliness  and  undressed  circumstances. 
A  mighty  wrestler,  that  had  won  a  crown 
at  Olympus  for  contending  prosperously 
was  observed  to  turn  his  head  and  go  for- 


ward with  his  face  upon  his  shoulder,  to 
behold  a  fair  woman  that  was  present ;  and 
he  lost  the  glory  of  his  strength,  when  he 
became  so  weak,  that  a  woman  could  turn 
his  head  about,  which  his  adversary  could 
not.  These  are  the  follies  and  weaknesses 
of  man,  and  dishonours  to  religion,  when  a 
man  shall  contend  nobly,  and  do  hand- 
somely, and  then  be  taken  in  a  base  or  dis- 
honourable action,  and  mingle  venom  with 
his  delicious  ointment. 

Quid  ?  quod  olet  gravius  mistum  diapasmate  virus, 
Atque  duplex  animae  longius  exit  odor  ? — Mart. 

When  Fescennia  perfumed  her  breath, 
j  that  she  might  not  smell  of  wine,  she  con- 
!  demned  the  crime  of  drunkenness ;  but  grew 
!  ridiculous,  when  the  wine  broke  through 
I  the  cloud  of  a  tender  perfume,  and  the  breath 
of  a  lozenge.  And  that,  indeed,  is  the  re- 
,  ward  of  an  hypocrite ;  his  laborious  arts  of 
|  concealment  furnish  all  the  world  with  de- 
|  clamation  and  severity  against  the  crime, 
j  which  himself  condemns  with  his  caution, 
j  But  when  his  own  sentence  too  is  prepared 
|  against  the  day  of  his  discovery. 

Notas  ergo  nimis  fraudes  deprensaque  furta 
Jam  tollas,  et  sis  ebria  simpliciter. — Mart. 

A  simple  drunkard  hath  but  one  fault : 
but  they  that  avoid  discovery,  that  they  may 
drink  on  without  shame  or  restraint,  add 
hypocrisy  to  their  vicious  fulness;  and  for 
i  all  the  amazements  of  their  consequent 
discovery,  have  no  other  recompence,  but 
that  they  pleased  themselves  in  the  securi- 
ty of  their  crime,  and  their  undeserved 
reputation. 

Sic,  quae  nigrior  est  cadente  moro, 
Cerussata  sibi  placet  Lycoris. — Mart. 

For  so  the  most  easy  and  deformed  woman, 
whose  girdle  no  foolish  young  man  will 
unloose,  because  "she  is  blacker  than  the 
falling  mulberry,  may  please  herself  under 
a  skin  of  ceruce,"  and  call  herself  fairer  than 
Pharaoh's  daughter,  or  the  hinds  living 

!  upon  the  snowy  mountains. 

One  thing  more  there  is  to  be  added  as  an 

j  instance  to  the  simplicity  of  religion,  and 

j  that  is,  that  we  never  deny  our  religion,  or 
lie  concerning  our  faith,  nor  tell  our  pro- 
positions and  articles  deceitfully,  nor  instruct 

j  novices  or  catechumens  with  fraud ;  but 
that  when  we  teach  them,  we  do  it  honestly, 
justly,  and  severely ;  not  always  to  spea* 
all,  but  never  to  speak  otherwise  than  it 

J  is,  nor  to  hide  a  truth  from  them,  whose 
souls  are  concerned  in  it  that  it  be  known. 


Serm.  XLVIII. 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


359 


"Neque  enim  id  est  celare,  cum  quid 
reticeas ;  sed  cum,  quod  tu  scias,  id  ignorare 
emolumenti  lui  causa  velis  eos,  quorum 
interest  id  scire;"  so  Cicero*  determines  the 
case  of  prudence  and  simplicity.  The  dis- 
covery of  pious  frauds,  and  the  disclaiming 
of  false,  but  profitable  and  rich  propositions  ; 
the  quitting  honours  fraudulently  gotten, 
and  unjustly  detained;  the  reducing  every 
man  to  the  perfect  understanding  of  his  own 
religion,  so  far  as  can  concern  his  duty;  the 
disallowing  false  miracles,  legends,  and 
fabulous  stories,  to  cozen  the  people  into 
awfulness,  fear,  and  superstition ;  these  are 
parts  of  Christian  simplicity,  which  do 
integrate  this  duty.  For  religion  hath 
strengths  enough  of  its  own  to  support  it- 
self; it  needs  not  a  devil  for  its  advocate  ;  it 
is  the  breath  of  God ;  and  as  it  is  purer  than 
the  beams  of  the  morning,  so  it  is  stronger 
than  a  tempest,  or  the  combination  of  all  the 
winds,  though  united  by  the  prince  that 
ruleth  in  the  air.  And  we  find  that  the 
Nicene  faith  prevailed  upon  all  the  world, 
though  some  Arian  bishops  went  from  Ari- 
minum  to  Nice,  and  there  decreed  their  own 
articles,  and  called  it  the  faith  read  at  Nice, 
and  irsed  all  arts,  and  all  violence,  and  all 
lying,  and  diligence,  to  discountenance  it; 
yet  it  could  not  be ;  it  was  the  truth  of  God  : 
and,  therefore,  it  was  stronger  than  all  the 
gates  of  hell,  than  all  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness. And  he  that  tells  a  lie  for  his  religion, 
or  goes  about  by  fraud  and  imposture  to  gain 
proselytes,  either  dares  not  trust  his  cause, 
or  dares  not  trust  his  God.  True  religion 
is  open  in  its  articles,  honest  in  its  prosecu- 
tions, just  in  its  conduct,  innocent  when  it 
is  accused,  ignorant  of  falsehood,  sure  in  its 
truth,  simple  in  its  sayings,  and  (as  Julius 
Capitolinus  said  of  the  emperor  Verus)  it  is 
4<  raorum  simplicium,  et  quae  adumbrare 
nihil  possit :"  it  covers,  indeed,  a  multitude 
of  sins,  by  curing  them,  and  obtaining  par- 
don for  them  ;  but  it  can  dissemble  nothing 
of  itself,  it  cannot  tell  or  do  a  lie :  but  it  can 
become  a  sacrifice ;  a  good  man  can  quit 
his  life,  but  never  his  integrity.  That  is  the 
first  duty  ;  the  sum  of  which  is  that  which 
Aquilius  said  concerning  fraud  and  craft; 
"bona  fides,"  "the  honesty  of  a  man's 
faith  and  religion  is  destroyed,"  "  cum  aliud 
simulatum,  aliud  actum  sit,"  "  when  either 
we  conceal  what  we  ought  to  publish,  or  do 
not  act  what  we  pretend." 
2.  Christian  simplicity,  or  the  innocence 


*  Cic.  lib.  3.  Offic. 


I  of  prudence,  relates  to  laws  both  in  their 
sanction  and  execution ;  that  they  be  decreed 
with  equity,  and  proportioned  to  the  capaci- 

:  ty  and  profit  of  the  subjects,  and  that  they 
be  applied  to  practice  with  remissions  and 
reasonable  interpretations,  agreeable  to  the 

■  sense  of  the  words  and  the  mind  of  the  law- 
I  giver.    But  laws  are  not  to  be  cozened  and 

abused  by  contradictory  glosses  and  fantastic 
allusions ;  as  knowing  that  if  the  majesty 
and  sacredness  of  them  be  once  abused,  and 
.  subjected  to  contempt,  and  unreasonable  and 
:  easv  resolutions,  their  girdle  is  unloosed, 
and  they  suffer  the  shame  of  prostitution 
i  and  contempt.    When  Saul  made  a  law, 
;  that  he  that  did  eat  before  night  should  die. 
the  people  persuaded  him  directly  to  rescind 
it  in  the  case  of  Jonathan  ;  because  it  was 
unequal  and  unjust,   that   he   who  had 
wrought   their   deliverance,  and,  in  that 
,  working,  was  absent  from  the  promulgation 
of  the  law,  should  suffer  for  breaking  it,  in 

■  a  case  of  violent  necessity,  and  of  which  he 
i  heard  nothing,  upon  so  fair  and  probable  a 

cause.  And  it  had  been  well  that  the  Per- 
sian had  been  so  rescued,  who,  against  the 

I  laws  of  his  country,  killed  a  lion  to  save  the 
life  of  his  prince.    In  such  cases  it  is  fit  the 

I  law  be  rescinded  and  dispensed  withal,  as 
to  certain  particulars  ;  so  it  be  done  ingenu- 
ously, with  competent  authority,  in  great 
necessity,  and  without  partiality.  But  that 
which  I  intend  here  is,  that  in  the  rescission 
or  dispensation  of  the  law,  the  process  be 
open  and  free,  and  such  as  shall  preserve 
the  law  and  its  sacredness,  as  well  as  the 
person  and  his  interest.  The  laws  of  Sparta 
forbade  any  man  to  be  twice  admiral :  but, 
when  their  affairs  required  it,  they  made 
Araeus  titular,  and  Lysander  supravisor  of 
him,  and  admiral  to  all  real  and  effective 
purposes  :  this  wanted  ingenuity,  and  laid 
a  way  open  for  them  to  despise  the  law, 
which  was  made  patient  of  such  a  weak 
evasion.  The  Lacedemonian  ambassador 
persuaded  Pericles  to  turn  the  tables  of  the 
law,  which  were  forbidden  to  be  removed  ; 
and  another  ordained  in  a  certain  case,  that 
the  laws  should  sleep  twenty-four  hours;  a 
third  decreed  that  June  should  be  called 
May,  because  the  time  of  an  election  ap- 
pointed by  the  law  was  elapsed.  These 
arts  are  against  the  ingenuity  and  simplicity 

!  of  laws  and  lawgivers,  and  teach  the  people 
to  cheat  in  their  obedience,  when  their 
judges  are  so  fraudulent  in  the  administra- 
tion of  their  laws.  Every  law  should  be 
made  plain,  open,  honest,  and  significant ; 


360  CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY.  Surm.  XLVIII. 


and  he  that  makes  a  decree,  and  intricates  it 
on  purpose,  or  by  ineonsideration  lays  a 
snare  or  leaves  one  there,  is  either  an  im- 
prudent person,  and,  therefore  unfit  to  gov- 
ern, or  else  he  is  a  tyrant  and  a  vulture.  It 
is  too  much  that  a  man  can  make  a  law  by 
an  arbitrary  power.  But  when  he  shall 
also  leave  the  law,  so  that  every  of  the 
ministers  of  justice  and  the  judges  shall  have 
power  to  rule  by  a  loose,  by  an  arbitrary, 
by  a  contradictory  interpretation,  it  is  in- 
tolerable. They  that  rule  by  prudence, 
should,  above  all  things,  see  that  the  patrons 
and  advocates  of  innocence  should  be  harm- 
less^ and  without  an  evil  sting. 

3.  Christian  simplicity  relates  to  promises 
and  acts  of  grace  and  favour;  and  its 
caution  is,  that  all  promises  be  simple,  in- 
genuous, agreeable  to  the  intention  of  the 
promiser,  truly  and  effectually  expressed, 
and  never  going  less  in  the  performance 
than  in  the  promises  and  words  of  the  ex- 
pression ;  concerning  which  the  cases  are 
several.  1.  First,  all  promises  in  which  a 
third  or  a  second  person  hath  no  interest, 
that  is,  the  promises  of  kindness  and  civili- 
ties, are  tied  to  pass  into  performance  <f  se- 
cundum aequum  et  bonum;"  and  though 
they  may  oblige  to  some  small  inconve- 
nience, yet  never  to  a  great  one;  as,  I  will 
visit  you  to-morrow  morning,  because  I 
promised  you,  and,  therefore,  I  will  come, 
"  etiamsi  non  concoxero,"  "  although  I 
have  not  slept  my  full  sleep ;"  but  "  si  febri- 
citavero,"  "  if  I  be  in  a  fever,"  or  have  rea- 
son to  fear  one,  I  am  disobliged.  For  the 
nature  of  such  promises  bears  upon  them 
no  bigger  burden  than  can  be  expounded  by 
reasonable  civilities,  and  the  common  ex- 
pectation of  kind,  and  the  ordinary  perform- 
ances of  just  men,  who  do  excuse  and  are 
excused  respectively  by  all  rules  of  reason 
proportionably  to  such  small  intercourses  ; 
and,  therefore,  although  such  conditions  be 
not  expressed  in  making  promises,  yet  to 
perform  or  rescind  them  by  such  laws  is 
not  against  Christian  simplicity.  2.  Pro- 
mises in  matters  of  justice  or  in  matters  of 
grace,  as  from  a  superior  to  an  inferior, 
must  be  so  singly  and  ingenuously  express- 
ed, intended,  and  performed  accordingly, 
that  no  condition  is  to  be  reserved  or  sup- 
posed in  them  to  warrant  their  non-per- 
formance but  impossibility,  or,  that  which 
is  next  to  it,  an  intolerable  inconvenience  ; 
in  which  cases  we  have  a  natural  liberty 
to  commute  our  promises,  but  so  that  we 
pay  to  the  interested  person  a  good  at  least 


equal  to  that  which  we  first  promised.  And 
to  this  purpose  it  may  be  added,  that  it  is 
not  against  Christian  simplicity  to  express 
our  promises  in  such  words,  which  we  know 
the  interested  man  will  understand  to  other 
purposes  than  I  intend,  so  it  be  not  less  that 
I  mean  than  that  he  hopes  for.  When  our 
blessed  Saviour  told  his  disciples  that  "  they 
should  sit  upon  twelve  thrones,"  they  pre- 
sently thought  they  had  his  bond  for  a  king- 
dom, and  dreamed  of  wealth  and  honour, 
power  and  a  splendid  court ;  and  Christ 
knew  they  did,  but  did  not  disentangle  his 
promise  from  the  enfolded  and  intricate 
sense,  of  which  his  words  were  naturally 
capable;  but  he  performed  his  promise  to 
better  purposes  than  they  hoped  for;  they 
were  presidents  in  the  conduct  of  souls, 
princes  of  God's  people,  the  chief  in  suffer- 
ings, stood  nearest  to  the  cross,  had  an  elder 
brother's  portion  in  the  kingdom  of  grace, 
were  the  founders  of  churches,  and  dispen- 
sers of  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom,  and 
ministers  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  channels 
of  mighty  blessings,  under-mediators  in  the 
priesthood  of  their  Lord,  and  "  their  names 
were  written  in  heaven  :"  and  this  was  in- 
finitely better  than  to  groan  and  wake  under 
a  head  pressed  with  a  golden  crown  and 
pungent  cares,  and  to  eat  alone,  and  to  walk 
in  a  crowd,  and  to  be  vexed  with  all  the  pub- 
lic and  many  of  the  private  evils  of  the  peo- 
ple :  which  is  the  sum  total  of  an  earthly 
kingdom. 

When  God  promised  to  the  obedient,  that 
they  should  live  long  in  the  land  which  he 
would  give  them,  he  meant  it  of  the  land  of 
Canaan,  but  yet  reserved  to  himself  the 
liberty  of  taking  them  quickly  from  that 
land  and  carrying  them  to  a  better.  He 
that  promises  to  lend  me  a  staff  to  walk 
withal,  and  instead  of  that  gives  me  a  horse 
to  carry  me,  hath  not  broken  his  promise 
nor  dealt  deceitfully.  And  this  is  God's 
dealing  with  mankind  ;  he  promises  more 
than  we  could  hope  for ;  and  when  he  hath 
done  that,  he  gives  us  more  than  he  hath 
promised.  God  hath  promised  to  give  to 
them  that  fear  him,  all  that  they  need,  food 
and  raiment ;  but  he  adds,  out  of  the 
treasures  of  his  mercy,  variety  of  food  and 
changes  of  raiment;  some  to  get  strength, 
and  some  to  refresh  ;  something  for  them 
that  are  in  health,  and  some  for  the  sick. 
And  though  tl\e  skins  of  bulls,  and  stags, 
and  foxes,  and  bears,  could  have  drawn  a 
veil  thick  enough  to  hide  the  apertures  of 
sin  and  natural  shame,  and  to  defend  us 


Serm.  XLIX. 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


361 


from  heat  and  cold ;  yet  when  he  addeth 
the  fleeces  of  sheep  and  beavers,  and  the 
spoils  of  silkworms,  he  hath  proclaimed, 
that  although  his  promises  are  the  bounds 
of  our  certain  expectation,  yet  they  are  not 
the  limits  of  his  loving-kindness;  and  if  he 
does  more  than  he  hath  promised,  no  man 
can  complain  that  he  did  otherwise,  and  did 
greater  things  than  he  said.  Thus  God 
does ;  but  therefore  so  also  must  we,  imi- 
tating that  example,  and  transcribing  that 
copy  of  the  Divine  truth,  always  remember- 
ing, that  "  his  promises  are  yea  and  amen." 
And  although  God  often  goes  more,  yet 
he  never  goes  less ;  and  therefore  we  must 
never  go  from  our  promises,  unless  we  be 
thrust  from  thence  by  disability,  or  let  go  by 
leave,  or  called  up  higher  by  a  greater  intend- 
ment and  increase  of  kindness.  And,  there- 
fore, when  Solyman  had  sworn  to  Ibrahim 
Bassa,  that  he  would  never  kill  him  so  long 
as  he  were  alive,  he  quitted  himself  but  ill, 
when  he  sent  an  eunuch  to  cut  his  throat 
when  he  slept,  because  the  priest  told  him 
that  sleep  was  death.  His  act  was  false  and 
deceitful  as  his  great  prophet. 

But  in  this  part  of  simplicity  we  Christians 
have  a  most  special  obligation  :  for  our  re- 
ligion being  ennobled  by  the  most  and  the 
greatest  promises,  and  our  faith  made  con- 
fident by  the  veracity  of  our  Lord,  and  his 
word  made  certain  by  miracles,  and  pro- 
phecies, and  voices  from  heaven,  and  all  the 
testimony  of  God  himself;  and  that  truth  it- 
self is  bound  upon  us  by  the  efficacy  of  great 
endearments  and  so  many  precepts ;  if  we 
shall  suffer  the  faith  of  a  Christian  to  be  an 
instrument  to  deceive  our  brother,  and  that 
he  must  either  be  incredulous  or  deceived, 
uncharitable  or  deluded  like  a  fool,  we  dis- 
honour the  sacredness  of  the  institution,  and 
become  strangers  to  the  spirit  of  truth  and 
to  the  eternal  word  of  God.  Our  blessed 
Lord  would  not  have  his  disciples  to  swear 
at  all, — no,  not  in  public  judicature,  if  the 
necessities  of  the  world  would  permit  him 
to  be  obeyed.  If  Christians  will  live  accord- 
ing to  the  religion,  the  word  of  a  Christian 
were  a  sufficient  instrument  to  give  testi- 
mony, and  to  make  promises,  to  secure  a 
faith  ;  and  upon  that  supposition  oaths  were 
useless,  and,  therefore,  forbidden,  because 
there  could  be  no  necessity  to  invoke  God's ! 
name  in  promises  or  affirmations  if  men  were 
indeed  Christians,  and  therefore,  in  that  case, 
would  be  a  taking  it  in  vain :  but  because 
many  are  not,  and  they  that  are  in  name, 
oftentimes  are  in  nothing  else, — it  became 
46 


|  necessary  that  man  should  swear  in  judg- 
ment and  in  public  couits.  But  consider 
who  it  was  that  invented  and  made  the  ne- 
cessity of  oaths,  of  bonds,  of  securities,  of 
statutes,  extents,  judgments,  and  all  the 
artifices  of  human  diffidence  and  dishonesty. 
These  things  were  indeed  found  out  by  men ; 
but  the  necessity  of  these  was  from  him 
that  is  the  father  of  lies,  from  him  that  hath 
made  many  fair  promises,  but  never  kept 
any  ;  or  if  he  did,  it  was  to  do  a  bigger  mis- 
chief, to  cozen  the  more.  For  so  does  the 
devil :  he  promises  rich  harvests,  and  blasts 
the  corn  in  the  spring ;  he  tells  his  servants 
they  shall  be  rich,  and  fills  them  with  beg- 
garly qualities,  makes  them  base  and  indi- 
gent, greedy  and  penurious;  and  they  that 
serve  him  entirely,  as  witches  and  such 
miserable  persons,  never  can  be  rich  :  if  he 
j  promises  health,  then  men  grow  confident 
'and  intemperate,  and  do  such  things  where- 
by they  shall  die  the  sooner,  and  die  longer ; 
they  shall  die  eternally.  He  deceives  men 
in  their  trust,  and  frustates  their  hopes,  and 
eludes  their  expectations;  and  his  promises 
have  a  period  set,  beyond  which  they  can- 
not be  true;  for  wicked  men  shall  enjoy  a 
fair  fortune  but  till  their  appointed  time,  and 
then  it  ends  in  perfect  and  most  accomplished 
misery :  and  therefore,  even  in  this  per- 
formance, he  deceives  them  most  of  all, 
promising  jewels,  and  performing  coloured 
stones  and  glass  gems,  that  he  may  cozen 
them  of  their  glorious  inheritance.  All 
fraudulent  breakers  of  promises  dress  them- 
selves by  his  glass,  whose  best  imagery  is 
deformity  and  lies. 


SERMON  XLIX. 

PART  II. 

4.  Christian  simplicity  teaches  open- 
ness and  ingenuity  in  contracts,  and  matters 
of  buying  and  selling,  covenants,  associa- 
tions, and  all  such  intercourses,  which  sup- 
pose an  equality  of  persons  as  to  the  mat- 
ter of  right  and  justice  in  the  stipulation. 
Mtrd  trp>  d/yopav  a^sv8nv,  was  the  old  Attic 
law;  and  nothing  is  more  contrary  to  Chris- 
tian religion,  than  that  the  intercourses  of 
justice  be  direct  snares,  and  that  we  should 
deal  with  men  as  men  deal  with  foxes,  and 
wolves,  and  vermin;  do  all  violence:  and 
when  that  cannot  be,  use  all  craft,  and  every 
thing  whereby  they  can  be  made  miserable* 
H  56k<jj  rtk  (3irj,  q  apityabbv  re  xpityrbov. 

2  F 


362 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


-Serm.  XLIX. 


There  are  men  in  the  world  who  love  to 
smile;  but  that  smile  is  more  dangerous 
than  the  furrows  of  a  contracted  brow,  or  a 
storm  in  Adria ;  for  their  purpose  is  only  to 
deceive :  they  easily  speak  what  they  never 
mean;  they  heap  up  many  arguments  to 
persuade  that  to  others  which  themselves 
believe  not;  they  praise  that  vehemently 
which  they  deride  in  their  hearts  ;  they  de- 
claim against  a  thing  which  themselves 
covet ;  they  beg  passionately  for  that  which 
they  value  not,  and  run  from  an  object, 
which  they  would  fain  have  to  follow  and 
overtake  them ;  they  excuse  a  person  dex- 
terously where  the  man  is  beloved,  and 
watch  to  surprise  him  where  he  is  un- 
guarded; they  praise  that  they  may  sell, 
and  disgrace  that  they  may  keep.  And 
these  hypocrisies  are  so  interwoven  and 
embroidered  with  their  whole  design,  that 
some  nations  refuse  to  contract,  till  their 
arts  are  taken  off  by  the  society  of  banquets, 
and  the  good-natured  kindnesses  of  festival 
chalices:  for  so  Tacitus  observes  concern- 
ing the  old  Germans.  "  De  adsciscendis 
principibus,  de  pace  et  bello,  in  conviviis 
consultant;  tanquam  nullo  magis  tempore 
ad  simplices  cogitationes  pateat  animus,  aut 
ad  magnas  incalescat :"  ?'  As  if  then  they 
were  more  simple  when  they  were  most 
valiant,  and  were  least  deceitful  when  they 
were  least  themselves." 

But  it  is  an  evil  condition,  that  a  man's 
honesty  shall  be  owing  to  his  wine,  and  vir- 
tue must  live  at  the  charge  and  will  of  a 
vice.  The  proper  band  of  societies  and 
contracts  is  justice  and  necessities,  religion 
and  the  laws  ;  the  measures  of  it  are  equity, 
and  ourselves,  and  our  own  desires  in  the 
days  of  our  need,  natural  or  forced  :  but 
the  instruments  of  the  exchange  and  con- 
veyance of  the  whole  intercourse  is  words 
and  actions,  as  they  are  expounded  by  cus- 
tom, consent,  or  understanding  of  the  in- 
terested person,  in  which,  if  simplicity  be 
not  severely  preserved,  it  is  impossible  that 
human  society  can  subsist,  but  men  shall  be 
forced  to  snatch  at  what  they  have  bought, 
and  take  securities  that  men  swear  truly, 
and  exact  an  oath  that  such  is  the  meaning 
of  the  word ;  and  no  man  shall  think  him- 
self secure,  but  shall  fear  he  is  robbed,  if  he 
has  not  possession  first;  and  it  shall  be  dis- 
puted who  shall  trust  the  other,  and  neither 
of  them  shad  have  cause  to  be  confident 
upon  bands,  or  oaths,  or  witnesses,  or  pro- 
mises, or  all  the  honour  of  men,  or  all  the 
engagements  of  religion    Ovo«$  yap  av  rrt 


7tio-ttv(Scu  hiivavto  ifuv,  otS'  £t  rtdw  TtpoOv/xttto, 
LBd>v  a^ixovfjLsvop  tov  fidkiata  fyivla.  rL^oGr^wto,, 
said  Cyrus  in  Xenophon  :*  A  man,  though 
he  desires  it,  cannot  be  confident  of  the  man 
that  pretends  ;xuth,  yet  tells  a  Jie,  and  is 
deprehended  to  have  made  use  of  the  sacred 
name  of  friendship  or  religion,  honesty  or 
reputation,  to  deceive  his  brother. 

But  because  a  man  may  be  deceived  by 
deeds  and  open  actions  as  well  as  words, 
therefore  it  concerns  their  duty,  that  no  man 
by  an  action  on  purpose  done  to  make  his 
brother  believe  a  lie,  abuse  his  persuasion 
and  his  interest.  When  Pythius,t  the  Sici- 
lian, had  a  mind  to  sell  his  garden  to  Ca- 
nius,  he  invited  him  thither,  and  caused 
fishermen,  as  if  by  custom,  to  fish  in  the 
channel  by  which  the  garden  stood,  and  they 
threw  great  store  of  fish  into  their  arbours, 
and  made  Canius  believe  it  was  so  every 
day ;  and  the  man  grew  greedy  of  that 
place  of  pleasure,  and  gave  Pythius  a  double 
price,  and  the  next  day  perceived  himself 
abused.  Actions  of  pretence  and  simula- 
tion are  like  snares  laid,  into  which  the 
beasts  fall  though  you  pursue  them  not,  but 
walk  in  the  inquiry  for  their  necessary  pro- 
visions :  and  if  a  man  fall  into  a  snare  that 
you  have  laid,  it  is  bo  excuse  to  say,  you 
did  not  tempt  him  thither.  To  lay  a  snare 
is  against  the  ingenuity  of  a  good  man  and 
a  Christian,  and  from  thence  he  ought  to  be 
drawn  ;  and,  therefore,  it  is  not  fit  we  should 
place  a  danger,  which  ourselves  are  there- 
fore bound  to  hinder,  because  from  thence 
we  are  obliged  to  rescue  him.  "  Vir  bonus 
est,  qui  prodest  quibus  potest,  nocet  ne- 
mini:"  "When  we  do  all  the  good  we 
can,  and  do  an  evil  to  no  man,  then  only 
we  are  accounted  good  men."  But  this 
pretence  of  an  action  signifying  otherwise 
than  it  looks  for,  is  only  forbidden  in  mat- 
ter of  contract,  and  the  material  interest  of 
a  second  person.  But  when  actions  are  of 
a  double  signification,  or  when  a  man  is  not 
abused  or  defeated  of  his  right  by  an  uncer- 
tain sign,  it  is  lawful  to  do  a  thing  to  other 
purposes  than  is  commonly  understood. 
Flight  is  a  sign  of  fear;  but  it  is  lawful  to 
fly  when  a  man  fears  not.  Circumcision 
was  the  seal  of  the  Jewish  religion  ;  and 
yet  St.  Paul  circumcised  Timothy,  though 
he  intended  he  should  live  like  the  gentile 
Christians,  and  "  not  as  do  the  Jews."  But 
because  that  rite  did  signify  more  things  be- 
sides that  one,  he  only  did  it  to  represent 


*  Lib.  8.  Iristit. 


t  Cicero. 


Serm.  XLIX. 


CHRISTIAN 


SIMPLICITY. 


363 


that  he  was  no  enemy  of  Moses's  law,  but 
would  use  it  when  there  was  just  reason, 
which  was  one  part  of  the  things  which  the 
using  of  circumcision  could  signify.  So  our 
blessed  Saviour  pretended  that  he  would 
pass  forth  beyond  Emmaus;  but  if  he  in- 
tended not  to  do  it,  yet  he  did  no  injury  to 
the  two  disciples,  for  whose  good  it  was 
that  he  intended  to  make  this  offer :  and 
neither  did  he  prevaricate  the  strictness  of 
simplicity  and  sincerity,  because  they  were 
persons  with  whom  he  had  made  no  con- 
tracts, to  whom  he  had  passed  no  obliga- 
tion :  and  in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  it  is 
proper  and  natural,  by  an  offer  to  give  an 
occasion  to  another  to  do  a  good  action; 
and  in  case  it  succeeds  not,  then  to  do  what 
we  intended  not ;  and  so  the  offer  was  con- 
ditional. But  in  all  cases  of  bargaining, 
although  the  actions  of  themselves  may  re- 
ceive naturally  another  sense,  yet  I  am 
bound  to  follow  that  signification  which 
may  not  abuse  my  brother,  or  pollute  my 
own  honesty,  or  snatch  or  rifle  his  interest : 
because  it  can  be  no  ingredient  into  the 
commutation,  if  I  exchange  a  thing  which 
he  understands  not,  and  is,  by  error,  led 
into  this  mistake,  and  I  hold  forth  the  fire, 
and  delude  him,  and  amuse  his  eye ;  for  by 
me  he  is  made  worse. 

But,  secondly,  as  our  actions  must  be  of 
a  sincere  and  determined  signification  in 
contract,  so  must  our  words ;  in  which  the 
rule  of  the  old  Roman  honesty  was  this : 
ft  Uterque  si  ad  eloquendum  venerit,non  plus 
quam  semel  loquetur:"  "Every  one  that 
speaks,  is  to  speak  but  once;"  that  is,  "but 
one  thing,"  because  commonly  that  is  truth ; 
truth  being  but  one,  but  error  and  falsehood 
infinitely  various  and  changeable:  and  we 
shall  seldom  see  a  man  so  stiffened  with  im- 
piety as  to  speak  little  and  seldom,  and  per- 
tinaciously adhere  to  a  single  sense,  and  yet 
liiat  at  first,  and  all  the  way  after,  shall  be 
tt  lie.  Men  use  to  go  about  when  they  tell 
a  lie,  and  devise  circumstances,  and  stand 
off  at  distance,  and  cast  a  cloud  of  words, 
and  intricate  the  whole  affair,  and  cozen 
themselves  first,  and  then  cozen  their  bro- 
ther, while  they  have  minced  the  case  of 
conscience  into  little  particles,  and  swal- 
lowed the  lie  by  crumbs,  so  that  no  one  pas- 
sage of  it  should  rush  against  the  conscience, 
nor  do  hurt,  until  it  is  all  got  into  the  belly, 
and  unites  in  the  effect;  for  by  that  time 
two  men  are  abused,  the  merchant  in  his 
soul,  and  the  contractor  in  his  interest :  and 
this  is  the  certain  effect  of  much  talking 


I  and  little  honesty.  But  he  that  means  ho 
nestly,  must  speak  but  once,  that  is,  one 
truth, — and  hath  leave  tc  vary  within  the 
degrees  of  just  prices  an  1  fair  conditions, 
which  because  they  have  a  latitude,  may  be 
enlarged  or  restrained  according  as  the  mer- 
chant pleases;  save  only  he  must  never 
prevaricate  the  measures  of  equity,  and  the 
proportions  of  reputation,  and  the  public. 
But  in  all  parts  of  this  traffic,  let  our  words 
be  the  signification  of  our  thoughts,  and  our 
thoughts  design  nothing  but  the  advantages 
of  a  permitted  exchange.  In  this  case  the 
severity  is  so  great,  so  exact,  and  so  with- 
out variety  of  case,  that  it  is  not  lawful  for 
a  man  to  tell  a  truth  with  a  collateral  de- 
sign to  cozen  and  abuse;  and,  therefore,  at 
no  hand  can  it  be  permitted  to  lie  or  equi- 
vocate, to  speak  craftily,  or  to  deceive  by 
smoothness,  or  intricacy,  or  long  discourses. 

But  this  precept  of  simplicity  in  matter 
of  contract,  hath  one  step  of  severity  be- 
yond this :  in  matter  of  contract  it  is  not 
lawful  so  much  as  to  conceal  the  secret  and 
undiscernible  faults  of  the  merchandize; 
but  we  must  acknowledge  them,  or  else 
affix  prices  made  diminutive  and  lessened 
to  such  proportions  and  abatements  as  that 
fault  should  make.  "Caveat  emptor"  is  a 
good  caution  for  him  that  buys,  and  it 
secures  the  seller  in  public  judicature,  but 
not  in  court  of  conscience ;  and  the  old  laws 
of  the  Romans  were  as  nice  in  this  affair, 
as  the  conscience  of  a  Christian.  Titus 
Claudius  Centumalus*  was  commanded  by 
the  augurs  to  pull  down  his  house  in  the 
Ccelian  mountain,  because  it  hindered  their 
observation  of  the  flight  of  birds.  He  ex- 
poses his  house  to  sale ;  Publius  Calphur- 
nius  buys  it,  and  is  forced  to  pluck  it  down; 
but  complaining  to  the  judges  he  had  reme- 
dy, because  Claudius  did  not  tell  him  the 
true  state  of  the  inconvenience.  He  that 
sells  a  house  infected  with  the  plague,  or 
haunted  with  evil  spirits,  sells  that  which  is 
not  worth  such  a  price  which  it  might  be 
put  at,  if  it  were  in  health  and  peace ;  and 
therefore  cannot  demand  it,  but  openly  and 
upon  publication  of  the  evil.  To  which 
also  this  is  to  be  added, — That  in  some 
great  faults,  and  such  as  have  danger,  (as 
in  the  cases  now  specified,)  no  diminution 
of  the  price  is  sufficient  to  make  the  mer- 
chant just  and  sincere,  unless  he  tells  the 
appendant  mischief ;  because  to  some  per- 
sons in  many  cases,  and  to  all  persons  in 
some  cases,  it  is  not  at  all  valuable;  and 
*  Cicero. 


364 


CHRISTIAN  S 


IMPLICITY. 


Serm.  XLIX. 


they  would  not  possess  it,  if  they  might,  for 
nothing.  Marcus  Gratidianus  *  bought  a 
house  of  Sergius  Orata,  which  himself  had 
sold  before ;  but  because  Sergius  did  not  de- 
clare the  appendant  vassalage  and  service, 
he  was  recompensed  by  the  judges:  for 
although  it  was  certain  that  Gratidianus 
knew  it,  because  it  had  been  his  own,  yet, 
ft  oportuit  ex  bona  fide  denunciari,"  said  the 
law;  "it  concerned  the  ingenuity  of  a  good 
man  to  have  spoken  it  openly."  In  all 
cases  it  must  be  confessed  in  the  price,  or  in 
the  words  :  but  when  the  evil  may  be  per- 
sonal, and  more  than  matter  of  interest  and 
money,  it  ought  to  be  confessed,  and  then 
the  goods  proscribed,  lest  by  my  act  I  do 
my  neighbour  injury,  and  I  receive  profit  by 
his  damage.  Certain  it  is,  that  ingenuity  is 
the  sweetest  and  easiest  way;  there  is  no 
difficulty  or  case  of  conscience  in  that;  and 
it  can  have  no  objection  in  it,  but  that  possi- 
bly sometimes  we  loose  a  little  advantage, 
which,  it  may  be,  we  may  lawfully  acquire, 
but  still  we  secure  a  quiet  conscience;  and 
if  the  merchandise  be  not  worth  so  much  to 
me,  then  neither  is  it  to  him  ;  if  it  be  to  him, 
it  is  also  to  me ;  and  therefore  I  have  no 
loss,  no  hurt  to  keep  it,  if  it  be  refused. 
But  he  that  secures  his  own  profit,  and  re- 
gards not  the  interest  of  another,  is  more 
greedy  of  a  full  purse  than  of  a  holy  con- 
science, and  prefers  gain  before  justice,  and 
the  wealth  of  his  private  before  the  necessity 
of  public  society  and  commerce, — being  a 
son  of  earth,  whose  centre  is  itself,  without 
relation  to  heaven,  that  moves  upon  ano- 
ther's point,  and  produces  flowers  for  others, 
and  sends  influence  upon  all  the  world,  and 
receives  nothing  in  return  but  a  cloud  of 
perfume,  or  the  smell  of  a  fat  sacrifice. 

God  sent  justice  into  the  world,  that  all 
conditions,  in  their  several  proportions, 
should  be  equal;  and  he  that  receives  a 
good,  should  pay  one ;  and  he  whom  I 
serve,  is  obliged  to  feed  and  to  defend  me 
in  the  same  proportions  as  I  serve;  and 
justice  is  a  relative  term,  and  supposes  two 
persons  obliged ;  and  though  fortunes  are 
unequal,  and  estates  are  in  majority  and 
subordination,  and  men  are  wise  or  foolish, 
honoured  or  despised,  yet  in  the  intercourses 
of  justice  God  hath  made  that  there  is  no 
difference.  And  therefore  it  was  esteemed 
ignoble  to  dismiss  a  servant,  when  corn  was 
dear;  in  dangers  of  shipwreck,  to  throw  out 
an  unprofitable  boy,  and  keep  a  fair  horse ; 


I  or  for  a  wise  man  to  snatch  a  plank  from  a 
drowning  fool ;  or  if  the  master  of  the  ship 
should  challenge  the  board,  upon  which  his 
passenger  swims  for  life ;  or  to  obtrude  false 
monies  upon  others,  which  we  first  took  for 
true,  but  at  last  discover  to  be  false ;  or  not 
to  discover  the  gold,  which  the  merchant 
sold  for  alchymy.  The  reason  of  all  these 
is,  because  the  collateral  advantages  are  not 
at  all  to  be  considered  in  matter  of  rights ; 
and  though  I  am  dearest  to  myself,  as  my 
neighbour  is  to  himself,  yet  it  is  necessary 
that  I  permit  him  to  his  own  advantages,  as 
I  desire  to  be  permitted  to  mine.  Now, 
therefore,  simplicity  and  ingenuity  in  all 
contracts  is  perfectly  and  exactly  necessary, 
because  its  contrary  destroys  that  equality 
which  justice  hath  placed  in  the  affairs  of 
men,  and  makes  all  things  private,  and  makes 
a  man  dearer  to  himself,  and  to  be  preferred 
before  kings,  and  republics,  and  churches ; 
it  destroys  society,  and  it  makes  multi- 
tudes of  men  to  be  but  like  herds  of  beasts, 
without  proper  instruments  of  exchange, 
and  securities  of  possession ;  without  faith, 
and  without  propriety ;  concerning  all  which 
there  is  no  other  account  to  be  given,  but 
that  the  rewards  of  craft  are  but  a  little 
money,  and  a  great  deal  of  dishonour,  and 
much  suspicion,  and  proportionable  scorn; 
watches  and  guards,  spies  and  jealousies, 
are  his  portion.  But  the  crown  of  justice 
is  a  fair  life,  and  a  clear  reputation,  and  an 
inheritance  there  where  justice  dwells  since 
she  left  the  earth,  even  "  in  the  kingdom  of 
the  just,"  who  shall  call  us  to  "judgment 
for  every  word,  and  render  to  every  man 
according  to  his  works."  And  what  is  the 
hope  of  the  hypocrite,  though  he  hath  gain- 
ed, when  the  Lord  taketh  away  his  soul? 
"Tollendum  esse  ex  rebus  contrahendis 
omne  mendacium  ;  *  that  is  the  sum  of  this 
rule.  "  No  falsehood  or  deceit  is  to  be  en- 
dured in  any  contract." 

5.  Christian  simplicity  hath  also  its  neces- 
sity, and  passes  obligation  upon  us  towards 
enemies,  in  questions  of  law  or  war.  Plu- 
tarch commends  Lysanderand  Philopcemen 
for  their  craft  and  subtlety  in  war ;  but  com- 
mends it  not  as  an  ornament  to  their  man- 
ners, but  that  which  had  influence  into 
prosperous  events:  just  as  Ammianus  af- 
firms, "  Nullo  discrimine  virtutis  ac  doli, 
prosperos  omnes  laudari  debere  bellorum 
eventus:"  "  whatsoever  in  war  is  prosper- 
ous, men  use  to  commend."    But  he  that 


*  Cicero. 


*  Cicero. 


Serm.  XLIX. 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY 


365 


is  a  good  soldier,  is  not  always  a  good  man. 
Callicratidas  was  a  good  man,  and  followed 
the  old  way  of  downright  hostility,  axxovv 
xai  ytvvalov  tuv  qyt/xovw  tporiov.  But  Lysan- 
der  was  rCavovpyo^,  xai  aotyicstris  arta^at?  8ia- 
rtoixiM*>v  ta  tov  rtotefiov,  Ci  a  crafty  man,  full 
of  plots,  but  not  noble  in  the  conduct  of  his 
arms."*  I  remember  Euripides  brings  in 
Achilles,  commending  the  ingenuity  of  his 
breeding,  and  the  simplicity  and  nobleness 
of  his  own  heart : 

Eyu>  6  if  di-Spoj  svat&EOtdtov  rpa^ftj, 
Xfopcows,  tfiaOov  toi)$  tport.ov$  ariTuov  s%£cv' 

"  The  good  old  man,.  Chiron,  was  my  tutor, 
and  he  taught  me  to  use  simplicity  and 
honesty  in  all  my  manners. "f  It  was  well 
and  noble. — But  yet  some  wise  men  do  not 
condemn  all  soldiers,  that  use  to  get  victo- 
ries by  deceit:  St.  Austin  allows  it  to  be 
lawful;  and  St.  Chrysostom  commends  it4 
These  good  men  supposed  that  a  crafty  vic- 
tory was  better  than  a  bloody  war;  and  cer- 
tainly so  it  is,  if  the  power  gotten  by  craft 
be  not  exercised  in  blood.  But  this  busi- 
ness, as  to  the  case  of  conscience,  will 
quickly  be  determined.  Enemies  are  no 
persons  bound  by  contract  and  society,  and 
therefore  are  not  obliged  to  open  hostilities 
and  ingenuous  prosecutions  of  the  war;  and 
if  it  be  lawful  to  take  by  violence,  it  is  not 
unjust  to  take  the  same  thing  by  craft.  But 
this  is  so  to  be  understood,  that,  where  there 
is  an  obligation,  either  by  the  law  of  nations 
or  by  special  contracts,  no  man  dare  to  vio- 
late his  faith  or  honour,  but  in  these  things 
deal  with  an  ingenuity  equal  to  the  truth  of 
peaceful  promises,  and  acts  of  favour,  and 
endearment  to  our  relatives.  Josephus  tells 
of  the  sons  of  Herod,  that  in  their  enmities 
with  their  uncle  Pheroras,  and  Salome,  they 
had  disagreeing  manners  of  prosecution,  as 
they  had  disagreeing  hearts  :§  some  railed 
openly,  and  thought  their  enmity  the  more 
honest,  because  it  was  not  concealed;  but, 
by  the  ignorance  and  rude  untutored  malice, 
lay  open  to  the  close  designs  of  the  elder 
brood  of  foxes.  In  this,  because  it  was  a 
particular  and  private  quarrel,  there  is  no 
rule  of  conscience,  but  that  it  be  wholly 
laid  aside,  and  appeased  with  charity ;  for 
the  openness  of  the  quarrel  was  but  the  rage 
and  indiscretion  of  the  malice ;  and  the  close 
design  was  but  tne  craft  and  advantage  of 

*  In  Lysand.         t  Iphig.  in  Aul. 
1  Quae  JO.  super  Joshuam,  lib.  i.  de  Sacerdotio. 
§  Hist.  lib.  xvi.  c.  6. 


the  malice.  But  in  just  wars,  on  that  side 
where  a  competent  authority,  and  a  just 
cause,  warrants  the  arms,  and  turns  the 
active  opposition  into  the  excuse  and  license 
of  defence,  there  is  no  restraint  upon  the 
actions  and  words  of  men  in  the  matter  of 
sincerity,  but  that  the  laws  of  nations  be 
strictly  pursued,  and  all  parties,  promises, 
and  contracts,  observed  religiously,  and  by 
the  proportion  of  a  private  and  Christian 
ingenuity.  We  find  it  by  wise  and  good 
men  mentioned,  with  honour,  that  the  Ro- 
mans threw  bread  from  the  besieged  capitol 
into  the  stations  of  the  Gauls,  that  they 
might  think  them  full  of  corn ;  and  that 
Agesilaus  discouraged  the  enemies,  by  caus- 
ing his  own  men  to  wear  crowns,  in  token 
of  a  naval  victory  gotten  by  Pisander,  who 
yet  was  at  that  time  destroyed  by  Conon ; 
and  that  Flaccus  said  the  city  was  taken  by 
iEmilius;  and  that  Joshua  dissembled  a 
flight  at  Ai;  and  the  consul,  Quinctius,  told 
aloud  that  the  left  wing  of  the  enemies  was 
fled,  and  that  made  the  right  wing  fly ;  and 
that  Valerius  Laevinus  bragged  prudently 
that  he  had  killed  Pyrrhus  ;  and  that  others 
use  the  ensigns  of  enemies'  colours  and  gar- 
ments. Concerning  which  sort  of  actions 
and  words,  Agesilaus,  in  Plutarch,  said,  ov 
povov  to  blxaiov,  aTJKa  xai  §6|a  rtoXto},  xai  to 
jiwtf1  qSovfjs  xtpSaivsw  hsoti,  "It  is  just  and 
pleasant,  profitable  and  glorious."  But  to 
call  a  parley,  and  fall  in  upon  the  men  that 
treat;  to  swear  a  peace,  and  watch  advan- 
tage ;  to  entertain  heralds,  and  then  to  torment 
them,  to  get  from  them  notices  of  their 
party;  these  are  such  actions  which  are 
dishonourable  and  unjust,  condemned  by 
the  laws  of  nations,  and  essential  justice, 
and  by  all  the  world.  And  the  Hungarian 
army  was  destroyed  by  a  Divine  judgment, 
at  the  prayer  and  appeal  of  the  Mahometan 
enemy,  for  their  violating  their  faith  and 
honour,  and  profaning  the  name  of  Christ, 
by  using  it  in  a  solemn  oath  to  deceive  their 
enemies  :  T6  fxiv  07tsiodi.isvov  oSlxsIv,  tCjv  ®£u>v 
iatv  xataQpoveiv-  "  This  is  to  despise  God, 
when  men  first  swear  by  him,  and  then  vio- 
late their  oaths  or  leagues,  their  treaties  or 
promises."  In  other  cases  liberty  hath  been 
taken  by  all  men,  and  it  is  reproved  by  no 
man,  since  the  first  simplicity  of  fighting 
and  downright  blows  did  cease,  by  the  better 
instructed  people  of  the  world,  which  was, 
as  is  usually  computed,  about  the  end  of 
the  second  Carthagenian  war.  Since  that 
time,  some  few  persons  have  been  found  so 
noble  as  to  scorn  to  steal  a  victory,  but  had 
2p2 


366 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


Serm.  XLIX. 


rather  have  the  gfary  of  a  sharp  sword  than 
of  a  sharp  wit. 

But  their  fighting-gallantry  is  extrinsical 
to  the  question  of  lawful  or  unlawful. 

6.  Thus  we  see  how  far  the  laws  of  inge- 
nuity and  Christian  simplicity  have  put  fet- 
ters upon  our  words  and  actions,  and  directed 
them  in  the  paths  of  truth  and  nobleness  : 
and  the  first  degrees  of  permission  of  simu- 
lation are  in  the  arts  of  war,  and  in  the  cases 
of  just  hostility.  But  here  it  is  usually  in- 
quired, Whether  it  be  lawful  to  tell  a  lie  or 
dissemble,  to  save  a  good  man's  life,  or  to  do 
him  a  great  benefit? — a  question  which  St. 
Austin  was  much  troubled  withal,  affirming 
it  to  be  of  the  greatest  difficulty ;  for  he  saw, 
generally,  all  the  doctors  before  his  time 
allowed  it  3  and  of  all  the  fathers,  no  man 
is  noted  to  have  reproved  it  but  St.  Austin 
alone,  and  he  also,  as  his  manner  is,  with 
some  variety :  those  which  followed  him 
are  to  be  accounted  upon  his  score.  A  ad  it 
relies  upon  such  precedents,  which  are  not 
lightly  to  be  disallowed.  For  so  Abraham 
and  Isaac  told  a  lie,  in  the  case  of  their  own 
danger,  to  Abimelech ;  so  did  the  Israelitish 
midwives  to  Pharaoh ;  and  Rahab,  concern- 
ing the  spies,  and  David  to  the  king  of  Gath, 
and  the  prophet  that  anointed  Saul,  and 
Elisha  to  Hazael,  and  Solomon  in  the  sen- 
tence of  the  stolen  child;  concerning  which 
Irenasus  hath  given  us  a  rule,  That  those 
whose  actions  the  Scripture  hath  remarked, 
and  yet  not  chastised  or  censured,  we  are 
not,  without  great  reason  and  certain  rule, 
to  condemn.  But  whether  his  rule  can  ex- 
tend to  this  case,  is  now  to  be  inquired. 

1.  It  is  certain  that  children  may  be 
cozened  into  goodness,  and  sick  men  to 
health,  and  passengers  in  a  storm  into 
safety  ;  and  the  reason  of  these  is, — because 
not  only  the  end  is  fair,  and  charitable,  and 
just,  but  the  means  are  such  which  do  no 
injury  to  the  persons  which  are  to  receive 
benefit ;  because  there  are  persons  who  are, 
either  naturally  or  accidentally,  ignorant 
and  incompetent  judges  of  affairs:  and  if 
they  be  also  wilful,  as  such  persons  most 
commonly  are,  there  is  in  art  and  nature 
left  no  way  to  deal  with  them,  but  with 
innocent,  charitable,  and  artificial  decep- 
tions ;  they  are  not  capable  of  reason  and 
solid  discourses,  and  therefore  either  must 
be  exposed  to  all  harms,  like  lions'  whelps, 
when  their  nurse  and  sire  are  taken  in  a 
toil,  or  else  be  provided  for  in  ways  propor- 
tionable to  their  capacity. 


2.  Sinners  may  not  be  treated  with  the 
liberty  we  take  to  children  and  sick  persons, 
because  they  must  serve  God  with  choice 
and  election  ;  and  therefore,  although  a  sick 
man  may  be  cozened  into  his  health,  yet  a 
man  must  not  be  cozened  into  his  duty  ; 
which  is  no  duty  at  all,  or  pleasing  to  God, 
unless  it  be  voluntary  and  chosen;  and 
therefore  they  are  to  be  treated  with  argu- 
ments proper  to  move  their  wills,  by  the 
instrument  of  understanding  specially,  being 
persons  of  perfect  faculties,  and  apt  to  be 
moved  by  the  ways  of  health  and  of  a  man. 
It  is  an  argument  of  infirmity,  that  in  some 
cases  it  is  necessary  to  make  pretences ;  but 
those  pretences  are  not  made  legitimate, 
unless  it  be  by  the  infirmity  of  the  interested 
man  with  whom  we  do  comply.  My  infir- 
mity cannot  make  it  lawful  to  make  colours 
and  images  of  things ;  but  the  infirmity  of 
him  with  whom  I  deal  may  be  such,  that 
he  can  be  defended  or  instructed  no  other 
way.  But  sinners  that  offend  God  by  choice, 
must  have  their  choice  corrected,  and  their 
understandings  instructed,  or  else  their  evil 
is  not  cured,  nor  their  state  amended. 

3.  For  it  is  here  very  observable,  that  in 
intercourses  of  this  nature  we  are  to  regard 
a  double  duty — the  matter  of  justice,  and 
the  rights  of  charity  ;  that  is,  that  good 
be  done  by  lawful  instruments :  for  it  is 
certain  it  is  not  lawful  to  abuse  a  man's 
understanding,  with  a  purpose  to  gain  him 
sixpence ;  it  is  not  fit  to  do  evil  for  a  good 
end,  or  to  abuse  one  man  to  preserve  or  do 
advantage  to  another.  And  therefore  it  is 
not  sufficient  that  I  intend  to  do  good  to  my 
neighbour  ;  for  I  may  not  therefore  tell  a  lie 
and  abuse  his  credulity,  because  his  under- 
standing hath  a  right  as  certain  as  his  will 
hath,  or  as  his  money  ;  and  his  right  to  truth 
is  no  more  to  be  cozened  and  defrauded,  than 
his  right  unto  his  money.  And  therefore  such 
artificial  intercourses  are  nowise  to  be  per- 
mitted, but  to  such  persons  over  whose  under- 
standings we  have  power  and  authority. — 
Plato  said  it  was  lawful  for  kings  and  govern- 
ors to  dissemble,  because  there  is  great  neces- 
sity for  them  so  to  do  ;  but  it  was  but  crudely 
said,  so  nakedly  to  deliver  the  doctrine  :  for 
in  such  things,  which  the  people  cannot 
understand  and  yet  ought  to  obey,  there  is 
a  liberty  to  use  them  as  we  use  children, 
who  are  of  no  other  condition  or  capacities 
than  children  ;  but  in  all  things  where  they 
can  and  ought  to  choose,  because  their 
understanding  is  only  a  servant  to  God,  no 


Serm.  XLIX. 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


367 


man  hath  power  to  abuse  their  credulity 
and  reason,  to  preserve  their  estates  and 
peace.  But  because  children,  and  mad 
people,  and  diseased,  are  such  whose  un- 
derstandings are  in  minority  and  under  tui- 
tion, they  are  to  be  governed  by  their  proper 
instruments  and  proportions  :  To  yap  ayoBbv 
xptittov  ioti  trfi  a%r(9eiai,  said  Proclus ;  "  A 
good  turn  is  to  be  preferred  before  a  true 
saying."  It  is  only  true  to  such  persons 
who  cannot  value  truth,  and  prefer  an  in- 
tellectual before  a  material  interest.  It  is 
better  for  children  to  have  warm  clothes 
than  a  true  proposition,  and  therefore,  in  all 
senses,  they  and  their  like  may  be  so  treat- 
ed; but  other  persons,  who  have  distinct 
capacities,  have  an  injury  done  them  by 
being  abused  into  advantages;  and  although 
those  advantages  make  them  recompence, 
yet  he  that  is  tied  to  make  a  man  recom- 
pence, hath  done  him  injury,  and  com- 
mitted a  sin,  by  which  he  was  obliged  to 
restitution  :  and  therefore  the  man  ought 
not  to  be  cozened  for  his  own  good. 

4.  And  now,  upon  the  grounds  of  this 
discourse,  we  may  more  easily  determine 
concerning  saving  the  life  of  a  man  by  tell- 
ing a  lie  in  judgment.  Aft  fit  av/xTtpdttsiv 
t «f  aitots,  dxxd  jus'^pt  Ssuv,  said  Pericles  of 
Athens,  when  his  friend  desired  him  to 
swear  on  his  side;  "1  will  assist  my  friend, 
so  far  as  I  may  not  dishonour  God."  And 
to  lie  in  judgment  is  directly  against  the 
being  of  government,  the  honour  of  tribunals, 
and  the  commandment  of  God ;  and  there- 
fore by  no  accident  can  be  hallowed ;  it  is 
xo.9'  avto  fyavl.ov  xal  -\txtbv  as  Aristotle  said 
of  a  lie,  it  is  "a  thing  evil  in  itself;"  that  is, 
it  is  evil  in  the  whole  kind,  ever  since  it 
came  to  be  forbidden  by  God.  And  there- 
fore all  those  instances  of  crafty  and  delu- 
sive answers  which  are  recorded  in  Scrip- 
ture, were  extra-judicial,  and  had  not  this 
load  upon  them,  to  be  deceiving  of  autho- 
rity in  those  things  where  they  had  right  to 
command  or  inquire,  and  either  were  before 
or  besides  the  commandment,  not  at  all 
against  it.  And  since  the  law  of  Moses 
forbade  "lying  in  judgment"  only,  by  that 
law  we  are  to  judge  of  those  actions  in  the 
Old  Testament,  which  were  committed  after 
its  publication  :  and  because  in  the  sermons 
of  the  prophets,  and  especially  in  the  New 
Testament,  Christ  hath  superadded  or  en- 
larged the  law  of  ingenuity  and  hearty  sim- 
plicity, we  are  to  leave  the  old  Scripture 
precedents  upon  the  ground  of  their  own 
permissions,  and  finish  our  duty  by  the 


rules  of  our  religion:  which  hath  so  re- 
strained our  words,  that  they  must  always 
be  just,  and  always  charitable ;  and  there  is 
no  leave  given  to  prevaricate,  but  to  such 
persons  where  there  can  be  no  obligation, 
persons  that  have  no  right,  such  with 
whom  no  contract  can  be  made,  such  as 
children,  and  fools,  ana  infirm  persons, 
whose  faculties  are  hindered  or  depraved. 
I  remember  that  Secundus  extremely  com- 
mends Arria  for  deluding  her  husband's 
fears  concerning  the  death  of  his  beloved 
boy.  She  wiped  her  eyes,  and  came  in 
confidently,  and  sat  by  her  husband's  bed- 
side; and  when  she  could  no  longer  forbear 
to  weep,  her  husband's  sickness  was  excuse 
enough  to  legitimate  that  sorrow,  or  else 
she  could  retire ;  but  so  long  she  forbore  to 
confess  the  boy's  death,  till  Ceecinna  Pectus 
had  so  far  recovered,  that  he  could  go  forth 
to  see  the  boy,  and  need  not  fear  with  sor- 
row to  return  to  his  disease.  It  was,  indeed, 
a  great  kindness  and  rare  prudence,  as  their 
affairs  and  laws  were  ordered;  but  we  have 
better  means  to  cure  our  sick;  our  religion 
can  charm  the  passion,  and  enable  the  spirit 
to  entertain  and  master  a  sorrow.  And 
when  we  have  such  rare  supplies  out  of 
the  storehouses  of  reason  and  religion,  we 
have  less  reason  to  use  these  arts  and  little 
devices,  which  are  arguments  of  an  infir- 
mity as  great  as  is  the  charity;  and  there- 
fore we  are  to  keep  ourselves  strictly  to  the 
foregoing  measures.  "  Let  every  man  speak 
the  truth  to  his  neighbour,  putting  away 
lying,  for  we  are  members  one  of  another  ;"* 
and,  "Be  as  harmless  as  doves,"  saith  our 
blessed  Saviour  in  my  text ;  which  contain 
the  whole  duty  concerning  the  matter  of 
truth  and  sincerity.  In  both  which  places, 
truth  and  simplicity  are  founded  upon  jus- 
'tice,  and  charity;  and,  therefore,  where- 
ever  a  lie  is  in  any  sense  against  justice, 
and  wrongs  any  man  of  a  thing,  his 
judgment  and  his  reason,  his  right  or  his 
liberty,  it  is  expressly  forbidden  in  the 
Christian  religion.  What  cases  we  can 
truly  suppose  to  be  besides  these,  the  law 
forbids  not ;  and  therefore  it  is  lawful  to 
say  that  to  myself  which  I  believe  not,  for 
what  innocent  purpose  I  please,  and  to  all 
those  over  whose  understanding  I  have,  or 
ought  to  have,  right. 

These  cases  are  intricate  enough  ;  and 
therefore  I  shall  return  plainly  to  press  the 
doctrine  of  simplicity,  which  ought  to  be  so 

*  Ephes.  iv.  25. 


368 


CHRISTIAN  SIMPLICITY. 


Serm.  XLIX. 


sacred,  that  a  man  ought  to  do  nothing  in- 
directly, which  it  is  not  lawful  to  own  ;  to 
receive  no  advantage  by  the  sin  of  another, 
which  I  should  account  dishonest,  if  the 
action  were  my  own ;  for  whatsoever  dis- 
putes may  be  concerning  the  lawfulness  of 
pretending  craftily  in  some  rare  and  contin- 
gent cases,  yet  it  is  on  all  hands  condemned, 
that  my  craft  should  do  injury  to  my  bro- 
ther. I  remember,  that  when  some  greedy 
and  indigent  people  forged  a  will  of  Lucius 
Minutius  Basilius,  and  joined  M.  Crassus 
and  Q,.  Hortensius  in  the  inheritance,  that 
their  power  for  their  own  interest  might 
secure  the  others'  share  ;  they  suspecting 
the  thing  to  be  a  forgery,  yet  being  not 
principals  and  actors  in  the  contrivance, 
"alieni  facinoris  munusculum  non  repudia- 
verunt,"  "  refused  not  to  receive  a  present 
made  them  by  another's  crime  but  so  they 
entered  upon  a  moiety  of  the  estate,  and  the 
biggest  share  of  the  dishonour.  We  must 
not  be  crafty  to  another's  injury,  so  much 
as  by  giving  countenance  to  the  wrong ;  for 
tortoises  and  the  ostrich  hatch  their  eggs 
with  their  looks  only ;  and  some  have  de- 
signs which  a  dissembling  face,  or  an  acted 
gesture,  can  produce :  but  as  a  man  may 
commit  adultery  with  his  eye,  so  with  his 
eye  also  he  may  tell  a  lie,  and  steal  with 
one  finger,  and  do  injury  collaterally,  and 
yet  design  it  with  a  direct  intuition,  upon 
which  he  looks  with  his  face  over  his 
shoulder;  and  by  whatsoever  instrument 
my  neighbour  may  be  abused,  by  the  same 
instrument  I  sin,  if  I  do  design  it  antece- 
dently, or  fall  upon  it  together  with  some- 
thing else,  or  rejoice  in  it  when  it  is  done. 

7.  One  thing  more  I  am  to  add,  that  it  is 
not  lawful  to  tell  a  lie  in  jest.  It  was  a 
virtue  noted  in  Aristides  and  Epaminondas, 
that  they  would  not  lie,  <n>S'  sv  TtatStaj  twl 
fpo?t9,  "not  in  sport."  And  as  Christian 
simplicity  forbids  all  lying  in  matter  of  inte- 
rest and  serious  rights ;  so  there  is  an 
appendix  to  this  precept,  forbidding  to  lie 
in  mirth ;  for  "  of  every  idle  word  a  man 
shall  speak,  he  shall  give  account  in  the 
day  of  judgment."  And  such  are  the  "  jest- 
ings"  which  St.  Paul  reckons  amongst 
"things  uncomely."  But  among  these, 
fables,  apologues,  parables,  or  figures  of 


rhetoric,  and  any  artificial  instrument  of 
instruction  or  innocent  pleasure,  are  not  to 
be  reckoned.  But  he  that,  without  any  end 
of  charity  or  institution,  shall  tell  lies  only 
to  become  ridiculous  in  himself,  or  mock 
another,  hath  set  something  upon  his 
doomsday  book,  which  must  be  taken  off 
by  water  or  by  fire,  that  is,  by  repentance 
or  a  judgment. 

Nothing  is  easier  than  simplicity  and  in- 
genuity ;  it  is  open  and  ready  without 
trouble  and  artificial  cares,  fit  for  communi- 
ties and  the  proper  virtue  of  men,  the  ne- 
cessary appendage  of  useful  speech,  with- 
out which  language  were  given  to  man  as 
nails  and  teeth  to  lions,  for  nothing  but  to 
do  mischief.  It  is  a  rare  instrument  of  in- 
stitution, and  a  certain  token  of  courage  ,, 
the  companion  of  goodness  and  a  noble 
mind  ;  the  preserver  of  friendship,  the  band 
of  society,  the  security  of  merchants,  and 
the  blessing  of  trade ;  it  prevents  infinite 
of  quarrels,  and  appeals  to  judges,  and 
suffers  none  of  the  evils  of  jealousy.  Men, 
by  simplicity,  converse  as  do  the  angels  ; 
they  do  their  own  work,  and  secure  their  pro- 
per interest,  and  serve  the  public,  and  do  glory 
to  God.  But  hypocrites,  and  liars,  and  dis- 
semblers, spread  darkness  over  the  face  of 
affairs,  and  make  men  like  the  blind,  to  walk 
softly  and  timorously  ;  and  crafty  men,  like 
the  close  air,  suck  that  which  is  open  and  de- 
vour its  portion  and  destroy  its  liberty  ;  and 
it  is  the  guise  of  devils,  and  the  dishonour 
of  the  soul,  and  the  canker  of  society,  and 
the  enemy  of  justice,  and  truth,  and  peace, 
of  wealth  and  honour,  of  courage  and  mer- 
chandise. He  is  a  good  man  with  whom  a 
blind  man  may  safely  converse:  "dignus 
quicum  in  tenebris  mices,"*  to  whom,  in 
respect  of  his  fair  treatings,  the  darkness 
and  light  are  both  alike ;  but  he  that  bears 
light  upon  the  face  with  a  dark  heart,  is  like 
him  that  transforms  himself  into  an  angei 
of  light  when  he  means  to  do  most  mis- 
chief. Remember  this  only ;  that  false 
colours  laid  upon  the  face  besmear  the 
skin  and  dirty  it,  but  they  neither  make  a 
beauty  nor  mend  it.  "For  without  shall  be 
dogs,  and  sorcerers,  and  whoremongers 
and  murderers,  and  idolaters,  and  whoso- 
ever loveth  and  maketh  a  lie."j 


*  Cicero. 


t  Apocal.  xxii.  15- 


Serm.  L. 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERC  Y. 


369 


SERMON  L. 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY 


For  thou,  Lord,  art  good,  and  ready  to  forgive  ; 
and  plenteous  in  mercy  to  all  them  that  call  upon 
thee. — Psal.  lxxxvi.  5. 

Man  having  destroyed  that  which  God 
delighted  in,  that  is,  the  beauty  of  his  soul, 
fell  into  an  evil  portion,  and  being  seized 
upon  by  the  Divine  justice,  grew  miserable, 
and  condemned  to  an  incurable  sorrow. 
Poor  Adam,  being  banished  and  undone, 
went  and  lived  a  sad  life  in  the  mountains 
of  India,  and  turned  his  face  and  his  prayers 
towards  Paradise;  thither  he  sent  his  sighs, 
to  that  place  he  directed  his  devotions,  there 
was  his  heart  now,  where  his  felicity  some- 
times had  been;  but  he  knew  not  how  to  re- 
turn thither,  for  God  was  his  enemy,  and, 
by  many  of  his  attributes,  opposed  himself 
against  him.  God's  power  was  armed 
against  him;  and,  poor  man,  whom  a  fly  or 
a  fish  could  kill,  was  assaulted  and  beaten 
with  a  sword  of  fire  in  the  hand  of  a  che- 
rubim. God's  eye  watched  him,  his  om- 
niscience was  man's  accuser,  his  severity  was 
the  judge,  his  justice  the  executioner.  It 
was  a  mighty  calamity  that  man  was  to  un- 
dergo, when  he  that  made  him  armed  him- 
self against  his  creature,  which  would  have 
died  or  turned  to  nothing,  if  he  had  but 
withdrawn  the  miracles  and  the  al  mightiness 


]  without  measures  and  without  rules,  sitting 
in  heaven  and  filling  all  the  world,  calling 
for  a  d  uty  that  he  may  give  a  blessing,  making 
man  that  he  may  save  him,  punishing  him 
that  he  may  preserve  him.  And  God's  jus- 
tice bowed  down  to  his  mercy,  and  all  his 
power  passed  into  mercy,  and  his  omnis- 
cience converted  into  care  and  watchfulness, 
into  providence  and  observation  for  man's 
avail;  and  Heaven  gave  its  influence  for  man, 
and  rained  showers  for  our  food  and  drink : 
and  the  attributes  and  acts  of  God  sat  at  the 
foot  of  mercy,  and  all  that  mercy  descended 
upon  the  head  of  man.  For  so  the  light  of 
the  world  in  the  morning  of  the  creation  was 
spread  abroad  like  a  curtain,  and  dwelt  no 
where,  but  filled  the  "expansum"  with  a 
dissemination  great  as  the  unfoldings  of  the 
air's  looser  garment,  or  the  wilder  fringes 
of  the  fire,  without  knots,  or  order,  or  com- 
bination ;  but  God  gathered  the  beams  in  his 
hand,  and  united  them  into  a  globe  of  fire, 
and  all  the  light  of  the  world  became  the 
body  of  the  sun;  and  he  lent  some  to  his 
weaker  sister  that  walks  in  the  night,  and 
guides  a  traveller,  and  teaches  him  to  distin- 
guish a  house  from  a  river,  or  a  rock  from 
a  plain  field.  So  is  the  mercy  of  God,  a  vast 
"expansum,"  and  a  huge  ocean;  from 
eternal  ages  it  dwelt  round  about  the  throne 
of  God,  and  it  filled  all  that  infinite  distance 
and  space,  that  hath  no  measures  but  the 
will  of  God  :  until  God,  desiring  to  commu- 
nicate that  excellency  and  make  it  relative, 
created  angels,  that  he  might  have  persons 
capable  of  huge  gifts;  and  man,  who  he 
knew  would  need  forgiveness.  For  so  the 
of  his  power;  if  God  had  taken  his  arm  from  !  angels,  our  elder  brothers,  dwelt  for  ever  in 


under  him,  man  had  perished.  But  it  was, 
therefore,  a  greater  evil  when  God  laid  his 
arm  upon  him  and  against  him,  and  seemed 


the  house  of  their  Father,  and  never  brake 
his  commandments ;  but  we,  the  younger, 
like  prodigals,  forsook  our  Father's  house, 


to  support  him  that  he  might  be  longer  kill-1  and  went  into  a  strange  country,  and  follow 


ing  him.  In  the  midst  of  these  sadnesses, 
God  remembered  his  own  creature,  and 
pitied  it;  and,  by  his  mercy,  rescued  him 


ed  stranger  courses,  and  spent  the  portion 
of  our  nature,  and  forfeited  all  our  title  to  the 
family,  and  came  to  need  another  portion. 


from  the  hand  of  his  power,  and  the  sword  j  For,  ever  since  the  fall  of  Adam, — who,  like 
of  his  justice,  and  the  guilt  of  his  punish-  an  unfortunate  man,  spent  all  that  a  wretched 
ment,  and  the  disorder  of  his  sin ;  and  placed  man  could  need,  or  a  happy  man  could  have. 


him  in  that  order  of  good  things  where  he 
ought  to  have  stood.    It  was  mercv  that 


— our  life  is  repentance,  and  forgiveness  is 
all  our  portion:  and  though  angels  were 


preserved  the  noblest  of  God's  creatures  here  j  objects  of  God's  bounty,  yet  man  only  is,  in 
below;  he  who  stood  condemned  and  undone  \  proper  speaking,  the  object  of  his  mercy  : 
under  all  the  other  attributes  of  God,  was  j  and  the  mercy  which  dwelt  in  an  infinite 
only  saved  and  rescued  by  his  mercy ;  that  j  circle,  became  confined  to  a  little  ring,  and 


it  may  be  evident  that  God's  mercy  is  above 
all  his  works,  and  above  all  ours,  greater 
than  the  creation,  and  greater  than  our  sins. 
As  is  his  majesty,  so  is  his  mercy,  that  is, 
47 


dwelt  here  below ;  and  here  shall  dwell  below, 
till  it  hath  carried  all  God's  portion  up  to 
heaven,  where  it  shall  reign  in  glory,  upon 
our  crowned  heads  for  ever  and  ever! 


370 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY.       Serm.  L. 


But  for  him  that  considers  God's  mercies, 
and  dwells  awhile  in  that  depth,  it  is  hard 
not  to  talk  widely,  and  without  art  and  order 
of  discoursings.  St.  Peter  talked  he  knew 
hot  what,  when  he  entered  into  a  cloud  with 
Jesus  upon  mount  Tabor,  though  it  passed 
over  him  like  the  little  curtains  that  ride  upon 
the  north,  wind,  and  pass  between  the  sun 
and  us.  And  when  we  converse  with  a  light 
greater  than  the  sun,  and  taste  a  sweetness 
more  delicious  than  the  dew  of  heaven,  and 
in  our  thoughts  entertain  the  ravishments 
and  harmony  of  that  atonement,  which  re- 
conciles God  to  man,  and  man  to  felicity, — 
it  will  be  more  easily  pardoned,  if  we  should 
be  like  persons  that  admire  much,  and  say 
but  little ;  and  indeed  we  can  best  confess 
the  glories  of  the  Lord  by  dazzled  eyes,  and 
a  stammering  tongue,  and  a  heart  overcharg- 
ed with  the  miracles  of  this  infinity.  For  so 
those  little  drops  that  run  over,  though  they 
be  not  much  in  themselves,  yet  they  tell  that 
the  vessel  was  full,  and  could  express  the 
greatness  of  the  shower  no  otherwise  but  by 
spilling,  and  in  artificial  expressions  and 
runnings  over.  But  because  I  have  under- 
taken to  tell  the  drops  of  the  ocean,  and  to 
span  the  measures  of  eternity,  I  must  do  it 
by  the  great  lines  of  revelation  and  experi- 
ence, and  tell  concerning  God's  mercy  as 
we  do  concerning  God  himself,  that  he  is 
that  great  fountain  of  which  we  all  drink, 
and  the  great  rock  of  which  we  all  eat,  and 
on  which  we  all  dwell,  and  under  whose 
shadow  we  all  are  refreshed.  God's  mercy 
is  all  this;  and  we  can  only  draw  the  great 
lines  of  it,  and  reckon  the  constellations  of 
our  hemisphere,  instead  of  telling  the  number 
of  the  stars ;  we  only  can  reckon  what  we 
feel  and  what  we  live  by :  and  though  there 
be,  in  every  one  of  these  lines  of  life,  enough 
to  engage  us  for  ever  to  do  God  service  and 
to  give  him  praises,  yet  it  is  certain  there  are 
vpry  many  mercies  of  God  upon  us,  and 
towards  us,  and  concerning  us,  which  we 
neither  feel,  nor  see,  nor  understand  as  yet; 
but  yet  we  are  blessed  by  them,  and  are  pre- 
served and  secure,  and  we  shall  then  know 
them,  when  we  come  to  give  God  thanks  in 
the  festivities  of  an  eternal  sabbath.  But 
that  I  may  confine  my  discourse  into  order, 
.cince  the  subject  of  it  cannot,  I  consider, 

1 .  That  mercy,  being  an  emanation  of  the 
Divine  goodness  upon  us,  supposes  us,  and 
found  us,  miserable.  In  this  account  con- 
t,prning  the  mercies  of  God,  I  must  not  rec- 
kon the  miracles  and  graces  of  the  creation, 
or  anv  thing  of  the  nature  of  man,  nor  tell 


now  great  an  endearment  God  passed  upon 
us  that  he  made  us  men,  capable  of  felicity, 
apted  with  rare  instruments  of  discourse  and 
reason,  passions  and  desires,  notices  of  sense, 
and  reflections  upon  that  sense ;  that  we  have 
not  the  deformity  of  a  crocodile,  nor  the  mo- 
tion of  a  worm,  nor  the  hunger  of  a  wolf, 
nor  the  wildness  of  a  tiger,  nor  the  birth  of 
vipers,  nor  the  life  of  flies,  nor  the  death  of 
serpents. 

Our  excellent  bodies  and  useful  faculties, 
the  upright  motion  and  the  tenacious  hand, 
the  fair  appetites  and  proportioned  satisfac- 
tions, our  speech  and  our  perceptions,  our 
acts  of  life,  the  rare  invention  of  letters,  and 
the  use  of  writing,  and  speaking  at  distance, 
the  intervals  of  rest  and  labour,  (either  of 
which,  if  they  were  perpetual,  would  be  in- 
tolerable,) the  needs  of  nature  and  the  pro- 
visions of  providence,  sleep  and  business, 
refreshments  of  the  body  and  entertainments 
of  the  soul ;  these  are  to  be  reckoned  as  acts 
of  bounty  rather  than  mercy :  God  gave  us 
these  when  he  made  us,  and  before  we 
needed  mercy ;  these  were  portions  of  our 
nature,  or  provided  to  supply  our  consequent 
necessities  :  but  when  we  forfeited  all  God's 
favour  by  our  sins,  then  that  they  were  con- 
tinued or  restored  to  us  became  a  mercy,  and 
therefore  ought  to  be  reckoned  upon  this  new 
account.  For  it  was  a  rare  mercy  that  we 
were  suffered  to  live  at  all,  or  that  the  anger 
of  God  did  permit  to  us  one  blessing,  that  he 
did  punish  us  so  gently  :  but  when  the  rack 
is  changed  into  an  axe,  and  the  axe  into  an 
imprisonment,  and  the  imprisonment  chang- 
ed into  an  enlargement,  and  the  enlargement 
into  an  entertainment  in  the  family,  and  this 
entertainment  passes  on  to  an  adoption — these 
are  steps  of  a  mighty  favour,  and  perfect 
redemption  from  our  sin  :  and  the  returning 
back  our  goods  is  a  gift,  and  a  perfect 
donative,  sweetened  by  the  apprehensions 
of  the  calamity  from  whence  every  lesser 
punishment  began  to  free  us.  And  thus  it 
was  that  God  punished  us,  and  visited  the 
sin  of  Adam  upon  his  posterity.  He  threat- 
ened we  should  die,  and  so  we  did,  but  not 
so  as  we  deserved  :  we  waited  for  death,  and 
stood  sentenced,  and  are  daily  summoned 
by  sicknesses  and  uneasiness;  and  every  day 
is  a  new  reprieve,  and  brings  a  new  favour, 
certain  as  the  revolution  of  the  sun  upon 
that  day ;  and  at  last,  when  we  must  die  by 
the  irreversible  decree,  that  death  is  changed 
into  a  sleep,  and  that  sleep  is  in  the 
bosom  of  Christ,  and  there  dwells  all  peace 
and  security,  and  it  shall  pass  forth  into 


Serm.  L. 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


371 


glories  and  felicities.  We  looked  for  a 
judge,  and  behold  a  Saviour!  we  feared  an 
accuser,  and  behold  an  Advocate!  we  sat 
down  in  sorrow,  and  rise  in  joy:  we  leaned 
upon  rhubarb  and  aloes,  and  our  aprons 
were  made  of  the  sharp  leaves  of  Indian 
fig-trees,  and  so  we  fed,  and  so  were 
clothed ;  but  the  rhubarb  proved  medicinal, 
and  the  rough  leaf  of  the  tree  brought  its 
fruit  wrapped  up  in  its  foldings:  and  round 
about  our  dwellings  was  planted  a  hedge  of 
thorns  and  bundles  of  thistles,  the  aconite 
and  the  briony,  the  nightshade  and  the 
poppy  ;  and  at  the  root  of  these  grew  the 
healing  plantain,  which,  rising  up  into  a 
rallness,  by  the  friendly  invitation  of  hea- 
venly influence,  turned  about  the  tree  of  the 
cross,  and  cured  the  wounds  of  the  thorns, 
and  the  curse  of  the  thistles,  and  the  male- 
diction of  man,  and  the  wrath  of  God.  "Si 
sic  irascitur,  quomodo  convivatur?"  "If 
God  be  thus  kind  when  he  is  angry,  what 
is  he  when  he  feasts  us  with  the  caresses 
of  his  more  than  tender  kindness?"  All 
that  God  restored  to  us  after  the  forfeiture 
of  Adam,  grew  to  be  a  double  kindness;  for 
it  became  the  expression  of  a  bounty  which 
knew  not  how  to  repent,  a  graciousness  that 
was  not  to  be  altered,  though  we  were;  and 
that  was  it  which  we  needed.  That  is  the 
first  general:  all  the  bounties  of  the  creation 
became  mercies  to  us,  when  God  continued 
them  to  us,  and  restored  them  after  they 
were  forfeit. 

2.  But  as  a  circle  begins  every  where  and 
ends  no  where,  so  do  the  mercies  of  God  : 
after  all  this  huge  progress,  now  it  began 
anew  :  "  God  is  good  and  gracious,"  and 
"  God  is  ready  to  forgive."  Now,  that  he 
had  once  more  made  us  capable  of  mercies, 
God  had  what  he  desired,  and  what  he  could 
rejoice  in,  something  upon  which  he  might 
pour  forth  his  mercies.  And,  by  the  way, 
this  I  shall  observe,  (for  I  cannot  but  speak 
without  art,  when  I  speak  of  that  which 
hath  no  measure,)  God  made  us  capable  of 
one  sort  of  his  mercies,  and  we  made  our- 
selves capable  of  another.  "  God  is  good 
and  gracious,"  that  is,  desirous  to  give  great 
gifts :  and  of  this  God  made  us  receptive, 
first,  by  giving  us  natural  possibilities, — 
that  is,  by  giving  those  gifts,  he  made  us 
capable  of  more  ;  and  next,  by  restoring  us 
to  his  favour,  that  he  might  not  by  our  pro- 
vocations, be  hindered  from  raining  down 
his  mercies.  But  God  is  also  "  ready  to 
forgive:"  and  of  this  kind  of  mercy  we 
made  ourselves  capable,  even  by  not  de- 


serving it.  Our  sin  made  way  for  his  grace, 
and  our  infirmities  called  upon  his  pity  ; 
and  because  we  sinned  we  became  miser- 
able, and  because  we  were  miserable  we 
became  pitiable ;  and  this  opened  the  other 
treasure  of  his  mercy  ;  that  because  our 
"sin  abounds,"  his  "grace  may  super- 
abound."  In  this  method  we  must  confine 
our  thoughts : 


1.  Giving. 


CThou,  Lord,  art  ~)  plenteous  in 
£    good,  5  mercy  to  all 


0   •  •  Cand     ready    to ?  them  that  call 

2.  Forgiving.  £    forgive/       $  upon  thee. 

3.  God's  mercies,  or  the  mercies  of  his 
giving,  came  first  upon  us  by  mending  of 
our  nature  :  for  the  ignorance  we  fell  into,  is 
instructed,  and  better  learned  in  spiritual  no- 
tices, than  Adam's  morning  knowledge  in 
paradise ;  our  appetites  are  made  subordinate 
to  the  Spirit,  and  the  liberty  of  our  wills  is 
improved,  having  "the  liberty  of  the  sons 
of  God ;"  and  Christ  hath  done  us  more 
grace  and  advantage  than  we  lost  in  Adam  : 
and  as  man  lost  paradise,  and  got  heaven; 
so  he  lost  the  integrity  of  the  first,  and  got 
the  perfection  of  the  second  Adam  :  his 
"  living  soul"  is  changed  into  "  a  quicken- 
ing spirit;"  our  discerning  faculties  are 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  faith,  and  our  pas- 
sions and  desires  are  entertained  with  hope, 
and  our  election  is  sanctified  with  charity, 
and  our  first  life  of  a  temporal  possession  is 
passed  into  a  better,  a  life  of  spiritual  ex- 
pectations ;  and,  though  our  first  parent  was 
forbidden  it,  yet  we  live  of  the  fruits  of  the 
tree  of  life.  But  I  instance  in  two  great 
things,  in  which  human  nature  is  greatly 
advanced,  and  passed  on  to  greater  perfec- 
tions. The  first  is,  that  besides  body  and 
soul,  which  was  the  sum  total  of  Adam's 
constitution,  God  hath  superadded  to  us  a 
third  principle,  the  beginner  of  a  belter  life, 

1  mean,  the  Spirit:*  so  that  now  man  hath 
a  spiritual  and  celestial  nature  breathed  into 
him,  and  the  old  man,  that  is,  the  old  con- 
stitution, is  the  least  part,  and  in  its  proper 
operation  is  dead  or  dying;  but  the  new 
man  is  that  which  gives  denomination,  life, 
motion,  and  proper  actions  to  a  Christian, 
and  that  is  renewed  in  us  day  by  day. 
But,  secondly,  human  nature  is  so  highly 
exalted  and  mended  by  that  mercy,  which 
God  sent  immediately  upon  the  fall  of 
Adam,  the  promise  of  Christ,  that  when  he 
did  come,  and  actuate  the  purposes  of  this 


Vide  Sermon  II. 


372 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY.      Serm.  L. 


mission,  and  ascended  up  into  heaven,  he 
carried  human  nature  above  the  seats  of 
angels,  to  the  place  whither  "  Lucifer,  the 
son  of  the  morning,"  aspired  to  ascend,  but 
in  his  attempt  fell  into  hell.  For  (so  said 
the  prophet)  the  son  of  the  morning  said, 
"  I  will  ascend  into  heaven,  and  sit  in  the 
sides  of  the  north,"  that  is,  the  throne  of 
Jesus  seated  in  the  east,  called  the  sides 
or  obliquity  of  the  north.  And  as  the  seat- 
ing of  his  human  nature  in  that  glorious 
seat  brought  to  him  all  adoration,  and  the 
majesty  of  God,  and  the  greatest  of  his  ex- 
altation; so  it  was  so  great  an  advance- 
ment to  us,  that  all  the  angels  of  heaven 
take  notice  of  it,  and  feel  a  change  in  the 
appendage  of  their  condition  ;  not  that  they 
are  lessened,  but  that  we,  who  in  nature 
are  less  than  angels,  have  a  relative  dignity 
greater,  and  an  equal  honour  of  being  fel- 
low-servants. This  mystery  is  plain  in 
Scripture,  and  the  real  effect  of  it  we  read 
in  both  the  Testaments.  When  Manoah, 
the  father  of  Samson,  saw  an  angel,  he 
worshipped  him;*  and,  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, it  was  esteemed  lawful ;  for  they  were 
the  lieutenants  of  God,  sent  with  the  im- 
presses of  his  majesty,  and  took  in  his 
name  the  homage  from  us,  who  then  were 
so  much  their  inferiors.  But  when  the  man 
Christ  Jesus  was  exalted,  and  made  the 
Lord  of  all  the  angels,  then  they  became 
our  fellow-servants,  and  might  not  receive 
worship  from  any  of  the  servants  of  Jesus, 
especially  from  prophets  and  martyrs,  and 
those  that  are  ministers  of  "  the  testimony 
of  Jesus."  And,  therefore,  when  an  angel 
appeared  to  St.  John,  and  he,  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  Jews,  fell  down  and  wor- 
shipped him,  as  not  yet  knowing,  or  not 
considering  any  thing  to  the  contrary  ;  the 
angel  reproved  him,  saying,  "  See  thou  3o 
it  not ;  I  am  thy  fellow-servant,  and  of  thy 
brethren  the  prophets,  and  of  them  which 
keep  the  sayings  of  this  book :  worship 
God  ;"f  or,  as  St.  Cyprian$  reads  it,  "  wor- 
ship Jesus."  God  and  man  are  now  only 
capable  of  worship  ;  but  no  angel :  God,  es- 
sentially ;  man,  in  the  person  of  Christ,  and 
in  the  exaltation  of  our  great  Redeemer: 
but  angels  not  so  high,  and,  therefore,  not 
capable  of  any  religious  worship.  And 
this  dignity  of  man  St.  Gregory  explicates 
fully  ;§  "  Q,uid  est,  quod,  ante  Redemp- 
toris  adventum,   adorantur  ab  hominibus 


*  Judges  xiii.  t  Rev.  xxii.  9. 

t  De  Bono  Patientise.    $  Homil.  8.  in  Evangel. 


[angeli]  et  tacent,  postmodum  vero  ado- 
rari  refugiunt?"    "  Why  did  the  angels  of 
old  receive  worshippings,  and  were  silent  ; 
but,  in  the  New  Testament,  decline  it,  and 
fear  to  accept  it?"    "Nisi  quod  naturam 
nostram,  quam  prius  despexerant,  postquam 
hanc  super  se  assumptam  aspiciunt,  pros- 
tratam  sibi  videri  pertimescunt;  nec  jam 
sub  se  velut  infirmam  contemnere  ausi  sunt, 
quam  super  se,  viz.  in  cceli  Rege,  veneran- 
tur:"    "The  reason  is  because  they,  see- 
ing our  nature,  which  they  did  so  lightly 
value,  raised  up  above  them,  they  fear  to 
see  it  humbled  under  them ;  neither  do  they 
any  more   despise   the  weakness,  which 
themselves  worship  in  the  King  of  heaven." 
I  The  same  also  is  the  sense  of  the  gloss  of 
I  St.  Ambrose,  Ansbertus,  Haymo,  Ruper- 
:  tus,  and  others  of  old  ;  and  Ribera,  Salme- 
I  ron,  and  Lewis  of  Granada  of  late :  which 
being  so  plainly  consonant  to  the  words  of 
the  angel,  and  consigned  by  the  testimony 
|  of  such  men,  I  the  rather  note,  that  those 
j  who  worship  angels,  and  make  religious 
j  addresses  to  them,  may  see  what  privilege 
!  themselves  lose,  and  how  they  part  with 
;  the  honour  of  Christ,  who  in  his  nature  re- 
j  lative  to  us  is  "  exalted  far  above  all  thrones, 
!  and  principalities,  and  dominions."    I  need 
!  not  add  lustre  to  this :  it  is  like  the  sun,  the 
!  biggest  body  of  light,  and  nothing  can  de- 
I  scribe  it  so  well  as  its  own  beams  :  and 
j  there  is  not  in  nature,  or  the  advantages  of 
i  honour,  any  thing  greater,  than  that  we 
j  have  the  issues  of  that  mercy  which  makes 
I  us  fellow-servants  with  angels,  too  much 
honoured  to  pay  them  a  religious  worship, 
whose  Lord  is  a  man,  and  he  that  is  their 

I  King  is  our  Brother. 

4.  To  this,  for  the  likeness  of  the  matter, 

I I  add,  that  the  Divine  mercy  hath  so  prose- 
cuted us  with  the  enlargement  of  his  fa- 
vours, that  we  are  not  only  fellow-ministers 
and  servants  with  the  angels,  and.  in  our 
nature  in  the  person  of  Christ,  exalted  above 
them  ;  but  we  also  shall  be  their  judges. 
And  if  this  be  not  an  honour  above  that  of 
Joseph  or  Mordecai,  an  honour  beyond  all 
the  measures  of  a  man,  then  there  are  in 
honour  no  degrees,  no  priority  or  distances, 
or  characters  of  fame  and  nobleness.  Christ 
is  the  great  Judge  of  all  the  world  ;  his  hu- 
man nature  shall  then  triumph  over  evil 
men  and  evil  spirits;  then  shall  the  devils, 
those  angels  that  fell  from  their  first  origi- 
nals, be  brought  in  their  chains  from  their 
dark  prisons,  and  once  be  allowed  to  see  the 
light,  that  light  that  shall  confound  them  j 


Serm.  L. 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


373 


while  all  that  follow  the  Lamb,  and  that  are  I  shall  remark,  is  also  an  improvement  of 
accounted  worthy  of  that  resurrection,  shall  ■  our  nature,  or  an  appendage  to  it.  For, 
be  assessors  in  the  judgment.  "  Know  ye  whereas  our  constitution  is  weak,  our  souls 
not.''  saith  St.  Paul,  "  that  ye  shall  judge  apt  to  diminution  and  impedite  faculties, 
angels  ?*"  And  Tertullian,  speaking  con-  our  bodies  to  mutilation  and  imperfection, 
cerning  devils  and  accursed  spirits,  saith  ;  to  blindness  and  crookedness,  to  stammering 
H  Hi  sunt  angeli  quos  judicaturi  sumus  ;  hi  and  sorrows, to  baldness  and  deformity,  to  evil 
sunt  angeli  quibus  in  lavacro  renunciavi-  conditions  and  accidents  of  body,  and  to  pas- 
mus  :"  Those  angels  which  we  renounced  sions  and  sadness  of  spirit ;  God  hath,  in  his 
in  baptism,  those  we  shall  judge  in  the  day  infinite  mercy,  provided  for  every  condition 
of  the  Lord's  glory,  in  the  great  day  of  re-  rare  suppletories  of  comfort  and  usefulness,  to 
compences."t  And  that  the  honour  may  make  recompence,  and  sometimes  with  an 
be  yet  greater,  the  same  day  of  sentence  overrunning  proportion,  for  those  natural 
that  condemns  the  evil  angels,  shall  also  re-  defects,  which  were  apt  to  make  our  per- 
ward  the  good,  and  increase  their  glory  :  sons  otherwise  contemptible,  and  our  condi- 
which  because  they  derive  lrom  their  Lord  tions  intolerable.  God  gives  to  blind  men 
and  ours,  from  their  King  and  our  elder  better  memories.  For  upon  this  account  it 
Brother,  "  the  King  of  glories,"  whose  glo-  is  that  Ruffinus  makes  mention  of  Didy- 
rious  hands  shall  put  the  crown  upon  all  mus  of  Alexandria,  who,  being  blind,  was 
our  heads,  we,  who  shall  be  servants  of  :  blest  with  a  rare  attention  and  singular 
that  judgment,  and  some  way  or  other  as-  1  memory,  and  by  prayer,  and  hearing,  and 
sist  in  it,  have  a  part  of  that  honour,  to  be  discoursing,  came  to  be  one  of  the  most  ex- 
judges  of  all  angels,  and  of  all  the  world,  cellent  divines  of  that  whole  age.  And  it 
The  effect  of  these  things  ought  to  be  this,  was  more  remarkable  in  Xicasius  Mechli- 
that  we  do  not  by  base  actions  dishonour  niensis,  who,  being  blockish  at  his  book,  in 
that  nature,  that  sits  upon  the  throne  of  j  his  first  childhood  fell  into  accidental  blind- 
God,  that  reigns  over  angels,  that  shall  sit  ness,  and  from  thence  continually  grew  to 
in  judgment  upon  all  the  world.  It  is  a  gTeat  so  quick  an  apprehension  and  so  tenacious 
indecency  that  the  son  of  a  king  should  :  a  memory,  that  he  became  the  wonder  of 
bear  water  upon  his  head,  and  dress  vine-  his  contemporaries,  and  was  chosen  rector 
yards  among  the  slaves ;  or  to  see  a  wise  1  of  the  college  at  Mechlin,  and  was  made 
man,  and  the  guide  of  his  country,  drink  \  licentiate  of  theology  at  Lou  vain,  and  doc- 
drunk  among  the  meanest  of  his  servants  ;  tor  of  both  the  laws  at  Cologne,  living  and 
but  when  members  of  Christ  shall  be  made  dying  in  great  reputation  for  his  rare  parts 
members  of  a  harlot,  and  that  which  rides  and  excellent  learning.  At  the  same  rate 
above  a  rainbow  stoops  to  an  imperious,  also  God  deals  with  men  in  other  instances  ; 
whorish  woman  ;  when  the  soul,  that  is  sis-  ;  want  of  children  he  recompences  with  free- 
ter  to  the  Lord  of  angels,  shall  degenerate  dom  from  care;  and  whatsoever  evil  hap- 
into  the  foolishness  or  rage  of  a  beast,  being  pens  to  the  body  is  therefore  most  com- 
drowned  with  the  blood  of  the  grape,  or  •  monly  single  and  unaccompanied,  because 
made  mad  with  passion,  or  ridiculous  with  God  accepts  that  evil  as  the  punishment  of 
weaker  follies  ;  we  shall  but  strip  ourselves  the  sin  of  the  man,  or  the  instrument  of  his 
of  that  robe  of  honour,  with  which  Christ  virtue  or  his  security,  and  it  is  reckoned  as 
hath  invested  and  adorned  our  nature  ;  and  a  sufficient  antidote.  God  hath  laid  a  se- 
earry  that  portion  of  humanity  which  is  vere  law  upon  all  women,  that  "in  sorrow 
our  own,  and  which  God  hath  honoured  in  they  shall  bring  forth  children  :"  yet  God 
some  capacities  above  angels,  into  a  portion  hath  so  attempered  that  sorrow,  that  they 
of  an  eternal  shame,  and  become  less  in  all  think  themselves  more  accursed  if  thevwant 
senses,  and  equally  disgraced  with  devils,  that  sorrow;  and  they  have  reason  to  re- 
The  shame  and  sting  of  this  change  shall  joice  in  that  state,  the  trouble  of  which  is 
be,  that  we  turned  the  glories  of  the  Divine  alleviated  by  a  promise,  that  "  they  shall  be 
mercy  into  the  baseness  of  ingratitude,  and  saved  in  bearing  children."  He  that  wants 
the  amazement  of  suffering  the  Divine  ven-  I  one  eye,  hath  the  force  and  vigorousness  of 
geance.    But  I  pass  on.  both  united  in  that  which  is  left  him  :  and 

5.  The  next  order  of  Divine  mercies  that  whenever  any  man  is  afflicted  with  sorrow, 
 his  reason  and  his  religion,  himself  and  all 

*  1  Cor.  vi.  3.  t  De  Cult.  Foemin.    I  his  friends,  persons  that  are  civil  and  per- 

2G 


374 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY.      Serm.  L. 


sons  that  are  obliged,  run  in  to  comfort 
him ;  and  he  may,  if  he  will  observe  wisely, 
find  so  many  circumstances  of  ease  and  re- 
mission, so  many  designs  of  providence  and 
studied  favours,  such  contrivances  of  colla- 
teral advantage,  and  certain  reserves  of  sub- 
stantial and  proper  comfort,  that  in  the 
whole  sum  of  affairs,  it  often  happens,  that 
a  single  cross  is  a  double  blessing,  and  that 
even  in  a  temporal  sense  ""it  is  better  to  go 
to  the  house  of  mourning"  than  of  joys  and 
<tstival  egressions.  Is  not  the  affliction  of 
poverty  better  than  the  prosperity  of  a  great 
and  tempting  fortune?  Does  not  wisdom 
dwell  in  a  mean  estate  and  low  spirit,  re- 
tired thoughts,  and  under  a  sad  roof!  And 
is  it  not  generally  true,  that  sickness  itself  is 
appayed  with  religion  and  holy  thoughts,wilh 
pious  resolutions  and  penitential  prayers, 
with  returns  to  God  and  to  sober  counsels  ? 
And  if  this  be  true,  that  God  sends  sorrow 
to  cure  sin,  and  affliction  be  the  handmaid 
to  grace;  it  is  also  certain  that  every  sad 
contingency  in  nature  is  doubly  recompensed 
with  the  advantages  of  religion,  besides 
those  intervening  refreshments  which  sup- 
port the  spirit,  and  refresh  its  instruments. 
I  shall  need  to  instance  but  once  more  in 
this  particular. 

God  hath  sent  no  greater  evil  into  the 
world,  than  that  "in  the  sweat  of  our  brows 
we  shall  eat  our  bread ;"  and  in  the  diffi- 
culty and  agony,  in  the  sorrows  and  conten- 
tion of  our  souls,  we  shall  "  work  out  our 
salvation."  But  see  how  in  the  first  of 
these  God  hath  outdone  his  own  anger, 
and  defeated  the  purposes  of  his  wrath,  by 
the  inundation  of  his  mercy  ;  for  this  labour 
and  sweat  of  our  brows  is  so  far  from  being 
a  curse,  that  without  it  our  very  bread  would 
not  be  so  great  a  blessing.  Is  it  not  labour 
that  makes  the  garlick  and  the  pulse,  the 
sycamore  and  the  cresses,  the  cheese  of  the 
goats  and  the  butter  of  the  sheep,  to  be 
savoury  and  pleasant  as  the  flesh  of  the 
roebuck,  or  the  milk  of  the  kine,  the  marrow 
of  oxen,  or  the  thighs  of  birds  ?  If  it  were 
not  for  labour,  men  neither  could  eat  so 
much,  nor  relish  so  pleasantly,  nor  sleep 
so  soundly,  nor  be  so  healthful  nor  so  use- 
ful, so  strong  nor  so  patient,  so  noble  nor 
so  untempted.  And  as  God  hath  made  us 
beholden  to  labour  for  the  purchase  of 
many  good  things,  so  the  thing  itself  owes 
to  labour  many  degrees  of  its  worth  and 
value.  And,  therefore,  I  need  not  reckon, 
that,  besides  these  advantages,  the  mercies 
of  God  have  found  out  proper  and  natural 


remedies  for  labour;  nights  to  cure  the 
sweat  of  the  day, — sleep  to  ease  our  watch- 
fulness,— rest  to  alleviate  our  burdens, — 
and  days  of  religion  to  procure  our  rest : 
and  things  are  so  ordered,  that  labour  is 
become  a  duty,  and  an  act  of  many  virtues, 
and  is  not  so  apt  to  turn  into  a  sin  as  its 
contrary;  and  is  therefore  necessary,  not 
only  because  we  need  it  for  making  provi- 
sions for  our  life,  but  even  to  ease  the 
labour  of  our  rest ;  there  being  no  greater 
tediousness  of  spirit  in  the  world  than  want 
of  employment,  and  an  inactive  life :  and 
the  lazy  man  is  not  only  unprofitable,  bu4 
also  accursed,  and  he  groans  under  the  load 
of  his  time ;  which  yet  passes  over  the 
active  man  light  as  a  dream,  or  the  feathers 
of  a  bird ;  while  the  unemployed  is  a  dis- 
ease, and  like  a  long  sleepless  night  to  him- 
self, and  a  load  unto  his  country.  And 
therefore,  although,  in  this  particular,  God 
hath  been  so  merciful  in  this  infliction,  that 
from  the  sharpness  of  the  curse  a  very  great 
part  of  mankind  are  freed,  and  there  are 
myriads  of  people,  good  and  bad,  who  do 
not  "  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their 
i  brows ;"  yet  this  is  but  an  overrunning  and 
an  excess  of  the  Divine  mercy  ;  God  did 
more  for  us  than  we  did  absolutely  need  : 
for  he  hath  so  disposed  of  the  circumstances 
of  this  curse,  that  man's  affections  are  so 
reconciled  to  it,  that  they  desire  it,  and  are 
delighted  in  it ;  and  so  the  anger  of  God  is 
ended  in  loving-kindness,  and  the  drop  of 
water  is  lost  in  the  full  chalice  of  the  wine, 
and  the  curse  is  gone  out  into  a  multiplied 
blessing. 

But  then  for  the  other  part  of  the  severe  law 
and  laborious  imposition,  that  we  must  work 
out  our  spiritual  interest  with  the  labours 
of  our  spirit,  seems  to  most  men  to  be  so  in- 
tolerable, that,  rather  than  pass  under  it, 
they  quit  their  hopes  of  heaven,  and  pass 
into  the  portion  of  devils.  And  what  can 
there  be  to  alleviate  this  sorrow,  that  a  man 
shall  be  perpetually  solicited  with  an  impure 
tempter,  and  shall  carry  a  flame  within  him, 
and  all  the  world  is  on  fire  round  about  him, 
and  every  thing  brings  fuel  to  the  flame, 
and  full  tables  are  a  snare,  and  empty 
tables  are  collateral  servants  to  a  lust,  and 
help  to  blow  the  fire  and  kindle  the  heap  of 
prepared  temptations  ;  and  yet  a  man  must 
not  at  all  taste  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  he 
must  not  desire  what  he  cannot  choose  but 
desire,  and  he  must  not  enjoy  whatsoever 
he  does  violently  covet,  and  must  never 
satisfy  his  appetite  in  the  most  violent  im- 


Serm.  L. 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


375 


portunities,  but  must  therefore  deny  himself, 
because  to  do  so  is  extremely  troublesome  ? 
This  seems  to  be  an  art  of  torture,  and  a 
device  to  punish  man  with  the  spirit  of 
agony,  and  a  restless  vexation.  But  this 
also  hath  in  it  a  great  ingredient  of  mercy  , 
or  rather  is  nothing  else  but  a  heap  of 
mercy  in  its  entire  constitution.  For,  if  it 
were  not  for  this,  we  had  nothing  of  our 
own  to  present  God,  nothing  proportionable 
to  the  great  rewards  of  heaven,  but  either 
all  men,  or  no  man,  must  go  thither ;  for 
nothing  can  distinguish  man  from  man,  in 
order  to  beatitude,  but  choice  and  election  ; 
and  nothing  can  ennoble  the  choice  but 
love,  and  nothing  can  exercise  love  but 
difficulty,  and  nothing  can  make  that  diffi- 
culty but  the  contradiction  of  our  appetite, 
and  the  crossing  of  our  natural  affections. 
And  therefore,  whenever  any  of  you  are 
tempted  violendy,  or  grow  weary  in  your 
spirits  with  resisting  the  petulancy  of  temp- 
tation, you  may  be  cured,  if  you  will  please 
but  to  remember  and  rejoice,  that  now  you 
have  something  of  your  own  to  give  to  God, 
something  that  he  will  be  pleased  to  accept, 
something  that  he  hath  given  thee  that  thou 
mayest  give  it  him  ;  for  our  money  and  our 
time,  our  days  of  feasting  and  our  days  of 
sorrow,  our  discourse  and  our  acts  of  praise, 
our  prayers  and  our  songs,  our  vows  and 
our  offerings,  our  worshippings  and  protes- 
tations, and  whatsoever  else  can  be  account- 
ed in  the  sum  of  our  religion,  are  only  ac- 
cepted according  as  they  bear  along  with 
them  portions  of  our  will,  and  choice  of 
love,  and  appendant  difficulty. 

Laetius  est  quoties  magno  tibi  constat  honestum. 

So  that  whoever  can  complain  that  he  serves 
God  with  pains  and  mortifications,  he  is 
troubled  because  there  is  a  distinction  of 
things  such  as  we  call  virtue  and  vice,  re- 
ward and  punishment;  and,  if  we  will  not 
suffer  God  to  distinguish  the  first,  he  will 
certainly  confound  the  latter ;  and  his  por- 
tion shall  be  blackness  without  variety,  and 
punishment  shall  be  his  reward. 

6.  As  an  appendage  to  this  instance  of 
Divine  mercy,  we  are  to  account  that,  not 
only  in  nature,  but  in  contingency  and  emer- 
gent events  of  providence,  God  makes  com- 
pensation to  us  for  all  the  evils  of  chance 
and  hostilities  of  accident,  and  brings  good 
out  of  evil  ;  which  is  that  solemn  triumph 
which  mercy  makes  over  justice,  when  it 
rides  upon  a  cloud,  and  crowns  its  darkness 
with  a  robe  of  glorious  light.    God  indeed 


suffered  Joseph  to  be  sold  a  bond-slave  into 
Egypt,  but  then  it  was  that  God  intended  to 
crown  and  reward  his  chastity ;  for  by  that 
means  he  brought  him  to  a  fair  condition 
of  dwelling,  and  there  gave  him  a  noble 
trial;  he  had  a  brave  contention,  and  he 
was  a  conqueror.  Then  God  sent  him  to 
prison ;  but  still  that  was  mercy  ;  it  was  to 
make  way  to  bring  him  to  Pharaoh's  court. 
And  God  brought  famine  upon  Canaan,  and 
troubled  all  the  souls  of  Jacob's  family  : 
and  there  was  a  plot  laid  for  another  mercy : 
this  was  to  bring  them  to  see  and  partake 
of  Joseph's  glory.  And  then  God  brought 
a  great  evil  upon  their  posterity,  and  they 
groaned  under  task-masters ;  but  this  God 
changed  into  the  miracles  of  his  mercy,  and 
suffered  them  to  be  afflicted  that  he  might 
do  ten  miracles  for  their  sakes,  and  proclaim 
to  all  the  world  how  dear  they  were  to  God. 
And  was  not  the  greatest  good  to  mankind 
brought  forth  from  the  greatest  treason  that 
lever  was  committed, — the  redemption  of 
the  world,  from  the  fact  of  Judas?  God 
loving  to  defeat  the  malice  of  man  and  the 
(arts  of  the  devil  by  rare  emergencies  and 
stratagems  of  mercy.  It  is  a  sad  calamity 
jto  see  a  kingdom  spoiled,  and  a  church 
afflicted;  the  priests  slain  with  the  sword, 
[and  the  blood  of  nobles  mingled  with 
cheaper  sand  ;  religion  made  a  cause  of 
trouble,  and  the  best  men  most  cruelly  per- 
secuted; government  confounded,  and  laws 
ashamed;  judges  decreeing  causes  in  fear 
and  covetousness,  and  the  ministers  of  holy 
things  setting  themselves  against  all  that  is 
sacred,  and  setting  fire  upon  the  fields,  and 
!  turning  in  "  little  foxes"  on  purpose  to 
["destroy  the  vineyards."  And  what  shall 
jinake  recompence  for  this  heap  of  sorrows, 
whenever  God  shall  send  such  swords  of 
fire  ?  Even  the  mercies  of  God,  which 
jthen  will  be  made  public,  when  we  shall 
shear  such  afflicted  people  sing,  "In  conver- 
tendo  captivitatem  Sion,"  with  the  voice  of 
!  joy  and  festival  eucharist,  "  among  such 
as  keep  holy  day  ;"  and  when  peace  shall 
become  sweeter,  and  dwell  the  longer. 
And  in  the  meantime  it  serves  religion,  and 
the  affliction  shall  try  the  children  of  God, 
and  God  shall  crown  them,  and  men  shall 
grow  wiser  and  more  holy,  and  leave  their 
,  petty  interests,  and  take  sanctuary  in  holy 
■  living,  and  be  taught  temperance  by  their 
iwant,  and  patience  by  their  suffering,  and 
charity  by  their  persecution,  and  shall  better 
understand  the  duty  of  their  relations;  and, 
at  last,  the  secret  worm  that  lav  at  the  loot 


376 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


Serm.  L. 


of  the  plant,  shall  be  drawn  forth  and  quite 
extinguished.  For  so  have  I  known  a  luxu- 
riant vine  swell  into  irregular  twigs  and 
bold  excrescences,  and  spend  itself  in  leaves 
and  little  rings,  and  afford  but  trifling  clus- 
ters to  the  wine-press,  and  a  faint  return  to 
his  heart,  which  longed  to  be  refreshed  with 
a  full  vintage;  but  when  the  lord  of  the  vine 
had  caused  the  dressers  to  cut  the  wilder 
plant,  and  made  it  bleed,  it  grew  temperate 
in  its  vain  expense  of  useless  leaves,  and 
knotted  into  fair  and  juicy  bunches,  and 
made  accounts  of  that  loss  of  blood  by  the 
return  of  fruit.  So  is  an  afflicted  province 
cured  of  its  surfeits,  and  punished  for  its 
sins,  and  bleeds  for  its  long  riot,  and  is  left 
ungoverned  for  its  disobedience,  and  chas- 
tised for  its  wantonness ;  and  when  the 
sword  hath  let  forth  the  corrupted  blood, 
and  the  fire  hath  purged  the  rest,  then  it 
enters  into  the  double  joys  of  restitution, 
and  gives  God  thanks  for  his  rod,  and  con- 
fesses the  mercies  of  the  Lord  in  making 
the  smoke  to  be  changed  into  fire,  and  the 
cloud  into  a  perfume,  the  sword  into  a  staff, 
and  his  anger  into  mercy. 

Had  not  David  suffered  more,  if  he  had 
suffered  less  ?  and  had  he  not  been  miser- 
uble,  unless  he  had  been  afflicted?  He 
understood  it  well,  when  he  said,  "It  is 
good  for  me  that  I  have  been  afflicted." 
He  that  was  rival  to  Crassus  when  he  stood 
candidate  to  command  the  legions  in  the 
Parthian  war,  was  much  troubled  that  he 
missed  the  dignity ;  but  he  saw  himself 
blest  that  he  escaped  the  death,  and  the  dis- 
honour of  the  overthrow,  by  that  time  the 
sad  news  arrived  at  Rome.  The  gentleman 
at  Marseilles  cursed  his  stars,  that  he  was 
absent  when  the  ship  set  sail  to  sea,  having 
long  waited  for  a  wind,  and  missed  it;  but 
he  gave  thanks  to  the  Providence  that 
blessed  him  with  the  cross,  when  he  knew 
that  the  ship  perished  in  the  voyage,  and 
all  the  men  were  drowned.  And  even 
those  virgins  and  barren  women  in  Jeru- 
salem that  longed  to  become  glad  mothers, 
and  for  want  of  children  would  not  be  com- 
forted, yet,  when  Titus  sacked  the  city, 
found  the  word3  of  Jesus  true,  "  Blessed  is 
the  womb  that  never  bare,  and  the  paps 
that  never  gave  suck."  And  the  world 
being  governed  with  a  rare  variety,  and 
changes  of  accidents  and  providence  j  that 
which  is  a  misfortune  in  the  particular,  in 
the  whole  order  of  things  becomes  a  bless- 


ing bigger  than  we  hoped  for,  then  when 
we  were  angry  with  God  for  hindering  us 
to  perish  in  pleasant  ways,  or  when  he  was 
contriving  to  pour  upon  thy  head  a  mighty 
blessing.  Do  not  think  the  judge  condemns 
you,  when  he  chides  you;  nor  think  to  read 
thy  own  final  sentence  by  the  first  half  of 
his  words.  Stand  still,  and  see  how  it  will 
be  in  the  whole  event  of  things :  let  God 
speak  his  mind  out ;  for  it  may  be  this  sad 
beginning  is  but  an  art  to  bring  in,  or  to 
make  thee  to  esteem,  and  entertain,  and 
understand  the  blessing. 

They  that  love  to  talk  of  the  mercies  of 
the  Lord,  and  to  recount  his  good  things, 
cannot  but  have  observed  that  God  delights 
{ to  be  called  by  such  appellatives,  which 
i  relate  to  miserable  and  afflicted  persons  :  he 
■  is  "  the  Father  of  the  fatherless,"  and  an 
;  "Avenger  of  the  widow's  cause;"  he  stand- 
j  eth  at  the  right  hand  of  the  poor,  to  save  his 
|  soul  from  unrighteous  judges  ;"  and  "  he  is 
j  with  us  in  tribulation."    And  upon  this 
ground  let  us  account  whether  mercy  be 
J  not  the  greater  ingredient  in  that  death  and 
j  deprivation,  when  I  lose  a  man,  and  get 
|  God  to  be  my  Father ;  and  when  my  weak 
J  arm  of  flesh  is  cut  from  my  shoulder,  and 
!  God  makes  me  to  lean  upon  him,  and  be- 
comes my  Patron  and  my  Guide,  my  Advo- 
1  cate  and  Defender.    And  if,  in  our  greatest 
i  misery,  God's  mercy  is  so  conspicuous, 
what  can  we  suppose  him  to  be  in  the 
I  endearment  of  his  loving-kindness  ?    If  his 
evil  be  so  transparent,  well  may  we  know 
that  upon  his  face  dwells  glory,  and  from 
his  eyes  light  and  perpetual  comforts  run 
in  channels  larger  than  the  returns  of  the 
sea,  when  it  is  driven  and  forced  faster  into 
its  natural  course  by  the  violence  of  a  tem- 
pest from  the  north.    The  sum  is  this  : 
God  intends  every  accident  should  minister 
to  virtue,  and  every  virtue  is  the  mother 
and  the  nurse  of  joy,  and  both  of  them 
daughters  of  the  Divine  goodness ;  and 
therefore,  if  our  sorrows  do  not  pass  into 
comforts,  it  is  beside  God's  intention ;  it  is 
because  we  will  not  comply  with  the  act  of 
that  mercy,  which  would  save  us  by  all 
means  and  all  varieties,  by  health  and  by 
sickness,  by  the  life  and  by  the  death  of  our 
dearest  friends,  by  what  we  choose,  and  by 
what  we  fear;  that  as  God's  providence 
rules  over  all  chances  of  things  and  all  de- 
signs of  men,  so  his  mercy  may  rule  over 
all  his  providence. 


,1 


Serm.  LI. 


MIRACLES  OF  TH 


E  DIVINE  MERCY. 


377 


SERMON  LI. 

PART  II. 

7.  God  having,  by  these  means,  secured 
us  from  the  evils  of  nature  and  contingen- 
cies, and  represented  himself  to  be  our  Fa- 
ther, which  is  the  great  endearment  and  tie, 
and  expression  of  a  natural,  unalterable,  and 
essential  kindness  :  he  next  makes  provisions 
for  us  to  supply  all  those  necessities  which 
himself  hath  made.  For  even  to  make  ne- 
cessities was  a  'great  circumstance  of  the 
mercy  ;  and  all  the  relishes  of  wine,  and 
the  savouriness  of  meat,  the  sweet  and  the 
fat,  the  pleasure  and  the  satisfaction,  the  re- 
stitution of  spirits  and  the  strengthening  of 
the  heart,  are  not  owing  to  the  liver  of  the 
vine  or  the  kidneys  of  wheat,  to  the  blood 
of  the  grape  or  the  strength  of  the  corn,  but 
to  the  appetite  or  the  necessity  :  and  there- 
fore it  is,  that  he, — that  sits  at  a  full  table, 
and  does  not  recreate  his  stomach  with  fast- 
ing, and  let  his  digestion  rest,  and  place 
himself  in  the  advantages  of  nature's  inter- 
vals ; — he  loses  the  blessing  of  his  daily 
bread,  and  leans  upon  his  table  as  a  sick 
man  upon  his  bed,  or  the  lion  in  the  grass, 
which  he  cannot  feed  on  :  but  he  that  wants 
it,  and  sits  down  when  nature  gives  the 
sign,  rejoices  in  the  health  of  his  hunger, 
and  the  taste  of  his  meat,  and  the  strength- 
ening of  his  spirit,  and  gives  God  thanks, 
while  his  bones  and  his  flesh  rejoice  in  the 
provisions  of  nature  and  the  blessing  of 
God.  Are  not  the  imperfections  of  infancy 
and  the  decays  of  old  age  the  evils  of  our 
nature,  because  respectively  they  want  de- 
sire, and  they  want  gust  and  relish,  and  re- 
flections upon  their  acts  of  sense?  and 
"  when  desire  fails,  presently  the  mourners 
go  about  the  streets."*  But  then,  that  those 
desires  are  so  provided  for  by  nature  and 
art,  by  ordinary  and  extraordinary,  by  fore- 
sight and  contingency,  according  to  neces- 
sity and  up  unto  convenience,  until  we  ar- 
rive at  abundance,  is  a  chain  of  mercies 
larger  than  the  bow  in  the  clouds,  and  richer 
than  the  trees  of  Eden,  which  were  per- 
mitted to  feed  our  miserable  father.  Is  not 
all  the  earth  our  orchard  and  our  granary, 
our  vineyard  and  our  garden  of  pleasure  ? 
and  the  face  of  the  sea  is  our  traffic,  and  the 
bowels  of  the  sea  is  our  vivarium,  a  place 
for  fish  to  feed  us,  and  to  serve  some  other 
collateral  appendant  needs  ;  and  all  the  face 


*  Eccles.  xii. 

48 


of  heaven  is  a  repository  for  influences  and 
breath,  fruitful  showers  and  fair  refresh 
ments.  And  when  God  made  provision 
for  his  other  creatures,  he  gave  it  of  one 
kind,  and  with  variety  no  greater  than  the 
changes  of  day  and  night,  one  devouring 
the  other,  or  sitting  down  with  his  draught 
of  blood,  or  walking  upon  his  portion  of 
grass :  but  man  hath  all  the  food  of  beasts, 
and  all  the  beasts  themselves  that  are  fit  for 
food,  and  the  food  of  angels,  and  the  dew 
of  heaven,  and  the  fatness  of  the  earth  : 
and  every  part  of  his  body  hath  a  provision 
made  for  it:  and  the  smoothness  of  the 
olive  and  the  juice  of  the  vine  refresh  the 
heart  and  make  the  face  cheerful,  and  serve 
the  ends  of  joy  and  the  festivity  of  man ; 
and  are  not  only  to  cure  hunger  or  to  allay 
thirst,  but  to  appease  a  passion  and  allay  a 
sorrow.  It  is  an  infinite  variety  of  meat 
with  which  God  furnishes  out  the  table  of 
mankind.  And  in  the  covering  our  sin,  and 
clothing  our  nakedness,  God  passed  from 
fig-leaves  to  the  skins  of  beasts,  from  aprons 
to  long  robes,  from  leather  to  wool,  and 
from  thence  to  the  warmth  of  furs  and  the 
coolness  of  silks  ;  he  hath  dressed  not  only 
our  needs,  but  hath  fitted  the  several  por- 
tions of  the  year,  and  made  us  to  go  dressed 
like  our  mother,  leaving  off  the  winter-sa- 
bles when  the  florid  spring  appears;  and  as 
soon  as  the  tulip  fades,  we  put  on  the  robe 
of  summer,  and  then  shear  our  sheep  for 
winter :  and  God  uses  us  as  Joseph  did  his 
brother  Benjamin  ;  we  have  many  changes 
of  raiment,  and  our  mess  is  five  times  bigger 
than  the  provision  made  for  our  brothers  of 
the  creation.  But  the  providence  and  mer- 
cies of  God  are  to  be  estimated  also  accord- 
ing as  these  provisions  are  dispensed  to 
every  single  person.  For  that  I  may  not 
remark  the  bounties  of  God  running  over 
the  tables  of  the  rich,  God  hath  also  made 
provisions  for  the  poorest  person;  so  that  if 
they  can  but  rule  their  desires,  they  shall 
have  their  tables  furnished.  And  this  se- 
cured and  provided  for  by  one  promise  and 
two  duties,  by  our  own  labour  and  our 
brother's  charity  :  and  our  faith  in  this  af- 
fair is  confirmed  by  all  our  own,  and  by  all 
the  experience  of  other  men.  Are  not  all 
the  men  and  the  women  in  the  world  pro- 
vided for,  and  fed,  and  clothed,  till  they  die? 
i  And  was  it  not  always  so  from  the  first 
•  morning  of  the  creatures  ?  And  that  a  man 
is  starved  to  death,  is  a  violence  and  a  rare 
contingency,  happening  almost  as  seldom  as 
for  a  man  to  have  but  one  eye :  and  if  oui 
2  g  2 


378 


MIRACLES  OF  T H 


E  DIVINE  MERCY. 


Serm.  LI 


oeing  provided  for  be  as  certain  as  for  a  man 
to  have  two  eyes,  we  have  reason  to  adore 
the  wisdom  and  admire  the  mercies  of  our 
almighty  Father.  But  these  things  are  evi- 
dent. Is  it  not  a  great  thing  that  God  hath 
made  such  strange  provisions  for  our  health 
— such  infinite  differences  of  plants — and 
hath  discovered  the  secrets  of  their  nature 
by  mere  chance,  or  by  inspiration  ?  Either 
of  which  is  the  miracle  of  Providence  secret 
to  us,  but  ordered  by  certain  and  regular 
decrees  of  Heaven.  It  was  a  huge  dili- 
gence and  care  of  the  Divine  mercy  that 
discovered  to  man  the  secrets  of  spagyric 
medicines,  of  stones,  of  spirits,  and  the  re- 
sults of  seven  or  eight  decoctions,  and  the 
strange  effects  of  accidental  mixtures,  which 
the  art  of  man  could  not  suspect,  being 
bound  up  in  the  secret  sanctuary  of  hidden 
causes  and  secret  natures,  and  being  laid 
open  by  the  concourse  of  twenty  or  thirty 
little  accidents,  all  which  were  ordered  by 
God  as  certainly  as  are  the  first  principles 
of  nature,  or  the  descent  of  sons  from  the 
fathers  in  the  most  noble  families. 

But  that  which  I  shall  observe  in  this 
whole  affair  is,  that  there  are,  both  for  the 
provision  of  our  tables  and  the  relief  of  our 
sicknesses,  so  many  miracles  of  Providence, 
that  they  give  plain  demonstration  what  re- 
lation we  bear  to  heaven :  and  the  poor 
man  need  not  be  troubled  that  he  is  to  ex- 
pect his  daily  portion  after  the  sun  is  up ; 
for  he  hath  found  to  this  day  he  was  not 
deceived ;  and  then  he  may  rejoice,  because 
he  sees,  by  an  effective  probation,  that  in 
heaven  a  decree  was  made,  every  day  to 
send  him  provisions  of  meat  and  drink. 
And  that  is  a  mighty  mercy,  when  the  cir- 
cles of  heaven  are  bowed  down  to  wrap  us 
in  a  bosom  of  care  and  nourishment,  and 
the  wisdom  of  God  is  daily  busied  to  serve 
his  mercy,  as  his  mercy  serves  our  necessi- 
ties. Does  not  God  plant  remedies  there, 
where  the  diseases  are  most  popular?  and 
every  country  is  best  provided  against  its 
own  evils.  Is  not  the  rhubarb  found,  where 
the  sun  most  corrupts  the  liver;  and  the 
scabious  by  the  shore  of  the  sea,  that  God 
might  cure  as  soon  as  he  wounds?  and  the 
inhabitants  may  see  their  remedy  against 
the  leprosy  and  the  scurvy,  before  they  feel 
their  sickness.  And  then  to  this  we  may 
add  nature's  commons  and  open  fields,  the 
shores  of  rivers  and  the  strand  of  the  sea, 
the  unconfined  air,  the  wilderness  that  hath 
no  hedge ;  and  that  in  these  every  man 
*iav  hunt,  and  fowl,  and  fish,  respectively; 


and  that  God  sends  some  miracles  and  ex- 
traordinary blessings  so  for  the  public  good, 
that  he  will  not  endure  they  should  be  en- 
closed and  made  several.  Thus  he  is  pleased 
to  dispense  the  manna  of  Calabria,  the  me- 
dicinal waters  of  Germany,  the  muscles  at 
Sluys  at  this  day,  and  the  Egyptian  beans 
in  the  marshes  of  Albania,  and  the  salt  at 
Troas  of  old  ;  which  God,  to  defeat  the  co- 
vetousness  of  man,  and  to  spread  his  mercy 
over  the  face  of  the  indigent,  as  the  sun 
scatters  his  beams  over  the  bosom  of  the 
whole  earth,  did  so  order,  that  as  long  as 
every  man  was  permitted  to  partake,  the 
bosom  of  heaven  was  open  ;  but  when  man 
gathered  them  into  single  handfuls,  and 
made  them  impropriate,  God  gathered  his 
hand  into  his  bosom,  and  bound  the  heavens 
with  ribs  of  brass,  and  the  earth  with  de- 
crees of  iron ;  and  the  blessing  reverted  to 
him  that  gave  it,  since  they  might  not  receive 
it  to  whom  it  was  sent.  And  in  general, 
this  is  the  excellency  of  his  mercy,  that  all 
our  needs  are  certainly  supplied  and  se- 
cured by  a  promise  which  God  cannot 
break :  but  he  that  cannot  break  the  laws 
of  his  own  promises,  can  break  the  laws  of 
nature,  that  he  may  perform  his  promise, 
and  he  will  do  a  miracle  rather  than  for- 
sake thee  in  thy  needs  :  so  that  our  security 
and  the  relative  mercy  is  bound  upon  us  by 
all  the  power  and  the  truth  of  God. 

8.  But  because  such  is  the  bounty  of  God, 
that  he  hath  provided  a  better  life  for  the 
inheritance  of  man,  if  God  is  so  merciful  in 
making  fair  provisions  for  our  less  noble 
part,  in  order  to  the  transition  toward  our 
country,  we  may  expect  that  the  mercies 
of  God  have  rare  arts  to  secure  to  us  his 
designed  bounty  in  order  to  our  inheritance, 
to  that  which  ought  to  be  our  portion  for 
ever.  And  here  I  consider,  that  it  is  an 
infinite  mercy  of  the  almighty  Father  of 
mercies,  that  he  hath  appointed  to  us  such 
a  religion,  that  leads  us  to  a  huge  felicity 
through  pleasant  ways.  For  the  felicity 
that  is  designed  to  us,  is  so  above  our  pre- 
sent capacities  and  conceptions,  that  while 
we  are  so  ignorant  as  not  to  understand  it, 
we  are  also  so  foolish  as  not  to  desire  it 
with  passions  great  enough  to  perform  the 
little  conditions  of  its  purchase.  God,  there- 
fore, knowing  how  great  an  interest  it  is, 
and  how  apt  we  should  be  to  neglect  it, 
hath  found  out  such  conditions  of  acquiring 
it,  which  are  eases  and  satisfaction  to  our 
present  appetites.  God  hath  bound  our  sal- 
vation upon  us  by  the  endearment  of  tem- 


Serm.LI.      MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


379 


poral  prosperities ;  and  because  we  love  this 
world  so  well,  God  hath  so  ordered  it,  that 
even  this  world  may  secure  the  other.  And 
of  this,  God  in  old  time  made  open  profes- 
sion ;  for  when  he  had  secretly  designed  to 
bring  his  people  to  a  glorious  immortality 
in  another  world,  he  told  them  nothing  of 
rhat,  it  being  a  thing  bigger  than  the  capa- 
city of  their  thoughts,  or  of  their  theology ; 
.^ut  told  them  that  which  would  tempt  them 
most,  and  endear  obedience  :  "  If  you  will 
obey,  ye  shall  eat  the  good  things  of  the 
.and;"  ye  shall  possess  a  rich  country,  ye 
shall  triumph  over  your  enemies,  ye  shall 
have  numerous  families,  blessed  children, 
rich  granaries,  overrunning  wine-presses. 
For  God  knew  the  cognation  of  most  of 
them  was  so  dear  between  their  affections 
and  the  good  things  of  this  world,  that  if 
they  did  not  obey  in  hope  of  that  they  did 
need,  and  fancy,  and  love,  and  see,  and  feel 
— it  was  not  to  be  expected  they  should  quit 


material  satisfactions ;  and  now  we  cannot 
be  happy  unless  we  be  pious,  and  the  reli- 
gion of  a  Christian  is  the  greatest  security, 
and  the  most  certain  instrument  of  making 
a  man  rich,  and  pleasing,  and  healthful,  and 
wise,  and  beloved,  in  the  whole  world.  I 
shall  now  remark  only  two  or  three  in- 
stances; for  the  main  body  of  this  truth  I 
have  otherwhere  represented."* 

1.  The  whole  religion  of  a  Christian,  as 
it  relates  to  others,  is  nothing  but  justice  and 
mercy,  certain  parents  of  peace  and  benefit; 
and  upon  this  supposition,  what  evil  can 
come  to  a  just  and  a  merciful,  to  a  necessary 
and  useful  person?  For  the  first  permission 
of  evil  was  upon  the  stock  of  injustice.  He 
that  kills  may  be  killed,  and  he  that  does 
injury  may  be  mischieved  ;  he  that  invades 
another  man's  right,  must  venture  the  loss 
of  his  own ;  and  when  I  put  my  brother  to 
his  defence,  he  may  chance  drive  the  evil  so 
far  from  himself,  that  it  may  reach  me. 


their  affections  for  a  secret  in  another  world,  i  Laws  and  judges,  private  and  public  jud 


whither  before  they  come  they  must  die, 
and  lose  all  desire,  and  all  capacities  of  en- 
joyment. But  this  design  of  God,  which 
was  barefaced  in  the  days  of  the  law,  is  now 
in  the  gospel  interwoven  secretly  (but  yet 
plain  enough  to  be  discovered  by  an  eye  of 
faith  and  reason)  into  every  virtue;  and 
temporal  advantage  is  a  great  ingredient  in 


catures,  wars  and  tribunals,  axes  and  wheels, 
were  made,  not  for  the  righteous,  but  for  the 
unjust;  and  all  that  whole  order  of  things 
and  persons  would  be  useless,  if  men  did 
do  as  they  would  willingly  suffer. 

2.  And  because  there  is  no  evil  that  can 
befall  a  just  man,  unless  it  comes  by  injury 
i  and  violence,  our  religion  hath  also  made  as 


the  constitution  of  every  Christian  grace,  good  provisions  against  that  too,  as  the  na- 
For  so  the  richest  tissue  dazzles  the  behold-  j  ture  of  the  thing  will  suffer.    For  by  pa- 


er's  eye,  when  the  sun  reflects  upon  the  j  tience  we  are  reconciled  to  the  sufferance, 
metal,  the  silver  and  the  gold  weaved  into  and  by  hope  and  faith  we  see  a  certain  conse- 


fantastic  imagery,  or  a  wealthy  plainness  ;  |  quent  reward  ;  and  by  praying  for  the  perse- 
but  the  rich  wire  and  shining  filaments  are  j  cuting  man  we  are  cured  of  all  the  evil  of 


wrought  upon  cheaper  silk,  the  spoil  of 
worms  and  flies;  so  is  the  embroidery  of 
our  virtue.  The  glories  of  the  Spirit  dwell 
upon  the  face  and  vestment,  upon  the 
fringes  and  the  borders,  and  there  we  see 
the  beryl  and  the  onyx,  the  jasper  and  the 
sardonyx,  order  and  perfection,  love  and 
peace,  and  joy,  mortification  of  the  passions 
and  ravishment  of  the  will,  adherences  to 
God  and  imitation  of  Christ,  reception  and 
entertainment  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  long- 
ings after  heaven,  humility  and  chastity, 
temperance  and  sobriety  ;  these  make  the 
frame  of  the  garment,  the  clothes  of  the 
soul,  that  it  may  not  be  found  naked  in  the 
day  of  the  Lord's  visitation ;  but  through 
these  rich  materials  a  thread  of  silk  is  drawn, 


the  mind,  the  envy  and  the  fretfulness  that 
uses  to  gall  the  troubled  and  resisting  man; 
and  when  we  turn  all  the  passion  into  chari- 
ty, and  God  turns  all  the  suffering  into 
reward,  there  remains  nothing  that  is  very 
formidable.  So  that  our  religion  obliges  us 
to  such  duties  which  prevent  all  evils  that 
happen  justly  to  men;  and  in  our  religion 
no  man  can  suffer  as  a  malefactor,  if  he 
follows  the  religion  truly;  and  for  the  evils 
that  are  unavoidable  and  come  by  violence, 
the  graces  of  this  discipline  turn  them  into 
virtues  and  rewards,  and  make  them  that  in 
their  event  they  are  desirable,  and  in  the 
suffering  they  are  very  tolerable. 

3.  But  then  when  we  consider  that  the 
religion  of  a  Christian  consists  in  doing 


some  compliance  with  worms  and  weaker  good  to  all  men  ;  that  it  is  made  up  of  mer- 
creatures,  something  that  shall  please  our  cies  and  friendships,  of  friendly  conventions 

bowels,  and  make  the  lower  man  to  rejoice;  —  . 

they  are  wrought  upon  secular  content  and  .        *  Life  of  Holy  Jesus,  Part  ii.  Disc.  14. 


380 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY.     Serm.  LI. 


and  assemblies  of  saints ;  that  all  are  to  do  !  they  fall  short,  yet  they  return  my  friend  or* 
public  works  for  necessary  uses,  that  is,  to  I  my  friendship  to  me;  or  if  they  go  home, 
be  able  to  be  beneficial  to  the  public,  and  they  secure  him  whom  they  pray  for;  and 
not  to  be  burdensome  to  any,  where  it  can  I  have  not  only  the  comfort  of  rejoicing  with 
be  avoided;  what  can  be  wished  to  men  in 'him,  but  the  honour  and  the  reward  of  pro- 
relation  to  others,  and  what  can  be  more  curing  him  a  joy.  And  certain  it  is,  that 
beneficial  to  themselves,  than  that  they  be  the  charitable  prayer  for  another  can  never 


such  whom  other  men  will  value  for  their 
interest,  such  whom  the  public  does  need, 
such  whom  princes  and  nobles  ought  to 
esteem,  and  all  men  can  make  use  of  ac- 
cording to  their  several  conditions;  that  they 
are  so  well  provided  for,  that,  unless  a  per- 
secution disables  them,  they  cannot  only 
maintain  themselves,  but  oblige  others  to 
their  charity?  This  is  a  temporal  good, 
which  all  wise  men  reckon  as  a  part  of 
that  felicity  which  recompenses  all  the  la- 
bours of  their  day,  and  sweetens  the  sleep 
of  their  night,  and  places  them  in  that  circle 
of  neighbourhood  and  amity,  where  men 
are  most  valued  and  most  secure. 

4.  To  this  we  may  add  this  material  con- 
sideration: That  all  those  graces,  which 
oblige  us  to  do  good  to  others,  are  nothing 
else  but  certain  instruments  of  doing  ad- 
vantage to  ourselves.  It  is  a  huge  noble- 
ness of  charity  to  give  alms,  not  only  to 
our  brother,  but  for  him.  It  is  the  Christian 
sacrifice,  like  that  of  Job,  who  made  obla- 
tions for  his  sons  when  they  feasted  each 
other,  fearing  lest  they  had  sinned  against 
God.  And  if  I  give  alms,  and  fast,  and 
pray,  in  behalf  of  my  prince  or  my  patron, 
my  friend  or  my  children,  I  do  a  combina- 
tion of  holy  actions;  which  are,  of  all  things 
that  I  can  do,  the  most  effectual  intercession 
for  him  whom  I  so  recommend.  But  then 
observe  the  art  of  this,  and  what  a  plot  is 
laid  by  the  Divine  mercy,  to  secure  blessing 
to  ourselves.  That  I  am  a  person  fit  to  in- 
tercede and  pray  for  him,  must  suppose  me 
a  gracious  person,  one  whom  God  rather 
will  accept;  so  that,  before  I  be  fit  to  pray 
and  interpose  for  him,  I  must  first  become 
dear  to  God:  and  my  charity  can  do  him  no 
good,  for  whose  interest  I  gave  it,  but  by 
making  me  first  acceptable  to  God,  that  so 
he  may  the  rather  hear  me.  And  when  I 
fast,  it  is  first  an  act  of  repentance  for  my- 
self, before  it  can  be  an  instrument  of  impe- 
tration  for  him.    And  thus  I  do  my  brother 


want  what  it  asks,  or,  instead  of  it,  a  greater 
blessing.  The  good  man,— that  saw  his 
poor  brother  troubled,  because  he  had  noth- 
ing to  present  for  an  offering  at  the  holy 
communion,  (when  all  knew  themselves 
obliged  to  do  kindness  for  Christ's  poor 
members,  with  which  themselves  were  in- 
corporated with  so  mysterious  a  union,)  and 
gave  him  money,  that  he  might  present  for 
the  good  of  his  soul,  as  other  Christians  did, 
— had  not  only  the  reward  of  alms,  but  of 
religion  too ;  and  that  offering  was  well  hus- 
banded, for  it  did  benefit  to  two  souls.  For 
as  I  sin  when  I  make  another  sin ;  so  if  I 
help  to  do  a  good,  I  am  a  sharer  in  the  gains 
of  that  talent;  and  he  shall  not  have  the 
less,  but  I  shall  be  rewarded  upon  his  stock. 
And  this  was  it  which  David  rejoiced  in : 
"  Particeps  sum  omnium  timentium  te 
"  I  am  a  partner,  a  companion,  of  all  them 
that  fear  thee ;"  I  share  in  their  profits.  If 
I  do  but  rejoice  at  every  grace  of  God  which 
I  see  in  my  brother,  I  shall  be  rewarded  for 
that  grace.  And  we  need  not  envy  the  ex- 
cellency of  another;  it  becomes  mine  as  well 
as  his ;  and  if  I  do  rejoice,  I  shall  have 
cause  to  rejoice.  So  excellent,  so  full,  so 
artificial  is  the  mercy  of  God,  in  making, 
and  seeking,  and  finding  all  occasions  to  do 
us  good. 

5.  The  very,  charity,  and  love,  and  mercy, 
that  is  commanded  in  our  religion,  is  in  itself 
a  great  excellency ;  not  only  in  order  to 
heaven,  but  to  the  comforts  of  the  earth  too  ; 
and  such,  without  which  a  man  is  not  capa- 
ble of  a  blessing  or  a  comfort.  And  he  that 
sent  charity  and  friendships  into  the  world, 
intended  charity  to  be  as  relative  as  justice, 
and  to  do  its  effect  both  upon  the  loving  and 
the  beloved  person.  It  is  a  reward  and  a 
blessing  to  a  kind  father,  when  his  children 
do  well ;  and  every  degree  of  prudent  love 
which  he  bears  to  them,  is  an  endearment 
of  his  joy  ;  and  he  that  loves  them  not,  but 
looks  upon  them  as  burdens  of  necessity 


a  single  benefit,  by  doing  myself  a  double,  and  loads  to  his  fortune,  loses  those  many 
one.  And  it  is  also  so  ordered,  that  when  I  rejoicings,  and  the  pleasures  of  kindness 
pray  for  a  person  for  whom  God  will  not  which  they  feast  withal,  who  love  to  divide 
hear  me,  yet  then  he  will  hear  me  for  myself,  ,  their  fortunes  amongst  them,  because  they 
though  I  say  nothing  in  my  own  behalf:  and  have  already  divided  large  and  equal  por- 
our  prayers  are  like  Jonathan's  arrows ;  if  tions  of  their  heart.    I  have  instanced  in 


Sbrm.  LI.      MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


381 


this  relation  ;  but  it  is  true  in  all  the  excel- 
lency of  friendship:  and  every  man  rejoices 
twice,  when  he  hath  a  partner  of  his  joy. 
A  friend  shares  my  sorrow,  and  makes  it 
but  a  moiety  ;  but  he  swells  my  joy,  and 
makes  it  double.  For  so  two  channels  di- 
vide the  river,  and  lessen  it  into  rivulets, 
and  make  it  fordable,  and  apt  to  be  drunk  up 
at  the  first  revels  of  the  Syrian  star  ;  but  two 
torches  do  not  divide,  but  increase  the  flame. 
And  though  my  tears  are  the  sooner  dried 
up,  when  they  run  upon  my  friend's  cheeks 
in  the  furrows  of  compassion ;  yet  when 
my  flame  hath  kindled  his  lamp,  we  unite 
the  glories,  and  make  them  radiant,  like  the 
golden  candlesticks  that  burn  before  the 
throne  of  God  ;  because  they  shine  by  num- 
bers, by  unions,  and  confederations  of  light 
and  joy. 

And  now,  upon  this  account,  which  is 
already  so  great,  I  need  not  reckon  concern- 
ing the  collateral  issues  and  little  streams  of 
comfort,  which  God  hath  made  to  issue 
from  that  religion  to  which  God  hath  obliged 
us ;  such  as  are  mutual  comforts, — visiting 
sick  people, — instructing  the  ignorant, — and 
so  becoming  better  instructed,  and  fortified, 
and  comforted  ourselves,  by  the  instruments 
of  our  brother's  ease  and  advantages; — the 
glories  of  converting  souls,  of  rescuing  a 
sinner  from  hell,  of  a  miserable  man  from 
the  grave, — the  honour  and  nobleness  of 
being  a  good  man, — the  noble  confidence 
and  the  bravery  of  innocence, — the  ease  of 
patience, — the  quiet  of  contentedness, — the 
rest  of  peacefulness, — the  worthiness  of 
forgiving  others, — the  greatness  of  spirit 
that  is  in  despising  riches, — and  the  sweet- 
ness of  spirit  that  is  in  meekness  and  hu- 
mility ; — these  are  Christian  graces  in  every 
sense;  favours  of  God,  and  issues  of  his 
bounty  and  his  mercy.  But  all  that  I  shall 
now  observe  further  concerning  them  is 
this  :  That  God  hath  made  these  necessary; 
he  hath  obliged  us  to  have  them,  under  pain 
of  damnation ;  he  hath  made  it  so  sure  to 
us  to  become  happy  even  in  this  world,  that 
if  we  will  not,  he  hath  threatened  to  destroy 
us ;  which  is  not  a  desire  or  aptness  to  do 
us  an  evil,  but  an  art  to  make  it  impossible 
that  we  should.  For  God  hath  so  ordered 
it,  that  we  cannot  perish,  unless  we  desire 
it  ourselves ;  and  unless  we  will  do  ourselves 
a  mischief  on  purpose  to  get  hell,  we  are 
secured  of  heaven ;  and  there  is  not  in  the 
nature  of  things  any  way  that  can  more 
infallibly  do  the  work  of  felicity  upon  crea- 
tures that  can  choose,  than  to  make  that 


which  they  should  naturally  choose  be  spi- 
ritually their  duty  :  and  then  he  will  make 
them  happy  hereafter,  if  they  will  suffer 
him.  to  make  them  happy  here.  But  hard 
by  stand  another  throng  of  mercies,  that 
must  be  considered  by  us,  and  God  mu3t  be 
glorified  in  them;  for  they  are  such  as  are 
intended  to  preserve  to  us  all  this  felicity. 

9.  God,  that  he  might  secure  our  duty 
and  our  present  and  consequent  felicity, 
hath  tied  us  with  golden  chains,  and  bound 
us,  not  only  with  the  bracelets  of  love  and 
the  deliciousness  of  hope,  but  with  the  ruder 
cords  of  fear  and  reverence ;  even  with  all 
the  innumerable  parts  of  a  restraining  grace. 
For  it  is  a  huge  aggravation  of  human  ca- 
lamity to  consider,  that  after  a  man  hath 
been  instructed  in  the  love  and  advantages 
of  his  religion,  and  knows  it  to  be  the  way 
of  honour  and  felicity,  and  that  to  prevari- 
cate his  holy  sanctions  is  certain  death  and 
disgrace  to  eternal  ages;  yet  that  some  men 
shall  despise  their  religion,  others  shall  be 
very  wary  of  its  laws,  and  call  the  com- 
mandments a  burden ;  and  too  many,  with 
a  perfect  choice,  shall  delight  in  death,  and 
the  ways  that  lead  thither ;  and  they  choose 
money  infinitely,  and  to  rule  over  their 
brother  by  all  means,  and  to  be  revenged 
extremely,  and  to  prevail  by  wrong,  and  to 
do  all  that  they  can,  and  please  themselves 
in  all  that  they  desire,  and  love  it  fondly, 
and  be  restless  in  all  things  but  where  they 
perish.  If  God  should  not  interpose  by  the 
arts  of  a  miraculous  and  merciful  grace, 
and  put  a  bridle  in  the  mouth  of  our  lusts, 
and  chastise  the  sea  of  our  follies  by  some 
heaps  of  sand  or  the  walls  of  a  rock,  we 
should  perish  in  the  deluge  of  sin  universal- 
ly; as  the  old  world  did  in  that  storm  of  the 
Divine  anger,  "  the  flood  of  waters.''  But 
thus  God  suffers  but  few  adulteries  in  the 
world,  in  respect  of  what  would  be,  if  all 
men  that  desire  to  be  adulterers  had  power 
and  opportunity.  And  yet  some  men,  and 
very  many  women,  are,  by  modesty  and 
natural  shamefacedness,  chastised  in  their 
too  forward  appetites ;  or  the  laws  of  man, 
or  public  reputation,  or  the  indecency  and 
unhandsome  circumstances  of  sin,  check 
the  desire,  and  make  it  that  it  cannot  arrive 
at  act.  For  so  have  I  seen  a  busy  flame 
sitting  upon  a  sullen  coal,  turn  its  point  to 
all  the  angles  and  portions  of  its  neighbour- 
hood, and  reach  at  a  heap  of  prepared 
straw,  which,  like  a  bold  temptation,  called 
it  to  a  restless  motion  and  activity ;  but 
either  it  was  at  too  big  a  distance,  or  a  gentle 


382 


MIRACLES  OF  TH 


E  DIVINE  MERCY. 


Serm.  LI. 


breath  from  heaven  diverted  the  sphere  and  } 
the  ray  of  the  fire  to  the  other  side,  and  so 
prevented  the  violence  of  the  burning;  till 
the  flame  expired  in  a  weak  consumption, 
and  died,  turning  into  smoke,  and  the  cool- 
ness of  death,  and  the  harmlessness  of  a 
cinder.  And  when  a  man's  desires  are 
winged  with  sails  and  a  lusty  wind  of  pas- 
sion, and  pass  on  in  a  smooth  channel  of 
opportunity  ,  God  oftentimes  hinders  the  lust 
and  the  impatient  desire  from  passing  on  to 
its  port,  and  entering  into  action,  by  a  sud- 
den thought,  by  a  little  remembrance  of  a 
word,  by  a  fancy,  by  a  sudden  disability,  by 
unreasonable  and  unlikely  fears,  by  the  sud- 
den intervening  of  company,  by  the  very 
weariness  of  the  passion,  by  curiosity,  by 
want  of  health,  by  the  too  great  violence  of 
the  desire,  bursting  itself  with  its  fulness 
into  dissolution  and  a  remiss  easiness,  by  a 
sentence  of  Scripture,  by  the  reverence  of  a 
good  man,  or  else  by  the  proper  interven- 
tions of  the  Spirit  of  grace,  chastising  the 
crime,  and  representing  its  appendant  mis- 
chiefs, and  its  constituent  disorder  and  irre- 
gularity; and  after  all  this,  the  very  anguish 
and  trouble  of  being  defeated  in  the  purpose, 
nath  rolled  itself  into  so  much  uneasiness 
and  unquiet  reflections,  that  the  man  is 
grown  ashamed,  and  vexed  into  more  sober 
counsels. 

And  the  mercy  of  God  is  not  less  than 
infinite,  in  separating  men  from  the  occa- 
sions of  their  sin,  from  the  neighbourhood 
and  temptation.  For  if  the  hyaena  and  a 
dog  sbould  be  thrust  into  the  same  kennel, 
one  of  them  would  soon  find  a  grave, 
and  it  may  be,  both  of  them  their  death. 
So  infallible  is  the  ruin  of  most  men, 
if  they  be  showed  a  temptation.  Nitre 
*nd  resin,  naphtha  and  bitumen,  sulphur 
and  pitch,  are  their  constitution  ;  and  the 
fire  passes  upon  them  infinitely,  and  there 
is  none  to  secure  them.  But  God,  by  re- 
moving our  sins  far  from  us,  "  as  far  as  the 
east  is  from  the  west,"  not  only  putting 
away  the  guilt,  but  setting  the  occasion  far 
from  us,  extremely  far, — so  far  that  some- 
times we  cannot  sin,  and  many  times  not 
easily, — hath  magnified  his  mercy,  by  giv- 
ing us  safety  in  all  those  measures  in  which 
we  are  untempted.  It  would  be  the  matter 
of  new  discourses,  if  I  should  consider  con- 
cerning the  variety  of  God's  grace ;  his  pre- 
venting and  accompanying,  his  inviting  and 
corroborating  grace  ;  his  assisting  us  to  will, 
his  enabling  us  to  do  ;  his  sending  angels  to 
watch  us,  to  remove  us  from  evil  company, 


to  drive  us  with  swords  of  fire  from  forbid- 
den instances,  to  carry  us  by  unobserved 
opportunities  into  holy  company,  to  minis- 
ter occasions  of  holy  discourses,  to  make  it 
by  some  means  or  other  necessary  to  do  a 
holy  action,  to  make  us  in  love  with  virtue, 
because  they  have  mingled  that  virtue  with 
a  just  and  a  fair  interest;  to  some  men,  by 
making  religion  that  thing  they  live  upon  ; 
to  others,  the  means  of  their  reputation 
and  the  securities  of  their  honour,  and  thou- 
sands of  ways  more,  which  every  prudent 
man  that  watches  the  ways  of  God,  cannot 
but  have  observed.  But  I  must  also  observe 
other  great  conjugations  of  mercy  ;  for  he 
that  is  to  pass  through  an  infinite,  must 
not  dwell  upon  every  little  line  of  life. 

10.  The  next  order  of  mercies  is  such 
which  is  of  so  pure  and  unmingled  consti- 
tution, that  it  hath  at  first  no  regard  to  the 
capacities  and  dispositions  of  the  receivers  ; 
and  afterwards,  when  it  hath,  it  relates  only 
to  such  conditions  which  itself  creates  and 
produces  in  the  suscipient ;  I  mean,  the 
mercies  of  the  Divine  predestination.  For 
was  it  not  an  infinite  mercy,  that  God  should 
predestinate  all  mankind  to  salvation  by 
Jesus  Christ,  even  when  he  had  no  other 
reason  to  move  him  to  do  it,  but  because 
man  was  miserable,  and  needed  his  pity  ? 
But  I  shall  instance  only  in  the  intermedial 
part  of  this  mysterious  mercy.  Why  should 
God  cause  us  to  be  born  of  Christian  parents, 
and  not  to  be  circumcised  by  the  impure 
hands  of  a  Turkish  priest?  What  distin- 
guished me  from  another,  that  my  father 
was  severe  in  his  discipline,  and  careful  to 
"  bring  me  up  in  the  nurture  and  admoni- 
tion of  the  Lord ;"  and  I  was  not  exposed 
to  the  carelessness  of  an  irreligious  guardian, 
and  taught  to  steal  and  lie,  and  to  make  sport 
with  my  infant  vices  and  beginnings  of 
iniquity?  Who  was  it  that  discerned  our 
persons  from  the  lot  of  dying  chrysoms, 
whose  portion  must  be  among  those  who 
never  glorified  God  with  a  free  obedience? 
What  had  you  done  of  good,  or  towards  it, 
that  you  were  not  condemned  to  that  stupid 
ignorance,  which  makes  the  souls  of  most 
men  to  be  little  higher  than  beasts;  and  who 
understand  nothing  of  religion  and  noble 
principles,  of  parables  and  wise  sayings  of 
old  men?  And  not  only  in  our  cradles,  but 
in  our  schools  and  our  colleges,  in  our 
friendships  and  in  our  marriages,  in  our 
enmities  and  in  all  our  conversation,  in  our 
virtues  and  in  our  vices,  where  all  things  in 
us  were  equal,  or  else  we  were  the  inferior, 


Serm.LI.     MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY 


383 


,here  is  none  of  us  but  have  felt  the  mercies 
of  many  differences.  Or  it  may  be,  my 
brother  and  I  were  intemperate,  and  drunk, 
and  quarrplsome,  and  he  killed  a  man  :  but 
God  did  not  suffer  me  to  do  so :  he  fell  down 
and  died  with  a  little  disorder ;  I  was  a  beast, 
and  yet  was  permitted  to  live,  and  not  yet 
to  die  in  my  sins :  he  did  amiss  once,  and 
was  surprised  in  that  disadvantage;  I  sin 
daily,  and  am  still  invited  to  repentance :  he 
would  fain  have  lived  and  amended ;  I  ne- 
glect the  grace,  but  am  allowed  the  time. 
And  when  God  sends  the  angel  of  his  wrath 
to  execute  his  anger  upon  a  sinful  people, 
we  are  encompassed  with  funerals,  and  yet 
he  angel  hath  not  smitten  us.  What  or 
;vho  makes  the  difference?  We  shall  then 
see,  when,  in  the  separations  of  eternity, 
we,  sitting  in  glory,  shall  see  some  of  the 
partners  of  our  sins  carried  into  despair  and 
the  portions  of  the  left  hand,  and  roaring  in 
the  seats  of  the  reprobate ;  we  shall  then 
perceive  that  it  is  even  that  mercy  which 
hanh  no  cause  but  itself,  no  measure  of  its 
emanation  but  our  misery,  no  natural  limit 
but  eternity,  no  beginning  but  God,  no  object 
but  man,  no  reason  but  an  essential  and  an 
unalterable  goodness,  no  variety  but  our 
necessity  and  capacity,  no  change  but  n&w 
instances  of  its  own  nature,  no  ending  or 
repentance,  but  our  absolute  and  obstinate 
refusal  to  entertain  it. 

11.  Lastly:  All  the  mercies  of  God  are 
concentred  in  that  which  is  all  the  felicity  of 
man ;  and  God  is  so  great  a  lover  of  souls, 
that  he  provides  securities  and  fair  condi- 
tions for  them,  even  against  all  our  reason 
and  hopes,  our  expectations  and  weak  dis- 
coursings.  The  particulars  I  shall  remark 
are  these  :  1.  God's  mercy  prevails  over  the 
malice  and  ignorances,  the  weaknesses  and 
follies  of  men ;  so  that  in  the  conventions 
and  assemblies  of  heretics,  (as  the  word  is 
usually  understood,  for  erring  and  mistaken 
people.)  although  their  doctrines  are  such, 
that,  if  men  should  live  according  to  their  pro- 
per and  natural  consequences,  they  would 
live  impiously,  yet  in  every  one  of  these 
there  are  persons  so  innocently  and  invinci- 
bly mistaken,  and  who  mean  nothing  but 
truth,  while  in  the  simplicity  of  their  heart 
they  talk  nothing  but  error,  that,  in  the  defi- 
ance and  contradiction  of  their  own  doc- 
trines, they  live  according  to  its  contradic- 
tory. He  that  believes  contrition  alone, 
with  confession  to  a  priest,  is  enough  to 
expiate  ten  thousand  sins,  is  furnished  with 
nn  excuse  easy  enough  to  quit  himself  from 


the  troubles  of  a  holy  life;  and  he  that  hath 
a  great  many  cheap  ways  of  buying  off  his 
penances  for  a  little  money,  even  for  the 
greatest  sins,  is  taught  a  way  not  to  fear  the 
doing  of  an  act,  for  which  he  must  repent, 
since  repentance  is  a  duly  so  soon,  so  cer- 
tainly, and  so  easily  performed.  But  these 
are  notorious  doctrines  of  the  Roman  church  ; 
and  yet  God  so  loves  the  souls  of  his  crea- 
tures, that  many  men,  who  trust  to  these 
doctrines  in  their  discourses,  dare  not  rely 
upon  them  in  their  lives.  But  while  they 
talk  as  if  they  did  not  need  to  live  strictly, 
many  of  them  live  so  strictly  as  if  they  did 
not  believe  so  foolishly.  He  that  tells  that, 
antecedently,  God  hath,  to  all  human  choice, 
decreed  men  to  heaven  or  to  hell,  takes  away 
from  men  all  care  of  the  way,  because  they 
believe  that  he  that  infallibly  decreed  that 
end,  hath  unalterably  appointed  the  means  ; 
and  some  men  that  talk  thus  wildly,  live 
soberly,  and  are  overwrought  in  their  un- 
derstanding by  some  secret  art  of  God,  that 
man  may  not  perish  in  his  ignorance,  but 
be  assisted  in  his  choice,  and  saved  by  the 
Divine  mercies.  And  there  is  no  sect  of 
men  but  are  furnished  with  antidotes  and 
little  excuses  to  cure  the  venom  of  their 
doctrine;  and  therefore,  although  the  adhe- 
rent and  constituent  poison  is  notorious,  and 
therefore  to  be  declined,  yet,  because  it  is 
collaterally  cured  and  overpowered  by  the 
torrent  and  wisdom  of  God's  mercies,  the 
men  are  to  be  taken  into  the  quire,  that  we 
may  all  join,  giving  God  praise  for  the  ope- 
ration of  his  hands. — 2.  I  said  formerly,  that 
there  are  many  secret  and  undiscerned  mer- 
cies by  which  men  live,  and  of  which  men 
can  give  no  account,  till  they  come  to  give 
God  thanks  at  their  publication;  and  of  this 
sort  is  that  mercy  which  God  reserves  for 
the  souls  of  many  millions  of  men  and  wo- 
men, concerning  whom  we  have  no  hopes, 
if  we  account  concerning  them  by  the  usual 
proportions  of  revelation  and  Christian  com- 
mandments; and  yet  we  are  taught  to  hope 
some  strange  good  things  concerning  them, 
by  the  analogy  and  general  rules  of  the  Di- 
vine mercy.  For  what  shall  become  of 
ignorant  Christians,  people  that  live  in  wil- 
dernesses, and  places  more  desert  than  a 
primitive  hermitage?  people  that  are  bap- 
tized, and  taught  to  go  to  church,  it  may  be, 
once  a  year?  people  that  can  get  no  more 
knowledge ;  they  know  not  where  to  have 
it,  nor  how  to  desire  it?  And  yet  that  an 
eternity  of  pains  shall  be  consequent  to 
such  an  ignorance,  is  unlike  the  mercy  oi 


384 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERC  Y.     Serm.  LI1. 


God;  and  yet  that  they  shall  be  in  any  dis- 
position towards  an  eternity  of  intellectual 
ijoys,  is  no  where  set  down  in  the  leaves  of 
revelation.  And  when  the  Jews  grew  re- 
bellious, or  a  silly  woman  of  the  daughters 
of  Abraham  was  tempted,  and  sinned,  and 
punished  with  death,  we  usually  talk  as  if 
that  death  passed  on  to  a  worse;  but  yet  we 
may  arrest  our  thoughts  upon  the  Divine 
mercies,  and  consider  that  it  is  reasonable  to 
expect  from  the  Divine  goodness,  that  no 
greater  forfeiture  be  taken  upon  a  law  than 
was  expressed  in  its  sanction  and  publica- 
tion. He  that  makes  a  law,  and  binds  it 
with  the  penalty  of  stripes,  we  say,  he  in- 
tends not  to  afflict  the  disobedient  with  scor- 
pions and  axes :  and  it  had  been  hugely 
necessary  that  God  had  scared  the  Jews 
from  their  sins  by  threatening  the  pains  of 
hell  to  them  that  disobeyed,  if  he  intended 
to  inflict  it;  for  although  many  men  would 
have  ventured  the  future,  since  they  are  not 
affrightened  with  the  present  and  visible 
evil,  yet  some  persons  would  have  had  more 
philosophical  and  spiritual  apprehensions 
than  others,  and  have  been  infallibly  cured, 
in  all  their  temptations,  with  the  fear  of  an 
eternal  pain ;  and,  however,  whether  they 
had  or  no,  yet  since  it  cannot  be  understood 
how  it  consists  with  the  Divine  justice  to 
exact  a  pain  bigger  than  he  threatened, 
greater  than  he  gave  warning  of,  we  are  sure 
it  is  a  great  way  off  from  God's  mercy  10  do 
so.  He  that  usually  imposes  less,  and  is 
loth  to  inflict  any,  and  very  often  forgives 
it  all,  is  hugely  distant  from  exacting  an 
eternal  punishment,  when  the  most  that  he 
threatened,  and  gave  notice  of,  was  but  a 
temporal.  The  effect  of  this  consideration 
I  would  have  to  be  this  :  That  we  may  pub- 
licly worship  this  mercy  of  God,  which  is 
kept  in  secret,  and  that  we  be  not  too  for- 
ward in  sentencing  all  heathens,  and  pre- 
varicating Jews,  to  the  eternal  pains  of  hell; 
but  to  hope  that  they  have  a  portion  in  the 
secrets  of  the  Divine  mercy,  where  also, 
unless  many  of  us  have  some  little  portions 
deposited,  our  condition  will  be  very  uncer- 
tain, and  sometimes  most  miserable.  God 
knows  best  how  intolerably  accursed  a  thing 
it  is  to  perish  in  the  eternal  flames  of  hell, 
and  therefore  he  is  not  easy  to  inflict  it;  and 
if  the  joys  of  heaven  be  too  great  to  be  ex- 
pected upon  too  easy  terms,  certainly  the 
pains  of  the  damned  are  infinitely  too  big  to 
pass  lightly  upon  persons  who  cannot  help 
themselves,  and  who,  if  they  were  helped 
with  clearer  revelations,  would  have  avoided 


I  them.  But  as  in  these  things  we  must  not 
j  pry  into  the  secrets  of  the  Divine  economy, 
I  being  sure,  whether  it  be  so  or  not,  it  is  most 
just,  even  as  it  is  ;  so  we  may  expect  to  see 
j  the  glories  of  the  Divine  mercy  made  pub 
lie,  in  unexpected  instances,  at  the  great 
day  of  manifestation.  And,  indeed,  our  dead 
many  times  go  forth  from  our  hands  very 
strangely  and  carelessly,  without  prayers, 
without  sacraments,  without  consideration, 
without  counsel,  and  without  comfort;  and 
to  dress  the  souls  of  our  dear  people  at  so 
sad  a  parting,  is  an  employment  we  there- 
fore omit,  not  always  because  we  are  negli- 
gent, but  because  the  work  is  sad,  and  allays 
the  affections  of  the  world  with  those  melan- 
cholic circumstances ;  but  if  God  did  not  in 
his  mercies  make  secret  and  equivalent  pro- 
visions for  them,  and  take  care  of  his  re- 
deemed ones,  we  might  unhappily  meet 
them  in  a  sad  eternity,  and,  without  reme- 
dy, weep  together  and  groan  for  ever!  But 
"  God  hath  provided  better  things  for  them, 
that  they,  without  us,"  that  is,  without  our 
assistances,  "  shall  be  made  perfect." 


SERMON  LI  I. 

PART  III. 

There  are  very  many  more  orders  and 
conjugations  of  mercies  ;  but  because  the 
numbers  of  them  naturally  tend  to  their  own 
greatness,  that  is,  to  have  no  measure,  I  must 
reckon  but  a  few  more,  and  them  also  with- 
out order:  for  that  they  do  descend  upon 
us,  we  see  and  feel,  but  by  what  order  of 
things  or  causes,  is  as  undiscerned  as  the 
head  of  Nilus,  or  a  sudden  remembrance  of 
a  long-neglected  and  forgotton  proposition. 

1.  But  upon  this  account  it  is  that  good 
men  have  observed,  that  the  providence  of 
God  is  so  great  a  provider  for  holy  living, 
and  does  so  certainly  minister  to  religion, 
that  nature  and  chance,  the  order  of  the 
world  and  the  influences  of  Heaven,  are 
taught  to  serve  the  ends  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
and  the  spirit  of  a  man.  I  do  not  speak  of 
the  miracles  that  God  hath  in  the  several 
periods  of  the  world  wrought  for  the  estab- 
lishing his  laws,  and  confirming  his  pro- 
mises, and  securing  our  obedience  ;  though 
that  was,  all  the  way,  the  overflowings  and 
miracles  of  mercy,  as  well  as  power :  but 
that  which  I  consider  is,  that  besides  the 


Serm.  LII.      MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


355 


extraordinary  emanations  of  the  Divine  came  thither  to  worship ;  that  at  their  so- 
power  upon  the  first  and  most  solemn  occa-  j  lemn  festivals  there  was  reception  in  the 
sions  of  an  institution,  and  the  first  begin-, town  for  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land; 
nings  of  a  religion,  (such  as  were  the  won-  j  concerning  which,  although  I  cannot  affirm 
ders  God  did  in  Egypt  and  in  the  wilder-  \  any  thing,  yet  this  is  certain,  that  no  godly 
ness,  preparatory  to  the  sanction  of  that  j  person,  among  all  the  tribes  of  Israel,  was 
law  and  the  first  covenant,  and  the  miracles  j  ever  a  beggar ;  but  all  the  variety  of  human 
wrought  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  for  the  1  chances  were  overruled  to  the  purposes  of 
founding  and  the  building  up  the  religion  I  providence,  and  providence  was  measured 
of  the  gospel  and  the  new  covenant),  God  !  by  the  ends  of  the  religion,  and  the  re- 
does also  do  things  wonderful  and  mira-  j  ligion  which  promised  them  plenty,  per- 
culous,  for  the  promoting  the  ordinary  and  formed  the  promise,  till  the  nation  and  the 
less  solemn  actions  of  our  piety,  and  to  as-  .religion  too  began  to  decline,  that  it  might 
sist  and  accompany  them  in  a  constant  and  j  give  place  to  a  better  ministry,  and  a  more  ex- 
regular  succession.  It  was  a  strange  vari- I  cellent  dispensation  of  the  things  of  the  world, 
ety  of  natural  efficacies,  that  manna  should  ;  But  when  Christian  religion  was  planted, 
stink  in  twenty-four  hours,  if  gathered  upon  and  had  taken  root,  and  had  filled  all  lands. 
Wednesday  and  Thursday,  and  that  it  should  then  all  the  nature  of  things,  the  whole  cre- 
last  till  fortv-eight  hours,  if  gathered  upon  'ation,  became  servant  to  the  kingdom  of 


the  even  of  the  Sabbath ;  and  that  it  should 
last  many  hundreds  of  years,  when  placed 
in  the  sanctuary  by  the  ministry  of  the  high 
priest.  But  so  it  was  in  the  Jews'  religion  : 
and  manna  pleased  every  palate,  and  it  filled 


grace ;  and  the  head  of  the  religion  is  also 
the  head  of  the  creatures,  and  ministers  all 
the  things  of  the  world  in  order  to  the  Spi- 
rit of  grace  :  and  now  "  angels  are  minister- 
ing spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister  for  the 


all  appetites,  and  the  same  measure  was  a  I  good  of  them  that  fear  the  Lord  ;"  and  all 
different  proportion,  it  was  much  and  it  was  |  the  violences  of  men,  and  things  of  nature 
little;  as  if  nature  that  it  might  serve  reli-  and  choice,  are  forced  into  subjection  and 
gion,  had  been  taught  some  measures  of  in-  j  lowest  ministries,  and  to  co-operate,  as  with 
finity,  which  is  every  where  and  no  where,  j  an  united  design,  to  verify  all  the  promises 
filling  all  things  and  circumscribed  with]  of  the  gospel,  and  to  secure  and  advantage 
nothing,  measured  by  one  omer  and  doing  |  all  the  children  of  the  kingdom ;  and  now 
the  work  of  two ;  like  the  crowns  of  kings,  j  he  that  is  made  poor  by  chance  or  persecu- 
fitting  the  brows  of  Nimrod  and  the  most ;  tion,  is  made  rich  by  religion  :  and  he  that 
mighty  warrior,  and  yet  not  too  large  for  the  j  hath  nothing,  yet  possesses  all  things  :  and 
temples  of  an  infant  prince.  And  not  only  |  sorrow  itself  is  the  greatest  comfort,  not  only 
is  it  thus  in  nature,  but  in  contingencies  and  ;  because  it  ministers  to  virtue,  but  because 
acts  depending  upon  the  choice  of  men  ;  for  ;  itself  is  one,  as  in  the  case  of  repentance  ; 
God  having  commanded  the  sons  of  Israel  and  death  ministers  to  life,  and  bondage  is 
to  go  up  to  Jerusalem  to  worship  thrice  freedom,  and  loss  is  gain,  and  our  enemies 
every  year,  and  to  leave  their  borders  to  be  'are  our  friends,  and  every  thing  turns  into 
guarded  by  women  and  children,  and  sick  'religion,  and  religion  turns  into  felicity  and 
persons,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  diligent  all  manner  of  advantages.  But  that  I  may 
and  spiteful  enemies,  yet  God  so  disposed  I  not  need  to  enumerate  any  more  particulars 
of  their  hearts  and  opportunities,  that  they  in  this  observation,  certain  it  is,  that  angel< 
never  entered  the  land  when  the  people  i  of  light  and  darkness,  all  the  influences  of 
were  at  their  solemnity,  until  they  dese-  j  heaven,  and  the  fruits  and  productions  of 
crated  their  rites,  by  doing  at  their  passover  the  earth,  the  stars  and  the  elements,  tho 
the  greatest  sin  and  treason  in  the  world.  \  secret  things  that  lie  in  the  bowels  of  the 
Till  at  Easter  they  crucified  the  Lord  of  sea  and  the  entrails  of  the  earth,  the  single 
life  and  glory,  they  were  secure  in  Jerusa-  effects  of  all  efficients,  and  the  conjunction 
lem  and  in  their  borders  ;  but  when  they  ;  of  all  causes,  all  events  foreseen,  and  all  rar- 
had  destroyed  religion  by  this  act,  God  took  contingencies,  every  thing  of  chance  and 
away  their  security,  and  Titus  besieged  the  every  thing  of  choice,  is  so  much  a  servant 
city  at  the  feast  of  Easter,  that  the  more  j  to  him  whose  greatest  desire  and  great 
might  perish  in  the  deluge  of  the  Divine  j  terest  is,  by  all  means,  to  save  our  souls, 
indignation.  that  we  are  thereby  made  sure,  that  all  the 

To  this  observation  the  Jews  add,  that  j  whole  creation  shall  be  made  to  bend,  in  all 
in  Jerusalem  no  man  ever  had  a  fall  that  the  flexures  of  its  nature  and  accidents,  that 
49  2  F 


38G 


MIRACLES  OF  TH 


E  DIVINE  MERCY.   Serm.  LIL 


it  may  minister  to  religion,  to  the  good  of 
the  Catholic  church,  and  every  person  with- 
in its  bosom,  who  are  the  body  of  him  that 
rules  over  all  the  world,  and  commands 
them  as  he  chooses. 

2.  But  that  which  is  next  to  this,  and  not 
much  unlike  the  design  of  this  wonderful 
mercy,  is,  that  all  the  actions  of  religion, 
though  mingled  with  circumstances  of  differ- 
ing, and  sometimes  of  contradictory,  rela- 
tions, are  so  concentred  in  God  their  proper 
centre,  and  conducted  in  such  certain  and 
pure  channels  of  reason  and  rule,  that  no 
one  duty  does  contradict  another;  and  it 
can  never  be  necessary  for  any  man  in  any 
case  to  sin.  They  that  bound  themselves 
by  an  oath  to  kill  Paul,  were  not  environed 
with  the  sad  necessities  of  murder  on  one 
side,  and  vow- breach  on  the  other,  so  that 
if  they  did  murder  him,  they  were  man- 
slayers  ;  if  they  did  not,  they  were  perjured  ; 
for  God  had  made  provision  for  this  case, 
that  no  unlawful  oath  should  pass  an  obli- 
gation. He  that  hath  given  his  faith  in  un- 
lawful confederation  against  his  prince,  is 
not  girded  with  a  fatal  necessity  of  breach 
of  trust  on  one  side,  or  breach  of  allegiance 
on  the  other ;  for  in  this  also  God  hath  se- 
cured the  case  of  conscience,  by  forbidding 
any  man  to  make  an  unlawful  promise ; 
and,  upon  a  stronger  degree  of  the  same 
reason,  by  forbidding  him  to  keep  it,  in  case 
he  hath  made  it.  He  that  doubts  whether 
it  be  lawful  to  keep  the  Sunday  holy,  must 
not  do  it  during  that  doubt,  because  "  what- 
soever is  not  of  faith,  is  sin."  But  yet 
'God's  mercy  hath  taken  care  to  break  this 
«nare  in  sunder,  so  that  he  may  neither  sin 
against  the  commandment,  nor  against  his 
conscience  ;  for  he  is  bound  to  lay  aside  his 
error,  and  be  better  instructed,  till  when  ,  the 
scene  of  his  sin  lies  in  something  that  hath 
influence  upon  his  understanding,  not  in 
the  omission  of  the  fact.  "  No  man  can 
servo  two  masters," but  therefore  "he  must 
hate  the  one,  and  cleave  to  the  other."  But 
then  if  we  consider  what  infinite  contra- 
diction there  is  in  sin,  and  that  the  great  long- 
suffering  of  God  is  expressed  in  this,  that 
God  "  suffered  the  contradiction  of  sinners," 
we  shall  feel  the  mercy  of  God  in  the  peace 
of  our  consciences  and  the  unity  of  religion, 
so  long  as  we  do  the  work  of  God.  It  is  a 
huge  affront  to  a  covetous  man,  that  he  is 
the  further  off'  from  fulness  by  having  great 
heaps  and  vast  revenues  j  and  that  his  thirst 
increases  by  having  that  which  should 
quench  it ;  and  that  the  more  he  shall  need 


to  be  satisfied,  the  less  he  shall  dare  to  do 
it ;  and  that  he  shall  refuse  to  drink  because 
he  is  dry ;  that  he  dies  if  he  tastes,  and 
languishes  if  he  does  not;  and  at  the  same 
time  he  is  full  and  empty,  bursting  with 
a  plethory,  and  consumed  with  hunger, 
drowned  with  rivers  of  oil  and  wine,  and 
yet  dry  as  the  Arabian  sands.  But  then 
the  contradiction  is  multiplied,  and  the  la- 
byrinths more  amazed,  when  prodigality 
waits  upon  another  curse,  and  covetousness 
heaps  up,  that  prodigality  may  scatter 
abroad  :  then  distractions  are  infinite,  and 
a  man  hath  two  devils  to  serve  of  contra- 
dictory designs,  and  both  of  them  exacting 
obedience  more  unreasonably  than  the  Egyp- 
tian taskmasters ;  then  there  is  no  rest,  no 
end  of  labours,  no  satisfaction  of  purposes, 
no  method  of  things ;  but  they  begin  where 
they  should  end,  and  begin  again ;  and 
never  pass  forth  to  content,  or  reason,  or 
quietness,  or  possession.  But  the  duty  of 
a  Christian  is  easy  in  a  persecution,  it  is 
clear  under  a  tyranny,  it  is  evident  in  despite 
of  heresy,  it  is  one  in  the  midst  of  schism, 
it  is  determined  amongst  infinite  disputes ; 
being  like  a  rock  in  the  sea,  which  is  beaten 
with  the  tide,  and  washed  with  retiring 
waters,  and  encompassed  with  mists,  and 
appears  in  several  figures,  but  it  always 
dips  its  foot  in  the  same  bottom,  and  re- 
mains the  same  in  calms  and  storms,  and 
survives  the  revolution  of  ten  thousand 
tides,  and  there  shall  dwell  till  time  and 
tides  shall  be  no  more.  So  is  our  duty, 
uniform  and  constant,  open  and  notorious, 
variously  represented,  but  in  the  same  man- 
ner exacted  ;  and  in  the  interest  of  our  souls 
God  hath  not  exposed  us  to  uncertainty,  or 
the  variety  of  any  thing  that  can  change ; 
and  it  is  by  the  grace  and  mercy  of  God,  put 
into  the  power  of  every  Christian,  to  do 
that  which  God,  through  Jesus  Christ,  will 
accept  to  salvation  ;  and  neither  men  nor 
devils  shall  hinder  it,  unless  we  list  our- 
selves. 

3.  After  all  this,  we  may  sit  down  and 
reckon  up  great  sums  and  conjugations  of 
his  gracious  gifts,  and  tell  the  minutes  of 
eternity  by  the  number  of  the  Divine  mer- 
cies. God  hath  given  his  laws  to  rule  us, 
his  word  to  instruct  us,  his  Spirit  to  guide 
us,  his  angels  to  protect  us,  his  ministers  to 
exhort  us  :  he  revealed  all  our  duty,  and  he 
hath  concealed  whatsoever  can  hinder  us  : 
he  hath  affrighted  our  follies  with  fear  of 
death,  and  engaged  our  watchfulness  by  its 
secret  coming :  he  hath  exercised  our  faith 


Skrm.  LII. 


MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


387 


by  keeping  private  the  state  of  souls  de- 
parted, and  yet  hath  confirmed  our  faith  by 
a  promise  of  a  resurrection,  and  entertained 
our  hope  by  some  general  significations  of 
the  state  of  interval.  His  mercies  make 
contemptible  means  instrumental  to  great 
purposes,  and  a  small  herb  the  remedy  of 
the  greatest  diseases.  He  impedes  the  de- 
vil's rage,  and  infatuates  his  counsels ;  he 
diverts  his  malice,  and  defeats  his  purposes  ■ 
he  binds  him  in  the  chain  of  darkness,  and 
gives  him  no  power  over  the  children  of 
light;  he  suffers  him  to  walk  in  solitary 
places,  and  yet  fetters  him  that  he  cannot 
disturb  the  sleep  of  a  child  j  he  hath  given 
him  mighty  power,  and  yet  a  young  maiden 
that  resists  him  shall  make  him  flee  away; 
he  hath  given  him  a  vast  knowledge,  and 
yet  an  ignorant  man  can  confute  him  with 
the  twelve  articles  of  his  creed  ;  he  gave 
him  power  over  the  winds,  and  made  him 
prince  of  the  air,  and  yet  the  breath  of  a 
holy  prayer  can  drive  him  as  far  as  the 
utmost  sea :  and  he  hath  so  restrained 
him,  that  (except  it  be  by  faith)  we  know 
not  whether  there  be  any  devil,  yea  or  no  ; 
for  we  never  heard  his  noises,  nor  have 
seen  his  affrighting  shapes.  This  is  that 
great  principle  of  all  the  felicity  we  hope 
for,  and  of  all  the  means  thither,  and  of  all 
the  skill  and  all  the  strengths  we  have  to 
use  those  means.  He  hath  made  great  va- 
riety of  conditions,  and  yet  hath  made  all 
necessary,  and  all  mutual  helpers :  and  by 
some  instruments,  and  in  some  respects, 
they  are  all  equal  in  order  to  felicity,  to  con- 
tent, and  final  and  intermedial  satisfactions. 
He  gave  us  part  of  our  reward  in  hand, 
that  he  might  enable  us  to  work  for  more  ; 
he  taught  the  world  arts  for  use,  arts  for 
entertainment  of  all  our  faculties  and  all  our 
dispositions  :  he  gives  eternal  gifts  for  tem- 
poral services,  and  gives  us  whatsoever  we 
want  for  asking,  and  commands  us  to  ask, 
and  threatens  us  if  we  will  not  ask,  and 
punishes  us  for  refusing  to  be  happy.  This 
is  that  glorious  attribute  that  hath  made  or- 
der and  health,  harmony  and  hope,  restitu- 
tions and  variety,  the  joys  of  direct  posses- 
sion, and  the  joys,  the  artificial  joys  of 
contrariety  and  comparison.  He  comforts 
the  poor,  and  he  brings  down  the  rich, 
that  they  may  be  safe,  in  their  humility 
and  sorrow,  from  the  transportations  of  an 
unhappy  and  uninstructed  prosperity.  He 
gives  necessaries  to  all,  and  scatters  the  ex- 
traordinary provisions  so,  that  every  nation 
may  traffic  in  charity,  and  commute  for 


•  pleasures.    He  was  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and 
he  is  still  what  he  was  ;  but  he  loves  to  be 
:  called  the  God  of  peace,  because  he  was  ter- 
'  rible  in  that,  but  he  is  delighted  in  this.  His 
1  mercy  is  his  glory,  and  his  glory  is  the  light 
1  of  heaven.    His  mercy  is  the  life  of  the 
creation,  and  it  fills  all  the  earth ;  and  his 
1  mercy  is  a  sea  too,  and  it  fills  all  the  abysses 
!  of  the  deep :  it  hath  given  us  promises  for 
supply  of  whatsoever  we  need,  and  re- 
lieves us  in  all  our  fears,  and  in  all  the 
evils  that  we  suffer.    His  mercies  are  more 
;  than  we  can  tell,  and  they  are  more  than 
I  we  can  feel :  for  all  the  world  in  the  abyss 
|  of  the  Divine  mercies  is  like  a  mail  diving 
;  into  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  over  whose  head 
!  the  waters  run  insensibly  and  unperceived, 
'  and  yet  the  weight  is  vast,  and  the  sum  of 
!  them  is  unmeasurable ;  and  the  man  is  not 
|  pressed  with  the  burden,  nor  confounded 
with  numbers  :  and  no  observation  is  able 
to  recount,  no  sense  sufficient  to  perceive, 
I  no  memory  large  enough  to  retain,  no  un- 
derstanding great  enough  to  apprehend  this 
infinity  ;  but  we  must  admire,  and  love,  and 
j  worship,  and  magnify  this  mercy  for  ever 
j  and  ever ;  that  we  may  dwell  in  what  we 
feel,  and  be  comprehended  by  that  which  is 
I  equal  to  God,  and  the  parent  of  all  felicity. 

And  yet  this  is  but  the  one  half.  The  mer- 
cies of  giving  I  have  now  told  of ;  but  those 
of  forgiving  are  greater,  though  not  more; — 
I  "  He  is  ready  to  forgive.'' — And  upon  this 
i  stock  strives  the  interest  of  our  great  hope, 
j  the  hope  of  a  blessed  immortality.    For  if 
I  the  mercies  of  giving  have  not  made  our ex- 
I  pectation  big  enough  to  entertain  the  confi- 
dences of  heaven;  yet  when  we  think  of 
,  the  graciousness  and  readiness  of  forgiving, 
:  we  may  with  more  readiness  hope  to  escape 
hell,  and  then  we  cannot  but  be  blessed  by 
an  eternal  consequence.  We  have  but  small 
'  opinion  of  the  Divine  mercy,  if  we  dare  not 
believe  concerning  it,  that  it  is  desirous,  and 
able,  and  watchful,  and  passionate,  to  keep 
|  us,  or  rescue  us  respectively  from  such  a 
condemnation,  the  pain  of  which  is  insup- 
portable, and  the  duration  is  eternal,  and  the 
extension  is  misery  upon  all  our  faculties, 
and  the  intention  is  great  beyond  patience, 
or  natural  or  supernatural  abilities,  and  the 
state  is  a  stale  of  darkness  and  despair,  of 
confusion  and  amazement,  of  cursing  and 
roaring,  anguish  of  spirit  and  gnashing 
of  teeth,  misery  universal,  perfect,  and  irre- 
I  mediable.    From  this  it  is  which  God's 
I  mercies  would  so  fain  preserve  us.    This  is 
I  a  state  that  God  provides  for  his  enemies. 


388 


MIRACLES  OF  THE   DIVINE  MERCY.    Serm.  LII. 


not  for  them  that  love  him;  that  endeavour 
to  obey,  though  they  do  it  but  in  weakness ; 
that  weep  truly  for  their  sins,  though  but 
with  a  shower  no  bigger  than  the  drops  of 
pity ;  that  wait  for  his  coming  with  a  holy 
and  pure  flame,  though  their  lamps  are  no 
brighter  than  a  poor  man's  candle,  though 
their  strengths  are  no  greater  than  a  con- 
trite reed  or  a  strained  arm,  and  their  fires 
have  no  more  warmth  than  the  smoke  of  j 
kindling  flax.    If  our  faith  be  pure,  and: 
our  love  unfeigned ;  if  the  degrees  of  it  be 
great,  God  will  accept  it  into  glory;  if  it 
be  little  he  will  accept  it  into  grace  andj 
make  it  bigger.    For  that  is  the  first  in- 
stance  of  God's  readiness  to  forgive:  he 
will,  upon  any  terms  that  are  not  unreason- 
able, and,  that  do  not  suppose  a  remanent 
affection  to  sin,  keep  us  from  the  intolerable 
pains  of  hell.    And,  indeed,  if  we  consider 
the  constitution  of  the  conditions  which 
God  requires,  we  shall  soon  perceive  God 
intends  heaven  to  us  a  mere  gift,  and  that 
the  duties  on  our  part  are  but  little  enter-  j 
tainments  and  exercises  of  our  affections1 
and  our  love,  that  the  devil  might  not  seize! 
upon  that  portion  which,  to  eternal  ages, 
shall  be  the  instrument  of  our  happiness. 
For  in  all  the  parts  of  our  duty,  it  may  be,1 
there  is  but  one  instance  in  which  we  are  to  j 
do  violence  to  our  natural  and  first  desires. 
For  those  men  have  very  ill  natures,  to, 
whom  virtue  is  so  contrary  that  they  are  in- 1 
clined  naturally  to  lust,  to  drunkenness  and 
anger,  to  pride  and  covetousness,  to  un- 
thankfulness  and  disobedience.    Most  men 
that  are  tempted  with  lust,  could  easily 
enough  entertain  the  sobrieties  of  other 
counsels,  as  of  temperance,  and  justice,  or 
religion,  if  it  would  indulge  to  them  but  that 
one  passion  of  lust ;  and  persons  that  are 1 
greedy  of  money  are  not  fond  of  amorous' 
vanities,  nor  care  they  to  sit  long  at  the' 
wine :  and  one  vice  destroys  another :  and 
when  one  vice  is  consequent  to  another,  it  is  j 
by  way  of  punishment  and  dereliction  of 
the  man,  unless  where  vices  have  cognation  , : 
and  seem  but  like  several  degrees  of  one 
another.    And  it  is  evil  custom  and  super- 
induced habits  that  make  artificial  appetites 
in  most  men  to  most  sins :  but  many  times 
their  natural  temper  vexes  them  into  uneasy 
dispositions,  and  aptnesses  only  to  some 
one  unhandsome  sort  of  action.    That  one 
thing  therefore  is  it,  in  which  God  de- 
mands of  thee  mortification  and  self-denial.  1 
Certain  it  is,  there  are  very  many  men  in 
the  world,  that  would  fain  commute  their  j 


severity  in  all  other  instances  for  a  license 
in  their  one  appetite ;  they  would  not  refuse 
long  prayers  after  a  drunken  meeting,  or 
great  alms  together  with  one  great  lust 
But  then  consider  how  easy  it  is  for  them 
to  go  to  heaven.  God  demands  of  them, 
for  his  sake  and  their  own,  to  crucify  but 
one  natural  lust,  or  one  evil  habit,  (for  all 
the  rest  they  are  easy  enough  to  do  them- 
selves,) and  God  will  give  them  heaven, 
where  the  joy  is  more  than  one.  And  I 
said,  it  is  but  one  mortification  God  requires 
of  most  men;  for,  if  those  persons  would 
extirp  but  that  one  thing  in  which  they  are 
principally  tempted,  it  is  not  easily  imagi- 
nable that  any  less  evil  to  which  the  tempta- 
tion is  trifling,  should  interpose  between 
them  and  their  great  interest.  If  Saul  had 
not  spared  Agag,  the  people  could  not  have 
expected  mercy :  and  our  little  and  inferior 
appetites,  that  rather  come  to  us  by  intima- 
tion and  consequent  adherences  than  by  di- 
rect violence,  must  not  dwell  with  him,  who 
hath  crossed  the  violence  of  his  distempered 
nature  in  a  beloved  instance.  Since,  there- 
fore, this  is  the  state  of  most  men,  and  God 
in  effect  demands  of  them  but  one  thing, 
and  in  exchange  for  that,  will  give  them  all 
good  things ;  it  gives  demonstration  of  his 
huge  easiness  to  redeem  us  from  that  intole- 
rable evil,  that  is  equally  consequent  to  the 
indulging  to  one  or  to  twenty  sinful  habits. 

2.  God's  readiness  to  pardon  appears  in 
this,  that  he  pardons  before  we  ask;  for  he 
that  bids  us  ask  for  pardon,  hath  in  design 
and  purpose  done  the  thing  already:  for, 
what  is  wanting  on  his  part,  in  whose  only 
power  it  is  to  give  pardon,  and  in  whose  de- 
sire it  is  that  we  should  be  pardoned,  and 
who  commands  us  to  lay  hold  upon  the 
offer?  He  hath  done  all  that  belongs  to 
God,  that  is,  all  that  concerns  the  pardon ; 
there  it  lies  ready;  it  is  recorded  in  the  book 
of  life;  it  wants  nothing  but  being  exempli- 
fied and  taken  forth,  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
stands  ready  to  consign  and  pass  the  privy 
signet,  that  we  may  exhibit  it  to  devils  and 
evil  men  when  they  tempt  us  to  despair 
or  sin. 

3.  Nay,  God  is  so  ready  in  his  mercy, 
that  he  did  pardon  us  even  before  he  re- 
deemed us.  For,  what  is  the  secret  of  the 
mystery,  that  the  eternal  Son  of  God  should 
take  upon  him  our  nature,  and  die  our 
death,  and  suffer  for  our  sins,  and  do  our 
work,  and  enable  us  to  do  our  own?  He 
that  did  this,  is  God;  he  who  "thought  it 
no  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God,"  he  came 


Serm.  LH.     MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


3S9 


to  satisfy  himself,  to  pay  to  himself  the 
price  for  his  own  creature.  And  when  he 
did  this  for  us  that  he  might  pardon  us, 
was  he  at  that  instant  angry  with  us?  Was 
this  an  effect  of  his  anger  or  of  his  love, 
that  God  sent  his  Son  to  work  our  pardon 
and  salvation  ?  Indeed,  we  were  angry 
with  God,  at  enmity  with  the  Prince  of  life; 
but  he  was  reconciled  to  us  so  far,  as  that 
he  then  did  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world 
for  us  :  for  nothing  could  be  greater  than 
that  God,  the  Son  of  God,  should  die  for  us. 
Here  was  reconciliation  before  pardon  :  and 
God,  that  came  to  die  for  us,  did  love  us 
first  before  he  came.  This  was  hasty  love. 
But  it  went  further  yet. 

4.  God  pardoned  us  before  we  sinned; 
and  when  he  foresaw  our  sin,  even  mine 
and  yours,  he  sent  his  Son  to  die  for  us  : 
our  pardon  was  wrought  and  effected  by 
Christ's  death  above  1600  years  ago;  and 
for  the  sins  of  to-morrow,  and  the  infirmi- 
ties of  the  next  day,  Christ  is  already 
dead,  already  risen  from  the  dead  and 
does  now  make  intercession  and  atone- 
ment. And  this  is  not  only  a  favour  to  us 
who  were  born  in  the  due  time  of  the  gos- 
pel, but  to  all  mankind  since  Adam:  for 
God,  who  is  infinitely  patient  in  his  justice, 
was  not  at  all  patient  in  his  mercy ;  he  for- 
bears to  strike  and  punish  us,  but  he  would 
not  forbear  to  provide  cure  for  us  and  re- 
medy. For,  as  if  God  could  not  stay  from 
redeeming  us,  he  promised  the  Redeemer  to 
Adam  in  the  beginning  of  the  world's  sin ; 
and  Christ  was  "  the  Lamb  slain  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world;"  and  the  covenant 
of  the  gospel,  though  it  was  not  made  with 
man,  yet  it  was  from  the  beginning  per- 
formed by  God  as  to  his  part,  as  to  the  mi- 
nistration of  pardon ;  the  seed  of  the  woman 
was  set  up  against  the  dragon  as  soon  as 
ever  the  tempter  had  won  his  first  battle : 
and  though  God  laid  his  hand,  and  drew  a 
veil  of  types  and  secresy  before  the  manifes- 
tation of  his  mercies  ;  yet  he  did  the  work 
of  redemption,  and  saved  us  by  the  covenant 
of  faith,  and  the  righteousness  of  believing, 
and  the  mercies  of  repentance,  the  graces  of 
pardon,  and  the  blood  of  the  slain  Lamb, 
even  from  the  fall  of  Adam  to  this  very  day, 
and  will  do  till  Christ's  second  coming. 

Adam  fell  by  his  folly,  and  did  not  per- 
form the  covenant  of  one  little  work,  a 
work  of  a  single  abstinence;  but  he  was  re- 
stored by  faith  in  the  seed  of  the  woman. 
And  of  this  righteousness  Noah  was  a 
preacher,  and  "  by  faith  Enoch  was  trans 


Jated,"  and  by  faith  a  remnant  was  saved 
at  the  flood :  and  to  M  Abraham  this  was 
imputed  for  righteousness,"  and  to  all  the 
patriarchs,  and  to  all  the  righteous  judges, 
and  holy  prophets,  and  saints  of  the  Old 
Testament,  even  while  they  were  obliged 
(so  far  as  the  words  of  their  covenant  were 
expressed)  to  the  law  of  works :  their  par- 
don was  sealed  and  kept  within  the  curtains 
of  the  sanctuary  ;  and  they  saw  it  not  then, 
but  they  feel  it  ever  since.  And  this  was  a 
great  excellency  of  the  Divine  mercy  unto 
them.  God  had  mercy  on  all  mankind  be- 
fore Christ's  manifestation,  even  beyond  the 
mercies  of  their  covenant ;  and  they  were 
saved  as  we  are,  by  "  the  seed  of  the  woman," 
by  "God  incarnate,"  by  "the  Lamb  slain 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world:"  not  by 
works,  for  we  all  failed  of  them ;  that  is, 
not  by  an  exact  obedience,  but  by  faith 
working  by  love;  by  sincere,  hearty  endea- 
vours, and  believing  God,  and  relying  upon 
his  infinite  mercy,  revealed  in  part,  and 
now  fully  manifest  by  the  great  instrument 
and  means  of  that  mercy,  Jesus  Christ.  So 
that  here  is  pardon,  before  we  asked  it; 
pardon  before  Christ's  coming,  pardon  be- 
fore redemption,  and  pardon  before  we  sin- 
ned. What  greater  readiness  to  forgive  us  can 
be  imagined  ?  Yes,  there  is  one  degree  more 
yet,  and  that  will  prevent  a  mistake  in  this. 

5.  For  God  so  pardoned  us  once,  that  we 
should  need  no  more  pardon  :  he  pardons 
us  "  by  turning  every  one  of  us  away 
from  our  iniquities."    That  is  the  purpose 
of  Christ;  that  he  might  safely  pardon  us 
before  we  sinned,  and  we  might  not  sin 
upon  the  confidence  of  pardon.    He  par- 
doned us  not  only  upon  condition  we  would 
sin  no  more,  but  he  took  away  our  sin, 
j  cured  our  cursed   inclinations,  instructed 
our  understanding,  rectified  our  will,  forti- 
fied us  against  temptation  ;  and  now  every 
man  whom  he  pardons,  he  also  sanctifies ; 
and  he  is  born  of  God  ;  and  he  must  not, 
will  not,  cannot  sin,  so  long  as  the  seed  of 
God  remains  with  him,  so  long  as  his  par- 
don continues.    This  is  the  consummation 
of  pardon.    For  if  God  had  so  pardoned  us. 
las  only  to  take  away  our  evils  which  are 
I  past,  we  should  have  needed  a  second  Sa- 
viour, and  a  Redeemer  for  every  month, 
[and  new  pardons  perpetually.     But  our 
blessed  Redeemer  hath  taken  awav  our  sin. 
not  only  the  guilt  of  our  old,  but  our  incli- 
!  nations  to  new  sins  ;  he  makes  us  like  him- 
:  self,  and  commands  us  to  live  so,  that  we 
|  shall  not  need  a  second  pardon,  that  is,  a 
2  ii  2 


390 


MIRACLES  OF  TH 


E  DIVINE  MERCY.    Serm.  Lll. 


second  state  of  pardon;  for  we  are  but  once 
baptized  into  Christ's  death,  and  that  death 
was  but  one,  and  our  redemption  but  one, 
and  our  covenant  the  same ;  and  as  long  as 
we  continue  within  the  covenant,  we  are 
still  within  the  power  and  comprehensions  of 
the  first  pardon. 

6.  And  yet  there  is  a  necessity  of  having 
one  degree  of  pardon  more  beyond  all  this. 
For  although  we  do  not  abjure  our  covenant, 
and  renounce  Christ,  and  extinguish  the 
Spirit ;  yet  we  resist  him,  and  we  grieve 
him,  and  we  go  off"  from  the  holiness  of  the 
covenant,  and  return  again,  and  very  often 
step  aside,  and  need  this  great  pardon  to  be 
perpetually  applied  and  renewed ;  and  to 
this  purpose,  that  we  may  not  have  a  pos- 
sible need  without  a  certain  remedy,  the 
holy  "Jesus,  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our 
faith"  and  pardon,  sits  in  heaven  in  a  per- 
petual advocation  for  us,  that  this  pardon, 
once  wrought,  may  be  for  ever  applied  to 
every  emergent  need,  and  every  tumour 
of  pride,  and  every  broken  heart,  and  eve- 
ry disturbed  conscience,  and  upon  every 
true  and  sincere  return  of  a  hearty  repent- 
ance. And  now  upon  this  title  no  more 
degrees  can  be  added ;  it  is  already  greater, 
and  was  before  all  our  needs,  than  the  old 
covenant,  and  beyond  the  revelations,  and 
did  in  Adam's  youth  antedate  the  gospel, 
turning  the  public  miseries  by  secret  grace 
into  eternal  glories.  But  now  upon  other 
circumstances  it  is  remarkable  and  excel- 
lent, and  swells  like  an  hydropic  cloud  when 
it  is  fed  with  the  breath  of  the  morning  tide, 
till  it  fills  the  bosom  of  heaven,  and  descends 
in  dews  and  gentle  showers,  to  water  and 
refresh  the  earth. 

7.  God  is  so  ready  to  forgive,  that  him- 
self works  our  dispositions  towards  it,  and 
either  must,  in  some  degree,  pardon  us  be- 
fore we  are  capable  of  pardon,  by  his  grace 
making  way  for  his  mercy,  or  else  we  can 
never  hope  for  pardon.  For  unless  God, 
by  his  preventing  grace,  should  first  work 
the  first  part  of  our  pardon,  even  without 
any  dispositions  of  our  own  to  receive  it, 
we  could  not  desire  a  pardon,  nor  hope 
for  it,  nor  work  towards  it,  nor  ask  it, 
nor  receive  it.  This  giving  of  preventing 
grace  is  a  mercy  of  forgiveness  contrary  to 
that  severity,  by  which  some  desperate  per- 
sons are  given  over  to  a  reprobate  sense; 
that  is,  a  leaving  of  men  to  themselves,  so 
that  they  cannot  pray  effectually,  nor  de- 
sire holily,  nor  repent  truly,  nor  receive  any 
of  those  mercies  which  God  designed  so 


plenteously,  and  the  Son  of  God  purchased 
so  dearly  for  us.  When  God  sends  a  plague 
of  war  upon  a  land,  in  all  the  accounts  of 
religion  and  expectations  of  reason,  the  way 
to  obtain  our  peace  is,  to  leave  our  sins  for 
which  the  war  was  sent  upon  us,  as  the 
messenger  of  wrath  :  and  without  this,  we 
are  like  to  perish  in  the  judgment.  But 
then  consider  what  a  sad  condition  we  are 
in  ;  war  mends  but  few,  but  spoils  multi- 
tudes ;  it  legitimates  rapine,  and  authorizes 
murder;  and  these  crimes  must  be  minis- 
tered to  by  their  lesser  relatives,  by  covet- 
ousness,  and  anger,  and  pride,  and  revenge, 
and  heats  of  blood,  and  wilder  liberty,  and 
all  the  evil  that  can  be  supposed  to  come 
from,  or  run  to,  such  cursed  causes  of 
mischief.  But  then  if  the  punishment  in- 
creases the  sin,  by  what  instrument  can  the 
punishment  be  removed?  How  shall  we 
be  pardoned  and  eased,  when  our  remedies 
are  converted  into  causes  of  the  sickness, 
and  our  antidotes  are  poison  1  Here  there 
is  a  plain  necessity  of  God's  preventing 
grace ;  and  if  there  be  but  a  necessity  of  it, 
that  is  enough  to  ascertain  us  we  shall  have 
it ;  but  unless  God  should  begin  to  pardon 
us  first,  for  nothing,  and  against  our  own 
dispositions,  we  see  there  is  no  help  in  us, 
nor  for  us.  If  we  be  not  smitten,  we  are 
undone;  if  we  are  smitten,  we  perish  ;  and, 
as  young  Demarchus  said  of  his  love,  when 
he  was  made  master  of  his  wish,  "Salvus 
sum,  quia  pereo  ;  si  non  peream,  plane  in- 
teream ;"  we  may  say  of  some  of  God's 
judgments,  "We  perish  when  we  are  safe, 
because  our  sins  are  not  smitten ;  and  if 
they  be,  then  we  are  worse  undone:"  be- 
cause we  grow  worse  for  being  miserable ; 
but  we  can  be  relieved  only  by  a  free  mercy. 
For  pardon  is  the  way  to  pardon :  and 
when  God  gives  us  our  penny,  then  we  can 
work  for  another ;  and  a  gift  is  the  way  to 
a  grace,  and  all  that  we  can  do  towards 
it  is  but  to  take  it  in  God's  method.  And 
this  must  needs  be  a  great  forwardness 
of  forgiveness,  when  God's  mercy  gives 
the  pardon,  and  the  way  to  find  it,  and 
the  hand  to  receive  it,  and  the  eye  to 
search  it,  and  the  heart  to  desire  it ;  being 
busy  and  effective  as  Elijah's  fire,  which, 
intending  to  convert  the  sacrifice  into  its 
own  more  spiritual  nature  of  flames  and 
purified  substances,  stood  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  fuel,  and  called  forth  its  ene- 
mies and  licked  up  the  hindering  moisture, 
and  the  water  of  the  trenches,  and  made 
the  altar  send  forth  a  fantastic  smoke  be- 


Serm.  LII.      MIRACLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  MERCY. 


391 


fore  the  sacrifice  was  enkindled.  So  is  the j 
preventing  grace  of  God  :  it  does  all  the 
work  of  our  souls,  and  makes  its  own 
way,  and  invites  itself,  and  prepares  its 
own  lodging,  and  makes  its  own  enter- 
tainment; it  gives  us  precepts,  and  makes 
us  able  to  keep  them ;  it  enables  our  fa- 
culties, and  excites  our  desires ;  it  provokes 
us  to  pray,  and  sanctifies  our  heart  in 
prayer,  and  makes  our  prayer  go  forth 
to  act,  and  the  act  does  make  the  desire 
valid,  and  the  desire  does  make  the  act 
certain  and  persevering :  and  both  of  them 
are  the  works  of  God.  For  more  is  re- 
ceived into  the  soul  from  without  the  soul, 
than  does  proceed  from  within  the  soul :  it 
is  more  for  the  soul  to  be  moved  and 
disposed,  than  to  work  when  that  is  done ; 
as  the  passage  from  death  to  life  is  greater 
than  from  life  to  action,  especially  since  the 
action  is  owing  to  that  cause  that  put  in  the 
first  principle  of  life. 

These  are  the  great  degrees  of  God's  for- 
wardness and  readiness  to  forgive,  for  the 
expression  of  which  no  language  is  suffi- 
cient, but  God's  own  words  describing 
mercy  in  all  those  dimensions,  which  can 
signify  to  us  its  greatness  and  infinity.  His 
mercy  "  is  great,"  his  mercies  "  are  many," 
his  mercy  "reacheth  unto  the  heavens," 
it  "fills  heaven  and  earth,"  it  is  "  above 
all  his  works,"  "  it  endureth  for  ever." 
"  God  pitieth  us  as  a  father  doth  his  child- 
ren :"  nay,  he  is  "  our  Father,"  and  the 
same  also  is  "  the  Father  of  mercies,  and 
the  God  of  all  comfort;"  so  that  mercy 
and  we  have  the  same  relation :  and  well 
it  may  be  so,  for  we  live  and  die  together ; 
for  as  to  man  only  God  shows  the  mercy 
of  forgiveness,  so  if  God  takes  away  his 
mercy,  man  shall  be  no  more;  no  more  ca- 
pable of  felicity,  or  of  any  thing  that  is  per- 
fective of  his  condition  or  his  person.  But 
as  God  preserves  man  by  his  mercy,  so  his 
mercy  hath  all  its  operations  upon  man, 
and  returns  to  its  own  centre,  and  incir- 
cumscription,  and  infinity,  unless  it  issues 
forth  upon  us.  And,  therefore,  besides  the 
former  great  lines  of  the  mercy  of  forgive- 
ness, there  is  another  chain,  which  but  to 
produce,  and  tell  its  links,  is  to  open  a  cabi- 
■tit  of  jewels,  where  every  stone  is  as  bright 
as  a  star,  and  every  star  is  great  as  the  sun, 
and  shines  for  ever,  unless  we  shut  our  eyes, 
or  draw  the  veil  of  obstinacy  and  final  sins. 

1.  God  is  long-suffering,  that  is,  long  be- 
fore he  be  angry ;  and  yet  God  is  provoked 
everv  dav,  by  the  obstinacy  of  the  Jews,  and 


j  the  folly  of  the  heathens,  and  the  rudeness 
i  and  infidelity  of  the  Mahometans,  and  the 
j  negligence  and  vices  of  Christians  :  and  he 
that  -can  behold  no  impurity,  is  received  in 
all  places  with  perfumes  of  mushrooms, 
and  garments  spotted  with  the  flesh,  and 
stained  souls,  and  the  actions  and  issues  of 
misbelief,  and  an  evil  conscience,  and  with 
accursed  sins  that  he  hates,  upon  pretence 
of  religion  which  he  loves ;  and  he  is  made 
a  party  against  himself  by  our  voluntary 
mistakes  :  and  men  continue  ten  years,  and 
twenty,  and  thirty,  and  fifty,  in  a  course  of 
sinning,  and  they  grow  old  with  the  vices 
of  their  youth ;  and  yet  God  forbears  to 
kill  them,  and  to  consign  them  over  to  an 
eternity  of  horrid  pains,  still  expecting  they 
should  repent  and  be  saved. 

2.  Besides  this  long-sufferance  and  for- 
bearing with  an  unwearied  patience,  God 
also  excuses  a  sinner  oftentimes,  and  takes 
a  little  thing  for  an  excuse,  so  far  as  to  move 
him  to  intermedial  favours  first,  and  from 
thence  to  a  final  pardon.  He  passes  by  the 
sins  of  our  youth  with  a  huge  easiness  to 
pardon,  if  he  be  entreated  and  reconciled  by 
the  effective  repentance  of  a  vigorous  man- 
hood. He  lakes  ignorance  for  an  excuse ; 
and  in  every  degree  of  its  being  inevitable 
or  innocent  in  its  proper  cause,  it  is  also  in- 
culpable and  innocent  in  its  proper  effects, 
though  in  their  own  natures  criminal.  "But 
I  found  mercy  of  the  Lord,  because  I  did  it 
in  ignorance,"  saith  St.  Paul.  He  pities 
our  infirmities,  and  strikes  off  much  of  the 
account  upon  that  stock  :  the  violence  of  a 
temptation  and  restlessness  of  its  motion, 
the  perpetuity  of  its  solicitation,  the  weari- 
ness of  a  man's  spirit,  the  state  of  sickness, 
the  necessity  of  secular  affairs,  the  public 
customs  of  a  people,  have  all  of  them  a  power 
of  pleading  and  prevailing  towards  some  de- 
grees of  pardon  and  diminution  before  the 
throne  of  God. 

3.  When  God  perceives  himself  forced 
to  strike,  yet  then  he  takes  off  his  hand,  and 
repents  him  of  the  evil :  it  is  as  if  it  were 
against  him,  that  any  of  his  creatures  should 
fall  under  the  strokes  of  an  exterminating  fury. 

4.  When  he  is  forced  to  proceed,  he  yet 
(makes  an  end  before  he  hath  half  done  : 
and  is  as  glad  of  a  pretence  to  pardon  us,  or 
to  strike  less,  as  if  he  himself  had  the  deli- 
verance, and  not  we.  When  Ahab  had  but 
humbled  himself  at  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
God  was  glad  of  it,  and  went  with  the  mes- 
sage to  the  prophet  himself,  saying,  M  Seest 
thou  not  how  Ahab  humbles  himself?" 


392 


MIRACLES  OP  TH 


E  DIVINE  MERCY.     Serm.  LII. 


What  was  the  event  of  it?  "I  will  not 
bring  the  evil  in  his  days  ;"  but  in  his 
son's  days  the  evil  shall  come  upon  his 
house. 

5.  God  forgets  our  sin,  and  puts  it  out  of 
his  remembrance;  that  is,  he  makes  it  as 
though  it  had  never  been,  he  makes  peni- 
tence to  be  as  pure  as  innocence  to  all  the 
effects  of  pardon  and  glory  :  the  memory 
of  the  sins  shall  not  be  upon  record,  to  be 
used  to  any  after-act  of  disadvantage,  and 
never  shall  return,  unless  we  force  them  out 
of  their  secret  places  by  ingratitude  and  a 
new  state  of  sinning. 

6.  God  sometimes  gives  a  pardon  beyond 
all  his  revelations  and  declared  will,  and 
provides  suppletories  of  repentances,  even 
then  when  he  cuts  a  man  off  from  the  time 
of  repentance,  accepting  a  temporal  death 
instead  of  an  eternal;  that  although  the 
Divine  anger  might  interrupt  the  growing 
of  the  fruits,  yet  in  some  cases,  and  to  some 
persons,  the  death  and  the  very  cutting  off 
shall  go  no  further,  but  be  instead  of  expli- 
cit and  long  repentances.  Thus  it  happened 
to  Uzzah,  who  was  smitten  for  his  zeal, 
and  died  in  severity  for  prevaricating  the 
letter,  by  earnestness  of  spirit  to  serve  the 
whole  religion.  Thus  it  was  also  in  the 
case  of  the  Corinthians,  that  died  a  tempo- 
ral death  for  their  indecent  circumstances  in 
receiving  the  holy  sacrament:  St.  Paul, 
who  used  it  for  an  argument  to  threaten 
them  into  reverence,  went  no  further,  nor 
pressed  the  argument  to  a  sadder  issue,  than 
to  die  temporally. 

But  these  suppletories  are  but  seldom, 
and  they  are  also  great  troubles,  and  ever 
without  comfort,  and  dispensed  irregularly, 
and  that  not  in  the  case  of  habitual  sins,  that 
we  know  of,  or  very  great  sins,  but  in  sin- 
gle actions,  or  instances  of  a  less  malignity; 
and  they  are  not  to  be  relied  upon,  because 
there  is  no  rule  concerning  them  :  but  when 
they  do  happen,  they  magnify  the  infinite- 
ness  of  God's  mercy,  which  is  commensu- 
rate to  all  our  needs,  and  is  not  to  be  cir- 
cumscribed by  the  limits  of  his  own  revela- 
tions. 

7.  God  pardons  the  greatest  sinners,  and 
hath  left  them  upon  record  :  and  there  is  no 
instance  in  the  scripture  of  the  Divine  for- 
giveness, but  in  such  instances,  the  misery 
of  which  was  a  fit  instrument  to  speak  aloud 
the  glories  of  God's  mercies,  and  gentleness, 
and  readiness  to  forgive.  Such  were  St. 
Paul,  a  persecutor, — and  St.  Peter,  that  for- 
swore his  Master, — Mary  Magdalene,  with 


seven  devils,— the  thief  upon  the  cross,— 
Manasses,  an  idolater, — David,  a  murderer 
and  adulterer,— the  Corinthian,  for  incest,— 
the  children  of  Israel,  for  ten  times  rebelling 
against  the  Lord  in  the  wilderness,  with 
murmuring,  and  infidelity,  and  rebellion, 
and  schism,  and  a  golden  calf,  and  open 
disobedience  :  and  above  all,  I  shall  instance 
in  the  Pharisees  among  the  Jews,  who  had 
sinned  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  our  blessed 
Saviour  intimates,  and  tells  the  particular, 
viz.  in  saying  that  the  Spirit  of  God,  by 
which  Christ  did  work,  was  an  evil  spirit ; 
and  afterward,  they  crucified  Christ;  so  that 
two  of  the  persons  of  the  most  holy  Trinity 
were  openly  and  solemnly  defied,  and  God 
had  sent  out  a  decree  that  they  should  be 
cut  off:  yet  forty  years'  time,  after  all  this, 
was  left  for  their  repentance,  and  they  were 
called  upon  by  arguments  more  persuasive 
and  more  excellent  in  that  forty  years,  than 
all  the  nation  had  heard  from  their  prophets, 
even  from  Samuel  to  Zecharias.  And  Jonah 
thought  he  had  reason  on  his  side  to  refuse 
to  go  to  threaten  Nineveh ;  he  knew  God's 
tenderness  in  destroying  his  creatures,  and 
that  he  should  be  thought  to  be  but  a  false 
prophet ;  and  so  it  came  to  pass  according 
to  his  belief.  "Jonah  prayed  unto  the 
Lord,  and  said,  I  pray  thee,  Lord,  was  not 
this  my  saying,  when  I  was  yet  in  my 
country  ?  Therefore  I  fled ;  for  I  knew  thou 
wert  a  gracious  God  and  merciful,  slow  to 
anger,  and  of  great  kindness,  and  repentest 
thee  of  the  evil."*  He  told  beforehand  what 
the  event  would  be,  and  he  had  reason  to 
know  it ;  God  proclaimed  it  in  a  cloud  be- 
fore the  face  of  all  Israel,  and  made  it  to  be 
his  name  :  "  Miserator  et  misericor  Deus  :" 
"The  Lord,  the  Lord  God,  merciful  and 
gracious,"!  &c. 

You  see  the  largeness  of  this  treasure; 
but  we  can  see  no  end,  and  we  have  not  yet 
looked  upon  the  rare  arts  of  conversion  ;  nor 
that  God  leaves  the  natural  habit  of  virtues, 
even  after  the  acceptation  is  interrupted ; 
nor  his  working  extra-regular  miracles,  be- 
sides the  sufficiency  of  Moses,  and  the  pro- 
phets, and  the  New-Testament;  and  thou- 
sands more,  which  we  cannot  consider  now. 

But  this  we  can:  when  God  sent  an 
angel  to  pour  plagues  upon  the  earth,  there 
were  in  their  hands  "phialae  aureoe," 
"golden  phials:"  for  the  death  of  men  is 
precious  and  costly,  and  it  is  an  expense  that 
God  delights  not  in ;  but  they  were  phials, 


*  Jonah  Lv.  2.       t  Exod.  xxxiv.  6. 


Serm.  LII.    MIRACLES  OF  TH 


E  DIVINE  MERCY. 


393 


that  is,  such  vessels  as  out  of  them  no  great 
evil  could  come  at  once;  but  it  comes  out 
with  difficulty,  sobbing  and  troubled  as  it 
passes  forth ;  it  comes  through  a  narrow 
neck,  and  the  parts  of  it  crowd  at  the  port 
to  get  forth,  and  are  stifled  by  each  other's 
neighbourhood,  and  all  strive  to  get  out, 
but  few  can  pass,  as  if  God  did  nothing  but 
threaten,  and  draw  his  judgments  to  the 
mouth  of  the  phial  with  a  full  body,  and 
there  made  it  stop  itself. 

The  result  of  this  consideration  is,  that 
as  we  fear  the  Divine  judgments,  so  we 
adore  his  love  and  goodness,  and  let  the 
golden  chains  of  the  Divine  mercy  tie  us  to 
a  noble  prosecution  of  our  duty  and  the  in- 
terest of  religion.  For  he  is  the  worst  of 
men  whom  kindness  cannot  soften,  nor 
endearment  oblige,  whom  gratitude  cannot 
tie  faster  than  the  bands  of  life  and  death. 
He  is  an  ill-natured  sinner,  if  he  will  not 
comply  with  the  sweetness  of  heaven,  and 
be  civil  to  his  angel  guardian,  or  observant 
of  his  patroa  God,  who  made  him,  and  feeds 
him,  asd  keeps  all  his  faculties,  and  takes 
care  of  him,  and  endures  his  follies,  and 
waits  on  him  more  tenderly  than  a  nurse, 

50 


more  diligently  than  a  clieiii^  who  hath 
greater  care  of  him  than  his  father,  and 
whose  bowels  yearn  over  him  with  more 
compassion  than  a  mother;  who  is  bounti- 
ful beyond  our  need,  and  merciful  beyond 
our  hopes,  and  makes  capacities  in  us  to 
receive  more.  Fear  is  stronger  than  death, 
and  love  is  more  prevalent  than  fear,  and 
kindness  is  the  greatest  endearment  of  love  ; 
and  yet  to  an  ingenuous  person,  gratitude 
is  greater  than  all  these,  and  obliges  to  solemn 
duty,  when  love  fails,  and  fear  is  dull  and 
inactive,  and  death  itself  is  despised.  But 
the  man  who  is  hardened  against  kindness, 
and  whose  duty  is  not  made  alive  with 
gratitude,  must  be  used  like  a  slave,  and 
driven  like  an  ox,  and  enticed  with  goads  and 
whips  ;  but  must  never  enter  into  the  inhe- 
ritance of  sons.  Let  us  take  heed ;  for 
mercy  is  like  a  rainbow,  which  God  set  in 
the  clouds  to  remember  mankind  :  it  shines 
here  as  long  as  it  is  not  hindered ;  but  we 
must  never  look  for  it  after  it  is  night,  and 
it  shines  not  in  the  other  world.  If  we  re- 
fuse mercy  here,  we  shall  have  justice  to 
eternity. 


A  SUPPLEMENT 

CONTAINING 

TWELVE  SERMONS 

ON 

VARIOUS  SUBJECTS  AND  OCCASIONS. 


SERMONS, 


EXPLAINING 


TOE  NATURE  OF  FAITH,  AND  OBEDIENCE,  IN  RELATION  TO  GOD,  AND  THE  ECCLESIASTICAL 
AND  SECULAR  POWERS,  RESPECTIVELY. 


SERMON  I. 

THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS  EVANGELICAL 
DESCRIBED. 

For  I  say  unto  you,  that  except  your  righteousness 
exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees, ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  —Matt.  v.  20. 

Rewards  and  punishments  are  the  best 
sanction  of  laws ;  and  although  the  guar- 
dians of  laws  strike  sometimes  with  the 
.softest  part  of  the  hand  in  their  executions 
of  sad  sentences,  yet  in  the  sanction  they 
make  no  abatements,  but  so  proportion  the 
duty  to  the  reward,  and  the  punishment  to 
the  crime,  that  by  these  we  can  best  tell  | 
what  value  the  lawgiver  puts  upon  the 
obedience.  Joshua  put  a  great  rate  upon 
the  taking  of  Kiriath-Sepher,  when  the 
reward  of  the  service  was  his  daughter  and 
a  dower.  But  when  the  young  men  ven- 
tured to  fetch  David  the  waters  of  Beth- 
lehem, they  had  nothing  but  the  praise  of 
their  boldness,  because  their  service  was  no 
more  than  the  satisfaction  of  a  curiosity. 
But  as  lawgivers,  by  their  rewards,  declare 
the  value  of  the  obedience,  so  do  subjects 
also,  by  the  grandeur  of  what  they  expect, 
set  a  value  on  the  law  and  the  lawgiver, 
and  do  their  services  accordingly. 

And,  therefore,  the  law  of  Moses,  whose 
endearment  was  nothing  but  temporal  goods 
and  transient  evils,  "  could  never  make  the 
comers  thereunto  perfect;"  but  the  sjtstga- 
yayrj  xpslttovo$  £-KTtl8o<;,  "  the  superinduction 
of  a  better  hope,"*  hath  endeared  a  more 
perfect  obedience.    When  Christ  brought 

*  Heb.  viii.  19. 


life  and  immortality  to  light  through  the 
gospel,  and  hath  promised  to  us  things 
greater  than  all  our  explicit  desires,  bigger 
than  the  thoughts  of  our  heart,  then  iyyi£o- 
/xbv  0£Q,  saith  the  apostle,  "  then  we  draw 
near  to  God  j"  and  by  these  we  are  enabled 
to  do  ail  that  God  requires,  and  then  he  re- 
quires all  that  we  can  do ;  more  love  and 
more  obedience  than  he  did  of  those  who, — 
for  want  of  these  helps,  and  these  revela- 
tions, and  these  promises,  which  we  have, 
but  they  had  not, — were  but  imperfect  per- 
sons, and  could  do  but  little  more  than 
human  services.  Christ  hath  taught  us 
more,  and  given  us  more,  and  promised  us 
more,  than  ever  was  in  the  world  known  or 
believed  before  him;  and  by  the  strengths 
and  confidence  of  these,  thrusts  us  forward 
in  a  holy  and  wise  economy ;  and  plainly 
declares,  that  we  must  serve  him  by  the 
measures  of  a  new  love,  do  him  honour  by 
wise  and  material  glorifications,  be  united 
to  God  by  a  new  nature,  and  made  alive  by 
a  new  birth,  and  fulfil  all  righteousness  ;  to 
be  humble  and  meek  as  Christ,  to  be  merci- 
ful as  our  heavenly  Father  is,  to  be  pure  as 
God  is  pure,  to  be  partakers  of  the  Divine 
nature,  to  be  wholly  renewed  in  the  frame 
and  temper  of  our  mind,  to  become  people 
of  a  new  heart,  a  direct  new  creation,  new 
principles,  and  a  new  being,  to  do  better 
than  all  the  world  before  us  ever  did,  to  love 
God  more  perfectly,  to  despise  the  world 
more  generously,  to  contend  for  the  faith 
more  earnestly";  for  all  this  is  but  a  proper 
and  a  just  consequent  of  the  great  promises, 
which  our  blessed  Lawgiver  came  to  pub- 
lish and  effect  for  all  the  world  of  believers 
and  disciples. 

The  matter  which  is  here  required,  is 
I  2  397 


398 


THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS 


Serm.  I. 


certainly  very  great;  for  it  is  to  be  more 
lighteous  than  the  scribes  and  Pharisees; 
more  holy  than  the  doctors  of  the  law,,  than 
the  leaders  of  the  synagogue,  than  the  wise 
princes  of  the  sanhedrim;  more  righteous 
than  some  that  were  prophets  and  high 
priests,  than  some  that  kept  the  ordinances 
of  the  law  without  blame ;  men  that  lay  in 
sackcloth,  and  fasted  much,  and  prayed 
more,  and  made  religion  and  the  study  of 
the  law  the  work  of  their  lives :  this  was 
very  much  ;  but  Christians  must  do  more. 

Nunc  te  marmoreum  pro  tempore  feeimus  ;  at  tu 
Si  fratura  gregem  suppleverit,  aureus  esto. 

They  did  well,  and  we  must  do  better; 
their  houses  were  marble,  but  our  roofs  must 
be  gilded  and  fuller  of  glory.  But  as  the 
matter  is  very  great,  so  the  necessity  of  it  is 
the  greatest  in  the  world.  It  must  be  so,  or 
it  will  be  much  worse  :  unless  it  be  thus, 
we  shall  never  see  the  glorious  face  of  God. 
Here  it  concerns  us  to  be  wise  and  fearful ; 
for  the  matter  is  not  a  question  of  an  oaken  ! 
garland,  or  a  circle  of  bays,  and  a  yellow  j 
riband  :  it  is  not  a  question  of  money  or 
land  ;  nor  of  the  vainer  rewards  of  popular 
noises,  and  the  undiscerning  suffrages  of 
the  people,  who  are  contingent  judges  of 
good  and  evil :  but  it  is  the  great  stake  of 
life  eternal.  "We  cannot  be  Christians, 
unless  we  be  righteous  by  the  new  mea- 
sures :  the  righteousness  of  the  kingdom  is 
now  the  only  way  to  enter  it;  for  the  sen- 
tence is  fixed,  and  the  judgment  is  decre- 
tory, and  the  Judge  infallible,  and  the  decree 
irreversible :  "  For  T  say  unto  you,"  said 
Christ,  "  unless  your  righteousness  exceed 
the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees, ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven." 

Here,  then,  we  have  two  things  to  con- 
sider. I.  What  was  the  righteousness  of 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees.  2.  How  far  that 
is  to  be  exceeded  by  the  righteousness  of 
Christians. 

1.  Concerning  the  first.  I  will  not  be  so 
nice  in  the  observation  of  these  words,  as  to 
take  notice  that  Christ  does  not  name  the 
Sadducees,  but  the  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
though  there  may  be  something  in  it :  the 
Sadducees  were  called  "  Caraim,"  from 
cava,  "  to  read ;"  for  they  thought  it  religion 
to  spend  one  third  part  of  their  day  in  read- 
ing their  Scriptures,  whose  fulness  they  so 
admired,  they  would  admit  of  no  suppletory 
traditions  :  but  the  Pharisees  were  called 


"  Thanaim,"  that  is,  SEutfpwrou,  they  added 
to  the  word  of  God  words  of  their  own,  as 
the  church  of  Rome  does  at  this  day :  they 
and  these  fell  into  an  equal  fate ;  while  they 
"taught  for  doctrines  the  commandments 
of  men,"  they  prevaricated  the  righteousness 
of  God  :  what  the  church  of  Rome,  to  evil 
purposes,  hath  done  in  this  particular,  may 
be  demonstrated  in  due  time  and  place;  but 
what  false  and  corrupt  glosses,  under  the 
specious  title  of  the  tradition  of  their  fathers, 
the  Pharisees  had  introduced,  our  blessed 
Saviour  reproves,  and  are  now  to  be  repre- 
sented as  the  tti/tftrtapaSfty^a,  that  you  may 
see  that  righteousness,  beyond  which  all 
they  must  go,  that  intend  that  heaven  should 
be  their  journey's  end. 

1.  The  Pharisees  obeyed  the  command- 
ments in  the  letter,  not  in  the  spirit :  they 
minded  what  God  spake,  but  not  what  he 
intended  :  they  were  busy  in  the  outward 
work  of  the  hand,  but  incurious  of  the 
affections  and  choice  of  the  heart.  'Tfym? 
rtdvta  oapxtxus  vsvorjxatB,  said  Justin  Martyr 
to  Tryphon  the  Jew,  "Ye  understand  all 
things  carnally;"  that  is,  they  rested  iv  rOjia.- 
fxatt  sissfislas,  as  Nazianzen  calls  it,  "  in  the 
outward  work  of  piety,"  which  not  only 
Justin  Martyr  but  St.  Paul  calls  "  car- 
nality," not  meaning  a  carnal  appetite,  but 
a  carnal  service.*  Their  error  was  plainly 
this  :  they  never  distinguished  duties  natu- 
ral from  duties  relative  ;  that  is,  whether  it 
were  commanded  for  itself,  or  in  order  to 
something  that  was  better ;  whether  it  were 
a  principal  grace,  or  an  instrumental  action : 
so  God  was  served  in  the  letter,  they  did 
not  much  inquire  into  his  purpose  :  and, 
therefore,  they  were  curious  to  wash  their 
hands,  but  cared  not  to  purify  their  hearts  • 
they  would  give  alms,  but  hate  him  that  re- 
ceived it ;  they  would  go  to  the  temple,  but 
did  not  revere  the  glory  of  God  that  dwelt 
there  between  the  cherubims;  they  would 
fast,  but  not  mortify  their  lusts;  they  would 
say  good  prayers,  but  not  labour  for  the 
grace  they  prayed  for.  This  was  just  as  if 
a  man  should  run  on  his  master's  errand, 
and  do  no  business  when  he  came  there. 
They  might  easily  have  thought,  that  by 
the  soul  only  a  man  approaches  to  God, 
and  draws  the  body  after  it;  but  that  nc 
washing  or  corporal  services  could  unite 
them  and  the  shechinah  together — no  such 
thing  could  make  them  like  to  God,  who 


*  Gal.  iii.  3,  and  vi.  12,  13.  Phil.  iii.  34. 


Serm.  I. 


EVANGELICAL  DESCRIBED. 


399 


is  the  Prince  of  Spirits.  They  did  as  the 
dunces  in  Pythagoras'  school,  who, — when 
their  master  had  said  "  Fabis  abstineto," 
by  which  he  intended — "  they  should  not 
ambitiously  seek  for  magistracy," — they 
thought  themselves  good  Pythagoreans  if 
they  "  did  not  eat  beans ;"  and  they  would 
be  sure  to  put  their  right  foot  first  into  the 
shoe,  and  their  left  foot  into  the  water,  and 
supposed  they  had  done  enough;  though  if 
they  had  not  been  fools,  they  would  have 
understood  their  master's  meaning  to  have 
been,  that  they  should  put  more  affections  to 
labour  and  travel,  and  less  to  their  pleasure 
and  recreation;  and  so  it  was  with  the  Phari- 
see :  for  as  the  Chaldees  taught  their  morality 
by  mystic  words,  and  the  Egyptians  by 
hieroglyphics,  and  the  Greeks  by  fables;  so 
did  God  by  rites  and  ceremonies  external, 
leadiDg  them  by  the  hand  to  the  purities  of 
the  heart,  and  by  the  services  of  the  body  to 
the  obedience  of  the  spirit ;  which  because 
they  would  not  understand,  they  thought 
they  had  done  enough  in  the  observation  of 
the  letter. 

2.  In  moral  duties,  where  God  expressed 
himself  more  plainly,  they  made  no  com- 
mentary of  kindness,  but  regarded  the  pro- 
hibition so  nakedly,  and  divested  of  all  ante- 
cedents, consequents,  similitudes,  and  pro- 
portions, that  if  they  stood  clear  of  that 
hated  name  which  was  set  down  in  Moses' 
tables,  they  gave  themselves  liberty,  in  many 
instances,  of  the  same  kindred  and  alliance. 
If  they  abstained  from  murder,  they  thought 
it  very  well,  though  they  made  no  scruple 
of  murdering  their  brother's  fame ;  they 
would  not  cut  his  throat,  but  they  would 
call  him  fool,  or  invent  lies  in  secret,  and 
publish  his  disgrace  openly  :  they  would 
not  dash  out  his  brains,  but  they  would  be 
extremely  and  unreasonably  angry  with 
him  :  they  would  not  steal  their  brother's 
money,  but  they  would  oppress  him  in 
crafty  and  cruel  bargains.  The  command- 
ment forbade  them  to  commit  adultery  ;  but 
because  fornication  was  not  named,  they 
made  no  scruple  of  that;  and  being  com- 
manded to  honour  their  father  and  their 
mother,  they  would  give  them  good  words 
and  fair  observances ;  but  because  it  was 
not  named  that  they  should  maintain  them 
in  their  need,  they  thought  they  did  well 
enough  to  pretend  "  corban,"  and  let  their 
father  starve. 

3.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees  placed  their 
righteousness  in  negatives  :  they  would  not 
commit  what  was  forbidden,  but  thev  cared 


but  little  for  the  included  positive,  and 
the  omissions  of  good  actions  did  not  much 
trouble  them ;  they  would  not  hurt  their 
brother  in  a  forbidden  instance,  but  neither 
would  they  do  him  good  according  to  the 
intention  of  the  commandment.  It  was  a 
great  innocence  if  they  did  not  rob  the  poor, 
— then  they  were  righteous  men ;  but  they 
thought  themselves  not  much  concerned  to 
acquire  that  godlike  excellency,  a  philan- 
thropy and  love  to  all  mankind.  Whoso- 
ever blasphemed  God  was  to  be  put  to 
death ;  but  he  that  did  not  glorify  God  as 
he  ought,  they  were  unconcerned  for  him. 
and  let  him  alone.  He  that  spake  against 
Moses,  was  to  die  without  mercy ;  but 
against  the  ambitious  and  the  covetous, 
against  the  proud  man  and  the  unmerciful 
they  made  no  provisions. 

Virtus  est  vitium  fugere,  et  sapientia  prima 
Stultitia  caruisse. 

Hor. 

They  accounted  themselves  good,  not  for 
doing  good,  but  for  doing  no  evil;  that  was 
the  sum  of  their  theology. 

4.  They  had  one  thing  more  as  bad  as 
all  this :  they  broke  Moses'  tables  into 
pieces,  and,  gathering  up  the  fragments, 
took  to  themselves  what  part  of  duty  they 
pleased,  and  let  the  rest  alone;  for  it  was  a 
proverb  among  the  Jews,  "Q,ui  operam  dat 
prtecepto,  liber  est  a  prsecepto;"  that  is,  "if 
he  chooses  one  positive  commandment  for 
his  business,  he  may  be  less  careful  in  any 
of  the  rest."  Indeed,  they  said  also,  "Q,uis 
multiplicat  legem,  multiplicat  vitam ;"  "He 
that  multiplies  the  law,  increases  life ;"  that 
is,  if  he  did  intend  to  more  good  things,  it 
j  was  so  much  the  better,  but  the  other  was 
■  well  enough ;  but  as  for  universal  obedi- 
!  ence,  that  was  not  the  measure  of  their 
|  righteousness ;  for  they  taught  that  God 
would  put  our  good  works  and  bad  into  the 
balance,  and  according  to  the  heavier  scale, 
give  a  portion  in  the  world  to  come ;  so 
that  some  evil  they  would  allow  to  them- 
selves and  their  disciples,  always  provided 
it  was  less  than  the  good  they  did.  They 
1  would  devour  widow's  houses,  and  make  it 
up  by  long  prayers ;  they  would  love  their 
nation,  and  hate  their  prince;  offer  sacrifice, 
and  curse  Caesar  in  their  heart;  advance 
Judaism,  and  destroy  humanity. 

Lastly :  St.  Austin  summed  up  the  differ- 
ence between  the  Pharisaical  and  evangelical 
righteousness  in  two  words ;  "  Brevis  dif- 
ferentia inter  legem  et  evangelium ;  timor 


400 


THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS 


Serm.  f. 


et  amor."  They  served  the  God  of  their 
fathers  "  in  the  spirit  of  fear,"  and  we  wor- 
ship the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  "in  the 
spirit  of  love,"  and  by  the  spirit  of  adoption. 
And  as  this  slavish  principle  of  theirs  was 
the  cause  of  all  their  former  imperfections, 
so  it  finally  and  chiefly  expressed  itself  in 
these  two  particulars: — 1.  They  would  do 
all  that  they  thought  they  lawfully  could  do. 
2.  They  would  do  nothing  but  what  was 
expressly  commanded. 

This  was  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  and  their  disciples,  the  Jews  ;* 
which,  because  our  blessed  Saviour  reproves, 
not  only  as  imperfect  then,  but  as  criminal 
now,  calling  us  on  to  a  new  righteousness, 
the  righteousness  of  God,  to  the  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life,  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
the  proper  righteousness  thereof, — it  con- 
cerns us  in  the  next  place  to  look  after  the 
measures  of  this,  ever  remembering  that  it 
is  infinitely  necessary  that  we  should  do  so ; 
and  men  do  not  generally  know,  or  not  con- 
sider, what  it  is  to  be  a  Christian ;  they  un- 
derstand not  what  the  Christian  law  forbid- 
deth  or  commandeth.  But  as  for  this  in  my 
text,  it  is  indeed  our  great  measure ;  but  it 
is  not  a  question  of  good  and  better,  but  of 
good  and  evil,  life  and  death,  salvation  and 
damnation  ;  for  unless  our  righteousness  be 
weighed  by  new  weights,  we  shall  be  found 
too  light,  when  God  comes  to  weigh  the 
actions  of  all  the  world ;  and  unless  we  be 
more  righteous  than  they,  we  "shall  in  no 
wise,"  that  is,  upon  no  other  terms  in  the 
world,  "enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

Now  concerning  this,  we  shall  do  very 
much  amiss,  if  we  take  our  measures  by 
the  manners  and  practices  of  the  many  who 
call  themselves  Christians ;  for  there  are,  as 
Nazianzen  expresses  it,  the  oi  -tots  xai  vw 
^opujotofc,  "  the  old  and  the  new  Pharisees."  { 
I  wish  it  were  no  worse  amongst  us ;  and  that  \ 
indeed  all  Christians  were  righteous  as  they  I 
were;  "est  aliquid  prodire  tenus  :"  it  would  j 
not  be  just  nothing.    But  I  am  sure  that  to  j 
bid  defiance  to  the  laws  of  Christ,  to  laugh 
at  religion,  to  make  a  merriment  at  the  de-  j 
bauchery  and  damnation  of  our  brother,  is  1 
a  state  of  evil  worse  than  that  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees ;  and  yet,  even  among  such 
men,  how  impatient  would  they  be,  and 
how  unreasonable  would  they  think  you  to 
be,  if  you  should  tell  them,  that  there  are  no 


*  Sed  Beelzcbulis  callida  commenta  Christus 
destruit. 


|  present  hopes  or  possibility,  that,  in  this 
state  they  are  in,  they  can  be  saved! 

Omnes  videmur  nobis  esse  belluli 

Et  festivi  saperdns,  ciim  simus  ca-xpoi.  Var. 

But  the  world  is  too  full  of  Christians, 
whose  righteousness  is  very  little,  and  their 
j  iniquities  very  great;  and  now-a-days,  a 
j  Christian  is  a  man  that  comes  to  church  on 
Sundays,  and  on  the  week  following  will  do 
shameful  things; 

Passim  corvos  sequitur,  testaque  Iutoque 
Securus  quo  pes  ferat,  atque  ex  tempore  vivit ; 

being,  according  to  the  Jewish  proverbial 
reproof,  as  so  many  Mephiboshelhs :  "dis- 
cipuli  sapientum,  qui  incessu  pudefaciunt 
praeceptorem  suum;"  "their  master  teaches 
them  to  go  uprightly,  but  they  still  show 
their  lame  leg,  and  shame  their  master;"  as 
if  a  man  might  be  a  Christian,  and  yet  be 
the  vilest  person  in  the  world,  doing  such 
things  for  which  the  laws  of  men  have  pro- 
vided smart  and  shame,  and  the  laws  of  God 
have  threatened  the  intolerable  pains  of  an 
insufferable  and  never-ending  damnation. 
Example  here  cannot  be  our  rule,  unless 
men  were  much  better;  and  as  long  as  men 
live  at  the  rate  they  do,  it  will  be  to  little 
purpose  to  talk  of  exceeding  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees;  but  be- 
cause it  must  be  much  better  with  us  all,  or  it 
will  be  very  much  worse  with  us  at  the  lat- 
ter end,  I  shall  leave  complaining,  and  go  to 
the  rule,  and  describe  the  necessary  and  un- 
avoidable measures  of  the  righteousness 
evangelical,  without  which  we  can  never  be 
saved. 

1.  Therefore,  when  it  is  said  our  "right- 
eousness must  exceed  that  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees,"  let  us  first  take  notice,  by 
way  of  precognition,  that  it  must  at  least  be 
so  much ;  we  must  keep  the  letter  of  the 
whole  moral  law;  we  must  do  all  that  lies 
before  us,  all  that  is  in  our  hand  :  and  there- 
fore opyia^f  oQau,  which  signifies  "  to  be  reli- 
gious," the  grammarians  derive  anb  tov 
%npa.$  opsysaOcu,  "from  reaching  forth  the 
hand  :"  the  outward  work  must  be  done; 
and  it  is  not  enough  to  say,  "  My  heart  is 
right,  but  my  hand  went  aside."  Pruden- 
tius  saith,  that  St.  Peter  wept  so  bitterly, 
because  he  did  not  confess  Christ  openly, 
whom  he  loved  secretly. 

Flevit  negator  denique 
Ex  ore  prolnpsum  ncfas 
Cum  mens  mannet  innocens, 
Animusque  servant  fidem. 


Serm.  I. 


EVANGELICAL  DESCRIBED. 


401 


A  right  heart  alone  will  not  do  it;  or 
rather,  the  heart  is  not  right,  when  the  hand 
is  wrong.  "  If  a  man  strikes  his  neighbour, 
and  says,  Am  not  I  in  jest?  it  is  folly  and 
shame  to  him,"  said  Solomon.  For,  once 
for  all,  let  us  remember  this,  that  Christi- 
anity is  the  most  profitable,  the  most  useful, 
and  the  most  bountiful  institution  in  the 
whole  world ;  and  the  best  definition  I  can 
give  of  it  is  this  ; — It  is  the  wisdom  of  God 
brought  down  among  us,  to  do  good  to  men, 

and  therefore  we  must  not  do  less  than  the  j  up  to  the  temple  to  pray 
Pharisees,  who  did  the  outward  work;  at 
least,  let  us  be  sure  to  do  all  the  work  that 
is  laid  before  us  in  the  commandments. 
And  it  is  strange  that  this  should  be  need- 
ful to  be  pressed  amongst  Christians,  whose 
religion  requires  so  very  much  more.  But 
so  it  is,  upon  a  pretence  that  we  must  serve 
God  with  the  mind,  some  are  such  fools  as 
to  think  that  it  is  enough  to  have  a  good 


principal  actor.  We  must  not  give  alms 
without  a  charitable  soul,  nor  suffer  martyr- 
dom, but  in  love  and  in  obedience;  and 
when  we  say  our  prayers,  we  do  but  mis- 
spend our  time,  unless  our  mind  ascend  up 
to  God  upon  the  wings  of  desire. 

Desire  is  the  life  of  prayer;  and  if  you 
indeed  desire  what  you  pray  for,  you  will 
also  labour  for  what  you  desire;  and  if  you 
find  it  otherwise  with  yourselves,  your  com- 
ing to  church  is  but  like  the  Pharisees  going 
If  your  heart  be 
not  present,  neither  will  God;  and  then 
there  is  a  sound  of  men  and  women  be- 
tween a  pair  of  dead  walls,  from  whence, 
because  neither  God  nor  your  souls  are 
present,  you  must  needs  go  home  without 
a  blessing. 

But  this  measure  of  evangelical  righteous- 
ness is  of  principal  remark  in  all  the  rites 
and  solemnities  of  religion ;  and  intends  to 


bodies ;  and  because  they  are  called  upon  to 
have  the  power  and  the  life  of  godliness, 
they  abominate  all  external  works  as  mere 
forms ;  and  because  the  true  fast  is  to  ab- 
stain from  sin,  therefore  they  will  not  abstain 
from  meat  and  drink,  even  when  they  are 
commanded  ;  which  is  just  as  if  a  Pharisee, 
being  taught  the  circumcision  of  the  heart, 
should  refuse  to  circumcise  his  flesh ;  and 
as  if  a  Christian,  being  instructed  in  the  ex- 
cellencies of  spiritual  communion,  should 
wholly  neglect  the  sacramental ;  that  is,  be- 
cause the  soul  is  the  life  of  man,  therefore 
it  is  fitting  to  die  in  a  humour,  and  lay  aside 
the  body.  This  is  a  taking  away  the  sub- 
ject of  the  question  ;  for  our  inquiry  is, — 
how  we  should  keep  the  commandments? 
how  we  are  to  do  the  work  that  lies  before 
us?  by  what  principles,  with  what  intention, 
in  what  degrees,  after  what  manner,  "  ut 
bonum  bene  fiat,"  "  that  the  good  thing  be 
done  well  ?"  This,  therefore,  must  be  pre- 
supposed :  we  must  take  care  that  even  our 
bodies  bear  a  part  in  our  spiritual  services. 
Our  voice  and  tongue,  our  hands  and  our  feet, 
and  our  very  bowels  must  be  servants  of 
God,  and  do  the  work  of  the  command- 
ments. 

This  being  ever  supposed,  our  question 
is,  how  much  more  we  must  do?  and  the 
first  measure  is  this, — whatsoever  can  be 
signified  and  ministered  to  by  the  body,  the 
heart  and  the  spirit  of  a  man  must  be  the 
51 


meaning.  "  Iniquum  perpol  verbum  est,  say  this,  that  Christian  religion  is  something 
'  bene  vult,'  nisi  qui  bene  facit."  And  be- 1  that  is  not  seen,  it  is  the  hidden  man  of  the 
cause  we  must  serve  God  in  the  spirit,  |  heart;  hti  0f6j  4 6 it  is  God  that  dwells 
therefore  they  will  not  serve  God  with  their  j  within;"  and  true  Christians  are  men,  who, 

as  the  Chaldee  oracle  said,  are  7to%vv  sead/xevoi 
vovv,  "clothed  with  a  great  deal  of  mind." 
And,  therefore,  those  words  of  the  prophet 
Hosea,  "  Et  loquar  ad  cor  ejus,"  "  I  will 
speak  unto  his  heart,"  is  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression, signifying  to  speak  spiritual  com- 
forts, and,  in  the  mystical  sense,  signifies 
svar/ysu^eiv,  "to  preach  the  gospel:"  where 
the  Spirit  is  the  preacher,  and  the  heart  is 
the  disciple,  and  the  sermon  is  of  righteous- 
ness, and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Our  service  to  God  must  not  be  in  outward 
works  and  scenes  of  religion,  it  must  be 
something  by  which  we  become  like  to  God  ; 
the  Divine  prerogative  must  extend  beyond 
the  outward  man,  nay,  even  beyond  the 
mortification  of  corporal  vices;  the  Spirit 
of  God  must  go  "in  trabis  crassitudinem," 
and  mollify  all  our  secret  pride,  and  in^ene- 
rate  in  us  a  true  humility,  and  a  Christian 
meekness  of  spirit,  and  a  Divine  charity. 
For  in  the  gospel,  when  God  enjoins  anv 
external  rite  or  ceremony,  the  outward  work 
is  always  the  less  principal.  For  there  is  a 
bodily  and  a  carnal  part,  an  outside,  and  a 
cabinet  of  religion  in  Christianity  itself. 
When  we  are  baptized,  the  purpose  of  God 
'  is,  that  we  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  polln- 
|  tion  of  the  flesh  and  spirit,  and  then  we  are, 
indeed,  xoBa^oi  oXot.  "clean  all  over."  And 
!  when  we  communicate,  the  commandment 
!  means  that  we  should  be  made  one  spirit 
|  with  Christ,  and  should  live  on  him,  be- 
2i2 


402 


THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS 


Serm.  1. 


lievinghis  word,  praying  for  his  Spirit,  sup- 
ported with  his  hope,  refreshed  by  his 
promises,  recreated  by  his  comforts,  and 
wholly,  and  in  all  things,  conformable  to 
his  life;  that  is  the  true  communion.  The 
sacraments  are  not  made  for  sinners,  until 
they  do  repent ;  they  are  the  food  of  our 
souls,  but  our  souls  must  be  alive  unto  God, 
or  else  they  cannot  eat.  It  is  good  to  "con- 
fess our  sins,"  as  St.  James  says,  and  to 
open  our  wounds  to  the  ministers  of  reli- 
gion ;  but  they  absolve  none  but  such  as 
are  truly  penitent. 

Solemn  prayers,  and  the  sacraments,  and 
the  assemblies  of  the  faithful,  and  fasting 
days,  and  acts  of  external  worship,  are  the 
solemnities  and  rites  of  religion :  but  the 
religion  of  a  Christian  is  in  the  heart  and 
spirit.  And  this  is  that  by  which  Clemens 
Alexandrinus  defined  the  righteousness  of  a 
Christian,  Acxawouv??  av/x'pcovia  iw  trj$  tyuzrjs 
^fpwv  "  all  the  parts  and  faculties  that  make 
up  a  man,  must  make  up  our  religion;" 
but  the  heart  is  "domus  principalis,"  it  is 
"the  court"  of  the  great  King;  and  he  is 
properly  served  with  interior  graces  and 
moral  virtues,  with  a  humble  and  a  good 
mind,  with  a  bountiful  heart,  and  a  willing 
sou!,  and  these  will  command  the  eye,  and 
give  laws  to  the  hand,  and  make  the  shoulders 
stoop ;  but  "  anima  cujusque  est  quisque ;" 
"  a  man's  soul  is  the  man,"  and  so  is  his 
religion;  and  so  you  are  bound  to  under- 
stand it. 

True  it  is,  God  works  in  us  his  graces  by 
the  sacrament;  but  we  must  dispose  our- 
selves to  a  reception  of  the  Divine  bless- 
ing .by  moral  instruments.  The  soul  is 
ffwfpyoj  *9  0fQ,  "  it  must  work  together  with 
God ;"  and  the  body  works  together  with 
the  soul :  but  no  external  action  can  purify 
the  soul,  because,  its  nature  and  operations 
being  spiritual,  it  can  no  more  be  changed 
by  a  ceremony  or  an  external  solemnity, 
than  an  angel  can  be  caressed  with  sweet- 
meats, or  a  man's  belly  with  music  or  long 
orations.  The  sum  is  this :  no  Christian 
does  his  duly  to  God  but  he  that  serves  him 
with  all  his  heart :  and  although  it  becomes 
us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness,  even  the  ex- 
ternal also;  yet  that  which  makes  us  gra- 
cious in  his  eyes,  is  not  the  external,  it  is 
the  love  of  the  heart  and  the  real  change  of 
the  mind  and  obedience  of  the  spirit;  that 
is  the  first  great  measure  of  the  righteous- 
ness evangelical. 

2.  The  righteousness  evangelical  must 
exceed  that  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  by 


extension  of  our  obedience  to  things  of  the 
same  signification  :  "  Leges  non  ex  verbis, 
sed  ex  mente  intelligendas,"  says  the  law.* 
There  must  be  a  commentary  of  kindness  in 
the  understanding  the  laws  of  Christ.  We 
must  understand  all  God's  meaning;  we 
must  secure  his  service,  we  must  be  far  re- 
moved from  the  dangers  of  his  displeasure. 
And,  therefore,  our  righteousness  must  be 
the  purification  and  the  perfection  of  the 
spirit.  So  that  it  will  be  nothing  for  us  not 
to  commit  adultery,  unless  our  eyes  and 
hands  be  chaste,  and  the  desires  be  clean. 
A  Christian  must  not  look  upon  a  woman 
to  lust  after  her.  He  must  hate  sin  in  all 
dimensions,  and  in  all  instances,  and  in 
every  angle  of  its  reception.  A  Christian 
must  not  sin,  and  he  must  not  be  willing 
to  sin  if  he  durst.  He  must  not  be  lustful, 
and  therefore  he  must  not  feed  high,  nor 
drink  deep,  for  these  make  provisions  for 
lust :  and,  amongst  Christians,  great  eat- 
ings and  drinkings  are  acts  of  uncleanness 
as  well  as  of  intemperance,  and  whatever 
ministers  to  sin,  and  is  the  way  of  it;  it 
partakes  of  its  nature  and  its  curse. 

For  it  is  remarkable  that  in  good  and  evil 
the  case  is  greatly  different.  Mortification 
(e.  g.)  is  a  duty  of  Christianity;  but  there  is 
no  law  concerning  the  instruments  of  it. 
We  are  not  commanded  to  roll  ourselves  on 
thorns,  as  St.  Benedict  did ;  or  to  burn  our 
flesh,  like  St.  Martinian ;  or  to  tumble  in 
snows,  with  St.  Francis ;  or  in  pools  of  water 
with  St.  Bernard.  A  man  may  chew  aloes, 
or  lie  upon  the  ground,  or  wear  sackcloth, 
if  he  have  a  mind  to  it,  and  if  he  finds  it 
good  in  its  circumstances  and,  to  his  pur- 
poses of  mortification;  but,  it  may  be,  he 
may  do  it  alone  by  the  instrumentalities  of 
fear  and  love ;  and  so  the  thing  be  done,  no 
special  instrument  is  under  a  command. 
But  although  the  instruments  of  virtue  are 
free,  yet  the  instruments  and  ministries  of 
vice  are  not.  Not  only  the  sin  is  forbidden, 
but  all  the  ways  that  lead  to  it.  The  instru- 
ments of  virtue  are  of  themselves  indifferent, 
that  is,  not  naturally,  but  good  only  for  their 
relation's  sake,  and  in  order  to  their  end. 
But  the  instruments  of  vice  are  of  them- 
selves vicious ;  they  are  part  of  the  sin, 
they  have  a  share  in  the  fantastic  pleasure, 
and  they  begin  to  estrange  a  man's  heart 
from  God,  and  are  directly  in  the  prohibi- 
tion. For  we  are  commanded  to  fly  from 
temptation,  to  pray  against  it,  "  to  abstain 


De  Legihus  1.  scire. 


Serm.  I. 


EVANGELICAL  DESCRIBED. 


403 


from  all  appearances  of  evil,"  "  to  make  a '  an  error  deeply,  to  reprove  it  bitterly,  to  re- 
covenant  with  our  eyes,"  "  to  pluck  them  member  it  tenaciously,  to  repeat  it  frequent- 
out"  if  there  be  need.  And  if  Christians  do  ly,  to  upbraid  it  unhandsomely,  I  think  I 
not  understand  the  commandments  to  this  have  great  reason  to  say,  that  this  person 
extension  of  signification,  they  will  be  inno- 1  does -not  do  what  becomes  the  sweetness  of 
cent  only  by  the  measures  of  human  laws, '  a  Christian  spirit.    If  it  be  replied,  It  is  no 


but  not  by  the  righteousness  of  God. 

3.  Of  the  same  consideration  it  is  also 
that  we  understand  Christ's  commandments 


where  forbidden  to  chide  an  offending  per- 
son, and  that  it  cannot  be  a  fault  to  under- 
stand when  a  thing  is  said  or  done  amiss ; 


to  extend  our  duty,  not  only  to  what  is !  I  cannot  return  an  answer,  but  by  saying, 
named,  and  what  is  not  named  of  the  same  that  suppose  nothing  of  it  were  sin,  yet  that 
nature  and  design ;  but  that  we  abstain  from  every  thing  of  it  is  so  like  a  sin,  that 


all  such  things  as  are  like  to  sins.  Of  this 
nature  there  are  many.  All  violences  of 
passion,  irregularities  in  gaming,  prodigality 
of  our  time,  indecency  of  action,  doing 
things  unworthy  of  our  birth  or  our  profes- 


it  is  the  worse  for  it ;  and  that  it  were  better 
not  to  do  so;  at  least  I  think  so,  and  so 
ought  you  too,  if  you  be  curious  of  your 
eternal  interest:  a  little  more  tenderness 
here  would  do  well.    I  cannot  sav  that  this 


sion,  aptness  to  go  to  law  :  "  ambitus,"  or  j  dress,  or  this  garment,  or  this  standing  for 
a  fierce  prosecution  even  of  honourable  em- 1  place,  is  the  direct  sin  of  pride ;  but  I  am 
ployments  ;  misconstruction  of  the  words  sure  it  looks  like  it  in  some  persons  ;  at  least 
and  actions  of  our  brother :  easiness  to  be-  j  the  letting  it  alone  is  much  better,  and  is 
lieve  evil  of  others,  willingness  to  report  the  very  like  humility.  And  certain  it  is,  that 
evil  which  we  hear;  curiosity  of  diet,  pee-  he  is  dull  of  hearing  who  understands  not 
vishness  towards  servants,  indiscreet  and  ;  the  voice  of  God,  unless  it  be  clamorous  in 
importune  standing  for  place,  and  all  excess  an  express  and  a  loud  commandment,  pro- 
in  ornaments;  for  even  this  little  instance  is  claimed  with  trumpets  and  clarions  upon 
directly  prohibited  by  the  Chrisiian  and  royal !  mount  Sinai ;  but  a  willing  and  an  obedient 
law  of  charity.  For  aydrtr  ov  iCEpriEpcsefta, '  ear  understands  the  still  voice  of  Christ,  and 
saith  St.  Paul;  the  word  is  a  word  hard  to  is  ready  to  obey  his  meaning  at  half  a  word  ; 
be  understood;  we  render  it  well  enough,  and  that  is  the  righteousness  evangelical.  It 


••  charity  vauntethnot  itself:*'  and  upon  this 
St.  Basil  says,  that  an  ecclesiastic  person 
(and  so  every  Christian  in  his  proportion) 
ought  not  to  go  in  splendid  and  vain  orna- 
ments ;  liar  yap  6  urj  8ia  zpuar,  a}J>A  8ia  xa?.- 

yoptav    w  Every  thing  that  is  not  wisely 


not  only  abstains  from  sins  named,  and  sins 
implied,  but  from  the  beginnings  and  instru- 
ments of  sin ;  and  from  whatsoever  is  like 
it.  The  Jews  were  so  great  haters  of  swine 
upon  pretensions  of  the  Mosaic  rites,  that 
they  would  not  so  much  as  name  a  swine, 
but  called  it  -rnN  nat  daber  acher,  another 


useful  or  proportioned  to  the  state  of  the  thing.  And  thus  the  Romans,  in  their  au- 
Chris'.ian.  but  ministers  only  to  vanity,  is  a  guries,  used  "  alterum"  for  "  non  bonum." 
part  of  this  .-tfp.tcpfv£59ai,"  it  is  a  "  vaunt-  The  simile  of  this  St.  Paul  translates  to  a 
ing."  which  the  charity  and  the  grace  of  a  Christian  duty  :  "Let  not  fornication  be  so 
Christian  does  not  well  endure.  These  much  as  named  amongst  you,  rtpertov  iv 
things  are  like  to  sins  ;  they  are  of  a  suspi-  rots  aytotj,  as  is  comely  amongst  Christians ;" 
cious  nature,  and  not  easily  to  be  reconciled '  that  is,  come  not  near  a  foul  thing  ;  speak 
to  the  righteousness  evangelical.  It  is  no  not  of  it,  let  it  be  wholly  banished  from  all 
wonder  if  Christianity  be  nice  and  curious :  your  conversation;  for  this  niceness  and 
it  is  the  cleanness  and  the  purification  of  I  curiosity  of  duty  "  becometh  saints,"  and  is 
the  soul,  and  Christ  intends  to  present  his  an  instance  of  the  righteousness  evangelical. 


church  to  God  airiit.ov  xol  aiua^xov ,  *'*  with- 
out spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thin?." 
N.  B.  or  any  such  thing.  If  there  be  any 
irregularity  that  is  less  than  a  wrinkle,  the 
evangelical  righteousness  does  not  allow  it. 


I  have  now  done  with  the  first  sort  of 
measures  of  the  Christian  righteousness ; 
these  which  are  the  matter  of  our  negative 
duty ;  these  are  the  measures  of  our  caution 
and  our   first  innocence.    But  there  are 


These  are  sjch  things  which  if  men  will  greater  things  behind,  which,  although  I 


stand  to  defend,  possibly  a  modest  reprover 
may  be  more  ashamed  than  an  impudent 
offender.    If  I  see  a  person  apt  to  quarrel, 


must  crowd  up  into  a  narrow  room,  yet  I 
must  not  wmolly  omit  them  :  therefore, 
4.  The  fourth  thing  I  shall  note  to  vou  is, 


to  take  every  thing  in  an  ill  sense,  to  resent  that  whereas  the  righteousness  of  the  Pha 


404 


THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS 


Serm.  I. 


risees  was  but  a  fragment  of  the  broken  ta- 
bles of  Moses;  the  pursuance  of  some  one 
grace,  "  lacinia  sanctitatis,"  "  a  piece  of  the 
robe  of  righteousness ;"  the  righteousness 
evangelical  must  be  like  Christ's  seamless 
coat,  all  of  a  piece  from  the  top  to  the  bot- 
tom ;  it  must  invest  the  whole  soul :  Misma, 
Dumah,  Massah,  said  the  proverb  of  the 
Rabbins ;  it  is  this,  and  it  is  the  other,  and 
it  must  be  all,  it  must  be  a  universal  right- 
eousness ;*  not  a  little  knot  of  holy  actions 
scattered  in  our  lives,  and  drawn  into  a  sum 
at  the  day  of  judgment,  but  it  must  be  a 
state  of  holiness.  It  was  said  of  the  Paphla- 
gonian  pigeons,  Strttojjj/  opavOcu  tyv  xapSlav, 
(S  every  one  of  them  had  two  hearts ;"  but 
that  in  our  mystical  theology  signifies  a 
wicked  man.  So  said  Solomon,  "  the  per- 
verse or  wicked  man  (derachaim)  he  is  a 
man  of  two  ways  ;  oi^pS^u^os,  so  St.  James 
expresses  an  unbeliever;  a  man  that  will 
and  will  not ;  something  he  does  for  God, 
and  something  for  the  world ;  he  hath  two 
minds :  and  in  a  good  fit,  in  his  well  days 
he  is  full  of  repentance,  and  overflows  in 
piety ;  tut  the  paroxysm  will  return  in  the 
day  of  temptation,  and  then  he  is  gone  in- 
fallibly. But  know  this,  that  in  the  right- 
eousness evangelical,  one  duty  cannot  be  ex- 
changed for  another,  and  three  virtues  will 
not  make  amends  for  one  remaining  vice. 
He  that  oppresses  the  poor  cannot  make 
amends  by  giving  good  counsel ;  and  if  a 
priest  be  simoniacal,  he  cannot  be  esteemed 
righteous  before  God  by  preaching  well,  and 
taking  care  of  his  charge.  To  be  zealous 
for  God  and  for  religion  is  good,  but  that 
will  not  legitimate  cruelty  to  our  brother. 
It  is  not  enough  for  a  man  to  be  a  good  citi- 
zen, unless  he  be  also  a  good  man ;  but 
some  men  build  their  houses  with  half  a 
dozen  cross  sticks,  and  turf  is  the  founda- 
tion, and  straw  is  the  covering,  and  they 
think  they  dwell  securely ;  their  religion  is 
made  up  of  two  or  three  virtues,  and  they 
think  to  commute  with  God,  some  good  for 
some  bad,  rtoTJha  (xs^iy^ivo,,  rfoMid  8s  cu^pd* 
as  if  one  deadly  wound  were  not  enough  to 
destroy  the  most  healthful  constitution  in 
the  world.  Deceive  not  yourselves.  It  is 
all  one  on  which  hand  we  fall : 

 Unum  operantur 

Et  calor  ot  frigus,  sic  hoc,  sic  illud  adurit ; 
Sic  tenebrae  visum,  sic  sol  contrarius  auf'ert. 

The  moon  may  burn  us  by  night  as  well  as 
the  sun  by  day  :  and  a  man  may  be  made 

*  Prov.  xxviii.  14. 


blind  by  the  light  of  the  sun  as  well  as  by 
the  darkness  of  the  evening,  and  any  one 
great  mischief  is  enough  to  destroy  one  man. 
Some  men  are  very  meek  and  gentle  na- 
turally, and  that  they  serve  God  withal, 
they  pursue  the  virtue  of  their  nature:  that 
is,  they  tie  a  stone  at  the  bottom  of  the  well, 
and  that  is  more  than  needs ;  the  stone  will 
stay  there  without  that  trouble ;  and  this  good 
inclination  will  of  itself  easily  proceed  to 
issue ;  and,  therefore,  our  care  and  caution 
should  be  more  carefully  employed  in  mor- 
tification of  our  natures,  and  acquist  of  such 
virtues  to  which  we  are  more  refractory, 
and  then  cherish  the  other  too,  even  as 
j  much  as  we  please :  but,  at  the  same  time 
we  are  busy  in  this,  it-  may  be,  we  are  secret 
j  adulterers,  and  that  will  spoil  our  confi- 
jdences  in  the  goodness  of  the  other  in- 
stance: others  are  greatly  bountiful  to  the 
'poor,  and  love  all  mankind,  and  hurl  no- 
jbody  but  themselves;  but  it  is  a  thousand 
pities  to  see  such  loving  good-natured  per- 
sons to  perish  infinitely  by  one  crime,  and 
to  see  such  excellent  good  things  thrown 
away  to  please  an  uncontrolled  and  a  stub- 
born lust ;  but  so  do  some  escape  out  of  a  pit, 
and  are  taken  in  a  trap  at  their  going  forth : 
and  stepping  aside  to  avoid  the  hoar-frost, 
fall  into  a  valley  full  of  snow.  The  right- 
eousness evangelical  is  another  kind  of 
thing:  it  is  a  holy  conversation,  a  godlike 
life,  an  universal  obedience,  a  keeping  no- 
thing back  from  God,  a  sanctification  of  the 
whole  man,  and  keeps  not  the  body  only, 
but  the  soul  and  the  spirit,  unblamable  to 
the  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

5.  And  lastly  :  the  pharisaical  righteous- 
ness was  the  product  of  fear,  and,  therefore, 
what  they  must  needs  do,  that  they  would 
do;  but  no  more:  but  the  righteousness 
evangelical  is  produced  by  love,  it  is  ma- 
naged by  choice,  and  cherished  by  delight 
and  fair  experiences.  Christians  are  a  will- 
ing people ;  "  homines  bonce  voluntatis," 
"  men  of  good  will ;"  "  arbores  Domini :"  so 
they  are  mystically  represented  in  Scripture ; 
"  the  trees  ot  the  Lord  are  full  of  sap ;" 
among  the  Hebrews  the  trees  of  the  Lord 
did  signify  such  trees  as  grew  of  themselves ; 
and  all  that  are  of  God's  planting,  are  such 
as  have  a  vital  principle  within,  and  grow 
without  constraint.  Hsi^ovtav  tol$  ^la^ivoiq 
vo/aois,  xai  t?ol$  l8loi$  j3totj  vwcwrtt,  tuv$  i>6(M>vs, 
one  said  it  of  Christians  :  They  obey  the 
laws,  and  by  the  goodness  of  their  lives  ex- 
ceed the  laws ;"  and  certain  it  is,  no  man 
hath  the  righteousness  evangelical,  if  he  re 


Serm.  I. 


EVANGELICAL  DESCRIBED. 


405 


solves  always  to  take  all  his  liberty  in  every  and  so  much  ignorance  in  the  things  of 
thing  that  is  merely  lawful ;  or  if  he  pur-  God ;  so  many  things  that  are  suspicious, 
poses  to  do  no  more  than  he  must  needs,  and  so  many  things  that  are  of  evil  report : 
that  is,  no  more  than  he  is  just  commanded,  so  many  ill  customs  and  disguises  in  the 
For  the  reasons  are  plain.  { world,  with  which  if  we  resolve  to  comply 

L  The  Christian  that  resolves  to  do  every  in  all  that  is  supposed  lawful,  a  man  may 
thing  that  is  lawful,  will  many  times  run  be  in  the  regions  of  death,  before  he  per- 
into  danger  and  inconvenience;  because  ceive  his  head  to  ache;  and,  instead  of  a 
the  utmost  extremity  of  lawful  is  so  near  to'  staff  in  his  hand,  may  have  a  splinter  in  his 
that  which  is  unlawful,  that  he  will  often  elbow. 

pass  into  unlawful  undiscernibly.  Virtues  4.  Besides  all  this  :  he  that  thus  stands 
and  vices  have  not,  in  all  their  instances,  a  on  his  terms  with  God,  and  so  carefully 
great  landmark  set  between  them,  like  war-  husbands  his  duty,  and  thinks  to  make  so 
like  nations  separate  by  prodigious  walls,  good  a  market  of  obedience,  that  he  will 
vast  seas,  and  portentous  hills :  but  they  quit  nothing  which  he  thinks  he  may  law- 
are  oftentimes  like  the  bounds  of  a  parish  ;  fully  keep,  shall  never  be  exemplar  in  his 
men  are  fain  to  cut  a  cross  upon  the  turf,  life,  and  shall  never  grow  in  grace,  and 
and  make  little  marks  and  annual  perambu-  therefore  shall  never  enter  into  glory.  He, 
lations  for  memorials :  so  it  is  in  lawful  and '  therefore,  that  will  be  righteous  by  the  mea- 
unlawful,  by  a  little  mistake  a  man  may  be'  sures  evangelical,  must  consider  not  only 
greatly  ruined.  He  that  drinks  till  his  I  what  is  lawful,  but  what  is  expedient ;  not 
tongue  is  as  full  as  a  sponge,  and  his  speech  only  what  is  barely  safe,  but  what  is  worthy  ; 
a  little  stammering  and  tripping,  hasty  and  that  which  may  secure,  and  that  which  may 
disorderly,  though  he  be  not  gone  as  far  as  do  advantage  to  that  concern  that  is  the 
drunkenness,  yet  he  is  gone  beyond  the  greatest  in  the  world. 

severity  of  a  Christian ;  and  when  he  is '  And,  2.  The  case  is  very  like  with  them 
just  past  into  unlawful,  if  he  disputes  too;  that  resolve  to  do  no  more  good  than  is 
curiously,  he  will  certainly  deceive  himself  commanded  them.  For  1.  It  is  infinitely 
for  want  of  a  wiser  curiosity.  unprofitable  as  to  our  eternal  interest,  be- 

But,  "2.  He  that  will  do  all  that  he  thinks  cause  no  man  does  do  all  that  is  commanded 
he  may  lawfully,  had  need  have  an  infal-  at  all  times ;  and,  therefore,  he  that  will  not 
lible  guide  always  by  him,  who  should,  sometimes  do  more,  besides  that  he  hath  no 
without  error,  be  able  to  answer  all  cases  love,  no  zeal  of  duty,  no  holy  fires  in  his 
of  conscience,  which  will  happen  every  \  soul;  besides  this,  1  say,  he  can  never  make 
day  in  a  life  so  careless  and  insecure;  for'anv  amends  towards  the  reparation  of  his 
if  he  should  be  mistaken,  his  error  is  his  conscience.  "  Let  him  that  stole,  steal  no 
crime,  and  not  his  excuse.  A  man  in  this)  more;"  that  is  well;  but  that  is  not  well 
case  had  need  be  very  sure  of  his  proposi-'  enough  ;  for  he  must,  if  he  can,  make  resti- 
tion ;  which  because  he  cannot  be,  in  charity ',  tution  of  what  he  stole,  or  he  shall  never  be 
to  himself,  he  will  quickly  find  that  he  is'  pardoned;  and  so  it  is  in  all  our  intercourse 
bound  to  abstain  from  all  things  that  are' with  God.  To  do  what  is  commanded  is 
uncertainly  good,  and  from  all  disputable  the  duty  of  the  present  ;  we  are  tied  to  this 
evils;  from  things  which,  although  they  |  in  every  present,  in  every  period  of  our 
may  be  in  themselves  lawful,  yet  accident- 1  lives ;  but,  therefore,  if  we  never  do  any 
ally,  and  that  from  a  thousand  causes,  may  more  than  just  the  present  duty,  who  shall 
become  unlawful.  u  Pavidus  quippe  et  for-  supply  the  deficiencies,  and  fill  up  the  gaps, 
midolosus  est  Christianus,"  saith  Salvian,  and  redeem  what  is  past?  This  is  a  mate- 
atque  in  tantum  peccare  metuens,  ut  in-  'rial  consideration  in  the  righteousness evan- 
terdum  et  non  timenda  formidet:"  "A.gelical. 

Christian  is  afraid  of  every  little  thing  ;  and  I  But  then,  2.  We  must  know  that  in  keep- 
he  sometimes  greatly  fears  that  he  hath  i  ing  of  God's  commandments,  every  degree 
sinned,  even  then  when  he  hath  no  other  ;  of  internal  duty  is  under  the  command- 
reason  to  be  afraid,  but  because  he  would  ments;  and,  therefore,  whatever  we  do,  we 
not  do  so  for  all  the  world."  must  do  it  as  well  as  we  can.   Now  he  that 

3.  He  that  resolves  to  use  all  his  liberty,  does  his  duty  with  the  biggest  affection  he 
cannot  be  innocent,  so  long  as  there  are  in  can,  will  also  do  all  that  he  can ;  and_  he 
the  world  so  many  bold  temptations,  and 'can  never  know  that  he  hath  done  what  i3 
presumptuous  acuons;  so  many  scandals,  commanded,  unless  he  does  all  that  is  in  hi* 


406 


THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS 


Serm.  I. 


power.  For  God  hath  put  no  limit  but  love 
and  possibility;  and  therefore  whoever  says, 
Hither  will  I  go,  and  no  further ;  this  I  will 
do,  and  no  more ;  thus  much  will  I  serve 
God,  but  that  shall  be  all;  he  hath  the 
affections  of  a  slave,  and  the  religion  of  a 
Pharisee,  the  craft  of  a  merchant,  and  the 
falseness  of  a  broker;  but  he  hath  not  the 
proper  measures  of  the  righteousness  evan- 
gelical. But  so  it  happens  in  the  mud  and 
slime  of  the  river  Borborus,  when  the  eye 
of  the  sun  hath  long  dwelt  upon  it,  and  pro- 
duces frogs  and  mice  which  begin  to  move 
a  little  under  a  thin  cover  of  its  own  parental 
matter,  and  if  they  can  get  loose  to  live  half 
a  life,  that  is  all ;  but  the  hinder  parts, 
which  are  not  formed  before  the  setting  of 
the  sun,  stick  fast  in  their  beds  of  mud,  and 
the  little  moiety  of  a  creature  dies  before  it 
could  be  well  said  to  live ;  so  it  is  with 
those  Christians,  who  will  do  all  that  they 
think  lawful,  and  will  do  no  more  than 
what  they  suppose  necessary ;  they  do  but 
peep  into  the  light  of  the  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness ;  they  have  the  beginnings  of  life  ;  but 
their  hinder  parts,  their  passions  and  affec- 
tions, and  the  desires  of  the  lower  man,  are 
still  unformed  ;  and  he  that  dwells  in  this 
state,  is  just  so  much  of  a  Christian,  as  a 
sponge  is  of  a  plant,  and  a  mushroom  of  a 
shrub ;  they  may  be  as  sensible  as  an 
oyster,  and  discourse  at  the  rate  of  a  child, 
but  are  greatly  short  of  the  righteousness 
evangelical. 

I  have  now  done  with  those  parts  of  the 
Christian  righteousness,  which  were  not 
only  an  vrtapoxri,  or,  "excess,"  but  an  avti- 
orot^ftwcjtj  to  the  pharisaical :  but  because  I 
ought  not  to  conceal  any  thing  from  you 
that  must  integrate  our  duty,  and  secure 
our  title  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  there 
is  this  to  be  added,  that  this  precept  of  our 
blessed  Saviour  is  to  be  extended  to  the 
direct  degrees  of  our  duty.  We  must  do 
more  duties,  and  we  must  do  them  better. 
And  in  this,  although  we  can  have  no 
positive  measures,  because  they  are  poten- 
tially infinite,  yet  therefore  we  ought  to  take 
the  best,  because  we  are  sure  the  greatest 
is  not  loo  big ;  and  we  are  not  sure  that 
God  will  accept  a  worse,  when  we  can  do 
a  better.  Now  although  this  is  to  be  under- 
stood of  the  internal  affection  only,  because 
that  must  never  be  abated,  but  God  is  at  all 
times  to  be  loved  and  served  with  all  our 
heart;  yet  concerning  the  degrees  of  exter- 
nal duty,  as  prayers,  and  alms,  and  the  like, 
we  are  certainly  tied  to  a  greater  excellency 


I  in  the  degree,  than  was  that  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees.  I  am  obliged  to  speak  one 
word  for  the  determination  of  this  inquiry, 
viz.  to  how  much  more  of  external  duty 
Christians  are  obliged,  than  was  in  the 
righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees. 
In  order  to  this,  briefly  thus. 

I  remember  that  Salvian,  speaking  of  old 
men  summing  up  their  repentances,  and 
making  amends  for  the  sins  of  their  whole 
life,  exhorts  them  to  alms  and  works  of 
piety  ;  but  inquiring  how  much  they  should 
do  towards  the  redeeming  of  their  souls, 
answers  with  a  little  sarcasm,  but  plainly 
enough  to  give  a  wise  man  an  answer: 
"  A  man,"  says  he,  "  is  not  bound  to  give 
away  all  his  goods,  unless,  peradventure, 
he  owes  all  to  God ;  but,  in  that  case,  I 
cannot  tell  what  to  say ;  for  then  the  case 
is  altered.  A  man  is  not  bound  to  part 
with  all  his  estate  ;  that  is,  unless  his  sins 
be  greater  than  his  estate ;  but  if  they  be, 
then  he  may  consider  of  it  again,  and  con- 
sider better.  And  he  need  not  part  with  it 
all,  unless  pardon  be  more  precious  to  him 
than  his  money,  and  unless  heaven  be 
worth  it  all,  and  unless  he  knows  justly 
how  much  less  will  do  it.  If  he  does,  let 
him  try  his  skill,  and  pay  just  so  much  and 
no  more  than  he  owes  to  God ;  but  if  he 
does  not  know,  let  him  be  sure  to  do 
enough."  His  meaning  is  this  :  not  that  a 
man  is  bound  to  give  all  he  hath,  and  leave 
his  children  beggars  ;  he  is  bound  from  that 
by  another  obligation.  But  as  when  we  are 
tied  to  pray  continually,  the  meaning  is,  we 
should  consecrate  all  our  time  by  takiDg  good 
portions  out  of  all  our  time  for  that  duty  ; 
the  devoutest  person  being  like  the  waters 
of  Siloam,*  a  perpetual  spring,  but  not  a  per- 
petual current ;  that  is  always  in  readiness, 
but  actually  thrusting  forth  his  waters  at 
certain  periods  every  day.  So  out  of  all 
our  estate  we  must  take  for  religion  and  re- 
pentance such  portions  as  the  whole  estate 
can  allow ;  so  much  as  will  cousecrate 
the  rest ;  so  much  as  is  fit  to  bring  when 
we  pray  for  a  great  pardon,  and  deprecate 
a  mighty  anger,  and  turn  aside  an  intoler- 
able fear,  and  will  purchase  an  excellent 
peace,  and  will  reconcile  a  sinner.  Now 
in  this  case  a  Christian  is  to  take  his  mea- 
sures according  to  the  rate  of  his  contrition 
and  his  love,  his  religion  and  his  fear,  his 
danger  and  his  expectation,  and  let  him 


*  S.  Hier.  in  Comment.  Isa.  viii.  Isidor.  lihi 
xiii.  Orig.  cap.  13. 


Serm.  I. 


EVANGELICAL  DESCRIBED. 


407 


measure  his  amends  wisely ;  his  sorrow 
pouring  in,  and  his  fear  thrusting  it  down, 
and  it  were  very  well,  if  his  love  also  would 
make  it  run  over.  For,  deceive  not  your- 
selves, there  is  no  other  measure  but  this  ; 
so  much  good  as  a  man  does,  or  so  much 
as  he  would  do,  if  he  could, — so  much  of 
religion,  and  so  much  of  repentance  he 
hath,  and  no  more :  and  a  man  cannot 
ordinarily  know  that  he  is  in  a  savable  con- 
dition, but  by  the  testimony  which  a  divine 
philanthropy  and  a  good  mind  always  gives, 
which  is  to  omit  no  opportunity  of  doing 
good  in  our  several  proportions  and  possi- 
bilities. 

There  was  an  alms  which  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  were  obliged  by  the  law  to  give, 
the  tenth  of  every  third  years'  increase; 
this  they  always  paid,  and  this  sort  of  alms 
is  called  Sixcuoovvt],  "  righteousness"  or 
"justice;"  but  the  alms  which  Christians 
ought  to  give  is  #dpij,  and  it  is  dya*?;,  it  is 
"  grace,"  and  it  is  "  love,"  and  it  is  abund- 
ance ;  and  so  the  old  rabbins  told :  "  Jus- 
titia  proprie  dicitur  in  iis  quae  jure  facimus; 
benignitas  in  iis  quae  praeter  jus."  It  is 
more  than  righteousness,  it  is  bounty  and 
benignity,  for  that  is  the  Christian  measure. 
And  so  it  is  in  the  other  parts  and  instances 
of  the  righteousness  evangelical.  And, 
therefore,  it  is  remarkable  that  the  saints  in 
the  Old  Testament  were  called  evdds,  "right 
men ;"  and  the  book  of  Genesis,  as  we  find 
it  twice  attested  by  St.  Jerome,  was  called 
by  the  ancient  Hellenists,  0i,3xoj  tvSew,  "  the 
"  book  of  right  or  just  men,"  the  book  of 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.*  But  the  word 
for  Christians  is  gptptfu*,  "good"  men,  harm- 
less, and  profitable;  men  that  are  good,  and 
men  that  do  good.  In  pursuance  of  which 
it  is  further  observed  by  learned  men,  that 
the  word  apstr},  or  "  virtue,"  is  not  in  the 
four  gospels  ;  for  the  actions  of  Christ's  dis- 
ciples should  not  be  in  "gradu  virtutis" 
only,  virtuous  and  laudable;  such  as  these 
Aristotle  presses  in  his  "Magna  Moralia;" 
they  must  pass  on  to  a  further  excellency 
than  so :  the  same  which  he  calls  rtpd^af  tZ>v 
^pwwr,  they  must  be  sometimes,  and  as  often 
as  we  can,  in  "  gradu  heroico ;"  or,  that  I 
may  use  the  Christian  style,  they  must  be 
"actions  of  "perfection."  "Righteous- 
ness" was  the  owdw^ov  for  "  alms"  in  the 
Old  Testament, — and  ttXtiotr^,  or  "  perfec- 
tion," wras  the  word  for  "  alms"  in  the 


Comment,  in  Isa.  xii.  and  lib.  vi.  in  Ezek. 


xvw. 


New;  as  appears  by  comparing  the  fifth  of 
St.  Matthew  and  the  sixth  of  St.  Luke  to- 
gether; and  that  is  the  full  state  of  this  dif- 
ference in  the  inquiries  of  the  righteousness 
Pharisaical  and  evangelical. 

I  have  many  more  things  to  say,  but  ye 
cannot  hear  them  now,  because  the  time  is 
past.  One  thing  indeed  were  fit  to  be  spoken 
of,  if  I  had  any  time  left;  but  I  can  only 
|  name  it,  and  desire  your  consideration  to 
make  it  up.  This  great  rule  that  Christ 
gives  us,  does  also,  and  that  principally  too, 
concern  churches  and  commonwealths,  as 
well  as  every  single  Christian.  Christian 
parliaments  must  exceed  the  religion  and 
government  of  the  sanhedrim.  Your  laws 
must  be  more  holy,  the  condition  of  the 
1  subjects  be  made  more  tolerable,  the  laws 
I  of  Christ  must  be  strictly  enforced  ;  you 
must  not  suffer  your  great  Master  to  be  dis- 
honoured, nor  his  religion  dismembered  by 
sects,  or  disgraced  by  impiety  :  you  must 
give  no  impunity  to  vicious  persons,  and 
you  must  take  care  that  no  great  example 
be  greatly  corrupted ;  you  must  make  the 
better  provisions  for  your  poor  than  they 
did,  and  take  more  care  even  of  the  external 
advantages  of  Christ's  religion  and  his  min- 
isters, than  they  did  of  the  priests  and  Le- 
vites ;  that  is,  in  all  things  you  must  be 
more  zealous  to  promote  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  than  they  were  for  the  ministries  of 
Moses. 

The  sum  of  all  is  this  :  the  righteousness 
evangelical  is  the  same  with  that,  which  the 

ancients  Called  artO(rfo?>ixr;v  hiWyttv  Ttofatstav, 

;  "  to  live  an  apostolical  life ;"  that  was  the 
measure  of  Christians ;  the  ol  ivapitfof  xaL 
'  ^fapfOT'coj  j3toti"r'fj,   "  men  that  desired  to 
please  God ;"  that  is,  as  Apostolius  most 
'  admirably  describes  it,*  men  who  are  curi- 
!  ous  of  their  very  eyes,  temperate  in  their 
tongue,  of  a  mortified  body,  and  an  humble 
,  spirit,  pure  in  their  intentions,  masters  of 
1  their  passions;  men  who,  when  they  are  in- 
i  jured,  return  honourable  words;  when  they 
!  are  lessened  in  their  estates,  increase  in  their 
;  charity ;  when  they  are  abused,  they  yet  are 
courteous,  and  give  entreaties;  when  they 
are  hated,  they  pay  love;  men  that  are  dull 

iyxpdrsia,  a^uaros  Sovtaywyia,  fpowttia  rartmw, 
hvoia$  xaOaporr$,  6pyrt$  Ofamg/a&f  dyyapftou* vo$ 
nporiOti.  drtoarfpov-jUfros  /j.r  Sixd^ov,  /xcjovuno^ 

paxdxti,  mspuAjtfi  tfj  d^uapria,  tttwtavfuO^u 
To  Xptarci;  6\rtv  rr;v  dydrtrv  (ufra^fj  irti  rbv 
Kvptoj/. 


408 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  CONQUEST 


Serm.  II. 


in  contentions,  and  quick  in  loving-kind- 
nesses, swift  as  the  feet  of  Asahel,*  and 
ready  as  the  chariots  of  Amminadib.f  True 
Christians  are  such  as  are  crucified  with 
Christ,  and  dead  unto  all  sin,  and  finally 
place  their  whole  love  on  God,  and,  for  his 
sake,  upon  all  mankind  :  this  is  the  descrip- 
tion of  a  Christian,  and  the  true  state  of  the 
righteousness  evangelical;  so  that  it  was 
well  said  of  Athenagoras,  Oi>8ei$  xp^tlavoi 
jtoi^pbj,  et  vrtoxpivstai  tbv  hoyov,  "  No 
Christian  is  a  wicked  man,  unless  his  life  be 
a  continual  lie,":}:  unless  he  be  false  to  God 
and  his  religion.  For  the  righteousness  of 
the  gospel  is,  in  short,  nothing  else  but  a 
transcript  of  the  life  of  Christ:  "  De  mat- 
thana  nahaliel;  de  nahaliel  Bamoth,"  said 
R.  Joshua  ;  Christ  is  the  image  of  God,  and 
every  Christian  is  the  image  of  Christ, 
whose  example  is  imitable ;  but  it  is  the 
best,  and  his  laws  are  the  most  perfect,  but 
the  most  easy ;  and  the  promises  by  which 
he  invites  our  greater  services,  are  most  ex- 
cellent, but  most  true ;  and  the  rewards  shall 
be  hereafter,  but  they  shall  abide  for  ever ; 
and,  that  I  may  take  notice  of  the  last  words 
of  my  text,  the  threatenings  to  them  that 
fall  short  of  this  righteousness,  are  most  ter- 
rible, but  most  certainly  shall  come  to  pass ; 
"  they  shall  never  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven;"  that  is,  their  portion  shall  be 
shame  and  an  eternal  prison,  aafa'ktufcs 
psvpa,  "  a  flood  of  brimstone,"  and  a  cohabi- 
tation with  devils  to  eternal  ages ;  and  if 
this  consideration  will  not  prevail,  there  is 
no  place  left  for  persuasion,  and  there  is  no 
use  of  reason,  and  the  greatest  hopes  and 
the  greatest  fears  can  be  no  argument  or 
sanction  of  laws;  and  the  greatest  good  in 
the  world  is  not  considerable,  and  the  great- 
est evil  is  not  formidable :  but  if  they  be, 
there  is  no  more  to  be  said ;  if  you  would 
have  your  portion  with  Christ,  you  must  be 
righteous  by  his  measures :  and  these  are 
they  that  I  have  told  you  of. 


SERMON  II. 

THE  CHRISTIAN'S  CONQUEST  OVER  THE 
BODY  OF  SIN. 

F%tr  tin  good  that  1  would  I  do  not:  but  the  evil 
which  1  would  not,  that  I  do. — Rom.  vii.  19. 

What  the  eunuch  said  to  Philip,  when 
he  read  the  book  of  the  prophet  Isaiah, 

•  2  Sam.  ii.  18.  t  Song  of  Sol.  vi.  12. 

I  Legai.  pro  Christianis. 


"  Of  whom  speaketh  the  prophet  this,  of 
himself,  or  some  other  man?"  the  same 
question  I  am  to  ask  concerning  the  words 
j  of  my  text :  Does  St.  Paul  mean  this  of 
I  himself,  or  of  some  other?  It  is  hoped  that 
j  he  speak1  it  of  himself ;  and  means,  that 
!  though  his  understanding  is  convinced  that 
he  ought  to  serve  God,  and  that  he  hath 
some  imperfect  desires  to  do  so,  yet  the  law 
of  God  without  is  opposed  by  a  law  of  sin 
within.  We  have  a  corrupted  nature,  and 
a  body  of  infirmity,  and  our  reason  dwells 
in  the  dark,  and  we  must  go  out  of  the 
world  before  we  leave  our  sin.  For  besides 
that  some  sins  are  esteemed  brave  and  ho- 
nourable, and  he  is  a  baffled  person  that 
dares  not  kill  his  brother  like  a  gentleman  ; 
our  very  tables  are  made  a  snare,  and  our 
civilities  are  direct  treasons  to  the  soul.  You 
cannot  entertain  your  friend,  but  excess  is 
the  measure ;  and  that  you  may  be  very 
kind  to  your  guest,  you  step  aside,  and  lay 
away  the  Christian  ;  your  love  cannot  be  ex- 
pressed, unless  you  do  him  an  ill  turn,  and 
civilly  invite  him  to  a  fever.  Justice  is  too 
often  taught  to  bow  to  great  interests,  and 
men  cannot  live  without  flattery  :  and  there 
are  some  trades  that  minister  to  sin,  so  that 
without  a  sin  we  cannot  maintain  our  fami- 
lies ;  and  if  you  mean  to  live,  you  must  do 
as  others  do.  Now  so  long  as  men  see  they 
are  like  to  be  undone  by  innocence,  and  that 
they  can  no  way  live  but  by  compliance 
with  the  evil  customs  of  the  world,  men  con- 
clude practically,  because  they  must  live, 
they  must  sin;  they  must  live  handsomely, 
and,  therefore,  must  do  some  things  un- 
handsomely, and  so  upon  the  whole  matter 
sin  is  unavoidable.  Fain  they  would,  but 
cannot  tell  how  to  help  it.  But  since  it  is 
no  better,  it  is  well  it  is  no  worse.  For  it 
is  St.  Paul's  case,  no  worse  man  :  he  would 
and  he  would  not,  he  did  and  he  did  not; 
he  was  willing,  but  he  was  not  able;  and, 
therefore,  the  case  is  clear,  that  if  a  man 
strives  against  sin,  and  falls  unwillingly,  it 
shall  not  be  imputed  to  him;  he  may  be  a 
regenerate  man  for  all  that.  A  man  must, 
indeed,  wrangle  against  sin  when  it  comes, 
and,  like  a  peevish  lover,  resist  and  consent 
at  the  same  time,  and  then  all  is  well ;  for 
this  not  only  consists  with,  but  is  a  sign  of 
the  state  of  regeneration. 

If  this  be  true,  God  will  be  very  ill  served. 
Ir  it  be  not  true,  most  men  will  have  but 
s  nail  hopes  of  being  saved,  because  this  is 
the  condition  of  most  men.  What  then  is 
to  be  done?  Truth  can  do  us  no  hurt;  and 


Serm.  II. 


OVER  THE  BODY  OF  SIN 


409 


therefore,  be  willing  to  let  this  matter  pass  I 
under  examination;  for  if  it  trouble  us  now, ' 
it  will  bring  comfort  hereafter.  And,  there- 1 
fore,  before  I  enter  into  the  main  inquiry,  I  \ 
shall,  by  describing  the  state  of  the  man  of  j 
whom  St.  Paul  speaks  here,  tell  you  plain- ! 
ly,  who  it  is  that  is  in  this  state  of  sad  things ;  I 
and  then  do  ye  make  your  resolutions,  ac- 
cording as  you  shall  find  it  necessary  for  the 
saving  of  your  souls,  which,  I  am  sure,! 
ought  to  be  the  end  of  all  preaching. 

1.  The  man  St  Paul  speaks  of,  is  one) 
that  is  "  dead,"*  one  that  was  "  deceived" 
and  tf  slain, "f  one  in  whom  "  sin  was  ex- 
ceeding sinful,"!  that  is,  highly  imputed, 
greatly  malicious,  infinitely  destructive  :  he  i 
is  one  who  is  "  carnal,  and  sold  under  sin  ;"§ 
he  is  one  that  sins  against  his  "  conscience 
and  his  reason  ;"|  he  is  one  in  whom  "  sin 
dwells,"  but  the  Spirit  of  God  does  not 
dwell ;  for  "  no  good  thing  dwells  in  him  ;"U" 
he  is  one  who  is  "  brought  into  captivity  to 
the  law  of  sin ;"  he  is  a  servant  of  unclean- 
ness,  with  his  "  flesh  and  members  serving 
the  law  of  sin."**  Now  if  this  be  a  state  of  j 
regeneration,  I  wonder  what  is,  or  can  be, ' 
a  state  of  reprobation !  for  though  this  be  j 
the  state  of  nature,  yet  it  cannot  be  the  state 
of  one  redeemed  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ; 
and,  therefore,  flatter  not  yourselves  any 
more,  that  it  is  enough  for  you  to  have  good 
desires  and  bad  performances  :  never  think 
that  any  sin  can  reign  in  you,  and  yet  you 
be  servants  of  God ;  that  sin  can  dwell  in 
you,  and  at  the  same  time  the  Spirit  of  God 
can  dwell  in  you  too  ;  or  that  life  and  death 
can  abide  together.  The  sum  of  affairs  is 
this :  "  If  ye  live  after  the  flesh,  ye  shall 
die ;  but  if  ye,  through  the  Spirit,  do  mor- 
tify the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live  ;"tt 
but  not  else  upon  any  terms  whatsoever. 

My  text  is  one  of  the  hard  places  of  St. 
Paul,  which,  as  St.  Peter  says,  "the  igno- 
rant and  the  unstable  wrest  to  their  own 
damnation."  But  because  in  this  case  the 
danger  is  so  imminent,  and  the  deception 
would  be  so  intolerable,  St.  Paul,  imme- 
diately after  this  chapter,  (in  which,  under 
his  own  person,  as  was  usual  with  him  to 
do,  he  describes  the  state  of  a  natural  man 
advanced  no  further  than  Moses'  law,  and 
not  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  or  en- 
lightened by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  taught 
by  the  wiser  lessons  and  sermons  of  the  gos- 


*Ver.  9.  tVer.  11.  X  Ver.  13. 

$  Ver.  14.  II  Ver.  16.  1T  Ver.  18. 

**  Ver.  25.       ft  Rom.  viii.  13. 

52 


pel,)  immediately  spends  the  next  chapter 
in  opposing  the  evangelical  state  to  the  legal, 
the  spiritual  to  the  carnal,  the  Christian  to 
the  natural ;  and  tells  us  plainly,  he  that  is 
redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  is  redeem- 
ed from  the  power  of  sin  :  he  that  is  Christ's 
freed-man,  is  not  a  slave  of  sin,  not  captive 
to  the  devil  at  his  will :  he  that  is  in  "  the 
flesh,  cannot  please  God,"  but  every  ser- 
vant of  Christ  is  freed  from  sin,  and  is  a 
servant  of  righteousness,  and  redeemed  from 
all  his  vain  conversation :  for  this  is  the 
end  of  Christ's  coming,  and  cannot  be  in 
vain,  unless  we  make  it  so.  He  came  to 
bless  us  by  turning  every  one  of  us  from 
our  iniquities.  Now  concerning  this,  be- 
sides the  evidence  of  the  thing  itself,  that 
St.  Paul  does  not  speak  these  words  of  him- 
self, but  by  a  ^fa^juat'tc^os,  under  his 
own  borrowed  person  he  describes  the  state 
of  a  carnal,  unredeemed,  unregenerate  per- 
son, is  expressly  affirmed  by  St.  Irenaeus 
and  Origen,  by  Tertullian  and  St.  Basil,  by 
Theodoret  and  St.  Chrysostom,  by  St.  Je- 
rome, and  sometimes  by  St.  Austin,  by  St. 
Ambrose  and  St.  Cyril,  by  Macarius  and 
Theophylact;  and  is  indeed  that  true  sense 
and  meaning  of  these  words  of  St.  Paul, 
which  words  none  can  abuse  or  misunder- 
stand, but  to  the  great  prejudice  of  a  holy 
life,  and  the  patronage  of  all  iniquity. 

But  for  the  stating  of  this  great  case  of 
conscience,  I  shall  first  in  short  describe  to 
you  what  are  the  proper  causes,  which 
place  men  and  keep  them  in  this  state  of  a 
necessity  of  sinning;  and,  2.  I  shall  prove 
the  absolute  necessity  of  coming  out  of  this 
condition,  and  quitting  all  our  sin.  3.  In 
what  degree  this  is  to  be  effected.  4.  By 
what  instruments  this  is  to  be  done ;  and  all 
these  being  practical,  will,  of  themselves, 
be  sufficient  use  to  the  doctrines,  and  need 
no  other  applicatory  but  a  plain  exhortation. 

1.  What  are  the  causes  of  this  evil,  by 
which  we  are  first  placed,  and  so  long  kept, 
in  a  necessity  of  sinning,  so  that  we  cannot 
do  what  good  we  would,  nor  avoid  the  evil 
that  we  hate  ? 

The  first  is  the  evil  state  of  our  nature. 
And,  indeed,  he  that  considers  the  daily  ex- 
periment of  his  own  weak  nature,  the  igno- 
rance and  inconstancy  of  his  soul,  being 
like  a  sick  man's  legs,  or  the  knees  of  in- 
fants, reeling  and  unstable  by  disease  or 
by  infirmity,  and  the  perpetual  leaven  and 
germinations,  the  thrustings  forth  and  swell- 
ing of  his  senses,  running  out  like  new  wine 
into  vapours  and  intoxicating  activities,  will 
2K 


410 


THE  CHRISTIA 


N'S  CONaUEST 


Serm.  II. 


readily  confess,  that  though  even  in  nature 
there  may  be  many  good  inclinations  to 
many  instances  of  the  Divine  command- 
ments ;  yet  it  can  go  no  further  than  this 
"  velleity,"  this  desiring  to  do  good,  but  is 
not  able.  And  it  is  upon  this  account  that 
Lactantius  brings  in  the  pagan  or  natural 
man  complaining,  "  Volo  equidem  non  pec- 
care,  sed  vincor,  indutus  enim  sum  carne 
fragili  et  imbecilla."  This  is  very  true ;  and 
I  add  only  this  caution :  there  is  not  in  the 
corruption  of  our  nature  so  much  as  will 
save  us  harmless,  or  make  us  excusable,  if 
we  sin  against  God.  Natural  corruption 
can  make  us  criminal,  but  not  innocent ; 
for  though  by  him  that  willingly  abides  in 
the  state  of  mere  nature,  sin  cannot  be  avoid- 
ed, yet  no  man  is  in  that  state  longer  than 
he  loves  to  be  so  ;  for  the  grace  of  God  came 
to  rescue  us  from  this  evil  portion,  and  is 
always  present,  to  give  us  a  new  nature, 
and  create  us  over  again:  and,  therefore, 
though  sin  is  made  necessary  to  the  natural 
man  by  his  impotency  and  fond  loves,  that 
is,  by  his  unregenerate  nature;  yet,  in  the 
whole  constitution  of  affairs,  God  hath  more 
than  made  it  up  by  his  grace,  if  we  will 
make  use  of  it.  "  In  pueris  elucet  spes 
plurimorum,  qua?  ubi  emoritur  Eetate,  mani- 
festum  est,  non  defecisse  naturam,  sed  cu- 
ram,"  said  Quinlilian.*  We  cannot  tell 
what  we  are,  or  what  we  think,  in  our  in- 
fancy; and,  when  we  can  know  our  thoughts, 
we  can  easily  observe  that  we  have  learned 
evil  things  by  evil  examples,  and  the  cor- 
rupt manners  of  an  evil  conversation :  "  Et 
ubi  per  socordiam  vires,  tempus,  ingenium 
defluxere,  natures  infirmitas  accusatur;"f 
that,  indeed,  is  too  true  :  "  We  grow  lazy, 
and  wanton,  and  we  lose  our  time,  and 
abuse  our  parts,  and  do  ugly  things,  and 
lay  the  fault  wholly  upon  our  natural  in- 
firmities :"  but  we  must  remember,  that,  by 
this  time,  it  is  a  state  of  nature,  a  state  of 
flesh  and  blood,  which  cannot  enter  into 
heaven.  The  natural  man  and  the  natural 
child  are  not  the  same  thing  in  true  divinity. 
The  natural  child  indeed  can  do  no  good ; 
but  the  natural  man  cannot  choose  but  do 
evil;  but  it  is  because  he  will  do  so;  he  is 
not  born  in  the  second  birth,  and  renewed 
in  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit. 

2.  We  have  brought  ourselves  into  an 
accidental  necessity  of  sinning  by  the  evil 
principles,  which  are  sucked  in  by  great 
parts  of  mankind.    We  are  taught  ways  of 


*  Geener.  t  Sail. 


going  to  heaven  without  forsaking  our  sins, 
of  repentance  without  restitution  ;  of  being 
in  charity  without  hearty  forgiveness  and 
without  love;  of  believing  our  sins  to  be 
pardoned  before  they  are  mortified  ;  of  trust- 
ing in  Christ's  death  without  conformity  tc 
his  life  ;  of  being  in  God's  favour  upon  the 
only  account  of  being  of  such  an  opinion  ; 
and  that  when  we  are  once  in,  we  can 
never  be  out.  We  are  taught  to  believe 
that  the  events  of  things  do  not  depend  upon 
our  crucifying  our  evil  and  corrupt  affec- 
tions, but  upon  eternal  and  unalterable  coun- 
sels ;  that  the  promises  are  not  the  rewards 
of  obedience,  but  graces  pertaining  only  to 
a  few  predestinates,  and  yet  men  are  saints 
for  all  that ;  and  that  the  laws  of  God  are 
of  the  race  of  the  giants,  not  to  be  observed 
by  any  grace  or  by  any  industry  :  this  is  the 
catechism  of  the  ignorant  and  the  profane  : 
but,  without  all  perad venture,  the  contrary 
propositions  are  the  way  to  make  the  world 
better :  but  certainly  they  that  believe  these 
things,  do  not  believe  it  necessary  that  we 
should  eschew  all  evil:  and  no  wonder, 
then,  if  when  men  upon  these  accounts 
slacken  their  industry  and  their  care,  they 
find  sin  still  prevailing,  still  dwelling  within 
them,  and  still  unconquerable  by  so  slight 
and  disheartened  labours.  For  'ISuot^j  *as 
xai  drtou-SfVT'of  tportov  tLva  rtai  j  ioti'  "  Every 
fool  and  every  ignorant  person  is  a  child 
still :"  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  who  talks 
foolishly  should  do  childishly  and  weakly. 

3.  To  our  weak  and  corrupted  nature, 
and  our  foolish  discourses,  men  do  daily 
superinduce  evil  habits  and  customs  of  sin- 
ning. "  Consuetudo  mala  tanquam  hamus 
infixus  animee,"  said  the  father;  "  An  evil 
custom  is  a  hook  in  the  soul,"  and  draws  it 
whither  the  devil  pleases.    When  it  comes 

to  the  xap&'a  ycyviA-vaa/xivrj  jt"ktovi%la.i$,  as  St. 
Peter's  word  is,  "a  heart .  exercised  with 
covetous  practices,"  then  it  is  also  do&fi^s  it 
is  "weak"  and  unable  to  do  the  good  it  fain 
would,  or  to  avoid  the  evil,  which  in  a  good 
fit,  it  pretends  to  hate.  This  is  so  known,  I 
shall  not  insist  upon  it;  but  add  this  only, 
that  wherever  a  habit  is  contracted,  it  is  all 
one  what  the  instance  be ;  it  is  as  easy  as 
delicious,  as  unalterable  in  virtue  as  in  vice ; 
for  what  helps  nature  brings  to  a  vicious 
habit,  the  same  and  much  more  the  Spirit 
of  God,  by  his  power  and  by  his  comforts, 
can  do  in  a  virtuous ;  and  then  we  are  all 
well  again.  You  see  by  this  who  are,  and 
why  they  are,  in  this  evil  condition.  The 
evil  natures,  and  the  evil  principles,  and  the 


Serm.  II. 


OVER  THE  BODY  OF  SIN. 


411 


evil  manners  of  the  world,  these  are  the 
causes  of  our  imperfect  willings  and  weaker 
actings  in  the  things  of  God  ;  and  as  long  as 
men  stay  here,  sin  will  be  unavoidable. 
For  even  meat  itself  is  loathsome  to  a  sick 
stomach,  and  it  is  impossible  for  him  that 
is  heart-sick  to  eat  the  most  wholesome  diet ; 
and  yet  he  that  shall  say  eating  is  impossi- 
ble, will  be  best  confuted  by  seeing  all  the 
healthful  men  in  the  world  eat  heartily 
every  day. 

2.  But  what  then  ?  Cannot  sin  be  avoid- 
ed? Cannot  a  Christian  mortify  the  deeds 
of  the  body  ?  Cannot  Christ  redeem  us, 
and  cleanse  us  from  all  our  sins  ?  Cannot 
the  works  of  the  devil  be  destroyed?  That 
is  the  next  particular  to  be  inquired  of: 
Whether  or  no  it  be  not  necessary,  and, 
therefore,  very  possible,  for  a  servant  of 
God  to  pass  from  this  evil  state  of  things, 
and  not  only  hate  evil,  but  avoid  it  also? 

"  He  that  saith  he  hath  not  sinned,  is  a 
liar;"  but  what  then  ?  Because  a  man 
hath  sinned,  it  does  not  fellow  he  must  do 
so  always.  "Hast  thou  sinned?  do  so  no 
more,"  said  the  wise  Bensirach;  and  so 
said  Christ  to  the  poor  paralytic,  "  Go,  and 
sin  no  more." — They  were  excellent  words 
spoken  by  a  holy  prophet:  "Let  not  the 
sinner  say  he  hath  not  sinned ;  for  God 
shall  burn  coals  of  fire  upon  his  head,  that 
saith  before  the  Lord  God  and  his  glory,  I 
have  not  sinned."  Well !  that  case  is  con- 
fessed; "  All  men  have  sinned,  and  come 
short  of  the  glory  of  God."  But  is  there 
no  remedy  for  this  ?  Must  it  always  be  so? 
and  must  sin  for  ever  have  the  upper  hand, 
and  for  ever  baffle  our  resolutions,  and  all 
our  fierce  and  earnest  promises  of  amend- 
ment ?  God  forbid.  There  was  a  time 
then,  to  come,  and,  blessed  be  God,  it  hath 
been  long  come ;  "  Yet  a  little  while,"  saith 
that  prophet,  "  and  iniquity  shall  be  taken 
out  of  the  earth,  and  righteousness  shall 
reign  among  you."  For  that  is  in  the 
day  of  Christ's  kingdom,  the  manifestation 
of  the  gospel.  When  Christ  reigns  in  our 
hearts  by  his  Spirit,  Dagon  and  the  ark 
cannot  stand  together;  we  cannot  serve 
Christ  and  Belial.  And  as  in  the  state  of 
nature  no  good  thing  dwells  within  us ;  so 
when  Christ  rules  in  us,  no  evil  thing  can 
abide;  "  For  every  plant  that  my  heavenly 
Father  hath  not  planted,  shall  be  rooted  up," 
and  cast  away  into  the  fires  of  consumption 
or  purification.  But  how  shall  this  come  to 
pass,  since  we  all  find  ourselves  so  infinitely 
weak  and  foolish  ?  I  shall  tell  you.  "  It  is 


easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  cf 
a  needle,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  intc 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  saith  Christ.  It  is 
impossible  to  nature ;  it  is  impossible  to 
them  that  are  given  to  vanity  ;  it  is  impos- 
sible for  them  that  delight  in  the  evil  snare: 
but  Christ  adds,  "  With  men  this  is  impos- 
sible, but  with  God  all  things  are  possible." 
What  we  cannot  do  for  ourselves,  God 
can  do  for  us,  and  with  us.  What  nature 
cannot  do,  the  grace  of  God  can.  So  that 
the  thing  may  be  done ;  not  indeed  by  our- 
selves, but  "  gratia  Dei  mecum,"  saith  St. 
Paul ;  God  and  man  together  can  do  it.  But 
if  it  can  be  done  any  way  that  God  has  put 
into  our  powers,  the  consequent  is  this ;  no 
man's  good  will  shall  be  taken  in  exchange 
for  the  real  and  actual  mortification  of  his 
sins.  He  that  sins,  and  would  fain  not  sin, 
but  sin  is  present  with  him  whether  he  will 
or  no,  let  him  take  heed;  for  the  same  is 
"  the  law  of  sin,"  and  "  the  law  of  death," 
saith  the  apostle ;  and  that  man's  heart  is 
not  right  with  God.  For  it  is  impossible 
men  should  pray  for  deliverance,  and  not 
be  heard ;  that  they  should  labour,  and  not 
be  prosperous  ;  unless  they  pray  amiss,  and 
labour  falsely.  Let  no  man,  therefore,  please 
himself  with  talking  of  great  things,  with 
perpetual  conversation  in  pious  discourses, 
or  with  ineffective  desires  of  serving  God  : 
he  that  does  not  practice  as  well  as  he  talks, 
and  do  what  he  desires,  and  what  he  ought 
to  do,  confesses  himself  to  sin  greatly  against 
his  conscience ;  and  it  is  a  prodigious  folly 
to  think  that  he  is  a  good  man,  because 
though  he  does  sin,  yet  it  was  against  his 
mind  to  do  so.  A  man's  conscience  can 
never  condemn  him,  if  that  be  his  excuse, 
to  say  that  his  conscience  checked  him: 
and  that  will  be  but  a  sad  apology  at  the  day 
of  judgment.  Some  men  talk  like  angels, 
and  pray  with  fervour,  and  meditate  with 
deep  recesses,  and  speak  to  God  with  loving 
affections,  and  words  of  union,  and  adhere 
to  him  in  silent  devotion,  and  when  they  go 
abroad  are  as  passionate  as  ever,  peevish  as 
a  frighted  fly,  vexing  themselves  with  their 
own  reflections  :  they  are  cruel  in  their  bar- 
gains, unmerciful  to  their  tenants,  and  proud 
as  a  barbarian  prince  :  they  are,  for  all  their 
fine  words,  impatient  of  reproof,  scornful  to 
their  neighbours,  lovers  of  money,  supreme 
in  their  own  thoughts,  and  submit  to  none ; 
all  their  spiritual  life  they  talk  of,  is  nothing 
but  spiritual  fancy  and  illusion ;  they  are  still 
under  power  of  their  passions,  and  their  sin 
rules  them  imperiously,  and  carries  them 


412 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  CONQUEST 


Serm.  II. 


away  infallibly.  Let  these  men  consider, 
there  are  some  men  think  it  impossible  to  do 
as  much  as  they  do :  the  common  swearer 
cannot  leave  that  vice,  and  talk  well;  and 
these  men  that  talk  thus  well,  think  they 
cannot  do  as  well  as  they  talk ;  but  both 
of  them  are  equally  under  the  power  of 
their  respective  sins,  and  are  equally  de- 
ceived, and  equally  not  the  servants  of  God. 
This  is  true ;  but  it  is  equally  as  true,  that 
there  is  no  necessity  for  all  this  ;  for  it  ought, 
and  it  may  be  otherwise  if  we  please :  for, 
I  pray,  be  pleased  to  hear  St.  Paul ;  "  Walk 
m  the  Spirit,  and  ye  shall  not  fulfil  the  lusts 
of  the  flesh ;"  there  is  your  remedy  :  "For 
the  Spirit  lusteth  against  the  flesh,  and  the 
flesh  against  the  Spirit ;  there  is  the  cause 


common  experiences.  What  man  of  ordi- 
nary prudence  and  reputation  can  be  tempt- 
ed to  steal?  or,  for  what  price  would  he  be 
tempted  to  murder  his  friend?  If  we  did 
hate  all  sins  as  we  hate  these,  would  it  not  be 
as  easy  to  be  as  innocent  in  other  instances, 
as  most  men  are  in  these?  and  we  should 
have  as  few  drunkards  as  we  have  thieves. 
In  such  as  these,  we  do  not  complain  in  the 
words  of  my  text,  "  What  I  would  not,  that 
I  do;  and  what  I  would,  I  do  not."  Does 
not  every  good  man  overcome  all  the  power 
of  great  sins?  and  can  he,  by  the  Spirit  of 
God  and  right  reason,  by  fear  and  hope, 
conquer  Goliath,  and  beat  the  sons  of  the 
giant;  and  can  he  not  overcome  the  chil- 
dren of  Gath  ?  or  is  it  harder  to  overcome  a 


of  it;  Iva  fir;  rtoLrjts,  "  so  that  ye  may  not,  or!  little  sin  than  a  great  one?  Are  not  the 
cannot,  do  the  things  ye  would  ;"*  that  is  temptations  to  little  sins  very  little?  and  yet 
the  blessed  consequent  and  product  of  that  are  they  greater  and  stronger  than  a  mighty 
cause.  That  is  plainly, — As  there  is  a  state  j  grace  ?  Could  the  poor  demoniac,  that  lived 
of  carnality,  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks  in  my 
text,  so  that  in  that  state  a  man  cannot  but 
obey  the  flesh, — so  there  is  also  a  state  of 
spirituality,  when  sin  is  dead,  and  right- 
eousness is  alive;  and,  in  this  state,  the 
flesh  can  no  more  prevail  than  the  Spirit 
could  do  in  the  other. — Some  men  cannot 
choose  but  sin  ;  "  for  the  carnal  mind  is  not 
subject  to  God,  neither,  indeed,  can  be,"f 
saith  St.  Paul ;  but  there  are,  also,  some 
men  that  cannot  endure  any  thing  that  is 
not  good.  It  is  a  great  pain  for  a  temperate 
man  to  suffer  the  disorders  of  drunkenness, 
and  the  shames  of  lust  are  intolerable  to  a 
chaste  and  modest  person.  This  also  is 
affirmed  by  St.  John  :  "  Whosoever  is  born 
of  God,  doth  not  commit  sin,  for  his  seed 
remaineth  in  him."$  So  that,  you  see,  it  is 
possible  for  a  good  man  not  to  commit  the 
sin  to  which  he  is  tempted.  But  the  apostle 
says  more :  "  He  doth  not  commit  sin,  neither 
indeed  can  he,  because  he  is  born  of  God." 

And  this  is  agreeable  to  the  words  of  our 
blessed  Saviour:  "  A  corrupt  tree  cannot 
bring  forth  good  fruit,  and  a  good  tree  can- 
not bring  forth  evil  fruit  ;"||  that  is,  as  the 
child  of  hell  is  carried  to  sin,  "  pleno  im- 
petu,"  he  does  not  check  at  it,  he  does  it, 
and  is  not  troubled  ;  so,  on  the  other  side,  a 
child  of  God  is  as  fully  convinced  of  right- 
eousness, and  that  which  is  unrighteous  is 
as  hateful  to  him  as  colocynths  to  the  taste, 
or  the  sharpest  punctures  to  the  pupil  of 
the  eye.    We  may  see  something  of  this  in 


*  Gal.  v.  16. 
t 1  John  iii.  9. 


t  Rom.  viii.  7. 
II  Matt.  vii.  18. 


in  the  graves,  by  the  power  of  the  devil 
break  his  iron  chains  in  pieces?  and  cannot 
he,  who  hath  the  Spirit  of  God,  dissolve 
the  chains  of  sin  ?    "  Through  Christ  that 
strengthens  me,  I  can  do  all  things,"  saith 
St.  Paul;  "Satis  sibi  copiarum  cum  Publio 
Decio,  et  nunquam  nimium  hostium  fore," 
said  one  in  Livy;  which  is  best  rendered 
by  St.  Paul — "  If  God  be  with  us,  who  can 
be  against  us?"    "Nay,  there  is  an  vjttp- 
vixufisv  in  St.  Paul,  "We  are  more  than  con- 
querors."   For  even  amongst  an  army  of 
conquerors  there  are  degrees  of  exaltation : 
some  serve  God  like  the  centurion,  and 
some  like  St.  Peter ;  some  like  Martha,  and 
some  like  Mary;  /u-sr'  svxofaas  arcdarji,  avtv 
7t6vu>v  xai  ISputoiv,  all  good  men  conquer  their 
temptations,  but  some  with  more  ease,  and 
some  with  a  clearer  victory ;  and  more  than 
thus, — "Non  solum  viperam  terimus,  sed 
ex  ea  antidotum  conficimus,"  "We  kill  the 
viper,  and  make  treacle  of  him;"  that  is, 
not  only  escape  from,  but  get  advantages  by 
temptations.    But  we,  commonly,  are  more 
afraid  than  hurt:  "Let  us,  therefore,  lay 
aside  every  weight,  and  the  sin  that  doth  so 
easily  beset  us  :"*  so  we  read  the  words  of 
the  apostle;  but  St.  Chrysostom's  rendition 
of  them  is  better ;  for  the  word  evrttplatatos 
is  a  perfect  passive,  and  cannot  signify  the 
strength  and  irresistibility  of  sin  upon  us, 
but  quite  the  contrary,  ivjitpiata-eos  d/uafcria 
signifies  "  the  sin  that  is  so  easily  avoided," 
as  they  that  understand  that  language  know 
very  well.    And  if  we  were  so  wise  and 

*Heb.  xii.  1. 


Serm.  II 


OVER  THE  BODY  OF  SIN. 


413 


valiant  as  not  to  affright  ourselves  with  our  "  Nostra  siqua  est  humilis  justitia,  recta  for 
own  terrors,  we  should  quickly  find,  thatsitan,  sed  nonpura;"  "Our  humble  right- 
by  the  help  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  we  can  do  eousness  is,  perhaps,  right  in  the  eyes  of 
more  than  we  thought  we  could.  It  was  God,  but  not  pure;"  that  is,  accepted  by  his 
said  of  Alexander,  "Bene  ausus  est  vana  mercy,,  but  it  is  such  as  dares  not  contend  in 
contemnere,"*  he  did  no  great  matter  in  judgment.  For  as  no  man  is  so  much  a 
conquering  the  Persians,  because  they  were  !  sinner,  but  he  sometimes  speaks  a  good 
a  pitiful  and  a  soft  people;  only  he  under- (word,  or  does  some  things  not  ill,  and  yet 
stood  them  to  be  so,  and  was  wise  and  bold  that  little  good  interrupts  not  that  state  of 
enough  not  to  fear  such  images  and  men  of  evil;  so  it  is  amongst  very  good  men,  from 
clouts.  But  men,  in  the  matter  of  great  whom,  sometimes,  may  pass  something  that 
sins  and  little,  do  as  the  magicians  of  Egypt:  is  not  commendable  ;  and  yet  their  heart  is 
when  Moses  turned  his  rod  into  a  serpent,  so  habitually  right  towards  God,  that  they 
it  moved  them  not;  but  when  they  saw  the  |  will  do  nothing,  I  do  not  say  which  God  in 
lice  and  the  flies,  then  they  were  afraid.  [  justice  cannot,  but  which  in  mercy  he  will 
We  see,  that,  by  the  grace  of  God,  we  can  I  not,  impute  to  eternal  condemnation.  It  was 
escape  great  sins  ;  but  we  start  at  flies,  and  ;  the  case  of  David  ;  "  he  was  a  man  after 
a  bird  out  of  a  bush  disorders  us ;  the  lion  '.  God's  own  heart  j  nay,  it  is  said,  M  he  was 
in  the  way  troubles  us  not,  but  a  frog  or  a  i  blameless,  save  in  the  matter  of  Uriah;" 
worm  affrights  us.  Remember  the  saying  '  and  yet  we  know  he  numbered  the  people, 
of  St.  Paul,  "  Christ  came  to  redeem  to  him-  'and  God  was  angry  with  him,  and  punished 
self  a  church,  and  to  present  it,  pure  and  him  for  it;  but,  because  he  was  a  good  man. 
spotless,  before  the  throne  of  grace;"  and,  'and  served  God  heartily,  that  other  fault  of 
if  you  mean  to  be  of  this  number,  you  must  his  was  imputed  to  him  no  further.  God 
endeavour  to  be  under  this  qualification, ! set  a  fine  upon  his  head  for  it;  but  it  was 
that  is,  as  Paul  laboured  to  be,  "  void  of  | "  salvo  contenemento,"  "  the  main  stake 
offence,  both   towards  God  and  towards  ;  was  safe." 

man."  And  so  I  have  done  with  the  se-  \  For  concerning  good  men,  the  question  is 
cond  proposition.  It  is  necessary  that  all  not,  whether  or  no  God  could  not.  in  the 
sin,  great  and  little,  should  be  mortified  and  rigour  of  justice,  blame  their  indiscretion, 
dead  in  us,  and  that  we  no  longer  abide  in  or  impute  a  foolish  word,  or  chide  them  for 
that  state  of  slavery,  as  to  say,  "The  good  a  hasty  answer,  or  a  careless  action,  for  a 
that  I  would  I  do  not;  but  the  evil  that  I, less  devout  prayer,  or  weak  hands,  for  a 
would  not,  that  I  do."  !  fearful  heart,  or  a  trembling  faith.  These 

3.  In  the  next  place  we  are  to  inquire  in  are  not  the  measures  by  which  God  judges 
what  degree  this  is  to  be  effected  ;  for  though  his  children  ;  "  for  he  knoweth  whereof  we 
in  negatives,  properly,  there  are  no  degrees,  are  made,  and  he  remembers  that  we  are  but 
yet.  unless  there  be  some  allays  in  this  doc-  jdust." — But  the  question  is,  whether  any 
trine,  it  will  not  be  so  well,  and  it  may  be,  man  that  is  covetous  and  proud,  false  to  his 
your  experiences  will  for  ever  confute  my  j  trust,  or  a  drunkard,  can,  at  the  same  time, 
arguments;  for,  "Who  can  say  that  he  is  be  a  child  of  God?  No,  certainly  he  can- 
clean  from  his  sin?"  said  the  wise  man. 'not.  But  then  we  know  that  God  judges 
And  as  our  blessed  Saviour  said,  "He  that  us  by  Jesus  Christ,  that  is,  with  the  allays 
is  innocent  among  you  all,  let  him  throw  of  mercy,  with  an  eye  of  pardon,  with  the 
the  first  stone  at  the  sinner,"  and  spare  not.  sentences  of  a  father,  by  the  measures  of  a 

To  this  I  answer,  in  the  words  of  St.  Gre-  'man,  and  by  analogy,  to  all  our  unavoidable 
gory.  All  men's  righteousness  will  be  found  abatements.  God  could  enter  with  us  into 
to  be  unrighteousness,  if  God  should  severely  ja  more  severe  judgment,  but  he  would  not; 
enter  into  judgment;  but,  therefore,  even  and  no  justice  tied  him  from  exercising  that 
after  our  innocence  we  must  pray  for  par- j  mercy.  But,  according  to  the  measures  of 
don,  "ut  quce  succumbere  discussa  poterat,  |the  gospel,  "he  will  judge  every  man  ac- 
ex  judicis  pietate  convalescat,"  "  that  our!  cording  to  his  works." — Now  what  these 
innocence,  which,  in  strictness  of  Divine  (measures  are,  is  now  the  question.  To 
judgment,  would  be  found  spotted  and  stain- '  which  I  answer,  first,  in  general,  and  then 
ed,  by  the  mercy  of  our  Saviour  may  be  ■  more  particularly  . 

accepted."   St.  Bernard  expresses  this  well: .    1.  In  general,  thus  : — A  Christian's  inno- 

  cence  is  always  to  be  measured  by  the  plain 

■  Liv.  'lines  and  measures  of  the  commandments 

2k2 


414 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  CONQ,UEST 


Serm.  II. 


but  is  not  to  be  taken  into  account  by  uncer- 
tain and  fond  opinions,  and  the  scruples  of 
zealous  and  timorous  persons.  My  mean- 
ing is  this:  Some  men  tell  us  that  every 
natural  inclination  to  a  forbidden  object  is  a 
sin ;  which  they  that  believe,  finding  them 
to  be  natural,  do  also  confess  that  such  sins 
are  unavoidable.  But  if  these  natural  and 
first  motions  be  sins,  then  a  man  sins  whether 
he  resists  them,  or  resists  them  not,  whether 
he  prevails,  or  prevails  not;  and  there  is  no 
other  difference  but  this, — he  that  fights  not 
against,  but  always  yields  to  his  desires, 
sins  greatest;  and  he  that  never  yields,  but 
fights  always,  sins  oftenest.  But  then,  by 
this  reckoning,  it  will  indeed  be  impossible 
to  avoid  millions  of  sine ;  because  the  very- 
doing  of  our  duty  does  suppose  a  sin.  If 
God  should  impute  such  first  desires  to  us 
as  sins,  we  were  all  very  miserable ;  but  if 
he  does  not  impute  them,  let  us  trouble  our- 
selves no  further  about  them,  but  to  take 
care  that  they  never  prevail  upon  us.  Thus 
men  are  taught,  that  they  never  say  their 
prayers  but  they  commit  a  sin.  Indeed  that 
is  true  but  too  often  ;  but  yet  it  is  possible 
for  us,  by  the  grace  of  God,  to  please  him 
in  saying  our  prayers,  and  to  be  accepted 
of  him.  But,  indeed,  if  God  did  proceed 
against  us  as  we  do  against  one  another,  no 
man  could  abide  innocent  for  so  much  as  one 
hour.  But  God's  judgment  is  otherwise; 
he  inquires  if  the  heart  be  right,  if  our  la- 
bour be  true,  if  we  love  no  sin,  if  we  use 
prudent  and  efficacious  instruments  to  mor- 
tify our  sin,  if  we  go  about  our  religion  as 
we  go  about  the  biggest  concerns  of  our 
life,  if  we  be  sincere  and  real  in  our  actions 
and  intentions.  For  this  is  the  Mapaptrjola 
that  God  requires  of  us  all ;  this  is  that 
"  sinless  state,"  in  which  if  God  does  not 
find  us,  we  shall  never  see' his  glorious  face; 
and  if  he  does  find  us,  we  shall  certainly  be 
saved  by  the  blood  of  Jesus.  For,  in  the 
style  of  Scripture,  to  be  eiUxpivels  xai  an^xo- 
7tot,  is  the  same  thing :  "  to  be  sincere  and  to 
be  without  offence,"  is  all  one.  Thus  David 
spake  heartily,  "  I  am  utterly  purposed  that 
my  mouth  shall  not  offend ;  and  thou  shalt 
find  no  wickedness  in  me."  He  that  en- 
deavours this,  and  hopes  this,  and  does 
actions  and  uses  means  accordingly,  not 
being  deceived  by  his  own  farse  heart,  nor 
abused  by  evil  propositions, — this  man  will 
stand  upright  in  the  congregations  of  the 
just;  and,  though  he  cannot  challenge  hea- 
ven by  merit,  yet  he  shall  receive  it  as  a  gift 
by  promise  and  by  grace.    "  Lex  nos  inno- 


centes  esse  jubet,  non  curiosos,"  said  Seneca. 
For  God  takes  no  judgment  of  us  by  any 
measures,  but  of  the  commandment  without, 
and  the  heart  and  the  conscience  within ; 
but  he  never  intended  his  laws  to  be  a  snare 
to  us,  or  to  entrap  us  with  consequences  and 
dark  interpretations,  by  large  deductions  and 
witty  similitudes  of  faults ;  but  he  requires 
of  us  a  sincere  heart,  and  a  hearty  labour  in 
the  work  of  his  commandments;  he  calls 
upon  us  to  avoid  all  that  which  his  law 
plainly  forbids,  and  which  our  consciences 
do  condemn.  This  is  the  general  measure. 
The  particulars  are  briefly  these. 

1.  Every  Christian  is  bound  to  arrive  at 
that  state,  that  he  have  remaining  in  him  no 
habit  of  any  sin  whatsoever.  "  Our  old 
man  must  be  crucified," — "  the  body  of  sin 
must  be  destroyed," — "  he  must  no  longer 
serve  sin,"-"  sin  shall  not  have  the  dominion 
over  you."— All  these  are  the  apostles  words; 
that  is,  plainly,  as  I  have  already  declared, 
you  must  not  be  at  that  pass,  that  though 
ye  would  avoid  sin,  ye  cannot.  For  he  that 
is  so,  is  a  most  perfect  slave,  and  Christ's 
freedman  cannot  be  so.  Nay,  he  that  loves 
sin,  and  delights  in  it,  hath  no  liberty  indeed, 
but  he  hath  more  show  of  it  than  he  that 
obeys  it  against  his  will. 

 Libertatis  servaveris  umbram, 

Si  quidquid  jubeare  velis. 

Lucan. 

He  that  loves  to  be  in  the  place,  is  a  less 
prisoner  than  he  that  is  confined  against 
his  will. 

2.  He  that  commits  any  one  sin  by  choice 
and  deliberation,  is  an  enemy  to  God,  and 
is  under  the  dominion  of  the  flesh.  In  the 
case  of  deliberate  sins,  one  act  does  give  the 
denomination;  he  is  an  adulterer,  that  so 
much  as  once  foully  breaks  the  holy  laws  of 
marriage.  "  He  that  offends  in  one,  is  guilty 
of  all,"  saith  St.  James.  St.  Peter's  denial, 
and  David's  adultery,  had  passed  on  to  a 
fatal  issue,  if  the  mercy  of  God,  and  a  great 
repentance,  had  not  interceded.  But  they 
did  so  no  more,  and  so  God  restored  them 
to  grace  and  pardon.  And  in  this  sense  are 
the  words  of  St.  John,  *0  rtoiuv  trjv  a/jofitlav, 
"He  that  does  a  sin,  is  of  the  devil,"  ana 
"  he  that  is  born  of  God,"  apaptlav  ov  rtoin, 
"  does  not  commit  a  sin;"*  he  chooses  none, 
he  loves  none,  he  endures  none,  "  talia  quae 
non  faciet  bonae  fidei  et  spei  Christianus ;" 
they  do  no  great  sin,  and  love  no  little  ona 


*  1  John  iii.  8. 


Serm.  II. 


OVER  THE  BODY  OF  SIN. 


41.5 


A  sin  chosen  and  deliberately  done,  is,  as;  ore.  appears  in  this,— because  God  allows  it 
Tertulhan's  expression  is,  "crimen  devora-  not,  and  by  punishing  such  follies,  does 
torium  salutis  ;"  -  it  devours  salvation."  manifest  that  he  intends  that  we  should  get 
For  as  there  are  some  sins  which  can  be  [  victory  over  our  sudden  passions,  as  well  as 
done  but  once, — as  a  man  can  kill  his  father  our  natural  lusts.  And  so  I  have  done  with 
but  once,  or  himself  but  once,  so  in  those 'the  third  inquiry,  in  what  degree  God  ex- 
thinrrs  which  can  be  repeated,  a  perfect  pects  our  innocence;  and  now  I  briefly  come 
choice  is  equivalent  to  a  habit;  it  is  the  to  the  last  particular,  which  will  make  all 
same  in  principle,  that  a  habit  is  in  the  pro-  the  rest  practicable.  I  am  now  to  tell  you 
duct.  In  short,  he  is  not  a  child  of  God,  how  all  this  can  be  effected,  and  how  we 
that,  knowinglv  and  deliberately,  chooses  shall  get  free  from  the  power  and  dominion 
any  thing  that  God  hates.  of  our  sins. 

3.  Everv  Christian  ought  to  attain  to  such  4.  The  first  great  instrument  is  faith.  He 
a  state  of  life,  as  that  he  never  sin,  not  only  that  hath  faith  like  a  grain  of  mustard  seed, 
by  a  long  deliberation,  but  also  not  by  pas- ;  can  remove  mountains  ;  the  mountains  of 
sion.  I  do  not  say  that  he  is  not  a  good  sin  shall  fall  flat  at  the  feet  of  the  faithful 
Christian,  who  bv  passion  is  suddenly  sur-  man,  and  shall  be  removed  into  the  sea, 
prised,  and  falls  into  folly;  but  this  I  say,  the  sea  of  Christ's  blood,  and  penitential 
that  no  passion  ought  to  make  him  choose  waters.  "  Faith  overcometh  the  world," 
a  sin.  For,  let  the  sin  enter  by  anger  or  by  saith  St.  John  ;  and  walk  in  the  Spirit,  and 
desire,  it  is  all  one,  if  the  consent  be  gained. '  ye  shall  not  fulfill  the  lusts  of  the  flesh." 
It  is  an  ill  sign,  if  a  man,  though  on  the  There  are  two  of  our  enemies  gone, — the 
sudden,  consents  to  a  base  action.  Thus :  world  and  the  flesh,  by  faith  and  the  Spirit, 
far  every  good  man  is  tied,  not  only  to  en-j  by  the  spirit  of  faith ;  and,  as  for  the  devi!, 
deavour,  but  to  prevail  against  his  sin.         put  on  the  shield  of  faith,  and  w  resist  the 

4.  There  is  one  step  more,  which,  if  it  be  devil,  and  he  will  flee  from  you,"  saith  the 
not  actually  effected,  it  must,  at  least,  be  apostle ;  and  the  powers  of  sin  seem  insu- 
greatly  endeavoured,  and  the  event  be  left  perable  to  none,  but  to  them  that  have  not 
to  God ;  and  that  is,  that  we  strive  for  so  faith  :  we  do  not  believe  that  God  intends  we 
great  a  dominion  over  our  sins  and  lusts,  as  should  do  what  he  seems  to  require  of  us : 
that  we  be  not  surprised  on  a  sudden.  This,  lor  else  we  think,  that  though  God's  grace 
indeed,  is  a  work  of  time,  and  it  is  well  if  I  abounds,  yet  sin  must  superabound,  ex- 
it be  ever  done  :  but  it  must  always  be'pressly  against  the  saying  of  St.  Paul ;  or 
endeavoured.  But  in  this  particular  even  else  we  think,  that  the  evil  spirit  is  stronger 
good  men  are  sometimes  unprosperous.  St. I  than  the  good  Spirit  of  God.  Hear  what 
Epiphanius  and  St.  Chrysostom  grew  once1  St.  John  saith  :  ::  My  little  children,  ye  are 
into  choler,  and  they  passed  too  far,  and  j  of  God,  and  have  overcome  the  evil  one; 
lost  more  than  their  argument;  they  lost:  for  the  Spirit  that  is  in  you,  is  greater  than 
their  reason,  and  they  lost  their  patience : !  that  which  is  in  the  world."*  Believest 
and  Epiphanius  wished  that  Chrysostom'  thou  this ?  If  you  do,  I  shall  tell  you  what 
might  not  die  a  bishop ;  and  he  in  a  peevish  may  be  the  event  of  it.  When  the  father 
exchange,  wished  that  Epiphanius  might  of  the  boy  possessed  with  the  devil  told  his 
never  return  to  his  bishopric :  when  they  sad  story  to  Christ,  he  said.  Master,  if  thou 
had  forgotten  their  foolish  anger,  God  re-  canst  do  any  thing.  I  pray  help  me.  Christ 
membered  it.  and  said  "  Amen"  to  both  answered  him,  If  thou  canst  believe,  all 
their  cursed  speakings.  Nay,  there  is  yet  a  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth.-r 
greater  example  of  human  lrailty  ;  St.  Paul  N.  B.  And  therefore,  if  you  do  not  believe 
and  Barnabas  were  very  holy  persons ;  but  this,  go  to  your  prayers,  and  go  to  your 
once,  in  a  heat,  they  were  both  to  blame  :  guards,  and  go  to  your  labour,  and  try 
they  were  peevish,  and  parted  company,  what  God  will  do  for  you.  "Forwhatso- 
This  was  not  very  much  ;  but  God  was  so  ever  things  ye  desire  when  ye  pray,  believe 
displeased,  even  for  this  little  fly  in  their  that  ye  shall  receive  them,  and  ye  shall  have 
box  of  ointment,  that  their  story  says,  they  them."  Now  consider  ;  Do  we  not  every 
never  saw  one  another's  face  again.  Thesejday  pray,  in  the  Divine  hymn  called  "Te 
earnest  emissions  and  transportations  of  pas-  •  Deum,"  "  Vouchsafe,  O  Lord,  to  keep  us 
sion  do  sometime  declare  the  weakness  of  this  day  without  sin  ?"    And  in  the  collect 

good  men  :  but  that,  even  here,  we  ought  at '  

least  to  endeavour  to  be  more  than  conquer- '         *  l  John  iv.  4-         t  Mark  ix.  23. 


416 


THE  CHRIST  AN'S  CONQ,UEST.         Serm.  II. 


at  morning  prayer, — "and  grant  that  this 
day  we  fall  into  no  sin,  neither  run  into  any 
kind  of  danger ;  but  that  all  our  doings  may 
be  ordered  by  thy  governance,  to  do  always 
that  which  is  righteous  in  thy  sight?" 
Have  you  any  hope,  or  any  faith,  when 
you  say  that  prayer?  And  if  you  do  your 
duty  as  you  can,  do  you  think  the  failure 
will  be  on  God's  part  ?  Fear  not  that,  if 
you  can  trust  in  God,  and  do  accordingly  ; 
"though  your  sins  were  as  scarlet,  yet  they 
shall  be  as  white  as  snow,"  and  pure  as  the 
feet  of  the  holy  Lamb.  Only  let  us  forsake 
all  those  weak  propositions,  which  cut  the 
nerves  of  faith,  and  make  it  impossible  for 
us  to  actuate  all  our  good  desires,  or  to  come 
out  from  the  power  of  sin. 

2.  He  that  would  be  free  from  the  slavery 
of  sin,  and  the  necessity  of  sinning,  must 
always  watch.  Aye,  that  is  the  point ;  but 
who  can  watch  always?  Why  every  good 
man  can  watch  always  ;  and,  that  we  may 
not  be  deceived  in  this,  let  us  know,  that  the 
running  away  from  a  temptation  is  a  part 
of  our  watchfulness,  and  every  good  em- 
ployment is  another  great  part  of  it,  and  a 
laying  in  provisions  of  reason  and  religion 
beforehand,  is  yet  a  third  part  of  this  watch- 
fulness ;  and  the  conversation  of  a  Christian 
is  a  perpetual  watchfulness ;  not  a  con- 
tinual thinking  of  that  one,  or  those  many 
things,  which  may  endanger  us  ;  but  it  is  a 
continual  doing  something,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, against  sin.  He  either  prays  to  God 
for  his  Spirit,  or  relies  upon  the  promises, 
or  receives  the  sacrament,  or  goes  to  his 
bishop  for  counsel  and  a  blessing,  or  to  his 
priest  for  religious  offices,  or  places  himself 
at  the  feet  of  good  men  to  hear  their  wise 
sayings,  or  calls  for  the  Church's  prayers, 
or  does  the  duty  of  his  calling,  or  actually 
resists  temptation,  or  frequently  renews  his 
holy  purposes,  or  fortifies  himself  by  vows, 
or  searches  into  his  danger  by  a  daily  ex- 
amination ;  so  that,  in  the  whole,  he  is  for 
ever  upon  his  guards.  This  duty  and  cau- 
tion of  a  Christian  is  like  watching,  lest  a 
man  cut  his  finger.  Wise  men  do  not  often 
cut  their  fingers,  and  yet  every  day  they 
use  a  knife ;  and  a  man's  eye  is  a  tender 
thing,  and  every  thing  can  do  it  wrong,  and 
every  thing  can  put  it  out ;  yet,  because  we 
love  our  eyes  so  well,  in  the  midst  of  so 
many  dangers,  by  God's  providence,  and  a 
prudent  natural  care,  by  winking  when 
any  thing  comes  against  them,  and  by  turn- 
ing aside  when  a  blow  is  offered,  they  are 
preserved  so  certainly,  that  not  one  man  in 


ten  thousand  does,  by  a  stroke,  lose  one  of 
his  eyes  in  all  his  life-time.  If  we  would 
transplant  our  natural  care  to  a  spiritual 
caution,  we  might,  by  God's  grace,  be 
kept  from  losing  our  souls,  as  we  are 
from  losing  our  eyes ;  and,  because  a  per- 
petual watchfulness  is  our  great  defence, 
and  the  perpetual  presence  of  God's  grace 
is  our  great  security,  and  that  this  grace 
never  leaves  us  unless  we  leave  it,  and  the 
precept  of  a  daily  watchfulness  is  a  thing 
not  only  so  reasonable,  but  so  many  easy 
ways  to  be  performed, — we  see  upon  what 
terms  we  may  be  quit  our  sins,  and  more 
than  conquerors  over  all  the  enemies  and 
impediments  of  salvation. 

3.  If  you  would  be  in  the  state  of  the  li- 
berty of  the  sons  of  God,  that  is,  that  you 
may  not  be  servants  of  sin  in  any  instance, 
be  sure,  in  the  mortifications  of  sin,  will- 
ingly or  carelessly  to  leave  no  remains  of  it, 
no  nest-egg,  no  principles  of  it,  no  affections 
to  it ;  if  any  thing  remains,  it  will  prove 
to  us  as  manna  to  the  sons  of  Israel  on  the 
second  day  ;  it  will  breed  worms,  and  stink. 
Therefore,  labour  against  every  part  of  it, 
reject  every  proposition  that  gives  it  coun- 
tenance, pray  to  God  against  it  all.  And 
what  then?  Why  then,  "ask,  and  you 
shall  have,"  said  Christ.  Nay,  say  some, 
it  is  true,  you  shall  be  heard,  but  in  part 
only;  for  God  will  leave  some  remains  of 
sin  within  us,  lest  we  should  become  proud, 
by  being  innocent.  So  vainly  do  men  ar- 
gue against  God's  goodness,  and  their  own 
blessing  and  salvation  ;  psta  rtXawos  tlxwfi 
xai  7tapatfx£vyj$,  xoi  rtpouy/jiatElas  arto'khvvtcu,  as 
St.  Basil  says  ;  "  they  contrive  witty  arts  to 
undo  themselves,"  being  entangled  in  the 
periods  of  ignorant  disputations.  But  as 
to  the  thing  itself,  if  by  the  remains  of  sin, 
they  mean  the  propensities  and  natural  in- 
clinations to  forbidden  objects,  there  is  no 
question  but  they  will  remain  in  us,  so  long 
as  we  bear  our  flesh  about  us  ;  and,  surely, 
that  is  a  great  argument  to  make  us  humble. 
But  these  are  not  the  sins  which  God 
charges  on  his  people.  But  if,  by  remains, 
we  mean  any  part  of  the  habit  of  sin,  any 
affection,  any  malice  or  perverseness  of  the 
will,  then  it  is  a  contradiction  to  say  that 
God  leaves  in  us  such  remains  of  sin,  lest, 
by  innocence,  we  become  proud  ;  for  how 
should  pride  spring  in  a  man's  heart,  if 
there  be  no  remains  of  sin  left?  And  is  it 
not  the  best,  the  surest  way,  to  cure  the 
pride  of  our  nearts,  by  taking  out  every  root 
of  bitterness,  even  the  root  of  pride  itself? 


Sum.  II. 


OVER  THE  B 


ODY  OF  SIN. 


417 


Will  a  physician  purposely  leave  the  re-] 
lies  of  a  disease,  and  pretend  he  does  it  to  I 
prevent  a  relapse  ?  And  is  it  not  more 
likely  he  will  relapse,  if  the  sickness  be  not 
wholly  cured  ?  But  besides  this,  if  God 
leaves  any  remains  of  sin  in  us,  what  re- 
mains are  they,  and  of  what  sins  ?  Does 
he  leave  the  remains  of  pride  ?  If  so, 
that  were  a  strange  cure,  to  leave  the  re- 
mains of  pride  is  us,  to  keep  us  from  being 
proud.  But,  if  not  so,  but  that  all  the  remains 
of  pride  be  taken  away  by  the  grace  of  God 
blessing  our  endeavours,  what  danger  is 
there  of  being  proud,  the  remains  of  which 
sin  are,  by  the  grace  of  God,  wholly  taken 
away  ?  But  then,  if  the  pride  of  the  heart 
be  cured ;  which  in  the  hardest  to  be  re- 
moved, and  commonly  is  done  last  of  all, — 
who  can  distrust  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  or  his  goodness,  or  his  promises,  and 
say  that  God  does  not  intend  to  cleanse 
his  sons  and  servants  from  all  unrighteous- 
ness ;  and  according  to  St.  Paul's  prayer, 
"keep  their  bodies,  and  souls,  and  spirits, 
unblameable  to  the  coming  of  the  Lord  Je- 
sus V  But,  however,  let  God  leave  what 
remains  he  please,  all  will  be  well  enough 
on  that  side  ;  but  let  us  be  careful,  as  far  as 
we  can,  that  we  leave  none ;  lest  it  be  se- 
verely imputed  to  us,  and  the  fire  break  out, 
and  consume  us. 

4.  Let  us,  without  any  further  question, 
put  this  argument  to  a  material  issue  ;  let 
us  do  all  that  ^e  can  do  towards  the  de- 
struction of  the  whole  body  of  sin ;  but  let 
us  never  say  we  cannot  be  quit  of  our  sin, 
till  we  have  done  all  that  we  can  do  to- 
wards the  mortification  of  it.  For  till  that 
be  done,  how  can  any  man  tell  where  the 
fault  lies,  or  whether  it  can  be  done  or  no  ? 
If  any  man  can  say  that  he  hath  done  all 
that  he  could  do,  and  yet  hath  failed  of  his 
duty,— if  he  can  say  truly,  that  he  hath 
endured  as  much  as  is  possible  to  be  en- 
dured,— that  he  hath  watched  always,  and 
never  nodded  when  he  could  avoid  it, — 
that  he  hath  loved  as  much  as  he  could 
love, — that  he  hath  waited  till  he  can  wait 
no  longer; — then,  indeed,  if  he  says  true, 
we  must  confess  that  it  is  not  to  be  under- 
stood. But  is  there  any  man  in  the  world 
that  does  all  that  he  can  do  ?  If  there  be, 
that  man  is  blameless ;  if  there  be  not,  then 
he  cannot  say  but  it  is  his  own  fault  that 
his  sin  prevails  against  him.  It  is  true, 
that  no  man  is  free  from  sin ;  but  it  is  as 
true,  that  no  man  does  as  much  as  he  can 
against  it :  and,  therefore,  no  man  must 
53 


jgo  about  to  excuse  himself  by  saying,  No 
man  is  free  from  his  sin ;  and,  therefore,  no 
man  can  be,  no,  not  by  the  powers  of  grace  : 
for  he  may  as  well  argue  thus, — No  man 
does,  all  that  he  can  do  against  it,  and, 
therefore,  it  is  impossible  he  should  do  what 
he  can  do.  The  argument  is  apparently 
foolish,  and  the  excuse  is  weak,  and  the  de- 
ception visible,  and  sin  prevails  upon  our 
weak  arguings ;  but  the  consequence  is 
plainly  this, — when  any  man  commits  a 
sin,  he  is  guilty  before  God,  and  he  cannot 
say  he  could  not  help  it ;  and  God  is  just 
in  punishing  every  sin,  and  very  merciful 
when  he  forgives  us  any.  But  he  that  says 
he  cannot  avoid  it,  that  he  cannot  overcome 
his  lust, — confesses  himself  a  servant  of 
sin,  and  that  he  is  not  yet  redeemed  by  the 
blood  of  the  holy  Lamb. 

5.  He  that  would  be  advanced  beyond  the 
power  and  necessity  of  sinning,  must  take 
great  caution  concerning  his  thoughts  and 
secret  desires  ;  "  for  lust,  when  it  is  con- 
ceived, bringeth  forth  sin  ;"  but,  if  it  be 
suppressed  in  the  conception,  it  comes  to 
nothing ;  but  we  find  it  hard  to  destroy  the 
serpent  when  the  egg  is  hatched  into  a  cock- 
atrice. The  thought  is  afidptvpos  auapn'a  ; 
no  man  takes  notice  of  it,  but  lets  it  alone 
till  the  sin  be  too  strong;*  and  then  we 
complain  we  cannot  help  it.  "  Nolo  sinas 
cogitationem  crescere,"  "  Suffer  not  your 
thoughts  to  grow  up ;"  for  they  usually 
come  cujwco,  tosazortwj,  drtpayiuaT'£VT'coj,  as  St. 
Basil  says,  "  suddenly,  and  easily,  and  with- 
out business;"  but  take  heed  that  you  nurse 
them  not;  but,  if  you  chance  to  stumble, 
mend  your  pace,  and  if  you  nod,  let  ii 
awaken  you  :  for  he  only  can  be  a  good 
man,  that  raises  himself  up  at  the  first  trip, 
that  strangles  his  sin  in  the  birth  :  Tomartai 
tu>vayi,u>vbvz<u,  rtpiv  e7tsnav,dvi6tavtai,  "Good 
men  rise  up  again,  even  before  they  fall." 
saith  St.  Chrysostom.  Now,  I  pray  con- 
sider, that  when  sin  is  but  in  the  thought, 
it  is  easily  suppressed,  and,  if  it  be  stopped 
there,  it  can  go  no  further  ;  and  what  grea: 
mountain  of  labour  is  it,  then,  to  absiaiu 
from  our  sin?  Is  not  the  adultery  of  phe 
eye  easily  cured  by  shutting  the  eye-lie!  ? 
and  cannot  the  thoughts  of  the  heart  be 
turned  aside  by  doing  business,  by  going 
into  company,  by  reading  or  by  sleeping  I 
A  man  may  divert  his  thoughts  by  shak- 
ing of  his  head,  by  thinking  any  thing  else, 


*  Ille  laudatur.  qui,  ut  coeperint,  statin)  inter- 
ficit  cogitata,  et  allidit  ad  petram. 


418 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  CONQUEST. 


Serm.  II. 


'  by  thinking  nothing.  "  Da  mihi  chris- 
Jianum,"  saith  St.  Austin,  "  et  intelligit 
([iiod  dico."  Every  man  that  loves  God, 
understands  this,  and  more  than  this,  to  be 
True.  Now  if  things  be  thus,  and  that  we 
may  be  safe  in  that  which  is  supposed  to 
be  the  hardest  of  all,  we  must  needs  con- 
demn ourselves,  and  lay  our  faces  in  the 
(■ust,  when  we  give  up  ourselves  to  any 
<in  ;  we  cannot  be  justified  by  saying  we 
could  not  help  it.  For  as  it  was  decreed  by 
the  fathers  of  the  second  Arausican  coun- 
cil, "  Hoc  etiam  secundum  fidem  catholicam 
credimus,"  &c.  "This  we  believe  accord- 
ing to  the  catholic  faith,"  that  have  received 
baptismal  grace  ;  all  that  are  baptized  by  the 
aid  and  co-operation  of  Christ,  must  and 
can,  if  they  will  labour  faithfully,  perform 
and  fulfil  those  things,  which  belong  unto 
salvation. 

6.  And  lastly :  if  sin  hath  gotten  the 
power  of  any  one  of  us,  consider  in  what 
degree  the  sin  hath  prevailed:  if  but  a  little, 
the  battle  will  be  more  easy,  and  the  victory 
more  certain  ;  but  then  be  sure  to  do  it  tho- 
roughly, because  there  is  not  much  to  be 
done  :  but  if  sin  hath  prevailed  greatly,  then 
indeed  you  have  very  much  to  do ;  there- 
fore begin  betimes,  and  defer  not  this  work, 
till  old  age  shall  make  it  extremely  difficult, 
or  death  shall  make  it  impossible. 

Nam  quamvis  prope  te,  quamvis  temone  sub  uno 
Vertentem  sese,  frustra  sectabere  canthum, 
Cum  rota  posterior  curras,  et  in  axe  secundo. 

Pers. 

If  thou  beest  cast  behind ;  if  thou  hast  ne- 
glected the  duties  of  thy  vigorous  age.  thou 
shalt  never  overtake  that  strength ;  "  the 
hinder  wheel,  though  bigger  than  the  for- 
mer, and  measures  more  ground  at  every 
revolution,  yet  shall  never-  overtake  it;" 
and  all  the  second  counsels  of  thy  old  age, 
though  undertaken  with  greater  resolution, 
and  acted  with  the  strengths  of  fear  and 
need,  and  pursued  with  more  pertinacious 
purposes  than  the  early  repentances  of 
young  men,  yet  shall  never  overtake  those 
advantages,  which  you  lost  when  you  gave 
your  youth  to  folly,  and  the  causes  of  a  sad 
repentance. 

However,  if  you  find  it  so  hard  a  thing  to 
get  from  the  power  of  one  master-sin  ;  if  an 
old  adulterer  does  dote, — if  an  old  drunkard 
be  further  from  remedy  than  a  young  sinner, 
— if  covetousness  grows  with  old  age, — if 
ambition  be  still  more  hydropic  and  grows 
more  thirsty  for  every  draught  of  honour, — 
•you  may  easily  resolve  that  old  age,  or  your 


last  sickness,  is  not  so  likely  to  be  prosper- 
ous in  the  mortification  of  your  long  pre- 
vailing sins.  Do  not  all  men  desire  to  end 
their  days  in  religion,  to  die  in  the  arms  of 
the  church,  to  expire  under  the  conduct  of  a 
religious  man?  When  ye  are  sick  or  dying, 
then  nothing  but  prayers  and  sad  complaints, 
and  the  groans  of  a  tremulous  repentance, 
and  the  faint  labours  of  an  almost  impos- 
sible mortification  :  then  the  despised  priest 
is  sent  for ;  then  he  is  a  good  man,  and  his 
words  are  oracles,  and  religion  is  truth,  and 
sin  is  a  load,  and  the  sinner  is  a  fool ;  then 
we  watch  for  a  word  of  comfort  from  his 
mouth,  as  the  fearful  prisoner  for  his  fate 
upon  the  judge's  answer.  That  which  is 
true  then,  is  true  now;  and,  therefore,  to 
prevent  so  intolerable  a  danger,  mortify  your 
sin  betime,  for  else  you  will  hardly  mortify 
it  at  all.  Remember  that  the  snail  outwent 
the  eagle,  and  won  the  goal,  because  she 
set  out  betimes. 

To  sum  up  all :  every  good  man  is  a 
new  creature,  and  Christianity  is  not  so 
much  a  Divine  institution,  as  a  Divine 
frame  and  temper  of  spirit, — which  if  we 
heartily  pray  for,  and  endeavour  to  obtain, 
we  shall  find  it  as  hard  and  as  uneasy  to 
sin  against  God,  as  now  we  think  it  impos- 
sible to  abstain  from  our  most  pleasing  sins. 
For  as  it  is  in  the  spermatic  virtue  of  the 
heavens,  which  diffuses  itself  universally 
upon  all  sublunary  bodies,  and  subtilely  in- 
sinuating itself  into  the  most  dull  and  inac- 
tive element,  produces  gold  and  pearls,  life 
and  motion,  and  brisk  activities  in  all 
things  that  can  receive  the  influence  and 
heavenly  blessing  : — so  it  is  in  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God,  and  the  word  of'  God,  and 
the  grace  of  God,  which  St.  John  calls  "the 
seed  of  God ;"  it  is  a  law  of  righteous- 
ness, and  it  is  a  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life, 
and  changes  nature  into  grace,  and  dullness 
into  zeal,  and  fear  into  love,  and  sinful 
habits  into  innocence,  and  passes  on  from 
grace  to  grace,  till  we  arrive  at  the  full 
measures  of  the  stature  of  Christ,  and  into 
the  perfect  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God  :  so 
that  we  shall  no  more  say,  The  evil  that  I 
would  not,  that  I  do; — but  we  shall  hate 
what  God  hates,  and  the  evil  that  is  forbid- 
den we  shall  not  do ;  not  because  we  are 
strong  of  ourselves,  but  because  Christ  is 
our  strength,  and  he  is  in  us;  and  Christ's 
strength  shall  be  perfected  in  our  weakness, 
and  his  grace  shall  be  sufficient  for  us  ;  and 
he  will,  of  his  own  good  pleasure,  work  in 
us,  not  only  to  will,  but  also  to  do,  "  velle 


Sbem.  III. 


FAITH  WORKING  BY  LOVE. 


419 


et  perficere,"  saith  the  apostle,  "to  will  and 
to  do  it  thoroughly"  and  fully,  being  sancti- 
fied throughout,  to  the  glory  of  his  holy 
name,  and  the  eternal  salvation  of  our  souls, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ;  to  whom 
with  the  Father,  &c. 


SERMON  III. 

FIDES  FORMAT  A ;  OR,  FAITH  WORKING 
BY  LOVE. 

You  see,  then,  how  that  by  works  a  man  is  justi- 
fied, and  not  by  faith  only. — James  ii.  24. 

That  we  are  "justified  by  faith, n  St. 
Paul  tells  us;*  that  we  are  also  "justified 
by  works,"  we  are  told  in  my  text;  and 
both  may  be  true.  But  that  this  justifica- 
tion is  wrought  by  faith  without  works, 
"  to  him  that  worketh  not,  but  believeth," 
saith  St.  Paul:  that  this  is  not  wrought 
without  works,  St.  James  is  as  express  for 
his  negative  as  St.  Paul  was  for  his  affirm- 
ative; and  how  both  these  should  be  true, 
is  something  harder  to  unriddle.  But  "  af- 
firmant incumbit  probatio,"  "  he  that  affirms 
must  prove;"  and,  therefore,  St.  Paul  proves 
his  doctrine  by  the  example  of  Abraham,  to 
whom  faith  was  imputed  for  righteousness  ; 
and,  therefore,  not  by  works.  And  what 
can  be  answered  to  this  ?  Nothing  but  this, 
that  St.  James  uses  the  very  same  argu- 
ment to  prove  that  our  justification  is  by 
works  also;  "For  our  father  Abraham  was 
justified  by  works,  when  he  offered  up  his 
son  Isaac."f  Now  which  of  these  says 
true  ?  Certainly  both  of  them ;  but  neither 
of  them  have  been  well  understood;  inso- 
much that  they  have  not  only  made  divi- 
sions of  heart  among  the  faithful,  but  one 
party  relies  on  faith  to  the  disparagement 
of  good  life,  and  the  other  makes  works  to 
be  the  main  ground  of  our  hope  and  confi- 
dence, and  consequently  to  exclude  the  effi- 
cacy of  faith  :  the  one  makes  Christian  reli- 
gion a  lazy  and  inactive  institution;  and 
the  other,  a  bold  presumption  on  ourselves  ; 
while  the  first  tempts  us  to  live  like  hea- 
thens, and  the  other  recalls  us  to  live  the 
life  of  Jews ;  while  one  says  u  I  am  of 
Paul,"  and  another,  "  I  am  of  St.  James," 
and  both  of  them  put  in  danger  of  evacuat- 
ing the  institution  and  the  death  of  Christ-, 
one  looking  on  Christ  only  as  a  Lawgiver, 


*  Rom.  iii.  28.  iv.  5.  v.  1.  x.  10.  Gal.  ii.  16. 
t  James  ii.  9. 


and  the  other  only  as  a  Saviour.  The 
effects  of  these  are  very  sad,  and  by  all 
means  to  be  diverted  by  all  the  wise  consi- 
derations of  the  Spirit. 

My  purpose  is  not  with  subtle  arts  to  re- 
concile them  that  never  disagreed  ;  the  two 
apostles  spake  by  the  same  Spirit,  and  to 
the  same  last  design,  though  to  differing  in- 
termedial purposes  ;  but  because  the  great 
end  of  faith,  the  design,  the  definition,  the 
state,  the  economy  of  it,  is  that  all  believers 
should  not  live  according  to  the  flesh,  but 
according  to  the  Spirit.  Before  I  fall  to  the 
close  handling  of  the  text,  I  shall  premise 
some  preliminary  considerations,  to  prepare 
the  way  of  holiness,  to  explicate  the  differing 
senses  of  the  apostles,  to  understand  the 
question  and  the  duty,  by  removing  the 
causes  of  the  vulgar  mistakes  of  most  men 
in  this  article ;  and  then  proceed  to  the  main 
inquiry. 

1.  That  no  man  may  abuse  himself  or 
others  by  mistaking  the  hard  words,  spoken 
in  mystery,  with  allegorical  expressions  to 
secret  senses,  wrapt  up  in  a  cloud  ;  such 
as  are,  "faith,  and  justification,  and  impu- 
tation, and  righteousness,  and  works,"  be 
pleased  to  consider,  that  the  very  word 
"faith"  is,  in  Scripture,  infinitely  ambi- 
guous, insomuch  that  in  the  Latin  concord- 
ances of  St.  Jerome's  Bible,  published  by 
Robert  Stephens,  you  may  see  no  less  than 
twenty-two  several  senses  and  acceptations 
of  the  word  "  faith,"  set  down  with  the 
several  places  of  Scripture  referring  to  them ; 
to  which  if,  out  of  my  own  observation,  I 
could  add  no  more,  yet  these  are  an  abun- 
dant demonstration,  that  whatsoever  is  said 
of  the  efficacy  of  faith  for  justification,  is 
not  to  be  taken  in  such  a  sense  as  will 
weaken  the  necessity  and  our  carefulness 
of  good  life,  when  the  word  may,  in  so 
many  other  senses,  be  taken  to  verify  the 
affirmation  of  St.  Paul,  of  "  justification  by 
faith,"  so  as  to  reconcile  it  to  "the  necessity 
of  obedience." 

2.  As  it  is  in  the  word  "  faith,"  so  it  is 
in  "  works  ;"  for  by  works  is  meant  some- 
times the  thing  done, — sometimes  the  labour 
of  doing, — sometimes  the  good  will  j — it  is 
sometimes  taken  for  a  state  of  good  life, — 
sometimes  for  the  covenant  of  works ; — it 
sometimes  means  the  works  of  the  law, — 
sometimes  the  works  of  the  gospel ; — some- 
times it  is  taken  for  a  perfect,  actual,  unsin- 
ning  obedience, — sometimes  for  a  sincere 
endeavour  to  please  God  ; — sometimes  they 
are  meant  to  be  such  who  can  challenge 


420 


FAITH  WORKI 


NG  BY  LOVE. 


Serm.  III. 


the  reward  as  of  debt; — sometimes  they 
mean  only  a  disposition  of  the  person  to  re- 
ceive the  favour  and  the  grace  of  God. 
Now  since  our  good  works  can  be  but  of 
one  kind,  (for  ours  cannot  be  meritorious, 
ours  cannot  be  without  sin  all  our  life,  they 
cannot  be  such  as  need  no  repentance,)  it  is 
no  wonder  if  we  must  be  justified  without 
works  in  this  sense;  for  by  such  works  no 
man  living  can  be  justified  :  and  these  St. 
Paul  calls  the  "  works  of  the  law,"  and 
sometimes  he  calls  them  "  our  righteous- 
ness ;"  and  these  are  the  covenant  of  works. 
But  because  we  came  into  the  world  to 
serve  God,  and  God  will  be  obeyed,  and 
Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save  us 
from  sin,  and  "  to  redeem  to  himself  a 
people  zealous  of  good  works,"  and  hath, 
to  this  purpose,  revealed  to  us  all  his 
Father's  will,  and  destroyed  the  words  of 
the  devil,  and  gives  us  his  Holy  Spirit,  and 
by  him  we  shall  be  justified  in  this  obedience; 
therefore,  when  works  signify  a  sincere, 
hearty  endeavour  to  keep  all  God's  com- 
mands, out  of  a  belief  in  Christ,  that  if  we  i 
endeavour  to  do  so  we  shall  be  helped  by  his 
grace,  and  if  we  really  do  so  we  shall  be  par- 
doned for  what  is  past,  and  if  we  continue  to 
do  so  we  shall  receive  a  crown  of  glory  ; — 
therefore,  it  is  no  wonder  that  it  is  said  we 
are  to  be  justified  by  works ;  always  meaning, 
not  the  works  of  the  law,  that  is,  works  that 
are  meritorious,  works  that  can  challenge 
the  reward,  works  that  need  no  mercy,  no 
repentance,  no  humiliation,  and  no  appeal 
to  grace  and  favour ; — but  always  meaning 
works,  that  are  an  obedience  to  God  by 
the  measures  of  good  will,  and  a  sincere 
endeavour,  and  the  faith  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

3.  But  thus  also  it  is  in  the  word  "justi- 
fication :"  for  God  is  justified,  and  wisdom 
is  justified,  and  man  is  justified,  and  a  sin- 
ner is  not  justified  as  long  as  he  continues 
in  sin ;  and  a  sinner  is  justified  when  he  re- 
pents, and  when  he  is  pardoned  ;  and  an 
innocent  person  is  justified  when  he  is  de- 
clared to  be  no  criminal ;  and  a  righteous  man 
is  justified  when  he  is  saved  ;  and  a  weak 
Christian  is  justified  when  his  imperfect  ser- 
vices are  accepted  for  the  present,  and  him- 
self thrust  forward  to  more  grace ;  and  he 
that  is  justified  may  be  justified  more;  and 
every  man  that  is  justified  to  one  purpose,  is 
not  so  to  all ;  and  faith,  in  divers  senses, 
gives  justification  in  as  many;  and,  there- 
fore, though  to  every  sense  of  faith  there  is 
not  always  a  degree  of  justification  in  any, 
yet  when  the  faith  is  such  that  justification 


is  the  product  and  correspondent, — as  thai 
faith  may  be  imperfect,  so  the  justification 
is  but  begun,  and  either  must  proceed  fur- 
ther, or  else,  as  the  faith  will  die,  so  the  jus- 
tification will  come  to  nothing.  The  like 
observation  might  be  made  concerning  im- 
putation, and  all  the  words  used  in  this  ques  - 
tion ;  but  these  may  suffice  till  I  pass  to  other 
particulars. 

4.  Not  only  the  word  "faith,"  but  also 
"charity,"  and  "godliness," and  "religion," 
signify  sometimes  particular  graces ;  and 
sometimes  they  suppose  universally,  and 
mean  conjugations  and  unions  of  graces, 
as  is  evident  to  them  that  read  the  Scrip- 
tures with  observation.  Now  when  justi- 
fication is  attributed  to  faith,  or  salvation  to 
godliness,  they  are  to  be  understood  in  the 
aggregate  sense;  for,  that  I  may  give  but 
one  instance  of  this,  when  St.  Paul  speaks 
of  faith  as  it  is  a  particular  grace,  and  sepa- 
rate from  the  rest,  he  also  does  separate  it 
from  the  possibility  of  bringing  us  to  heaven : 
"  Though  I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could 
remove  mountains,  and  have  not  charity,  I 
am  nothing:"*  when  faith  includes  charity, 
it  will  bring  us  to  heaven  ;  when  it  is  alone, 
when  it  is  without  charity,  it  will  do  nothing 
at  all. 

5.  Neither  can  this  ^xuvo^vov  be  solved  by 
saying,  that  faith  alone  does  justify,  yet 
when  she  does  justify,  she  is  not  alone,  but 
good  works  must  follow ;  for  this  is  said  to 
no  purpose : 

1.  Because  if  we  be  justified  by  faith 
alone,  the  work  is  done,  whether  charity 
does  follow  or  not;  and,  therefore,  that  want 
of  charity  cannot  hurt  us. 

2.  There  can  be  no  imaginable  cause  why 
charity  and  obedience  should  be  at  all  neces- 
sary, if  the  whole  work  can  be  done  with- 
out it. 

3.  If  obedience  and  charity  be  not  a  con- 
dition of  our  salvation,  then  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  follow  faith ;  but  if  it  be,  it  does  as 
much  as  faith,  for  that  is  but  a  part  of  the 
condition. 

4.  If  we  can  be  saved-  without  charity  and 
keeping  the  commandments,  what  need  we 
trouble  ourselves  for  them?  If  we  cannot 
be  saved  without  them,  then  either  faith 
without  them  does  not  justify;  or  if  it  does, 
we  are  never  the  better,  for  we  may  be 
damned  for  all  that  justification. 

The  consequent  of  these  observations  is 
I  briefly  this  : — 


*  1  Cor.  xiii.  2. 


S*KM.  III. 


FAITH  WORKING  BY  LOVE. 


421 


1.  That  no  man  should  fool  himself  by 

disputing  about  the  philosophy  of  justifica- ' 

tion,and  what  causality  faith  hath  in  it,  and 

whether  it  be  the  act  of  faith  that  justifies, 

or  the  habit?  .Whether  faith  as  a  good 

work,  or  faith  as  an  instrument?  Whether 

.  ... 
faith  as  it  is  obedience,  or  faith  as  it  is  an 

access  to  Christ?    Whether  as  a  hand,  or  as 
a  heart?   Whether  by  its  own  innate  virtue, 
or  by  the  efficacy  of  the  object?  Whether: 
as  a  sign,  or  as  a  thing  signified?    Whether  1 
by  introduction,  or  by  perfection?  Whe-| 
ther  in  the  first  beginnings,  or  in  its  last 
and  best  productions?    Whether  by  inhe- ' 
rent  worthiness,  or  adventitious  imputation?  ; 
"  Uberius  ista,  quaeso,  &c,"  (that  I  may  use  j 
the  words  of  Cicero,*)  "haac  enim  spinosi-1 
ora,  prius,  ut  confitear,  me  cogunt,  quam  ut ' 
assentiar  :"  these  things  are  knotty,  and  too 
intricate  to  do  any  good;  they  may  amuse' 
us,  but  never  instruct  us ;  and  they  have 
already  made  men  careless  and  confident, 
disputative  and  troublesome,  proud  and  un- ; 
charitable,  but  neither  wiser  nor  better.  Let 
us,  therefore,  leave  these  weak  ways  of., 
troubling  ourselves  or  others,  and  directly' 
look  to  the  theology  of  it,  the  direct  duty, ! 
the  end  of  faith,  and  the  work  of  faith,  the 
conditions  and  the  instruments  of  our  salva- 
tion, the  just  foundation  of  our  hopes,  howl 
our  faith  can  destroy  our  sin,  and  how  it 
can  unite  us  unto  God ;  how  by  it  we  can  1 
be  made  partakers  of  Christ's  death,  and  ■ 
imitators  of  his  life.    For  since  it  is  evident, 1 
by  the  premises,  that  this  article  is  not  to  be 
determined  or  relied  upon  by  arguing  from  1 
words  of  many  significations,  we  must  walk 
by  a  clearer  light,  by  such  plain  sayings  and  j 
dogmatical  propositions  of  Scripture,  which  1 
evidently  teach  us  our  duty,  and  place  our1 
hopes  upon  that  which  cannot  deceive  us, ' 
that  is.  which  require  obedience,  which  call 
upon  us  to  glorify  God,  and  to  do  good  to  i 
men,  and  to  keep  all  God's  commandments 
with  diligence  and  sincerity. 

For  since  the  end  of  our  faith  is,  that  we 
may  be  disciples  and  servants  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  advancing  his  kingdom  here,  and! 
partaking  of  it  hereafter ;  since  we  are  com- 
manded to  believe  what  Christ  taught,  that 
it  may  appear  as  reasonable  as  it  is  necessa- 
ry to  do  what  he  hath  commanded  ;  since ' 
faith  and  works  are  in  order  one  to  the  other,  I 
it  is  impossible  that  evangelical  faith  and ' 
evangelical  works  should  be  opposed  one  to 
the  other  in  the  effecting  of  our  salvation. 


So  that  as  it  is  to  no  purpose  for  Christians 
to  dispute  whether  we  are  justified  by  faith 
or  the  works  of  the  law,  that  is,  the  cove- 
nant of  works,  without  the  help  of  faith 
and  the  auxiliaries  and  allowances  of  mercy 
on  God's  part,  and  repentance  on  ours ;  be- 
cause no  Christian  can  pretend  to  this, — so 
it  is  perfectly  foolish  to  dispute  whether 
Christians  are  to  be  justified  by  faith,  or  the 
works  cf  the  gospel ;  for  J  shall  make  it  ap- 
pear that  they  are  both  the  same  thing.  No 
man  disparages  faith  but  he  that  says,  faith 
does  not  work  righteousness;  for  he  that 
says  so,  says  indeed  it  cannot  justify ;  for 
he  says  that  faith  is  alone  :  it  is  iC  faith  only," 
and  the  words  of  my  text  are  plain  :  "  You 
see,"  saith  St.  James,  that  is,  it  is  evident  to 
your  sense,  it  is  as  clear  as  an  ocular  de- 
monstration, "  that  a  man  is  justified  by 
works,  and  not  by  faith  only." 

My  text  hath  in  it  these  two  propositions ; 
a  negative  and  an  affirmative.  The  nega- 
tive is  this,  1.  "  By  faith  only"  a  man  is  not 
justified.  The  affirmative,  2.  "  By  works 
also"  a  man  is  justified. 

When  I  have  briefly  discoursed  of  these, 
I  shall  only  add  such  practical  considera- 
tions as  shall  make  the  doctrines  useful,  and 
tangible,  and  material. 

1.  By  faith  only  a  man  is  not  justified. 
By  faith  only,  here  is  meant,  faith  with- 
out obedience.  For  what  do  we  think  of 
those  that  detain  the  faith  in  unrighteous- 
ness? They  have  faith,  they  could  not  else 
keep  it  in  so  ill  a  cabinet:  but  yet  the 
apostle  reckons  them  amongst  the  repro- 
bates;  for  the  abominable,  the  reprobates, 
and  the  disobedient,  are  all  one  ;  and,  there- 
fore, such  persons,  for  all  their  faith,  shall 
have  no  part  with  faithful  Abraham:  for 
none  are  his  children  but  they  that  do  the 
works  of  Abraham.  Abraham's  faith,  with- 
out Abraham's  works,  is  nothing;  for  of 
him  "  that  hath  faith,  and  hath  not  works," 
St.  James  asks,  "Can  faith  save  him?"* 
meaning  that  it  is  impossible.  For  what  think 
we  of  those,  that  did  miracles  in  Christ's 
name,  and  in  his  name  cast  out  devils? 
Have  not  they  faith?  Yes,"omnem  fidem," 
"all  faith,"  that  is,  alone,  for  "they  could 
remove  mountains:"  but  yet  to  many  of 
them  Christ  will  say,  "  Depart  from  me,  ye 
workers  of  iniquity;  I  know  you  not." 
Nay,  at  last,  what  think  we  of  the  devils 
themselves  ?  Have  not  they  faith  ?  Yes  ; 
and  this  faith  is  not  "fides  miraculorum" 


Tuscul.  i. 
2L 


*  Chap.  ii.  14. 
2L 


422 


FAITH  WORKING  BY  LOVE. 


Serm.  III. 


neither ;  but  it  is  an  operative  faith,  it  works 
a  little ;  for  it  makes  them  tremble ;  and  it 
may  be,  that  is  more  than  thy  faith  does  to 
thee:  and  yet  dost  thou  hope  to  be  saved  by 
a  faith  that  does  less  to  thee  than  the  devil's 
faith  does  to  him  ?  That  is  impossible.  For 
"  faith  without  works  is  dead/'  saith  St. 
James.  It  is  "  manus  arida,"  saith  St.  Aus- 
tin ;  "  it  is  a  withered  hand ;" — and  that 
which  is  dead  cannot  work  the  life  of  grace 
in  us,  much  less  obtain  eternal  life  for  us. 
In  short,  a  man  may  have  faith,  and  yet  do 
the  works  of  unrighteousness  ;  he  may  have 


And  so  I  have  done  with  the  negative  pro- 
position of  my  text;  a  man  is  not  justified 
by  faith  alone,  that  is,  by  faith  which  hath 
not  in  it  charity  and  obedience. 

2.  If  faith  alone  will  not  do  it,  what  will? 
The  affirmative  part  of  the  text  answers ; 
not  faith  alone ;  but  works  must  be  an  in- 
gredient:  "a  man  is  justified  by  works:'" 
and  that  is  now  to  be  explicated  and  proved. 
It  will  be  absolutely  to  no  purpose  to  say 
that  faith  alone  does  justify,  if,  when  a  man 
is  justified,  he  is  never  the  nearer  to  be 
saved.    Nor  that  without  obedience  no  man 


faith  and  be  a  devil;  and  then  what  cancan  go  to  heaven,  is  so  evident  in  Holy 
such  a  faith  do  to  him  or  for  him  1  It  can  Scripture,  that  he  that  denies  it,  hath  no 
do  him  no  good  in  the  present  constitution  faith.  "There  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God, 
of  affairs.  St.  Paul,  from  whose  mistaken  ;  unto  the  wicked  ;"*  and  "  I  will  not  justify 
words  much  noise  hath  been  made  in  this  a  sinner,"f  saith  God ;  unless  faith  purges 


question,  is  clear  in  this  particular :  "  No- 
thing in  Christ  Jesus  can  avail,  but  faith 
working  by  charity  ;"*  that  is,  as  he  ex- 
pounds himself  once  and  again,  "  nothing 
but  a  new  creature,  nothing  but  keeping  the 
commandments  of  God."f  If  faith  be  de- 
fined to  be  any  thing  that  does  not  change 
our  natures,  and  make  us  to  be  a  new  crea- 
tion unto  God ;  if  keeping  the  command- 


away  our  sins,  it  can  never  justify.  Let  a 
man  believe  all  the  revelations  of  God ;  if 
that  belief  ends  in  itself,  and  goes  no  further, 
it  is  like  physic  taken  to  purge  the  stomach; 
if  it  do  not  work,  it  is  so  far  from  bringing 
health,  that  itself  is  a  new  sickness.  Faith 
is  a  great  purger  and  purifier  of  the  soul; 
"  purifying  your  hearts  by  faith,'7  saith  the 
apostle.    It  is  the  best  physic  in  the  world 


ments  be  not  in  the  definition  of  faith,  it  for  a  sinful  soul;  but  if  it  does  not  work,  it 


avails  nothing  at  all.  Therefore  deceive  not 
yourselves  ;  they  are  the  words  of  our  bless- 
ed Lord  himself:  "Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,"  that  is,  not 


corrupts  in  the  stomach,  it  makes  us  to  rely 
upon  weak  propositions  and  trifling  confi- 
dences, it  is  but  a  dreaming  fista  rtoXKrjs 
tyavtaotas,  "a  phantastic  dream,"  and  intro- 


every  one  that  confesses  Christ,  and  believes  duces  pride  or  superstition,  swelling  thoughts 


in  him,  calling  Christ  Master  and  Lord, 
shall  be  saved ;  (C  but  he  that  doeth  the  will 
of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  These 
things  are  so  plain,  that  they  need  no  com- 
mentary ;  so  evident,  that  they  cannot  be 
denied :  and  to  these  I  add  but  this  one  truth ; 
that  faith  alone  without  a  good  life  is  so  far 
from  justifying  a  sinner,  that  it  is  one  of  the 
greatest  aggravations  of  his  condemnation 
in  the  whole  world.  For  no  man  can  be  so 
greatly  damned  as  he  that  hath  faith ;  for 
unless  he  knows  his  Master's  will,  that  is, 
by  faith  be  convinced,  and  assents  to  the 
revelations  of  the  will  of  God,  "  he  can  be 
beaten  but  with  few  stripes :"  but  he  that 
believes,  hath  no  excuse  ;  he  is  avtoxatdxpt- 
tos,  "  condemned  by  the  sentence  of  his  own 
heart,"  and  therefore  rfoiocw  7fKr]yoi,  "  many 
stripes,"  the  greater  condemnation  shall  be 
his  portion.  Natural  reason  is  a  light  to  the 
conscience,  but  faith  is  a  greater;  and  there- 
fore if  it  be  not  followed,  it  damns  deeper 
than  the  hell  of  the  infidels  and  uninstructed. 

*  Gal.  v.  6.     t  Gal.  vi  15.    1  Cor.  vii.  19. 


and  presumptions  of  the  Divine  favour: 
but  what  saith  the  apostle  ?  "  Follow  peace 
with  all  men,  and  holiness,  without  which 
no  man  can  see  God :%  mark  that.  If  faith 
does  not  make  you  charitable  and  holy,  talk 
no  more  of  justification  by  it,  for  you  shall 
never  see  the  glorious  face  of  God.  Faith 
indeed  is  a  title  and  relation  to  Christ;  it  is 
a  naming  of  his  names;  but  what  then? 
Why  then,  saith  the  apostle,  "  Let  every  one 
that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart  from 
iniquity." 

For  let  any  man  consider,  can  the  faith  of 
Christ  and  the  hatred  of  God  stand  together  ? 
Can  any  man  be  justified  that  does  not  love 
God?  Or  can  any  man  love  God  and  sin 
at  the  same  time?  And  does  not  he  love 
sin,  that  falls  under  its  temptation,  and 
obeys  it  in  the  lusts  thereof,  and  delights  in 
the  vanity,  and  makes  excuses  for  it,  and 
returns  to  it  with  passion,  and  abides  with 
pleasure?  This  will  not  do  it ;  such  a  man 
cannot  be  justified  for  all  his  believing.  But, 


*  Ipaiah  lvii.  21. 
X  Heb.  xii.  14. 


t  Exod.  xxv. 
$  Titus,  ii.  8. 


Serm.  III. 


FAITH  WORKING  BY  LOVE. 


423 


therefore,  the  apostle  shows  us  a  more  ex- 
cellent way  :  "  This  is  a  true  saying,  and  I 
will  that  thou  affirm  constantly,  that  they 
who  have  believed  in  God,  be  careful  to 
maintain  good  works."*  The  apostle  puts 
great  force  on  this  doctrine,  he  arms  it  with 
a  double  preface;  the  saying  is  "true,"  and 
it  is  to  be  "  constantly  affirmed  ;"  that  is,  it 
is  not  only  true,  but  necessary;  it  is  like 
Pharaoh's  dream,  doubled,  because  it  is 
bound  upon  us  by  the  decree  of  God;  and 
it  is  unalterably  certain,  that  every  believer 
must  do  good  works,  or  his  believing  will 
signify  little ;  nay  more  than  so,  every  man 
must  be  careful  to  do  good  works  ;  and  more 
yet,  he  must  carefully  maintain  them ;  that 
is,  not  do  them  by  fits  and  interrupted  re- 
turns, but  TtpoKvrasftu,  to  be  incumbent  upon 
them,  to  dwell  upon  them,  to  maintain 
good  works,  that  is,  to  persevere  in  them. 
But  I  am  yet  but  in  the  general :  be  pleased 
to  go  along  with  me  in  these  particular  con- 
siderations. 

1.  No  man's  sins  are  pardoned,  but  in  the 
same  measure  in  which  they  are  mortified, 
destroyed,  and  taken  away  ;  so  that  if  faith 
does  not  cure  our  sinful  natures,  it  never 
can  justify,  it  never  can  procure  our  par- 
don. And  therefore  it  is,  that  as  soon  as 
ever  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  was  preached, 
at  the  same  time  also  they  preached  repent- 
ance from  dead  works  :  insomuch  that  St. 
Paul  reckons  it  among  the  fundamentals 
and  first  principles  of  Christianity  ;f  nay, 
the  Baptist  preached  repentance  and  amend- 
ment of  life  as  a  preparation  to  the  faith  of 
Christ.  And  I  pray  consider;  can  there  be 
any  forgiveness  of  sins  without  repentance  ? 
But  if  an  apostle  should  preach  forgiveness 
to  all  that  believe,  and  this  belief  did  not  also 
mean  that  they  should  repent  and  forsake 
their  sin, — the  sermons  of  the  apostle  would 
make  Christianity  nothing  else  but  the  sanc- 
tuary of  Romulus,  a  device  to  get  together 
all  the  wicked  people  of  the  world,  and  to 
make  them  happy  without  any  change  of 
manners.  Christ  came  to  other  purposes  ; 
he  came  "to  sanctify  us  and  to  cleanse  us 
by  his  word  :"J  the  word  of  faith  was  not 
for  itself,  but  was  a  design  of  holiness,  and 
the  very  "  grace  of  God  did  appear"  lor 
this  end;  that  "teaching  us  to  deny  all 
ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should 
live  holily,  justly,  and  soberly  in  this  pre- 
sent world  :"§  he  came  to  gather  a  people 


*  Titus  iii.  8.  t  Heb.  vi.  1.  { 1  John  iii.  S. 
$  Eph.  v.  25.  Tit.  ii.  11. 


•together;  not  like  David's  army,  when  Saul 
pursued  him,  but  the  armies  of  the  Lord, 
"  a  faithful  people,  a  chosen  generation  ;" 
and  what  is  that?  The  Spirit  of  God  adds, 
"a  people  zealous  of  good  works."  Now 
as  Christ  proved  his  power  to  forgive  sins, 
j  by  curing  the  poor  man's  palsy,  because  a 
man  is  never  pardoned  but  when  the  punish- 
ment is  removed;  so  the  great  act  of  jus- 
tification of  a  sinner,  the  pardoning  of  his 
sins,  is  then  only  effected,  when  the  spiritual 
evil  is  taken  away  :  that  is  the  best  indica- 
tion of  a  real  and  an  eternal  pardon,  when 
I  God  takes  away  the  hardness  of  the  heart, 
i  the  love  of  sin,  the  accursed  habit,  the  evil 
[  inclination,  the  sin  that  doth  so  easily  beset 
us  :  and  when  that  is  gone,  what  remain* 
within  us  that  God  can  hate?  Nothing 
stays  behind,  but  God's  creation,  the  work 
of  his  own  hands,  the  issues  of  his  Holy 
I  Spirit.  The  faith  of  a  Christian  is  7tdai;s 
:  auafiraoos  amtpf tixr\,  "  it  destroys  the  whole 
body  of  sin;"  and  to  suppose  that  Christ 
pardons  a  sinner,  whom  he  doth  not  also 
purge  and  rescue  from  the  dominion  of  sin, 
is  to  affirm  that  he  justifies  the  wicked  ;  that 
he  calls  good  evil,  and  evil  good ;  that  he 
delights  in  a  wicked  person ;  that  he  makes 
a  wricked  man  all  one  with  himself;  that  he 
makes  the  members  of  a  harlot  at  the  same 
time  also  the  members  of  Christ :  but  all 
this  is  impossible,  and,  therefore,  ought  not 
to  be  pretended  to  by  any  Christian.  Severe 
are  those  words  of  our  blessed  Saviour, 
"  Every  plant  in  me  that  beareth  not  fruit, 
he  taketh  away  :"*  faith  ingrafts  us  into 
; Christ;  by  faith  we  are  inserted  into  the 
vine  ;  but  the  plant  that  is  engrafted,  must 
also  be  parturient  and  fruitful,  or  else  it 
\  shall  be  quite  cut  off  from  the  root,  and 
|  thrown  into  the  everlasting  burning  :  and 
this  is  the  full  and  plain  meaning  of  those 
words  so  often  used  in  Scripture  for  the 
magnification  of  faith,  "  The  just  shall  live 
[ by  faith:"  no  man  shall  live  by  faith  but 
I  the  just  man  ;  he  indeed  is  justified  by  faith, 
'  but  no  man  else  ;  the  unjust  and  the  unright- 
eous man  hath  no  portion  in  this  matter. 
That  is  the  first  great  consideration  in  this 
affair ;  no  man  is  justified  in  the  least  sense 
of  justification,  that  is,  when  it  means  no- 
thing but  the  pardon  of  sins,  but  when  his 
sin  is  mortified  and  destroyed. 

2.  No  man  is  actually  justified,  but  he 
that  is  in  some  measure  sanctified.  For  the 
understanding  and  clearing  of  which  pro* 

*  John  xv.  2. 


424  FAITH  WORKING  BY  LOVE.  Semi.  III. 


position  we  must  know,  that  justification, 
when  it  is  attributed  to  any  cause,  does  not 
always  signify  justification  actual.  Thus, 
when  it  is  said  in  Scripture,  "  We  are  justi- 
fied by  the  death  of  Christ,"  it  is  but  the 
same  thing  as  to  say,  et  Christ  died  for  us 
and  he  rose  again  for  us  too,  that  we  might 
indeed  be  justified  in  due  time,  and  by  just 
measures  and  dispositions ;  "  he  died  for 
our  sins,  and  rose  again  for  our  justifica- 
tion ;"  that  is,  by  his  death  and  resurrection 
he  hath  obtained  this  power  and  effected 
this  mercy,  that  if  we  believe  him  and  obey, 
we  shall  be  justified  and  made  capable  of  all 
the  blessings  of  the  kingdom.  But  that  this 
is  no  more  but  a  capacity  of  pardon,  of 
grace,  and  of  salvation,  appears  not  only 
by  God's  requiring  obedience  as  a  condi- 
tion on  our  parts,  but  by  his  expressly  at- 
tributing this  mercy  to  us  at  such  times,  and 
in  such  circumstances,  in  which  it  is  cer- 
tain and  evident,  that  we  could  not  actually 
be  justified;  for  so  saith  the  Scripture: 
t{We,  when  we  were  enemies,  were  recon- 
ciled to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son  ;  and 
while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for 
us  ;"*  that  is,  then  was  our  justification 
wrought  on  God's  part;  that  is,  then  he 
intended  this  mercy  to  us,  then  he  resolved 
to  show  us  favour,  to  give  us  promises, 
and  laws,  and  conditions,  and  hopes,  and 
an  infallible  economy  of  salvation ;  and 
when  faith  lays  hold  on  this  grace,  and  this 
justification,  then  we  are  to  do  the  other 
part  of  it;  that  is,  as  God  made  it  potential 
by  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  so 
we,  laying  hold  on  these  things  by  faith, 
and  working  the  righteousness  of  faith,  that 
is,  performing  what  is  required  on  our  parts, 
we,  I  say,  make  it  actual ;  and  for  this  very 
reason  it  is,  that  the  apostle  puts  more  em- 
phasis upon  the  resurrection  of  Christ  than 
upon  his  death,  "  Who  is  he  that  con- 
demned? It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea  rather, 
that  is  risen  again. "f  And  "  Christ  was 
both  delivered  for  our  sins,  and  is  risen 
again  for  our  justification  ;"$  implying  to 
us,  that  as  it  is  in  the  principal,  so  it  is  in 
the  correspondent ;  our  sins  indeed  are  po- 
tentially pardoned,  when  they  are  marked 
out  for  death  and  crucifixion  ;  when,  by  re- 
solving and  fighting  against  sin,  we  die  to 
sin  daily,  and  are  so  made  conformable  to 
his  death  ;  but  we  must  partake  of  Christ's 
r.-surroction  before  this  justification  can  be 
actual ;  when  we  are  "  dead  to  sin,  and  are 


*  Rom  v.  8.  10. 
I  Rom.  iv.  25. 


t  Rom.  viii.  28. 


I  risen  again  unto  righteousness,"  then,  as  we 
1  are  "partakers  of  his  death,"  so  we  shall 
"be  partakers  of  his  resurrection,  saith  St. 
Paul;  that  is,  then  we  are  truly,  effec- 
tually,, and  indeed  justified  ;  till  then  we  are 
not. 

"  He  that  loveth  gold,  shall  not  be  justi- 
fied," saith  the  wise  Bensirach  :*  he  that 
is  covetous,  let  his  faith  be  what  it  will, 
shall  not  be  accounted  righteous  before 
God,  because  he  is  not  so  in  himself,  and 
he  is  not  so  in  Christ,  for  he  is  not  in 
Christ  at  all ;  he  hath  no  righteousness 
in  himself,  and  he  hath  none  in  Christ; 
for  if  we  be  in  Christ,  or  "if  Christ  be 
in  us,  the  body  is  dead  by  reason  of  sin, 
and  the  spirit  is  life  because  of  righteous- 
ness ;"f  for  this  is  the  to  rtiotbp,  "  that 
faithful  thing,"  that  is,  the  faithfulness  is 
manifested ;  the  "  emun,"  from  whence 
comes  "emunah,"  which  is  the  Hebrew- 
word  for  "faith,"  from  whence  "amen"  is 
derived.  "  Fiat  quod  dictum  est  hinc  inde  ; 
hoc  fidum  est;"  when  God  and  we  both 
say  amen  to  our  promises  and  undertak- 
ings. "  Fac  fidelis  sis  fideli ;  cave  fidem 
fluxam  geras,"  said  he  in  the  comedy  ;$ 
God  is  faithful,  be  thou  so  too ;  for  if  thou 
failest  him,  thy  faith  hath  failed  thee.  "  Fi- 
des sumitur  pro  eo,  quod  est  inter  utrumque 
placitum,"  says  one;  and  then  it  is  true 
which  the  prophet  and  the  apostle  said, 
"the  just  shall  live  by  faith,"  in  both 
senses:  "ex  fide  mea  vivet,  ex  fide  sua:" 
"■\re  live  by  God's  faith,  and  by  our  own  ;" 
by  his  fidelity,  and  by  ours.  When  the 
righteousness  of  God  becomes  "  your  right- 
eousness, and  exceeds  the  righteousness  of 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees  :"  when  the  right- 
eousness of  the  law  is  fulfilled  in  us,  (i  by 
walking  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the 
Spirit  f*  then  we  are  justified  by  God's 
truth  and  by  ours,  by  his  grace  and  our 
obedience.  So  that  now  we  see  that  justi- 
fication and  sanctification  cannot  be  distin- 
guished but  as  words  of  art  signifying  the 
various  steps  of  progression  in  the  same 
course ;  they  may  be  distinguished  in  no- 
tion and  speculation,  but  never  when  they 
are  to  pass  on  to  material  events  ;  for  no 
man  is  justified  but  he  that  is  also  sanc- 
tified. They  are  the  express  words  of  St. 
Paul:  "Whom  he  did  foreknow,  them  he 
did  predestinate  to  be  conformed  to  the  image 
of  his  Son,"  to  be  like  to  Christ ;  and  then 
it  follows  r<;whom  he  hath  predestinated," 


*  Ecclus.  xxxii. 
X  Plaut.  Captiv. 


t  Rom.  viii.  10. 


Serm.  III.  FAITH  WORK 


ING  BY  LOVE. 


425 


so  predestinated,  "them  he  hath  also  called, 
and  whom  he  hath  called,  them  he  hath 
also  justified  :"  and  then  it  follows,  "  Whom 
he  hath  justified,  them  he  hath  also  glori- 
fied. "*  So  that  no  man  is  justified,  that 
is,  so  as  to  signify  salvation,  but  sanctifica- 
tion  must  be  precedent  to  it;  and  that  was 
my  second  consideration  oVtsp  t8st  fotfat-, 
"  that  which  I  was  to  prove." 

3.  I  pray  consider,  that  he  that  does  not 
believe  the  promises  of  the  gospel,  cannot 
pretend  to  faith  in  Christ;  but  the  promises 
are  all  made  to  us  upon  the  conditions  of 
obedience,  and  he  that  does  not  believe  them 
as  Christ  made  them,  believes  them  not  at 
all.  "  In  well-doing  commit  yourselves  to 
God  as  unto  a  faithful  Creator;"  there  is  no 
committing  ourselves  to  God  without  well- 
doing :  "  For  God  will  render  to  every  man 
according  to  his  deeds  :  to  them  that  obey 
unrighteousness,  indignation  and  wrath;  but 
to  them  who,  by  patient  continuance  in  well- 
doing, seek  for  glory,  and  honour,  and  im- 
mortality, to  them  eternal  life."f  So  that  if 
faith  apprehends  any  other  promises,  it  is 
illusion,  and  not  faith;  God  gave  us  none 
such,  Christ  purchased  none  such  for  us  ; 
search  the  Bible  over,  and  you  shall  find 
none  such.  But  if  faith  lays  hold  on  these 
promises  that  are,  and  as  they  are,  then  it 
becomes  an  article  of  our  faith,  that  without 
obedience  and  a  sincere  endeavour  to  keep 
God's  commandments,  no  man  living  can 
be  justified  ;  and,  therefore,  let  us  take  heed, 
when  we  magnify  the  free  grace  of  God,  we 
do  not  exclude  the  conditions,  which  this 
free  grace  hath  set  upon  us.  Christ  freely 
died  for  us,  God  pardons  us  freely  in  our 
first  access  to  him  ;  we  could  never  deserve 
pardon,  because  when  we  need  pardon  we  are 
enemies,  and  have  no  good  thing  in  us  ;  and 
he  freely  gives  us  of  his  Spirit,  and  freely 
he  enables  us  to  obey  him  ;  and  for  our  lit- 
tle imperfect  services  he  freely  and  bounti- 
fully will  give  us  eternal  life;  here  is  free 
grace  all  the  way,  and  he  overvalues  his 
pitiful  services,  who  thinks  that  he  deserves 
heaven  by  them  ;  and  that  if  he  does  his 
duty  tolerably,  eternal  life  is  not  a  free  gift 
to  him,  but  a  deserved  reward. 

Conscius  est  animus  meus,  experientia  testis, 
Mystica  qua?  retuli  dogmata  vera  scio, 

Noil  tameri  idcirco  scio  me  fore  glorificandum, 
Spes  mea  crux  Christi,  gratia,  non  opera. 

It  was  the  meditation  of  the  wise  chan- 
cellor of  Paris:  "I  know  that  without  a 


good  life,  and  the  fruits  of  repentance,  a 
sinner  cannot  be  justified  ;  and,  therefore,  I 
must  live  well,  or  I  must  die  for  ever;  but 
if  I  do  live  holily,  I  do  not  think  that  I  de- 
serve heaven,  it  is  the  cross  of  Christ  that 
procures  me  grace ;  it  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
that  gives  me  grace ;  it  is  the  mercy  and 
the  free  gift  of  Christ  that  brings  me  unto 
glory."  But  yet  he  that  shall  exclude  the 
works  of  faith  from  the  justification  of  a  sin- 
ner by  the  blood  of  Christ,  may  as  well  ex- 
clude faith  itself;  for  faith  itself  is  one  of 
the  works  of  God ;  it  is  a  good  work,  so 
said  Christ  to  them  that  asked  him,  "  What 
shall  we  do  to  work  the  works  of  God? 
Jesus  said,  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that 
ye  believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent."* 
Faith  is  not  only  the  foundation  of  good 
works,  but  itself  is  a  good  work ;  it  is  not 
only  the  cause  of  obedience,  but  a  part  of 
it ;  it  is  not  only,  as  the  son  of  Sirach  calls 
it,  "  initium  adhaerendi  Deo,"  'fa  begin- 
ning of  cleaving  unto  God,"  but  it  carries 
us  on  to  the  perfection  of  it.  Christ  is  the 
author  and  finisher  of  our  faith ;  and  when 
faith  is  finished,  a  good  life  is  made  perfect 
in  our  kind  :  let  no  man  therefore  expect 
events,  for  which  he  hath  no  promise;  nor 
call  for  God's  fidelity  without  his  own  faith- 
fulness ;  nor  snatch  at  a  promise  without 
performing  the  condition  ;  nor  think  faith 
to  be  a  hand  to  apprehend  Christ,  and  to  do 
nothing  else ;  for  that  will  but  deceive  us, 
and  turn  religion  into  words,  and  holiness 
into  hypocrisy,  and  the  promises  of  God 
into  a  snare,  and  the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie. 
For  when  God  made  a  covenant  of  faith, 
he  made  also  the  vo^  rttWfwj,  "  the  law 
of  faith ;"  and  when  he  admitted  us  to  a 
covenant  of  more  mercy  than  was  in  the 
covenant  of  works,  or  of  the  law,  he  did  not 
admit  us  to  a  covenant  of  idleness,  and  an 
incurious  walking  in  a  state  of  disobedience ; 
but  the  mercy  of  God  leadeth  us  to  repent- 
ance, and  when  he  gives  us  better  promises, 
he  intends  we  should  pay  him  a  better  obe- 
dience ;  when  he  forgives  us  what  is  past, 
he  intends  we  should  sin  no  more ;  when  he 
offers  us  his  graces,  he  would  have  us  to 
make  use  of  them  :  when  he  causes  us  to 
distrust  ourselves,  his  meaning  is  we  should 
rely  upon  him ;  when  he  enables  us  to  do 
what  he  commands  us,  he  commands  us  to 
do  all  that  we  can.  And,  therefore,  this 
covenant  of  faith  and  mercy  is  also  a 
covenant  of  holiness,  and  the  grace  that 


*  Rom.  viii.  29.  t  Rom.  ii.  6,  7,  8. 

54 


*  John  vi.  28,  29. 

2l2 


FAITH  WORK 


ING  BY  LOVE. 


Serm.  III. 


pardons  us  does  also  purify  us :  for  so  saith 
the  apostle.  "  He  that  haih  this  hope  puri- 
fies himself,  even  as  God  is  pure."  And 
when  we  are  so,  then  we  are  justified  in- 
deed 5  this  is  the  vo/aos  rtlatsus,  "  the  law  of 
faith;"  and  by  works  in  this  sense,  that  is, 
by  the  works  of  faith,  by  faith  working  by 
love,  and  producing  fruits  worthy  of  amend- 
ment of  life,  we  are  justified  before  God. 
And  so  I  ■  have  done  with  the  affirmative 
proposition  of  my  text;  you  see  that  "a 
man  is  justified  by  works." 

But  there  is  more  in  it  than  this  matter 
yet  amounts  to :  for  St.  James  does  not  say, 
"we  arp  justified  by  works,  and  are  not  jus- 
tified by  faith  ;"  that  had  been  irreconcilable 
with  St.  Paul;  but  we  are  so  justified  by 
works,  that  it  is  not  by  faith  alone;  it  is 
faith  and  works  together:  that  is,  it  is  by 
the  vfiaxoyj  rtlcrtscos,  "  by  the  obedience  of 
faith,"  by  the  works  of  faith,  by  the  law  of 
faith,  by  righteousness  evangelical,  by  the 
conditions  of  the  gospel,  and  the  measures 
of  Christ.  I  have  many  things  to  say  in 
this  particular;  but  because  I  have  but  a 
little  time  left  to  say  them  in,  I  will  sum 
it  all  up  in  this  proposition,  that  in  the 
question  of  justification  and  salvation,  faith 
and  good  works  are  no  part  of  a  distinction, 
but  members  of  one  entire  body.  Faith  and 
good  works  together  work  the  righteousness 
of  God:  that  is,  that  I  may  speak  plainly, 
justifying  faith  contains  in  it  obedience; 
and  if  this  be  made  good,  then  the  two  apos- 
tles are  reconciled  to  each  other,  and  both 
of  them  to  the  necessity,  the  indispensable 
necessity  of  a  good  life. 

Now  that  justifying  and  saving  faith  must 
be  defined  by  something  more  than  an  act 
of  understanding,  appears  not  only  in  this, 
that  St.  Peter  reckons  faith  as  distinctly 
from  knowledge  as  he  does  from  patience, 
or  strength,  or  brotherly  kindness  :  saying, 
"  Add  to  your  faith,  virtue ;  to  virtue,  know- 
ledge ;"*  but  in  this  also,  because  an  error 
in  life,  and  whatsoever  is  against  holiness, 
is  against  faith:  and,  therefore,  St.  Paul 
reckons  the  lawless  and  the  disobedient, 
murderers  of  parents,  man-stealing,  and 
such  things,  to  be  against  sound  doctrines ; 
for  the  doctrine  of  faith  is  called  yj  xa-t7  svss- 
j3f  tew  StSaaxotfa'a,  "  the  doctrine  that  is  accord- 
ing to  godliness."  And  when  St.  Paul 
prays  against  ungodly  men,  he  adds  this  rea- 
son, ov  yap  7tavtu>v  37  rtlatis,  "  for  all  men 
have  not  faith  :"|  meaning  that  wicked  men 


*  2  Pet.  i.  5.         t  2  Thess,  iii.  2. 


are  infidels  and  unbelievers;  and  particularly 
he  affirms  of  him  "that  does  not  provide  for 
his  own,  that  he  hath  denied  the  faith."* 
Now  from  hence  it  follows  that  faith  is  god- 
liness, because  all  wickedness  is  infidelity,  it 
is  an  apostasy  from  the  faith.  "  Ille  erit, 
ille  nocens  qui  me  tibi  fecerat  hostem ;"  he 
that  sins  against  God,  he  is  the  enemy  to 
the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  therefore  Ave 
deceive  ourselves,  if  we  place  faith  in  the 
understanding  only;  it  is  not  that,  and  it 
does  not  well  there,  but  iv  xaOapa  owsi&fasi, 
saith  the  apostle ;  the  mystery  of  faith  is 
kept  no  where,  it  dwells  no  where  but  "  in 
a  pure  conscience." 

For  I  consider,  that,  since  all  mortal  ha- 
bits are  best  defined  by  their  operation,  we 
can  best  understand  what  faith  is  by  seeing 
what  it  does.  To  this  purpose  hear  St. 
Paul :  "  By  faith,  Abel  offered  up  to  God  a 
more  excellent  sacrifice  than  Cain.  By 
faith,  Noah  made  an  ark.  By  faith,  Abra- 
ham left  his  country,  and  offered  up  his 
son.  By  faith,  Moses  chose  to  suffer  afflic- 
tion, and  accounted  the  reproach  of  Christ 
greater  than  all  the  riches  of  Egypt. "f  In 
short,  the  children  of  God,  "by  faith,  sub- 
dued kingdoms,  and  wrought  righteous- 
ness." To  work  righteousness  is  as  much 
the  duty  and  work  of  faith  as  believing  is. 
So  that  now  we  may  quickly  make  an  end 
of  this  great  inquiry,  whether  a  man  is  jus- 
tified by  faith,  or  by  works,  for  he  is  so  by 
both  :  if  you  take  it  alone,  faith  does  not 
justify  :  but  take  it  in  the  aggregate  sense, 
as  it  is  used  in  the  question  of  justification 
by  St.  Paul,  and  then  faith  does  not  only 
justify,  but  it  sanctifies  too;  and  then  you 
need  to  inquire  no  further ;  obedience  is  a 
part  of  the  definition  of  faith,,  as  much  as  it 
is  of  charity.  This  is  love,  saith  St.  John, 
"  that  we  keep  his  commandments."  And 
the  very  same  is  affirmed  of  faith  too  by 
Bensirach,  "He  that  believeth  the  Lord, 
will  keep  his  commandments.":}: 

I  have  now  done  with  all  the  propositions 
expressed  and  implied  in  the  text.  Give  me 
leave  to  make  some  practical  considera- 
tions; and  so  I  shah  dismiss  you  from  this 
attention. 

The  rise  I  take  from  the  words  of  St. 
Epiphanius,$  speaking  in  the  praise  of  the 
;  apostolical  and  purest  ages  of  the  church. 
There  was,  at  first,  no  distinction  of  sects 
or  opinions  in  the  church  ;  she  knew  no  dif- 

*  1  Tim.  v.  8,  t  Heb.  xi. 

t  Ecclus.  xxxii.  24. 
I    $  Panar.  lib,  i.  edit.  Basil,  p.  8.  1.  46. 


Serm.  III. 


FAITH  WORKING  BY  LOVE. 


427 


ference  of  men,  but  good  and  bad ;  there 
was  no  separation  made,  but  what  was 
made  by  piety  or  impiety,  or,  says  he,  which 
is  all  one,  by  fidelity  and  infidelity  ;  rttWij 
fxsv  frtf^ovoa  tov  TCpttituwutpaH  tixova'  drtiaTia 
6e  frfigovaa  tov  dtff^aas  ^a^ax-r^pa  xai  rtapcud- 
/.uaf  "  for  faith  hath  in  it  the  image  of  god- 
liness engraven,  and  infidelity  hath  the  cha- 
racter of  wickedness  and  prevarication."  A 
man  was  not  then  esteemed  a  saint,  for  dis- 
obeying his  bishop  or  an  apostle,  nor  for 
misunderstanding  the  hard  sayings  of  St. 
Paul  about  predestination ;  to  kick  against 
the  laudable  customs  of  the  church  was  not 
then  accounted  a  note  of  the  godly  party ; 
and  to  despise  government  was  but  an  ill 
mark  and  weak  indication  of  being  a  good 
Christian.  The  kingdom  of  God  did  not 
then  consist  in  words,  but  in  power,  the 
power  of  godliness;  though  now  we  are 
fallen  into  another  method  ;  we  have  turned 
all  religion  into  faith,  and  our  faith  is  no- 
thing but  the  productions  of  interest  or  dis- 
puting,— it  is  adhering  to  a  party,  and  a 
wrangling  against  all  the  world  beside;  and 
when  it  is  asked  of  what  religion  he  is  of, 
we  understand  the  meaning  to  be,  what  fac-  J 
tion  does  he  follow  :  what  are  the  articles  of 
his  sect,  not  what  is  the  manner  of  his  life  :  I 
and  if  men  be  zealous  for  their  party  and 
that  interest,  then  they  are  precious  men, 
though  otherwise  they  be  covetous  as  the 
grave,  factious  as  Dathan,  schismatical  as 
Corah,  or  proud  as  the  fallen  angels.  Alas  ! 
these  things  will  but  deceive  us :  the  faith 
of  a  Christian  cannot  consist  in  strifes  about 
words,  and  perverse  disputings  of  men. 
These  things  the  apostle  calls  "  profane  and 
vain  babblings  ;"*  and,  mark  what  he  says 
of  them,  these  things  will  increase  ijtl  rtteiov 
aatjsios'  They  are,  in  themselves,  ungodli- 
ness, and  will  produce  more, — "  they  will 
increase  unto  more  ungodliness."  But  the 
faith  of  a  Christian  had  other  measures  ;  that 
was  faith  then  which  made  men  faithful  to 
their  vows  in  baptism.  The  faith  of  a  Chris- 
tian was  the  best  security  in  contracts,  and  a 
Christian's  word  was  as  good  as  his  bond, 
because  he  was  faithful  that  promised,  and  a 
Christian  would  rather  die  than  break  his 
word,  and  was  always  true  to  his  trust;  he 
was  faithful  to  his  friend,  and  loved  as  Jona- 
than did  David.  This  was  the  Christian 
faith  then ;  their  religion  was,  to  hurt  no  man, 
and  to  do  good  to  every  man,  and  so  it  ought 
to  be.    "  True  religion  is  to  visit  the  father- 

*2  Tim,  ii.  16. 


less  and  widow,  and  to  keep  ourselves  un- 
spotted of  the  world."  That  is  a  good  reli- 
gion that  is  "  pure  and  undefiled."  So  St. 
James:  and  St.Chrysostom  defines  evai^uxr, 
"true  religion,"  to  be  xiattv  xo&apow  xai  6p$6v 
j3t6v,  "a  pure  faith  and  a  godly  life ;"  for  they 
make  up  the  whole  mystery  of  godliness; 
and  no  man  could  then  pretend  to  faith,  but 
he  that  did  do  valiantly,  and  suffer  patiently, 
and  resist  the  devil,  and  overcome  the  world. 
These  things  are  as  properly  the  actions  of 
faith,  as  alms  is  of  charity ;  and  therefore, 
they  must  enter  into  the  moral  definition  of  it. 
And  this  was  truly  understood  by  Salvian, 
that  wise  and  godly  priest  of  Massilia:  what 
is  faith,  and  what  is  believing,  saith  he ;  "  ho- 
minem  fideliter  Christo  credere  est  fidelem 
Deo  esse,  h.  e.  fideliter  Dei  mandata  ser- 
vare:"  That  man  does  faithfully  believe 
in  Christ,  who  is  faithful  unto  God — who 
faithfully  keeps  God's  commandments ;" 
and,  therefore,  let  us  measure  our  faith  here, 
by  our  faithfulness  to  God,  and  by  our  dili- 
gence to  do  our  Master's  commandments; 
for  "  Christianorum  omnis  religio  sine  sce- 
lere  et  macula  vivere,"  said  Lactantius ; 
"  The  whole  religion  of  a  Christian  is  to 
live  unblamably,"*  that  is,  in  all  holiness 
and  purity  of  conversation. 

2.  When  our  faith  is  spoken  of  as  the 
great  instrument  of  justification  and  salva- 
tion, take  Abraham's  faith  as  your  best  pat- 
tern, and  that  will  end  the  dispute,  because 
that  he  was  justified  by  faith,  when  his 
faith  was  mighty  in  effect;  when  he  trusted 
in  God,  when  he  believed  the  promises, 
when  he  expected  a  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
when  he  was  strong  in  faith,  when  he  gave 
glory  to  God,  when  against  hope  he  be- 
lieved in  hope ;  and  when  all  this  passed 
into  an  act  of  a  most  glorious  obedience, 
even  denying  his  greatest  desires,  contra- 
dicting his  most  passionate  affections,  offer- 
ing to  God  the  best  thing  he  had,  and 
exposing  to  death  his  beloved  Isaac,  his 
laughters,  all  his  joy,  at  the  command  of 
God.  By  this  faith  he  was  justified,  saith 
St.  Paul;  "by  these  works  he  was  justi- 
fied, saith  St.  James ;  that  is,  by  this  faith 
working  this  obedience.  And  then  all  the 
difficulty  is  over;  only  remember  this,  your 
faith  is  weak,  and  will  do  but  little  for  you, 
if  it  be  not  stronger  than  all  your  secular 
desires  and  all  your  peevish  angers.  Thus 
we  find,  in  the  holy  gospels,  this  conjunction 
declared  necessary,  "  Whatsoever  things  ye 

*  Instit.  lib.  v.  c.  9, 


428 


FAITH  WORKI 


NG  BY  LOVE. 


Serm.  III. 


desire,  when  ye  pray,  believe  that  ye  receive 
them."*  Here  is  as  glorious  an  event  pro- 
mised to  faith  as  can  be  expressed;  faith 
shall  obtain  any  thing  of  God.  True;  but 
it  is  not  faith  alone,  but  faith  in  prayer; 
faith  praying,  not  faith  simply  believing. 
So  St.  James ;  the  "  prayer  of  faith  shall 
save  the  sick ;"  but  adds,  it  must  be  "  the 
effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous 
man ;"  so  that  faith  shall  prevail,  but  there 
must  be  prayer  in  faith,  and  fervour  in 
prayer,  and  devotion  in  fervour,  and  righte- 
ousness in  devotion;  and  then  impute  the 
effect  to  faith  if  you  please,  provided  that 
it  be  declared,  that  effect  cannot  be  wrought 
by  faith  unless  it  be  so  qualified.  But  Christ 
adds  one  thing  more:  "  When  ye  stand 
praying,  forgive ;  but  if  ye  will  not  forgive, 
neither  will  your  Father  forgive  you."  So 
that  it  will  be  to  no  purpose  to  say  a  man  is 
justified  by  faith,  unless  you  mingle  charity 
with  it ;  for  without  the  charity  of  forgive- 
ness, there  can  be  no  pardon,  and  then  justi- 
fication is  but  a  word,  when  it  effects  nothing. 

3.  Let  every  one  take  heed,  that  by  an 
importune  adhering  to  and  relying  upon  a 
mistaken  faith,  he  do  not  really  make  a  ship- 
wreck of  a  right  faith.  Hymenaeus  and 
Alexander  lost  their  faith  by  putting  away 
a  good  conscience  ;  and  what  matter  is  it  of 
what  religion  or  faith  a  man  be,  if  he  be  a 
villain  and  a  cheat,  a  man  of  no  truth,  and 
of  no  trust,  a  lover  of  the  world,  and  not  a 
lover  of  God?  But,  I  pray,  consider,  can 
any  man  have  faith  that  denies  God  ?  That 
is  not  possible:  and  cannot  a  man  as  well 
deny  God  by  an  evil  action,  as  by  an  hereti- 
cal proposition?  Cannot  a  man  deny  God 
by  works,  as  much  as  by  words?  Hear  what 
the  apostle  says :  "  They  profess  that  they 
know  God,  but  in  works  they  deny  him, 
being  abominable  and  disobedient,  and  unto 
every  good  work  reprobate."!  Disobedience 
is  a  denying  God,  "Nolumushunc  regnare," 
is  as  plain  a  renouncing  of  Christ,  as  "  No- 
lumus  huic  credere."  It  is  to  no  purpose  to 
say  we  believe  in  Christ  and  have  faith,  un- 
less Christ  reign  in  our  hearts  by  faith. 

4.  From  these  premises  we  may  see  but 
too  evidently,  that  though  a  great  part  of 
mankind  pretend  to  be  saved  by  faith,  yet 
they  know  not  what  it  is,  or  else  wilfully 
mistake  it,  and  place  their  hopes  upon  sand, 
or  the  more  unstable  water.  Believing  is 
the  least  thing  in  a  justifying  faith;  for 
faith  is  a  conjugation  of  many  ingredients, 


and  faith  is  a  covenant,  and  faith  is  a  law, 
and  faith  is  obedience,  and  faith  is  a  work, 
and  indeed  it  is  a  sincere  cleaving  to  and 
closing  with  the  terms  of  the  gospel  in  every 
instance,  in  every  particular.  Alas!  the 
niceties  of  a  spruce  understanding,  and  the 
curious  nothings  of  useless  speculation,  and 
all  the  opinions  of  men  that  make  the  divi- 
sions of  heart,  and  do  nothing  else,  cannot 
bring  us  one  drop  of  comfort  in  the  day  of 
tribulation,  and  therefore  are  no  parts  of 
the  strength  of  faith.  Nay,  when  a  man 
begins  truly  to  fear  God,  and  is  in  the 
agonies  of  mortification,  all  these  new  no- 
things and  curiosities  will  lie  neglected  by, 
as  baubles  do  by  children  when  they  are 
deadly  sick.  But  that  only  is  faith  that 
makes  us  to  love  God,  to  do  his  will,  to  suf- 
fer his  impositions,  to  trust  his  promises,  to 
see  through  a  cloud,  to  overcome  the  world, 
to  resist  the  devil,  to  stand  in  the  day  of 
trial,  and  to  be  comforted  in  all  our  sorrows. 
This  is  that  precious  faith  so  mainly  neces- 
sary to  be  insisted  on,  that  by  it  we  may  be 
sons  of  the  free  woman,  "  liberi  &  vitiis  ac 
ritibus ;"  that  the  true  Isaac  may  be  in  us, 
which  is  Christ  according  to  the  Spirit,  the 
wisdom  and  power  of  God,  a  divine  vigour 
and  life,  whereby  we  are  enabled,  with  joy 
and  cheerfulness,  to  walk  in  the  way  of 
God.  By  this  you  may  try  your  faith,  if  you 
please,  and  make  an  end  of  this  question  : 
Do  you  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  yea  or  no  ? 
God  forbid  else  ;  but  if  your  faith  be  good,  it 
will  abide  the  trial.  There  are  but  three  things 
that  make  the  integrity  of  Christian  faith ; 
believing  the  words  of  God,  confidence  in  his 
goodness,  and  keeping  his  commandments. 

For  the  first,  it  is  evident  that  every  man 
pretends  to  it;  if  he  calls  himself  Christian, 
he  believes  all  that  is  in  the  canon  of  the 
Scriptures ;  and  if  he  did  not,  he  were  in- 
deed no  Christian.  But  now  consider,  what 
think  we  of  this  proposition  ?  "  All  shall  be 
damned  who  believe  not  the  truth,  but  have 
pleasure  in  unrighteousness."*  Does  not 
every  man  believe  this  ?  Is  it  possible  they 
can  believe  there  is  any  such  thing  as  un- 
righteousness in  the  world,  or  any  such 
thing  as  damnation,  and  yet  commit  that 
which  the  Scriptures  call  unrighteousness, 
and  which  all  laws  and  all  good  men  say  is 
so?  Consider  how  many  unrighteous  men 
there  are  in  the  world,  and  yet  how  few  of 
them  think  they  shall  be  damned.  I  know 
not  how  it  comes  to  pass,  but  men  go  upon 


•  Mark  xii.  24. 


tTit.  i.  16. 


*  2  Thess.  ii.  12. 


Serm.  III. 


FAITH  WORKING  BY  LOVE. 


429 


strange  principle?,  and  they  have  made 
Christianity  to  be  a  very  odd  institution,  if 
it  had  not  better  measures  than  they  are 
pleased  to  afford  it.  There  are  two  great 
roots  of  all  evil,  covetousness  and  pride,  and 
they  have  infected  the  greatest  parts  of  man- 
kind, and  yet  no  man  thinks  himself  to  be 
either  covetous  or  proud;  and,  therefore, 
whatever  you  discourse  against  these  sins, 
it  never  hits  any  man,  but,  like  Jonathan's 
arrows  to  David,  they  fall  short,  or  they  fly 
beyond.  Salvian  complained  of  it  in  his 
time:  "Hoc  ad  crimina  nostra  addimus,  ut 
cum  in  omnibus  rei  simus,  etiambonos  nos 
et  sanctos  esse  credamus  :"  "  This  we  add 
unto  our  crimes,  we  are  the  vilest  persons 
in  the  world,  and  yet  we  think  ourselves  to 
be  good  people,''  and,  when  we  die,  make 
no  question  but  we  shall  go  to  heaven.* 
There  is  no  cause  of  this,  but  because  we 
have  not  so  much  faith  as  believing  comes 
to  ;  and  yet  most  men  will  pretend  not  only 
to  believe,  but  to  love  Christ  all  this  while. 
And  how  do  they  prove  this?  Truly  they 
hate  the  memory  of  Judas,  and  curse  the 
Jews  that  crucified  Christ,  and  think  Pilate 
a  very  miserable  man,  and  that  all  the  Turks 
are  damned,  and  to  be  called  Caiaphas  is  a 
word  of  reproach ;  and,  indeed,  there  are 
many  that  do  not  much  more  for  Christ  than 
this  comes  to ;  things  to  as  little  purpose,  and 
of  as  little  signification.  But  so  the  Jews 
did  hate  the  memory  of  Corah  as  we  do  of 
Caiaphas,  and  they  built  the  sepulchre  of 
the  prophets  ;  and  we  also  are  angry  at  them 
that  killed  the  apostles  and  the  martyrs; 
but,  in  the  mean  time,  we  neither  love 
Christ  nor  his  saints;  for  we  neither  obey 
him,  nor  imitate  them.  And  yet  we  should 
think  ourselves  highly  injured,  if  one  should 
call  us  infidels,  and  haters  of  Christ.  But, 
I  pray,  consider ;  what  is  hating  of  any 
man,  but  designing  and  doing  him  all  the 
injury  and  spite  we  can  ?  Does  not  he  hate 
Christ  that  dishonours  him,  that  makes 
Christ's  members  the  members  of  a  harlot, 
that  doth  not  feed  and  clothe  these  mem- 
bers ?  If  the  Jews  did  hate  Christ  when 
they  crucified  him,  then  so  does  a  Christian 
too,  when  he  crucifies  him  again.  Let  us 
not  deceive  ourselves;  a  Christian  may  be 
damned  as  well  as  a  Turk;  and  Christians 
may  with  as  much  malice  crucify  Christ, 
as  the  Jews  did:  and  so  does  every  man 
that  sins  wilfully;  he  spills  the  blood  of 
Christ,  making  it  to  be  spent  in  vain.   "  He 


that  hateth  you,  hateth  me;  he  that  receives 
you,  receives  me,"  said  Christ  to  his  apos- 
tles.   I  wish  the  world  had  so  much  faith 
as  to  believe  that;  and  by  this  try  whether 
we  love  Christ,  and  believe  in  him,  or  not. 
I  shall,"  for  the  trial  of  our  faith,  ask  one 
j  easy  question  :  Do  we  believe  that  the  story 
I  of  David  and  Jonathan  is  true?  Have  we 
|  so  much  faith  as  to  think  it  possible  that 
j  two  rivals  of  a  crown  should  love  so  dearly  ? 
I  Can  any  man  believe  this,  and  not  be  infi- 
nitely ashamed  to  see  Christians,  almost  all 
I  Christians,  to  be  irreconcilably  angry,  and 
|  ready  to  pull  their  brother's  heart  out,  when 
I  he  offers  to  take  our  land  or  money  from 
|  us  ?  Why  do  almost  all  men  that  go  to  Jaw 
,  for  right,  hate  one  another's  persons  ?  Why 
i  cannot  men  with  patience  hear  their  titles 
.questioned?    But,  if  Christianity  be  so  ex- 
cellent a  religion,  why  are  so  very  many 
Christians  so  very  wicked  ?    Certainly  they 
do  not  so  much  as  believe  the  propositions 
and  principles  of  their  own  religion.  For 
I  the  body  of  Christians  is  so  universally 
j  wicked,  that  it  would  be  a  greater  change 
|  to  see  Christians  generally  live  according  to 
:  their  profession,  than  it  was  at  first  from  in- 
,  fidelity  to  see  them  turn  believers.  The  con- 
version from  Christian  to  Christian,  from 
Christian  in  title  to  Christian  in  sincerity, 
would  be  a  greater  miracle  than  it  was, 
when  they  were  converted  from  heathen 
and  Jew  to  Christian.  What  is  the  matter  ? 
■  Is  not  "  repentance  from  dead  works''  reck- 
oned by  St.  Paul*  as  one  of  the  fundamental 
points  of  Christian  religion  ?    Is  it  not  a 
piece  of  our  catechism,  the  first  thing  we 
;  are  taught,  and  is  it  not  the  last  thing  that 
we  practise  ?  We  had  better  be  without  bap- 
jtism  than  without  repentance,  and  yet  both 
i  are  necessary ;  and,  therefore,  if  we  were 
jnot  without  faith,  we  should  be  without 
neither.    Is  not  repentance  a  forsaking  all 
,  sin,  and  an  entire  returning  unto  God  ?  Who 
',  can  deny  this  ?   And  is  it  not  plainly  said  in 
1  Scripture,  "  Unless  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all 
perish  ?"  But  show  me  the  man  that  believes 
\  these  things  heartily  ;  that  is,  show  me  a 
true  penitent,  he  only  believes  the  doctrines 
of  repentance. 

If  I  had  time,  I  should  examine  your  faith 
by  your  confidence  in  God,  and  by  your 
obedience.  But,  if  we  fall  in  the  mere  be- 
lieving, it  is  not  likely  we  should  do  better 
I  in  the  other.  But  because  all  the  promises 
of  God  are  conditional,  and  there  can  be  no 


*  Lib.  DL 


Heb. 


430 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


Serm.  IV. 


f  onfidence  in  the  particular  without  a  pro- 
mise or  revelation,  it  is  not  possible  that  any 
man  that  does  not  live  well,  should  reason- 
ably put  his  trust  in  God.  To  live  a  wicked 
life,  and  then  to  be  confident  that  in  the  day 
of  oar  death  God  will  give  us  pardon,  is  not 
faith,  but  a  direct  want  of  faith.  If  we  did 
believe  the  promises  upon  their  proper  con- 
ditions, or  believe  that  God's  command- 
ments were  righteous  and  true,  or  that  the 
threatenings  were  as  really  intended  as  they 
are  terribly  spoken, — we  should  not  dare  to 
live  at  the  rate  we  do.  But  "  wicked  men 
have  not  faith,"  saith  St.  Paul ;  and  then 
the  wonder  ceases. 

But  there  are  such  palpable  contradictions 
between  men's  practices  and  the  fundamen- 
tals of  our  faith,  that  it  was  a  material  con- 
sideration of  our  blessed  Saviour,  "  When 
the  Son  of  man  comes,  shall  he  find  faith 
upon  earth?"  meaning  it  should  be  very 
hard  and  scant :  "  Every  man  shall  boast 
of  his  own  goodness  ;  '  sed  virum  fidelem,' 
(saith  Solomon,)  but  *a  faithful  man,'  who 
can  find?"  Some  men  are  very  good  when 
they  are  afflicted. 

Hanc  tibi  virtutem  fracta  facit  urceus  ansa, 
Et  tristis  nullo  qui  tepet  igne  focus ; 

Et  teges  et  cimex,  et  nudi  sponda  grabati, 
Fit  brevis  atque  eadem  nocte  dieque  toga. 

Martial. 

When  the  gown  of  the  day  is  the  mantle 
of  the  night,  and  cannot  at  the  same  time 
cover  the  head  and  make  the  feet  warm ; 
when  they  have  but  one  broken  dish  and 
no  spoon,  then  they  are  humble  and  modest; 
then  they  can  suffer  an  injury  and  bear  con- 
tempt :  but  give  them  riches,  and  they  grow 
insolent;  fear  and  pusillanimity  did  their 
first  work,  and  an  opportunity  to  sin  undoes 
it  all.  "  Bonum  militem  perdidisti,  impe- 
ratorem  pessimum  creasti,"  said  Galba: 
"You  have  spoiled  a  good  trooper,  when 
you  made  me  a  bad  commander."  Others 
can  never  serve  God  but  when  they  are 
prosperous;  if  they  lose  their  fortune,  they 
lose  their  faith,  and  quit  their  charity : 
"  Non  rata  fides,  ubi  jam  melior  fortuna 
ruit;"  if  they  become  poor,  they  become 
liars  and  deceivers  of  their  trust,  envious 
and  greedy,  restless  and  uncharitable ;  that 
is,  one  way  or  other  they  show  that  they 
love  the  world,  and  by  all  the  faith  they  pre- 
tend to  cannot  overcome  it. 

Cast  up,  therefore,  your  reckonings  im- 
partially ;  see  what  is,  what  will  be  required 
at  your  hands ;  do  not  think  you  can  be  jus- 
tified by  faith,  unless  your  faith  be  greater 


than  all  your  passions;  you  have  not  the 
learning,  not  so  much  as  the  common  no- 
tices of  faith,  unless  you  can  tell  when  you 
are  covetous,  and  reprove  yourself  when 
you  are  proud ;  but  he  that  is  so,  and  knows 
it  not,  (and  that  is  the  case  of  most  men,) 
hath  no  faith,  and  neither  knows  God  nor 
knows  himself. 

To  conclude.  He  that  hath  true  justify- 
ing faith,  believes  the  power  of  God  to  be 
above  the  powers  of  nature ;  the  goodness 
of  God  above  the  merit  and  disposition  of 
our  persons ;  the  bounty  of  God  above  the 
excellency  of  our  works ;  the  truth  of  God 
above  the  contradiction  of  our  weak  argu- 
ings  and  fears ;  the  love  of  God  above  our 
cold  experience  and  ineffectual  reason;  and 
the  necessities  of  doing  good  works  above 
the  faint  excuses  and  ignorant  pretences  of 
disputing  sinners  :  but  want  of  faith  makes 
us  so  generally  wicked  as  we  are,  so  often 
running  to  despair,  so  often  baffled  in  our 
resolutions  of  a  good  life;  but  he  whose 
faith  makes  him  more  than  conqueror  over 
these  difficulties,  to  him  Isaac  shall  be  born 
even  in  his  old  age ;  the  life  of  God  shall  be 
perfectly  wrought  in  him;  and  by  this  faith, 
so  operative,  so  strong,  so  lasting,  so  obe- 
dient, he  shall  be  justified,  and  he  shall  be 
saved. 


SERMON  IV. 

PREACHED  AT  THE  CONSECRATION  OF  TWO 
ARCHBISHOPS  AND  TEN  BISHOHS.  IN  THE 
CATHEDRAL  CHURCH  OF  ST.  PATRICK,  IN 
DUBLIN,  JANUARY  27,  1660. 

Sal  liquefit.,  ut  condiat. 

And  the  Lord  said,  Who  then  is  that  faithful  and 
wise  steward,  whom  his  lord  shall  make  ruler 
over  his  household,  to  give  them  their  portion  of 
meat  in  due  season  ? 

Blessed  is  that  servant,  whom  his  lord  when  he 
cometh  shall  find  so  doing. — Luke  xii.  42,  43. 

Tt$  icttw  apa  rtw^oj  xai  $p6i>i/xos  olxov6/xo$. 

These  words  are  not  properly  a  question, 
though  they  seem  so  ;  and  the  particle  n'j  is 
not  interrogative,  but  hypothetical,  and  ex- 
tends "  who"  to  "  whosoever ;"  plainly 
meaning,  that  whoever  is  a  steward  over 
Christ's  household,  of  him  God  requires  a 
great  care,  because  he  hath  trusted  him  with 
a  great  employment.     Every  steward  o* 


Serm.  IV. 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


431 


xaOeatrxn-  u  Kvpt'oj,  so  it  is  in  St.  Matthew  ;* 
3d  xaTaztr-oei  o  Kvpwj,  so  it  is  in  my  text ; 
every  steward  whom  the  Lord  hath  or  shall 
appoint  over  the  family,  to  rule  it  and  to 
feed  it,  now  and  in  all  generations  of  men, 
as  long  as  this  family  shall  abide  on  earth  ; 
that  is,  the  apostles,  and  they  who  were  to 
succeed  the  apostles  in  the  stewardship, 
were  to  be  furnished  with  the  same  power, 
and  to  undertake  the  same  charge,  and  to 
give  the  same  strict  and  severe  accounts. 

In  these  words  there  is  something  insinu- 
ated, and  much  expressed. 

1.  That  which  is  insinuated  only  is,  who 
these  stewards  are,  whom  Christ  had,  whom 
Christ  would  appoint  over  his  family,  the 
church  :  they  are  not  here  named,  but  we 
shall  find  them  out  by  their  proper  direction 
and  indigitation  by  and  by. 

2.  But  that  which  is  expressed,  is  the 
office  itself,  in  a  double  capacity.  1.  In  the 
dignity  of  it,  it  is  a  rule  and  a  government : 
"  whom  the  lord  shall  make  ruler  over  his 
household."  2.  In  the  care  and  duty  of  it, 
which  determines  the  government  to  be 
paternal  and  profitable ;  it  is  a  rule,  but 
such  a  rule  as  shepherds  have  over  their 
flocks,  to  lead  them  to  good  pastures,  and  to 
keep  them  within  their  appointed  walks,  and 
within  their  folds  :  SiSoiw  GLto/Astpiw  that 
is  the  work,  "to  give  them  a  measure  and 
proportion  of  nourishment:"  tpofyrjv  ivxatpa, 
so  St.  Matthew  calls  it :  "  meat  in  the  sea- 
son that  which  is  fit  for  them,  and  when 
it  is  fit ;  meat  enough,  and  meat  convenient; 
and  both  together  mean  that  which  the 
Greek  poets  call  dp^a^^v  E^^voy,  j  "  the 
strong  wholesome  diet." 

3.  Lastly :  Here  is  the  reward  of  the 
faithful  and  wise  dispensation.  The  steward 
that  does  so,  and  continues  to  do  so,  till  his 
Lord  find  him  so  doing,  this  man  shall  be 
blessed  in  his  deed.  "Blessed  is  the  ser- 
vant, whom  his  lord  when  he  cometh  shall 
find  so  doing."    Of  these  in  order. 

1.  Who  are  these  rulers  of  Christ's  family  1 
for  though  Christ  knew  it,  and,  therefore, 
needed  not  to  ask  ;  yet  we  have  disputed  it 
so  much,  and  obeyed  so  little,  that  we  have 
changed  the  plain  hypothesis  into  an  en- 
tangled question.  The  answer  yet  is  easy 
as  to  some  part  of  the  inquiry  :  the  apostles 
are  the  first  meaning  of  the  text ;  for  they 
were  our  fathers  in  Christ,  they  begat  sons 
and  daughters  unto  God  ;  and  were  a  spirit- 
ual paternity,  is  evident :  we  need  look  no 


further  for  spiritual  government,  because  in 
the  paternal  rule  all  power  is  founded;  they 
begat  the  family  by  the  power  of  the  word 
and  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  and  they  fed  this 
family,  and  ruled  it,  by  the  word  of  theii 
propernninistry  :  they  had  the  keys  of  this 
house,  the  steward's  ensign,  and  they  had 
the  ruler's  place  ;  "  for  they  sat  on  twelve 
thrones,  and  judged  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel."    But  of  this  there  is  no  question. 

And  as  little  of  another  proposition — that 
this  stewardship  was  to  last  forever;  for  the 
power  of  ministering  in  this  office  and  the 
office  itself  were  to  be  perpetual :  for  the 
issues  and  powers  of  government  are  more 
necessary  for  the  perpetuating  the  church, 
than  for  the  first  planting  ;  and  if  it  was 
necessary  that  the  apostles  should  have  a 
rod  and  a  staff  at  first,  it  would  be  more 
necessary  afterwards,  when  the  family  was 
more  numerous,  and  their  first  zeal  abated, 
and  their  native  simplicity  perverted  into 
arts  of  hypocrisy  and  forms  of  godliness, 
when  "  heresies  should  arise,  and  the  love 
of  many  should  wax  cold."  The  apostles 
had  also  a  power  of  ordination :  and  that 
the  very  power  itself  does  denote,  for  it 
makes  perpetuity,  that  could  not  expire  in 
the  days  of  the  apostles;  for  by  it  they 
themselves  propagated  a  succession.  And 
Christ,  having  promised  his  Spirit  to  abide 
with  his  church  for  ever,  and  made  his 
apostles  the  channels,  the  ministers  and 
conveyances  of  it,  that  it  might  descend  as 
the  inheritance  and  eternal  portion  of  the 
family;  it  cannot  be  imagined,  that  when 
the  first  ministers  were  gone,  there  should 
not  others  rise  up  in  the  same  places,  some 
like  to  the  first,  in  the  same  office  and 
ministry  of  the  Spirit.  But  the  thing  is 
plain  and  evident  in  the  matter  of  fact  also : 
"  Quod  in  ecclesia  nunc  geritur,  hoc  olim 
fecerunt  apostoli,"  said  St.  Cyprian :  "What 
the  apostles  did  at  first,  that  the  church 
does  to  this  day,"*  and  shall  do  so  for  ever: 
for  when  St.  Paul  had  given  to  the  bishop 
of  Ephesus  rules  of  government  in  this 
family,  he  commands  that  they  should  be 
"observed  till  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ;"!  and,  therefore,  these  authorities 
and  charges  are  given  to  him  and  to  his  suc- 
cessors ;  it  is  the  observation  of  St.  Ambrose 
upon  the  warranty  of  that  text,  and  is  ob- 
vious and  undeniable. 

Well,  then,  the  apostles  were  the  first 
stewards;  and  this  office  dies  not  with  them, 


Cap.  xxiv.  25. 


t  Hesiod.  Epy. 


Epist.  73,  ad  Jubai.  t  1  Tim.  vi.  14. 


432 


A  CONSECRA 


TION  SERMON. 


Serm. IV. 


but  must  for  ever  be  succeeded  in  ;  and 
now  begins  the  inquiry,  Who  are  the  suc- 
cessors of  the  apostles?  for  they  are,  they 
must  evidently  be,  the  stewards  to  feed  and 
to  rule  this  family.  There  are  some  that 
say,  that  all  who  have  any  portion  of  work 
in  the  family,  all  the  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
are  these  stewards,  and  so  all  will  be  rulers. 
The  presbyters  surely ;  for,  say  they,  pres- 
byter and  bishop  is  the  same  thing,  and 
have  the  same  name  in  Scripture,  and, 
therefore,  the  office  cannot  be  distinguished. 
To  this  I  shall  very  briefly  say  two  things, 
which  will  quickly  clear  our  way  through 
this  bush  of  thorns. 

1.  That  the  word  "  presbyter"  is  but  an 
honourable  appellative  used  amongst  the 
Jews,  as  "alderman"  amongst  us;  but  it 
signifies  no  order  at  all,  nor  was  ever  used 
in  Scripture  to  signify  any  distinct  company 
or  order  of  clergy  :  and  this  appears  not 
only  by  an  induction  in  all  the  enumerations 
of  the  offices  ministerial  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment,* where  to  be  a  presbyter  is  never 
reckoned  either  as  a  distinct  office,  or  a  dis- 
tinct order;  but  by  its  being  indifferently 
communicated  to  all  the  superior  clergy, 
and  all  the  princes  of  the  people. 

2.  The  second  thing  I  intended  to  say,  is 
this :  that  although  all  the  superior  clergy 
had  not  only  one,  but  divers  common  appel- 
latives, all  being  called  npso^vtepoi  and  Sia- 
xovoi,  even  the  apostolate  itself  being  called 
a  deaconship  ;t  yet  it  is  evident,  that  before 
the  common  appellatives  were  fixed  into 
names  of  propriety,  they  were  as  evidently 
distinguished  in  their  offices  and  powers, 
as  they  are  at  this  day  in  their  names  and 
titles. 

To  this  purpose  St.  Paul  gave  to  Titus, 
the  bishop  of  Crete,  a  special  commission, 
command,  and  power,  to  make  ordinations; 
and  in  him,  and  in  the  person  of  Timothy, 
he  did  erect  a  court  of  judicature  even  over 
some  of  the  clergy,  who  yet  were  called 
presbyters ;  "  Against  a  presbyter  receive 
not  an  accusation,  but  before  two  or  three 
witnesses:"]:  there  is  the  measure  and  the 
warranty  of  the  "  audientia  episcopalis," 
''the  bishops'  audience  court;"  and  when 
the  accused  were  found  guilty,  he  gives  in 
charge  to  proceed  to  censures:  ltey%£  arto- 
tfojuws,  and  8tl  iTturtoyu&.tw  "  You  must  re- 
buke them  sharply,  and  you  must  silence 
them,  stop  their  mouths,"§  that  is  St.  Paul's 

*Rom.xiii.  6.   Eph.  iv.  11.    1  Cor.  xii.  28. 
t  Acts  i.  25.  \  1  Tim.  v.  19. 

§  Tit.  i.  11.  and  Tit.  ii.  15. 


word  ;  that  they  may  no  more  scatter  their 
venom  in  the  ears  and  hearts  of  the  people- 
These  bishops  were  commanded  "  to  set  in 
order  things  that  were  wanting"  in  the 
churches,  the  same  with  that  power  of  St. 
Paul; — "Other  things  will  I  set  in  order 
when  I  come,"  said  he  to  the  Corinthian 
churches ;  in  which  there  were  many  who 
were  called  presbyters,  who,  nevertheless, 
for  all  that  name,  had  not  that  power.  To 
the  same  purpose  it  is  plain  in  Scripture, 
that  some  would  have  been  apostles  that 
were  not;  such  were  those  whom  the  Spirit 
of  God  notes  in  the  Revelation  ;*  and  some 
"  did  "  love  pre-eminence"  that  had  it  not, 
for  so  did  Diotrephes;  and  some  were 
judges  of  questions,  and  all  were  not,  for 
therefore,  they  appealed  to  the  apostles  at 
Jerusalem ;  and  St.  Philip,  though  he  was 
an  evangelist,  yet  he  could  not  give  confir- 
mation to  the  Samaritans  whom  he  had 
baptized,  but  the  apostles  were  sent  for;  for 
that  was  part  of  the  power  reserved  to  the 
episcopal  or  apostolic  order. 

Now  from  these  premises,  the  conclusion 
is  plain  and  easy.  1.  Christ  left  a  govern- 
ment in  his  church,  and  founded  it  in  the 
persons  of  the  apostles.  2.  The  apostles 
received  this  power  for  the  perpetual  use 
and  benefit,  for  the  comfort  and  edification 
of  the  church  for  ever.  3.  The  apostles  had 
this  government;  but  all  that  were  taken  into 
the  ministry,  and  all  that  were  called  presby- 
ters, had  it  not.  If,  therefore,  this  government 
in  which  there  is  so  much  disparity  in  the 
very  nature,  and  exercise,  and  first  original 
of  it,  must  abide  for  ever;  then  so  must 
that  disparity.  If  the  apostolate,  in  the  first 
stabiliment,  was  this  eminency  of  power, 
then  it  must  be  so ;  that  is,  it  must  be  the 
same  in  the  succession  that  it  was  in  the 
foundation.  For  after  the  church  is  founded 
upon  its  governors,  we  are  to  expect  no 
change  of  government.  If  Christ  was  the 
author  of  it,  then,  as  Christ  left  it,  so  it 
must  abide  for  ever:  these  must  be  the 
governing  and  the  governed,  the  superior 
and  the  subordinate,  the  ordainer  and  the 
ordained,  the  confirmer  and  the  confirmed. 

Thus  far  the  way  is  straight,  and  the  path 
is  plain.  The  apostles  were  the  stewards 
and  the  ordinary  rulers  of  Christ's  family, 
by  virtue  of  the  order  and  office  apostolical; 
and  although  this  be  succeeded  to  for  ever, 
yet  no  man,  for  his  now  or  at  any  time 
being  called  a  presbyter  or  elder,  can  pre- 

*  Cap.  ii.  ver.  2. 


Serm.  IV. 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


433 


tend  to  it;  for,  besides  his  being  a  presbyter, 
he  must  be  an  apostle  too ;  else,  though  he 
be  called  "in  partem  sollicitudinis,"  and 
may  do  the  office  of  assistance  and  under- 
stewardship,  yet  the  xvpoj,  "  the  govern- 
ment," and  rule  of  the  family,  belongs  not 
to  him. 

But  then  ft$  dpa  xai  oriptpov,  "  who  are 
these  stewards  and  rulers  over  the  house- 
hold now?"  To  this  the  answer  is  also  cer- 
tain and  easy.  Christ  hath  made  the  same 
governors  to  day  as  heretofore ;  "  apostles 
still."  For  though  the  twelve  apostles  are 
dead,  yet  the  apostolical  order  is  not :  it  is 
fa|tj  yswrjtixri,  "  a  generative  order,"  and 
begets  more  apostles.  Now  who  these 
"  minores  apostoli"  are,  the  successors  of 
the  apostles  in  that  office  apostolical  and 
supreme  regiment  of  souls,  we  are  suffi- 
ciently taught  in  holy  Scriptures ;  which 
when  I  have  clearly  shown  to  you,  I  shall 
pass  on  to  some  more  practical  considera- 
tions. 

1.  Therefore,  certain  and  known  it  is, 
that  Christ  appointed  two  sorts  of  ecclesi- 
astic persons, — twelve  apostles,  and  the 
seventy-two  disciples ;  to  these  he  gave  a 
limited  commission ;  to  those  a  fulness  of 
power  ;  to  these  a  temporary  employment ; 
to  those  a  perpetual  and  everlasting;  from 
these  two  societies,  founded  by  Christ,  the 
whole  church  of  God  derives  the  two  supe- 
rior orders  in  the  sacred  hierarchy  :  and, 
as  bishops  do  not  claim  a  Divine  right 
but  by  a  succession  from  the  apostles,  so 
the  presbyters  cannot  pretend  to  have  been 
instituted  by  Christ,  but  by  claiming  a  suc- 
cession to  the  seventy-two.  And  then  con- 
sider the  difference,  compare  the  tables,  and 
all  the  world  will  see  the  advantages  of 
argument  we  have ;  for  since  the  seventy- 
two  had  nothing  but  a  mission  on  a  tempo- 
rary errand ;  and  more  than  that,  we  hear 
nothing  of  them  in  Scripture  ;  but  upon  the 
apostles  Christ  poured  all  the  ecclesiastical 
power,  and  made  them  the  ordinary  minis- 
ters of  the  Spirit,  which  was  to  abide  with 
the  church  for  ever :  the  Divine  institution 
of  bishops,  that  is,  of  successors  to  the  apos- 
tles, is  much  more  clear  than  that  Christ 
appointed  presbyters,  or  successors  of  the 
seventy-two.  And  yet,  if  from  hence  they 
do  not  derive  it,  they  can  never  prove  their 
order  to  be  of  Divine  institution  at  all,  much 
less  to  be  so  alone. 

But  we  may  see  the  very  thing  itself — the 
very  matter  of  fact.  St.  James,  the  bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  is  by  St.  Paul  called  an  apos- 
55 


tie :  f<  Other  apostles  saw  I  none,  save 
James,  the  Lord's  brother."*  For  there 
were  some  whom  the  Scriptures  call  "  the 
apostles  of  our  Lord  ;"  that  is,  such  which 
Christ  made  by  his  word  immediately,  or 
by  his  Spirit  extraordinarily  ;  and  even  into 
this  number  and  title,  Matthias,  and  St. 
Paul,  and  Barnabas,  were  accounted. f  But 
the  church  also  made  apostles  ;|  and  these 
were  called  by  St.  Paul,  drtoWokoi  ixxtojauov, 
"apostles  of  the  churches;"  and  particularly 
Epaphroditus  was  the  "  apostle  of  the  Philip- 
pians  ;" — "  properly  so,  saith  Primasius; 
and  "  what  is  this  else  but  the  bishop," 
saith  Theodoret;  for  tov$  vw  xaiMv/xi vov$  i mz- 
xortovs  u)^6fia^ov  6.7toa?o%ov$,  "  those  who  are 
now  called  bishops,  were  then  called  apos- 
tles," saith  the  same  father.  The  sense  and 
full  meaning  of  which  argument  is  a  perfect 
commentary  upon  that  famous  prophecy 
of  the  church,  <£  instead  of  thy  fathers  thou 
shalt  have  children,  whom  thou  mayest 
make  princes  in  all  lands  ;§  that  is,  not  only 
the  twelve  apostles,  our  fathers  in  Christ, 
who  first  begat  us,  were  to  rule  Christ's 
family,  but  when  they  were  gone,  their 
children  and  successors  should  arise  in  their 
stead  :  "  Et  nati  natorum,  et  qui  nascentur 
ab  illis:"  their  direct  successors  to  all  gene- 
rations shall  be  "principes  popuii,"  that  is. 
"  rulers  and  governors  of  the  whole  catholic 
church." — "  De  prole  enim  ecclesisc  crevit 
eadem  paternitas,  id  est,  episcopi  quos  ilia 
genuit,  et  patres  appellat,  et  constituit  in 
sedibus  patrum,"  saith  St  Austin:  "The 
children  of  the  church  become  fathers  of  the 
faithful;  that  is,  the  church  begets  bishops, 
and  places  them  in  the  seat  of  fathers,  the 
first  apostles." 

After  these  plain  and  evident  testimonies 
of  Scripture,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  say,, 
that  this  great  affair,  relying  not  only  upon 
the  words  of  institution,  but  on  matter  of 
fact,  passed  forth  into  a  demonstration  and 
greatest  notoriety  by  the  doctrine  and  prac- 
tice of  the  whole  catholic  church :  for  so 
St.  Irenseus,  who  was  one  of  the  most 
ancient  fathers  of  the  church,  and  might 
easily  make  good  his  affirmative :  "  We 
can,"  says  he,  "  reckon  the  men,  who  by  the 
apostles  were  appointed  bishops  in  churches 
to  be  their  successors  unto  us ;  leaving 
to  them  the  same  power  and  authority 
which  they  had."  Thus  St.  Polycarp  was 
by  the  apostles  made  bishop  of  Smyrna  ; 


*  Gal.  i.  19.  t  1  Cor.  viii.  23. 

t  Philip,  ii.  25.  *  Psal.  *lv.  16. 


434  A  CONSECRATION  SERMON.  Serm.  IV. 


St.  Clement,  bishop  of  Rome,  by  St.  Peter ; 
"and  divers  others  by  the  apostles,"  saith 
Tertullian;  saying  also,  that  the  Asian 
bishops  were  consecrated  by  St.  John.  And 
to  be  short,  that  bishops  are  the  successors 
of  the  apostles  in  the  stewardship  and  rule 
of  the  church,  is  expressly  taught  by  St. 
Cyprian*  and  St.  Jerome,  f  St.  Ambrose  and 
St.  Austin,!  by  Euthymius  and  Pacianus, 
by  St.  Gregory  and  St.  John  Damascenus, 
by  Clarius  a  Muscula  and  St.  Sixtus,  by 
Anacletus  and  St.  Isidore ;  by  the  Roman 
council  under  St.  Sylvester,  and  the  council 
of  Carthage  ;  and  the  StaSo^,  or  "  succes- 
sion" of  bishops  from  the  apostles'  hands  in 
all  the  churches  apostolical,  was  as  certainly 
known  as  in  our  chronicles  we  find  the  suc- 
cession of  our  English  kings,  and  one  can 
no  more  be  denied  than  the  other.  The 
conclusion  from  these  premises  I  give  you 
in  the  words  of  St.  Cyprian  :  "  Cogitent 
diaconi,  quod  apostolos,  id  est,  episcopos, 
Dominus  ipse  elegerit :"  "  Let  the  minis- 
ters know,  that  apostles,  that  is,  the  bishops, 
were  chosen  by  our  blessed  Lord  himself  :"§ 
and  this  was  so  evident,  and  so  believed, 
that  St.  Austin  affirms  it  with  a  "  Nemo 
ignorat,"  "  No  man  is  so  ignorant  but  he 
knows  this,  that  our  blessed  Saviour  ap- 
pointed bishops  over  churches." || 

Indeed  the  Gnostics  spake  evil  of  this 
order;  for  they  are  noted  by  three  apostles, 
St.  Paul,  St.  Peter,  and  St.  Jude,  to  be  "  de- 
spisers  of  government,  and  to  speak  evil  of 
dignities;"  and  what  government  it  was 
they  did  so  despise,  we  may  understand  by 
•the  words  of  St.  Jude ;  they  were  h>  wti- 
/terylq  tov  Kope,  "  in  the  contradiction  or  gain- 
saying of  Corah,"  who  with  his  company 
rose  up  against  Aaron  the  high  priest ;  and 
excepting  these,  who  are  the  vilest  of  men, 
no  man,  within  the  first  three  hundred  years 
after  Christ,  opposed  episcopacy.  But  when 
Constantine  received  the  church  into  his 
arms,  he  found  it  universally  governed  by 
bishops;  and,  therefore,  no  wise  or  good 
man  professing  to  be  a  Christian,  that  is,  to 
believe  the  holy  catholic  church,  can  be  con- 
tent to  quit  the  apostolical  government,  (that 
by  which  the  whole  family  of  God  was  fed, 
and  taught,  and  ruled,)  and  beget  to  him- 
self new  fathers  and  new  apostles,  who,  by 
wanting  succession  from  the  apostles  of  our 


*  In  1  Cor.  xii.  t  In  PsaL  xliv. 

t  Epist.  1.  Simpronianum. 

$  Epis.  65.  ad  Rogat. 

!!  Qiwest.  V.  et  N.  T.  p.  197. 


Lord,  have  no  ecclesiastical  and  derivative 
communion  with  these  fountains  of  our 
Saviour. 

If  ever  Vincentius  Lirinensis'  rule  could 
be  used  in  any  question,  it  is  in  this  :  Quod 
semper,  quod  ubique,  quod  ab  omnibus ;" 
that  bishops  are  the  successors  of  the  apos- 
tles in  this  stewardship,  and  that  they  did 
always  rule  the  family,  was  taught  and 
acknowledged  "  always,  and  every  where, 
and  by  all  men"  that  were  of  the  church  of 
God :  and  if  these  evidences  be  not  suffi- 
cient to  convince  modest  and  sober  persons 
in  this  question,  we  shall  find  our  faith  to 
fail  in  many  other  articles,  of  which  we  yet 
are  very  confident :  for  the  observation  of 
the  Lord's  day,  the  consecration  of  the  holy 
eucharist  by  the  priests,  the  baptizing  in- 
fants, the  communicating  of  women,  and 
the  very  canon  of  the  Scripture  itself,  rely 
but  upon  the  same  probation;  and,  there- 
fore, the  denying  articles  thus  proved,  is  a 
way,  I  do  not  say,  to  bring  in  all  sects  and 
heresies, — that  is  but  little; — but  a  plain 
path  and  inlet  to  atheism  and  irreligion ;  for 
by  this  means  it  will  not  only  be  impossible 
to  agree  concerning  the  meaning  of  Scrip- 
ture, but  the  Scripture  itself,  and  all  the 
records  of  religion,  will  become  useless,  and 
of  no  efficacy  or  persuasion. 

I  am  entered  into  a  sea  of  matter ;  but  I 
will  break  it  off  abruptly,  and  sum  up  this 
inquiry  with  the  words  of  the  council  of 
Chalcedon,  which  is  one  of  the  four  gene- 
rals, by  our  laws  made  the  measures  of 
judging  heresies:  'Erft'tfxorfov  ttj  rtpEcspvtepov 
fta9nov  watyepsiv,  lepoffvtea  eotlv,  "  It  is  sacri- 
lege to  bring  back  a  bishop  to  the  degree  and 
order  of  a  presbyter."  It  is  indeed  a  rifling 
the  order,  and  entangling  the  gifts,  and  con- 
founding the  method  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  it 
is  a  dishonouring  them  whom  God  would 
honour,  and  a  robbing  them  of  those  spi- 
ritual eminences  with  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
does  anoint  the  consecrated  heads  of  bishops. 
And  I  shall  say  one  thing  more,  which  in- 
deed is  a  great  truth,  that  the  diminution  of 
episcopacy  was  first  introduced  by  popery  : 
and  the  popes  of  Rome  by  communicating 
to  abbots,  and  other  mere  priests,  special 
graces  to  exercise  some  essential  offices  of 
episcopacy,  have  made  this  sacred  order  to 
be  cheap,  and  apt  to  be  invaded.  But  then 
add  this  :  if  Simon  Magus  was  in  so  damna- 
ble a  condition  for  offering  to  buy  the  gifts 
and  powers  of  the  apostolical  order,  what 
shall  we  think  of  them  that  snatch  them 
away,  and  pretend  to  wear  them,  whether 


Serm. IV. 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


435 


the  apostles  and  their  successors  will  or  not?  '  the  son  of  Bani,«'.-tt7xortoj  Aarttav,  the  bishop 
This  is  4cmm&m  roaytoi  IIi  fi.ua.  "  :o  belie  the  and  visiter  over  the  Levites  ;M  and  we  find  at 
Holy  Ghost ;"  that  is  the  least  of  it :  it  is  the  purging  of  the  land  from  idolatry,  the 
rapine  and  sacrilege,  besides  the  heresy  and  high  priest  placed  tx^xortovc  eft  dxoi  Kiptoi-, 
schism,  and  the  spiritual  lie.  For  the  go-  "bishops  over  the  house  of  God."*  Nay 
vernment  episcopal,  as  it  was  exemplified  in  :  it  was  the  appellative  of  the  high  priest 
the  synagogue,  and  practised  by  the  same  ;  himself,  tttigtmmi  'E?.fa£ap,  M  bishop  Elea- 
measures  in  the  temple,  so  it  was  transcribed  :  zar"f  the  son  of  Aaron  the  priest,  to  whom 
by  the  eternal  Son  of  God.  who  translated  is  committed  the  care  of  lamps,  and  the 
it  into  a  gospel  ordinance  :  it  was  sanctified  daily  sacrifice,  and  the  holy  unction, 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  named  some  of  the  Now  this  word  the  church  retained,  choos- 
persons,  and  gave  to  them  all  power  and  ing  the  same  name  to  her  superior  ministers, 
graces  from  above :  it  was  subjected  in  the  \  because  of  the  likeness  of  the  ecclesiastical 
apostles  first,  and  by  them  transmitted  to  a  government  between  the  Old  and  New  Te  "n- 
distinct  order  of  ecclesiastics :  it  was  re-  ment. 

ceived  into  all  churches,  consigned  in  the  For  Christ  made  no  change  but  what  was 
records  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  preached  by  necessary :  baptism  was  a  rite  among  the 
the  universal  voice  of  all  the  Christian  world,  <  Jews,  and  the  Lord's  supper  was  but  the 
delivered  by  notorious  and  uninterrupted  post-caenium"  of  the  Hebrews  changed 
practice,  and  derived  to  further  and  unques-  \  into  a  mystery,  from  a  type  to  a  more  real 
tionable  issue  by  perpetual  succession.  exhibition :  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  a 

I  have  done  with  the  hardest  part  of  the  collection  of  the  most  eminent  devotions  of 
text,  by  finding  out  the  persons  intrusted,  the  prophets  and  holy  men  before  Christ, 
'•'the  stewards  of  Christ's  family :"  which  who  prayed  by  the  same  Spirit;  and  the 
though  Christ  only  intimated  in  this  place,  censures  ecclesiastical  were  but  an  imitation 
yet  he  plainly  enough  manifested  in  others:  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Judaical  tribunals; 
the  apostles,  and  their  successors  the  bishops,  and  the  whole  religion  was  but  the  law  of 
are  the  men  intrusted  with  this  great  charge;  Moses  drawn  out  of  its  vail  into  clarity  and 
God  grant  they  may  all  discharge  it  well.,  manifestation;  and  to  conclude  in  order  to 
And  so  I  pass  from  the  officers  to  a  consider- .  the  present  affair,  the  government  which 
ation  of  the  office  itself,  in  the  next  words  ;  Christ  left,  was  the  same  as  he  found  it  ;  for 
"whom  the  Lord  shall  make  ruler  over  his  what  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and  the  Levites, 
household,  to  give  them  their  meat  in  due  ;  were  in  the  temple, — that  bishops,  priests, 
season."  :  and  deacons,  are  in  the  church :  it  is  affirmed 

2.  The  office  itself  is  the  stewardship,  that '  by  St.  Jerome  more  than  once ;  and  the  use 
■  episcopacy,  the  office  of  the  bishop :  the  he  makes  of  it  is  this, :i  Esto  subjectus  ponti- 
name  signifies  an  office  of  the  ruler  indefi-  j  fici  tuo,  et  quasi  anima?  parentem  suscipe;" 
nitely,  but  the  word  was  chosen,  and  by  the  "  Obey  your  bishop,  and  receive  him  as  the 
church  appropriated  to  those  whom  it  now  nursing-father  of  your  soul."J  But  above 
signifies,  both  because  the  word  itself  is  a  all.  this  appellation  is  made  honourable  bv 
monition  of  duty,  and  also  because  the  faith-  being  taken  bv  our  blessed  Lord  himself  ; 
ful  were  used  to  it  in  the  days  of  Moses  for  he  is  called  in  Scripture  the  "  great  Shep- 
and  the  prophets.  The  word  is  in  the  herd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls." 
prophecy  of  the  church:  "I  will  give  to  ;  But  our  inquiry  is  not  after  the  name,  but 
thee  princes  in  peace,  xai.  tjtvsxoitovs  h  bixauo-  the  office,  and  the  dignitv  and  duty  of  it: 
svi-rj,  and  bishops  in  righteousness;"*  upon  "  Ecclesiae  gubernandae  sublimis  ac  Divina 
which  place  St.  Jerome  says,  "  Principes  potestas,"  so  St.  Cyprian  calls  it  :  "  A  hi^h 
ecclesiae  vocat  futuros  episcopos;"f  "  The  |  and  a  Divine  power  from  God  of  governing 
Spirit  of  God  calls  them  who  were  to  be  .  the  church ;"  "  rem  magnam  et  pretiosam 
Christian  bishops,  -principes,'  or  'chief  in  conspectu  Domini,"  so  St  Cyril:  "a  great 

rulers,'  "  and  this  was  no  new  thing  ;  for ,  and  precious  thing  in  the  sight  of  God  ;"  

the  chief  of  the  priests  who  were  set  over  j  t iv  d*3p^*ot$  tijtmm  opov,  by  Isidore  Pelu- 
the  rest,  are  called  bishops  by  all  the  Helle-  |  siot ;  u  the  utmost  limit  of  what  is  desirable 
nist  Jews.  Thus  Joel  is  called  iruixonos  in'  among  men  :" — but  the  account  upon  which 
avrovj,  "  the  bishop  over  the  priests  ;"$  and  it  is  so  desirable,  is  the  same  also  that  makes 

 j  it  formidable.    Thev  who  have  tried  it,  and 

*  Isa.  Ix.  17.  — 

+  Hunc  locum  etiam  citat  S,  Clement.  Ep.  ad  |    *2  Kings  xi.  18.  t  Numb.  nr.  16. 

Cor.    t  Neh,  xi.  9.  t  Epist.'2  ad  Xepot.  Epistol.  ad  Eragriura. 


436 


A  CONSECRAT 


ION  SERMON. 


Serm.  IV. 


did  it  conscientiously ,  have  found  the  burden 
so  great,  as  to  make  them  stoop  with  care 
and  labour;  and  they  who  did  it  ignorantly 
or  carelessly,  will  find  it  will  break  their 
bones  :  for  the  bishop's  office  is  all  that  duty 
which  can  be  signified  by  those  excellent 
words  of  St.  Cyprian  :  "  He  is  a  bishop  or 
overseer  of  the  brotherhood,  the  ruler  of  the 
people,  the  shepherd  of  the  flock,  the  govern- 
or of  the  church,  the  minister  of  Christ, 
and  the  priest  of  God."  These  are  great 
titles,  and  yet  less  than  what  is  said  of  them 
in  Scripture,  which  calls  them  "  salt  of  the 
earth, — lights  upon  a  candlestick, — stars  and 
angels, — fathers  of  our  faith, — embassadors 
of  God, — dispensers  of  the  mysteries  of 
God, — the  apostles  of  the  churches, — and 
the  glory  of  Christ:" — but  then  they  are 
great  burdens  too  ;  for  the  bishop  is  rtsrticts v- 
fxivos  tbv  Tjwv  -tov  Krp«n>,  "  intrusted  with  the 
Lord's  people ;"  that  is  a  great  charge,  but 
there  is  a  worse  matter  that  follows,  xai  tov 
irtfp  tW  ^v%Cjv  avTfwv  %6yov  aTtait^Osao/xevof  the 
bishop  is  he,  of  whom  God  will  require  "an 
account  for  all  their  souls:"  they  are  the 
words  of  St.  Paul,*  and  transcribed  into  the 
fortieth  canon  of  the  apostles,  and  the  twen- 
ty-fourth canon  of  the  council  of  Antioch. 

And  now  I  hope  the  envy  is  taken  off; 
for  the  honour  does  not  pay  for  the  burden; 
and  we  can  no  sooner  consider  episcopacy 
in  its  dignity,  as  it  is  a  rule ;  but  the  very 
nature  of  that  rule  does  imply  so  severe  a 
duty,  that  as  the  load  of  it  is  almost  insuffera- 
ble, so  the  event  of  it  is  very  formidable,  if 
we  take  not  great  care.  For  this  steward- 
ship is  xvpwtqs  xai  buxxovla,  "  a  principality 
and  a  ministry."  So  it  was  in  Christ;  he 
is  Lord  of  all,  and  yet  he  was  the  Servant 
of  all .  so  it  was  in  the  apostles ;  it  was 
xkyjpos  6uxxovla$  xai  artoatoTify,  "  their  lot  was 
to  be  apostles,  and  yet  to  serve  and  minis- 
ter ;"f  and  it  is  remarkable,  that,  in  Isaiah, 
the  Seventy  use  the  word  ertlaxortos,  or 
"  bishop  :"$  but  there  they  use  it  for  the 
Hebrew  word  "  nechosheth,"  which  the 
Greeks  usually  render  by  ipyo8tu>xt^,  $opo- 
^oyoj,  rtpaxr'cop,  and  the  interlineary  transla- 
tion by  "  exactores."  Bishops  are  only 
God's  ministers  and  tribute-gatherers,  re- 
quiring and  overseeing  them  that  do  their 
duty :  and,  therefore,  here  the  case  is  so, 
and  the  burden  so  great,  and  the  dignity  so 
allayed,  that  the  envious  man  hath  no  rea- 
son to  be  troubled  that  his  brother  hath  so 
great  a  load,  nor  the  proud  man  plainly  to 


*  Heb.  xiii.  17.   t  Acts  i.  25.    t  Isaiah  Ix.  17. 


be  delighted  with  so  honourable  a  danger. 
It  is  indeed  a  rule,  but  it  is  paternal ;  it  is  a 
government,  but  it  must  be  neither  avwyxo.6- 
Tfixbv  nor  aiozpoxs pSsjj  it  is  neither  a  "  power 
to  constrain"  nor  "a  commission  to  get 
wealth,"*  for  it  must  be  without  necessity, 
and  not  for  filthy  lucre  sake ;  but  it  is  a  rule, 
<i>s  hiaxovovvtns,  so  St.  Luke,  "  as  of  him  that 
ministers  ;"f  wj  7tdvtccv  hovljov,  so  St.  Mark., 
"as  of  him  that  is  servant  of  all;":}:  wj 
rtoSaj  vi7tTfovtos,  so  St.  John;§  such  a  princi- 
pality as  he  hath  "  that  washes  the  feet"  of 
the  weary  traveller ;  or,  if  you  please,  take 
it  in  the  words  of  our  blessed  Lord  himself, 
that  "He  that  will  be  chief  among  you,  Jet 
him  be  your  minister;"  meaning,  that  if 
under  Christ's  kingdom  you  desire  rule, 
possibly  you  may  have  it;  but  all  that  rule 
under  him  are  servants  to  them  that  are 
ruled ;  and,  therefore,  you  get  nothing  by  it, 
but  a  great  labour  and  a  busy  employment, 
a  careful  life  and  a  necessity  of  making  se- 
vere accounts.  But  all  this  is  nothing  but 
the  general  measures ;  I  cannot  be  useful  or 
understood  unless  I  be  more  particular.  The 
particulars  we  shall  best  enumerate  by  re- 
counting those  great  conjugations  of  worthy 
offices  and  actions,  by  which  Christian  bish- 
ops have  blessed  and  built  up  Christendom; 
for  because  we  must  be  followers  of  them, 
as  they  were  of  Christ,  the  recounting  what 
they  did  worthily  in  their  generations,  will 
not  only  demonstrate  how  useful,  how  pro- 
fitable, how  necessary  episcopacy  is  to  the 
Christian  church,  but  it  will,  at  the  same 
time,  teach  us  our  duty,  by  what  services 
we  are  to  benefit  the  church,  in  what  works 
we  are  to  be  employed,  and  how  to  give  an 
account  of  our  stewardship  with  joy. 

1.  The  Christian  church  was  founded  by 
bishops,  not  only  because  the  apostles,  who 
were  bishops,  were  the  first  preachers  of  the 
gospel,  and  planters  of  the  churches, — but 
because  the  apostolical  men,  whom  the  apos- 
tles used  in  planting  and  disseminating  reli- 
gion, were,  by  all  antiquity,  affirmed  to 
have  been  diocesan  bishops ;  insomuch  that, 
as  St.  Epiphanius||  witnesses,  there  were, 
at  the  first  disseminations  of  the  faith  of 
Christ,  many  churches,  who  had  in  them 
no  other  clergy,  but  a  bishop  and  his  dea- 
cons: and  the  presbyters  were  brought  in 
afterwards,  as  the  harvest  grew  greater : 
but  the  bishops'  names  are  known,  they  are 
"  recorded  in  the  book  of  life,"  and  "  their 

*  1  Peter  v.  1,  5.  t  Luke  xxii.  27. 

\  Mark  x.  43.  $  John  xiii.  13. 

II  Lib.  iii.  tit.  1. 


Serm.  IV. 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


437 


praise  is  in  the  gospel ;"  such  were  Timo- 
thy and  Titus,  Clemens  and  Linus,  Marcus 
and  Dionysius,  Onesimus  and  Caius,  Epa- 
phroditus  and  St.  James,  our  Lord's  bro- 
ther,— Evodius  and  Simeon ;  all  which,  if 
there  be  any  faith  in  Christians  that  gave 
their  lives  for  a  testimony  to  the  faith,  and 
any  truth  in  their  stories;  and  unless  we, 
who  believe  Thucydides  and  Plutarch,  Livy 
and  Tacitus,  think  that  all  church-story  is  a 
perpeiual  romance,  and  that  all  the  brave 
men,  the  martyrs  and  the  doctors  of  the 
primitive  church,  did  conspire,  as  one  man, 
to  abuse  all  Christendom  for  ever;  I  say, 
unless  all  these  impossible  suppositions  be 
admitted, — all  these,  whom  I  have  now 
reckoned,  were  bishops  fixed  in  several 
churches,  and  had  diocesses  for  their  charges. 

The  consequent  of  this  consideration  is  this: 
If  bishops  were  those  upon  whose  ministry 
Christ  founded  and  built  his  church,  let  us 
consider  what  great  wisdom  is  required  of 
them  that  seem  to  be  pillars  :  the  stewards 
of  Christ's  family  must  be  wise  ;  that  Christ 
requires :  and  if  the  order  be  necessary  to 
the  church,  wisdom  cannot  but  be  neces- 
sary to  the  order ;  for  it  is  a  shame  if  they, 
who  by  their  office  are  fathers  in  Christ, 
shall  by  their  unskilfulness  be  but  babes 
themselves,  understanding  not  the  secrets 
of  religion,  the  mysteries  of  godliness,  the 
perfections  of  the  evangelical  law,  all  the 
advantages  and  disadvantages  in  the  spi- 
ritual life.  A  bishop  must  be  exercised  in 
godliness,  a  man  of  great  experience  in  the 
secret  conduct  of  souls,  not  satisfied  with  an 
ordinary  skill  in  making  homilies  to  the  peo- 
ple, and  speaking  common  exhortations  in 
ordinary  cases;  but  ready  to  answer  in  all 
secret  inquiries,  and  able  to  convince  the 
gainsayers,  and  to  speak  wisdom  amongst 
them  that  are  perfect. 

If  the  first  bishops  laid  the  foundation, 
their  successors  must  not  only  preserve 
whatsoever  is  fundamental,  but  build  up  the 
church  in  a  most  holy  faith,  taking  care  that 
no  heresy  sap  the  foundation,  and  that  no 
hay  or  rotten  wood  be  built  upon  it;  and 
above  all  things,  that  a  most  holy  life  be 
superstructed  upon  a  holy  and  unreprovable 
faith.  So  the  apostles  laid  the  foundation, 
and  built  the  walls  of  the  church,  and  their 
successors  must  raise  up  the  roof  as  high  as 
heaven.  For  let  us  talk  and  dispute  eter- 
nally, we  shall  never  compose  the  contro- 
versies in  religion,  and  establish  truth  upon 
unalterable  foundations,  as  long  as  men 
handle  the  word  of  God  deceitfully,  that  is. 


with  designs  and  little  artifices,  and  secular 
partialities ;  and  they  will  for  ever  do  so,  as 
long  as  they  are  proud  or  covetous.  It  is 
not  the  difficulty  of  our  questions,  or  the 
subtlety  of  our  adversaries,  that  makes  dis- 
putes interminable ;  but  we  shall  never  cure 
the  itoh  of  disputing,  or  establish  unity,  un- 
less we  apply  ourselves  to  humility  and  con- 
tempt of  riches.  If  we  will  be  contending, 
let  us  contend  like  the  olive  and  the  vine, 
who  shall  produce  best  and  most  fruit;  not 
like  the  aspen  and  the  elm,  which  shall 
make  most  noise  in  a  wind.  And  all  other 
methods  are  a  beginning  at  a  wrong  end. 
And  as  for  the  people,  the  way  to  make 
them  conformable  to  the  wise  and  holy  rules 
of  faith  and  government,  is  by  reducing 
them  to  live  good  lives.  When  the  children 
of  Israel  gave  themselves  to  gluttony,  and 
drunkenness,  and  filthy  lusts,  they  quickly 
fell  into  abominable  idolatries ;  and  St.  Paul 
says,  "  that  men  make  shipwreck  of  their 
faith  by  putting  away  a  good  conscience  ;"* 
for  the  mystery  of  faith  is  best  preserved 
£y  xaBapa  ovr«$iJ*«,  "  in  a  pure  conscience," 
saith  the  same  apostle  :|  secure  but  that, 
and  we  shall  quickly  end  our  disputes,  and 
have  an  obedient  and  conformable  people; 
but  else  never. 

2.  As  bishops  were  the  first  fathers  of 
churches,  and  gave  them  being,  so  they 
preserve  them  in  being ;  for  without  sacra- 
ments there  is  no  church,  or  it  will  be 
starved,  and  die ;  and  without  bishops  there 
I  can  be  no  priests,  and  consequently  no  sacra- 
ments ;  and  that  must  needs  be  a  supreme 
|  order,  from  whence  ordination  itself  pro- 
i  ceeds.    For  it  is  evident  and  notorious,  that 
in  Scripture  there  is  no  record  of  ordination, 
j  but  an  apostolical  hand  was  in  it;  one  of  the 
avSpfj  r^yovuspoi,  one  of  the  chief,  one  of  the 
superior  and  "  ruling"  clergy ;  and  it  is  as 
certain  in  the  descending  ages  of  the  church, 
the  bishop  always  had  that  power :  it  was 
never  denied  to  him,  and  it  was  never  im- 
1  puted  to  presbyters  :  and  St.  Jerome  him- 
self, when,  out  of  his  anger  against  John, 
,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  he  endeavoured  to 
I  equal  the  presbyter  with  the  bishop,  though 
in  very  many  places  he  spake  otherwise,  yet 
even  then  also,  and  in  that  heat,  he  except- 
ed ordination,  acknowledging  that  to  be  the 
!  bishop's  peculiar.  And,  therefore,  they  who 
I  go  about  to  extinguish  episcopacy,  do  as 
Julian  did  ;  they  destroy  the  presbytery,  and 
starve  the  flock,  and  take  away  their  shep- 


*  1  Tim.  i.  19. 

2m  2 


t  1  Tim.  iii.  9. 


438  A  CONSECRATION  SERMON.  Serm.  IV, 


herds,  and  dispark  their  pastures,  and  tempt 
God's  providence  to  extraordinaries,  and 
put  the  people  to  hard  shifts,  and  turn  the 
channels  of  salvation  quite  another  way, 
and  leave  the  church  to  a  perpetual  uncer- 
tainty, whether  she  be  alive  or  dead,  and 
the  people  destitute  of  the  life  of  their  souls, 
and  their  daily  bread,  and  their  spiritual 
comforts,  and  holy  blessings. 

The  consequent  of  this  is  :  if  sacraments 
depend  upon  bishops,  then  let  us  take  care 
that  we  convey  to  the  people  holy  and  pure 
materials,  sanctified  with  a  holy  ministry, 
and  ministered  by  holy  persons :  for  al- 
though it  be  true  that  the  efficacy  of  the 
sacraments  does  not  depend  wholly  upon 
the  worthiness  of  him  that  ministers  ;  yet  it 
is  as  true,  that  it  does  not  wholly  rely  upon 
the  worthiness  of  the  receiver;  but  both  to- 
gether, relying  upon  the  goodness  of  God, 
produce  all  those  blessings  which  are  de- 
signed. The  minister  hath  an  influence 
into  the  effect,  and  does  very  much  towards 
it ;  and  if  there  be  a  failure  there,  it  is  a  de- 
fect in  one  of  the  concurring  causes;  and 
therefore  an  unholy  bishop  is  a  great  dimi- 
nution to  the  people's  blessing.  St.  Jerome 
presses  this  severely:  "  Impie  faciunt," 
&c.  "  They  do  wickedly  who  affirm,  that 
the  holy  eucharist  is  consecrated  by  the 
words  (alone)  and  solemn  prayer  of  the 
consecrator,  and  not  also  by  his  life  and  holi- 
ness and  therefore  St.  Cyprian  affirms, 
that  "  none  but  holy  and  upright  men  are 
to  be  chosen,  who,  offering  their  sacrifices 
worthily  to  God,  may  be  heard  in  their 
prayers  for  the  Lord's  people  :"f  but  for 
others,  "  Sacrificia  eorum,  panis  luctus," 
saith  the  prophet  Hosea:  "  Their  sacrifices 
are  like  the  bread  of  sorrow ;  whoever  eats 
thereof,  shall  be  defiled." 

This  discourse  is  not  mine,  but  St  Cy- 
prian's ;  and  although  his  words  are  not  to 
be  understood  dogmatically,  but  in  the  case 
of  duty  and  caution,  yet  we  may  lay  our 
hands  upon  our  hearts,  and  consider  how 
we  shall  give  an  account  of  our  steward- 
ship, if  we  shall  offer  to  the  people  the  bread 
of  God  with  impure  hands ;  it  is  of  itself  a 
pure  nourishment;  but  if  it  passes  through 
an  unclean  vessel,  it  loses  much  of  its  ex- 
cellency. 

3.  The  like  also  is  to  be  said  concerning 
prayer ;  for  the  episcopal  order  is  appointed 
by  God  to  be  the  great  ministers  of  Christ's 
priesthood,  that  is,  to  stand  between  Christ 


and  the  people  in  the  intercourse  of  prayer 
an^  blessing.  **  We  will  give  ourselves  con- 
tinually to  prayer,"  said  the  apostles ;  that 
was  the  one-half  of  their  employment; — 
and  indeed  a  bishop  should  spend  very 
much  of  his  time  in  holy  prayer,  and  in  di- 
verting God's  judgments,  and  procuring 
blessings  to  the  people ;  for  in  all  times,  the 
chief  of  the  religion  was  ever  the  chief  mini- 
ster of  blessing.  Thus  Abraham  blessed 
Abimelech,  and  Melchisedeck  blessed  Abra- 
ham, and  Aaron  blessed  the  people;  and 
te  without  all  controversy,"  saith  the  apos- 
tle, "  the  less  is  blessed  of  the  greater." 
But  then  "  we  know  that  God  heareth  not 
sinners;"  and  it  must  be  "  the  effectual  fer- 
vent prayer  of  a  righteous  man  that  shall 
prevail." 

And,  therefore,  we  may  easily  consider, 
that  a  vicious  prelate  is  a  great  calamity  to 
that  flock,  which  he  is  appointed  to  bless 
and  pray  for.  How  shall  he  reconcile  the 
penitents,  who  is  himself  at  enmity  with 
God  1  How  shall  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God 
descend  upon  the  symbols  at  his  prayer,  who 
does  perpetually  grieve  him,  and  quench 
his  holy  fires,  and  drive  him  quite  away? 
How  shall  he  that  hath  not  tasted  of  the 
Spirit  by  contemplation,  stir  up  others  to 
earnest  desires  of  celestial  things'?  Or  what 
good  shall  the  people  receive,  when  the 
bishop  lays  upon  their  head  a  covetous  or  a 
cruel,  an  unjust  or  an  impure  hand?  But, 
therefore,  that  I  may  use  the  words  of  St. 
Jerome,  "  Cum  ab  episcopo  gratia  in  popu- 
lum  transfundatur,  et  mundi  totius  et  eccle- 
sioe  totius  condimentum  sit  episcopus," 
&c*  Since  it  is  intended  that  from  the 
bishop  grace  should  be  diffused  amongst  all 
the  people,  there  is  not  in  the  world  a  greater 
indecency  than  a  holy  office  ministered  by 
an  unholy  person,  and  no  greater  injury  to 
the  people,  than  that  of  the  blessings  which 
God  sends  to  them  by  the  ministries  evan- 
gelical, they  should  be  cheated  and  defraud- 
ed by  a  wicked  steward.  And,  therefore, 
it  was  an  excellent  prayer,  which  to  this 
very  purpose  was,  by  the  son  of  Sirach, 
made  in  behalf  of  the  high  priests,  the  sons 
of  Aaron:  "God  give  you  wisdom  in  your 
heart,  to  judge  his  people  in  righteousness, 
that  their  good  things  be  not  abolished,  and 
that  their  glory  may  endure  for  ever."f 

4.  All  the  offices  ecclesiastical  always 
were,  and  ought  to  be,  conducted  by  the 
episcopal  order,  as  is  evident  in  the  univer- 


*  In  cap.  2.  Zeph.  t  Lib.  i.  Ep.  4. 


Dial.  adv.  Lucifer.       t  Ecclus.  xlv.  26. 


Serm.  IV. 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


439 


sal  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  primitive 
church  :  Ol  rcpudvtipot  xai  bidxoioi  clvev  yvci- 
pri  rov  tiiusxoiiov  fjir;&iv  i,-tir*teirw3ar.  It  is 
the  fortieth  canon  of  the  apostles,  "  Let  the 
presbyters  and  deacons  do  nothing  without 
leave  of  the  bishop  ;"*  but  that  case  is  known. 

The  consequent  of  this  consideration  is 
ftb  other  than  the  admonition  in  my  text :  ! 
M  We  are  stewards  of  the  manifold  grace 
of  God."  and  dispensers  of  the  mysteries 
of  the  kingdom ;  and  "  it  is  required  of 
stewards  that  they  be  found  faithful  ;"t 
**  that  we  preach  the  word  of  God  in  season 
and  out  of  season, — that  we  rebuke  and 
exhort,  admonish  and  correct  f* — for  these 
God  calls  64  pastores  secundum  cor  meum," 
(i  pastors  according  to  his  own  heart,  which 
feed  the  people  with  knowledge  and  under- 
standing but  they  must  also  "comfort 
the  afflicted,  and  bind  up  the  broken  heart;" 
minister  the  sacraments  with  great  diligence, 
and  righteous  measures,  and  abundant  cha- 
rity, always  having  in  mind  those  passionate 
words  of  Christ  to  St.  Peter:  K  If  thou  lovest 
me,  feed  my  sheep ;  if  thou  hast  any  love 
to  me,  feed  my  lambs." 

And  let  us  remember  this  also,  that  no- 
thing  can  enforce  the  people  to  obey  their 
bishops  as  they  ought,  but  our  doing  that 
duty  and  charity  to  them  which  God  re- 
quires. There  is  reason  in  these  words  of 
St.  Chrysostom :  "  It  is  necessary-  that  the 
church  should  adhere  to  their  bishop,  as  the 
body  to  the  head,  as  plants  to  their  roots,  as 
rivers  to  their  springs,  as  children  to  their 
fathers,  as  disciples  to  their  masters."  These 
similitudes  express  not  only  the  relation  and 
dependence,  but  they  tell  us  the  reason  of 
the  duty  :  the  head  gives  light  and  reason  to 
conduct  the  body  ;  the  roots  give  nourish- 
ment to  the  plants  ;  and  the  springs,  perpe- 
tual emanation  of  waters  to  the  channels : 
fathers  teach  and  feed  their  children ;  and 
disciples  receive  wise  instructions  from  their 
masters  :  and  if  we  be  all  this  to  the  people, 
they  will  be  all  that  to  us ;  and  wisdom  will 
compel  them  to  submit,  and  our  humility 
will  teach  them  obedience,  and  our  charity 
will  invite  their  compliance ;  our  good  ex- 
ample will  provoke  them  to  good  works, 
and  our  meekness  will  melt  them  into  soft- 
ness and  flexibility  :  for  all  the  Lord's  peo- 
ple are  "  populus  voluntarius,"  "  a  free  and 
willing  people ;"  and  we,  who  cannot  com- 
pel their  bodies,  must  thus  constrain  their 


souls,  by  inviting  their  wills,  by  convincing 
their  understandings,  by  the  beauty  of  fair 
example,  the  efficacy  and  holiness,  and  the 
demonstrations  of  the  Spirit. 

This  is  "experimentum  ejus,  qui  in  nobis 
loquitur  Christus,"  "the  experiment  of 
Christ  that  speaketh  in  us :"  for  to  this 
purpose  those  are  excellent  words  which 
St.  Paul  spake:  ''Remember  them  who 
have  the  rule  over  you  :  whose  faith  follow, 
considering  the  end  of  their  conversation."" 
There  lies  the  demonstration ;  and  those 
prelates  who  teach  good  life,  whose  ser- 
mons are  the  measures  of  Christ,  and  whose 
life  is  a  copy  of  their  sermons,  these  must 
be  followed,  and  surely  these  will:  for  these 
are  burning  and  shining  lights  :  but  if  we 
hold  forth  false  fires,  and  by  the  amusement 
of  evil  examples,  call  the  vessels  that  sail 
upon  a  dangerous  sea,  to  come  upon  a  rock 
or  an  iron  shore  instead  of  a  safe  harbour, 
we  cause  them  to  make  shipwreck  of  their 
precious  faith,  and  to  perish  in  the  deceit- 
ful and  unstable  waters :  "  Vox  operum  for- 
tius sonat  quam  verborum:"  "a  good  life  is 
the  strongest  argument  that  your  faith  is 
good,"  and  a  gentle  voice  will  be  sooner  en- 
tertained than  a  voice  of  thunder ;  but  the 
greatest  eloquence  in  the  world  is  a  meek 
spirit  and  a  liberal  hand  :  these  are  the  two 
pastoral  staves  the  prophet  speaks  of,  "  nog- 
nam  et  hovelim,"  "  beauty  and  bands  ;"f 
he  that  hath  the  staff  of  the  beauty  of  ho- 
liness, the  ornament  of  fair  example,  he 
hath  also  the  staff  of  bands;  "Atque  in 
funiculis  Adam  trahet  eos,  in  vinculis  cha- 
ritatis,"  as  the  prophet  Hosea's  expression 
is,  "  He  shall  draw  the  people  after  him 
by  the  cords  of  a  man,  by  the  bands  of  a 
holy  charity."];  But  if,  against  all  these  de- 
monstrations, any  man  will  be  refractory, 
we  have,  instead  of  a  staff,  an  apostolicai 
rod,  which  is  the  last  and  latest  remedy, 
and  either  brings  to  repentance,  or  consigns 
to  ruin  and  reprobation. 

If  there  were  any  time  remaining,  I  could 
reckon  that  the  episcopal  order  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  unity  in  the  Church;  and  we  see 
it  is  so,  by  the  innumerable  sects  that  sprang 
up,  when  episcopacy  was  persecuted.  I 
could  add,  how  that  bishops  were  the  cause 
that  St.  John  wrote  his  gospel;  that  the 
Christian  faith  was,  for  three  hundred  years 
together,  bravely  defended  by  the  sufferings, 
the  prisons  and  flames,  the  life  and  the  death 


*  Et  24.  C.  Concil.  Antioch. 
t  1  Cor.  iv.  1.  2.  3. 


$  Jer.  iii.  15. 


*  Heb.  xm<  7. 
t  Cap.  xi.  4. 


t  Zech.  xi  7. 


440 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


Serm.  IV. 


of  bishops,  as  the  principal  combatants;  the  "Audientia  Episcopal  is,"  to  "  the  Bi- 
that  the  fathers  of  the  church,  whose  writ-  ;  shops'  Court."  This  was  not  any  right 
mgs  are  held  in  so  great  veneration  in  all  which  the  bishops  could  challenge,  but  a  re- 
the  Christian  world,  were  almost  all  of  them  ward  of  their  piety ;  and  so  long  as  the 
bishops.  I  could  add,  that  the  reformation  holy  office  was  holily  administered,  the 
of  religion  in  England  was  principally  by  world  found  so  much  comfort  and  security, 
the  preachings,  and  the  disputings,  the  |  so  much  justice  and  mercy,  so  many  tern- 
writings  and  the  martyrdom  of  bishops  j  poral  and  spiritual  blessings,  consequent  to 
that  bishops  have  ever  since  been  the  great-  the  ministries  of  that  order,  that,  as  the  Ga- 
est  defensatives  against  popery  ;  that  Eng-  latians  to  St.  Paul,  "  men  have  plucked  out 
land  and  Ireland  were  governed  by  bishops  ,  their  eyes"  to  do  them  service,  and  to  do 
ever  since  they  were  Christian,  and  under  them  honour.  For  then  episcopacy  did  that 
their  conduct  have,  for  so  many  ages,  en-  ! good  that  God  intended  by  it;  it  was  a  spi- 
joyed  all  the  blessings  of  the  gospel.  I  ritual  government,  by  spiritual  persons,  for 
could  add  also,  that  episcopacy  is  the  great 1  spiritual  ends.  Then  the  princes  and  the 
stabiliment  of  monarchy ;  but  of  this  we  people  gave  them  honours,  because  they 
are  convinced  by  a  sad  and  too  dear-bought  deserved,  and  sought  them  not ;  then  they 
experience ;  I  could  therefore  instead  of  it  gave  them  wealth,  because  they  would  dis- 
say,  that  episcopacy  is  the  great  ornament  pend  it  wisely,  frugally,  and  charitably  ;  then 
of  religion  ;  that  as  it  rescues  the  clergy  they  gave  them  power,  because  it  was  sure 
from  contempt,  so  it  is  the  greatest  preser-  to  be  used  for  the  defence  of  the  innocent, 
vative  of  the  people's  liberty  from  ecclesi-  for  the  relief  of  the  oppressed,  for  the  punish- 
astic  tyranny  on  one  hand,  (the  gentry  be-  ment  of  evil-doers,  and  the  reward  of  the 
ing  little  better  than  servants,  while  they  virtuous.  Then  they  desired  to  be  judged 
live  under  the  presbytery,)  and  anarchy  ,  by  them,  because  their  audiences,  or  courts, 
and  licentiousness  on  the  other;  that  it  en-  'did  n0v%a£ti»  to  3a,o3apix6i/,  "they  appeased 
dears  obedience,  and  is  subject  to  the  laws  all  furious  sentences,"  and  taught  gentle 
of  princes,  and  is  wholly  ordained  for  the  principles,  and  gave  merciful  measures,  and 
good  of  mankind  and  the  benefit  of  souls,  in  their  courts  were  all  equity  and  piety,  and 
But  I  cannot  stay  to  number  all  the  bless- ;  Christian  determinations, 
ings  which  have  entered  into  the  world  at  But  afterwards,  when  they  did  fall 
this  door;  I  only  remark  these,  because  hvva.'sxtla.v,  "into  secular  methods,"  and 
they  describe  unto  us  the  bishop's  employ-  made  their  counsels  vain  by  pride,  and 
ment,  which  is,  to  be  busy  in  the  service  dirtied  their  sentences  with  money,  then 
of  souls, — to  do  good  in  all  capacities, — to  they  became  like  other  men ;  and  so  it 
serve  every  man's  need, — to  promote  all  will  be,  unless  the  bishop  be  more  holy 
public  benefits, — to  cement  governments, —  ,  than  other  men;  but  when  our  sanctity  and 
to  establish  peace,  to  propagate  the  king-  severity  shall  be  as  eminent  as  the  call- 
dom  of  Christ, — to  do  hurt  to  no  man, — to  ing  is,  then  we  shall  be  called  to  councils, 
do  good  to  every  man  ; — that  is,  so  to  minis-  and  sit  in  public  meetings,  and  bring  corn- 
ier, that  religion  and  charity,  public  peace  fort  to  private  families,  and  rule  in  the 
and  private  blessings,  may  be  in  their  ex-  hearts  of  men  by  a  "jus  relationis,"  such 
altaiion.  as  was  between  the  Roman  emperors  and 

As  long  as  it  was  thus  done  by  the  pri-  the  senate;  they  courted  one  another  into 
mitive  bishops,  the  princes  and  the  people  power,  and,  in  giving  honour,  strove  to 
gave  them  all  honour;  insomuch,  that  by  a  outdo  each  other;  for  from  an  humble  wise 
decree  of  Constantine  the  Great,  the  bishop  man  no  man  will  snatch  an  employment 
had  power  given  to  him  to  retract  the  sen-  that  is  honourable  ;  but  from  the  proud  and 
tences  made  by  the  presidents  of  provinces ;  from  the  covetous  every  man  endeavours  to 
and  we  find,  in  the  acts  of  St.  Nicholas,  wrest  it,  and  thinks  it  lawful  prize, 
that  he  rescued  some  innocent  persons  from  ;  My  time  is  now  done;  and,  therefore,  I 
death,  when  the  executioner  was  ready  to  cannot  speak  to  the  third  part  of  my  text, 
strike  the  fatal  blow ;  which  thing,  even  the  reward  of  the  good  steward  and  of  the 
when  it  fell  into  inconvenience,  was  in-  bad;  I  shall  only  mention  it  to  you  in  a 
deed  forbidden  by  Arcadius  and  Honorius;  short  exhortation,  and  so  conclude.  In  the 
but  the  confidence  and  honour  was  only  primitive  church,  a  bishop  was  never  ad- 
changed,  it  was  not  taken  away ;  for  the  mitted  to  public  penance  ;  not  only  because 
condemned  criminal  had  leave  to  appeal  to  in  them  every  crime  is  ten,  and  he  thai 


Serm.  IV. 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


441 


could  not  discern  a  public  shame,  could '  be  they  press  too  hard  j  but  the  use  I  shall 
not  deserve  a  public  honour  ;  nor  yet  only  make  of  it,,  upon  occasion  of  the  reward 
because  every  such  punishment  was  scan-  of  the  good  and  bad  steward,  is  to  remind 
dalous,  and  did  more  evil  by  the  example  you  of  your  great  danger.    For  if  it  be  re- 
of  the  crime,  than  it  could  do  good  by  the  quired  of  bishops  to  be  so  wise  and  so  holy  , 
example  of  the  punishment;  but  also  be-  | so  industrious  and  so  careful,  so  busy  and 
cause  no  spiritual  power  is  higher  than  the  so  good,  up  to  the  height  of  best  examples  : 
episcopal,  and  therefore  they  were  to  be  re- 'if  they  be  anointed  of  the  Lord,  and  are 
ferred  to  the  Divine  judgment,  which  was  the  husbands  of  the  churches;  if  they  be 
likely  to  fall  on  them  very  heavily :  Sizoro-  the  shepherds  of  the  flock,  and  stewards 
ur-js i  azprrztov  6  Kvpio?,  "  the  Lord  will  cut  of  the  household ;  it  is  very  fit  they  consider 
the  evil  stewards  asunder ;"  he  will  suffer  their  danger,  that  they  may  be  careful  to  do 
schisms  and  divisions  to  enter  in  upon  us,  their  duty.    St.  Bernard  considers  it  well  in 
and  that  will  sadly  cut  us  asunder ;  but  the  his  epistle  to  Henry,  archbishop  of  Sens  :— 
evil  also  shall  fall  upon  their  persons,  like  If  I,  lying  in  my  cell,  and  smoking  under  a 
the  punishment  of  quartering  traitors,  era  bushel,  not  shining,  yet  cannot  avoid  the 
xal  «  5taufX«5rt  taur^,  punishment  with,  breath  of  the  winds,  but  that  my  light  is  al- 
the  circumstances  of  detestation  and  exem-!most  blown  out;  what  will  become  of  my 
plarity.    Consider,  therefore,  what  is  your '  candle,  if  it  were  placed  on  a  candlestick, 
great  dutv.    Consider  what  is  your  great  and  set  upon  a  hill?  I  am  to  look  to  myself 
danger.    The  lines  of  duty  I  have  already  alone,  and  provide  for  my  own  salvation ; 
described ;  only  remember  how  dear  and  and  yet  I  offend  myself,  I  am  weary  of  my- 
precious  souls  are  to  God,  since  for  their  self,  I  am  my  own  scandal  and  my  own 
salvation  Christ  gave  his  blood  j  and  there- ;  danger  ;  my  own  eye,  and  my  own  belly, 
fore  will  not  easilv   lose   them,  whom,  and  my  own  appetite,  find  me  work  enough  ; 
though  they  had  sinned  against  him,  yet  he  and  therefore  God  help  them,  who,  besides 
so  highly  valued  :  remember  that  you  are  themselves,  are  answerable  for  many  others. 
Christ's  deputies  in  the  care  of  souls,  and  Jacob  kept  the  sheep  of  Laban,  and  we  keep 
that  you  succeed  in  the  place  of  the  apos-ithe  sheep  of  Christ;  and  Jacob  was  to  an- 
tles.    "  Non  est  facile  stare  loco  Pauli,  et  i  swer  for  every  sheep  that  was  stolen,  and 
tenere  gradum  Petri:"  you  have  under- !  every  lamb  that  was  torn  by  the  wild  beast ; 
taken  the  work  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  office '  and  so  shall  we  too,  if  by  our  fault  one  of 
of  St.  Peter;  and  what,  think  you,  upon  this  Christ's  sheep  perish;  and  yet  it  may  be, 
account,  will  be  required  of  us?    St.  Jerome  there  are  one  hundred  thousand  souls  corn- 
expresses  it  thus  :  the  wisdom  and  skill  of  a  mitted  to  the  care  and  conduct  of  some  one 
bishop  ought  to  be  so  great,  that  his  coun-  j  shepherd,  who  yet  will  find  his  own  soul 
tenance,  his  gesture,  his  motion,  every  thing  'work  enough  for  all  his  care  and  watchful- 
should  be  vocal,  '  ut  quicquid  agit,  quicquid  ness.    If  any  man  should  desire  me  to  carry 
loquitur,  doctrina  sit  apostolorum  :'  "  that  a  frigate  into  the  Indies,  in  which  one  hun- 
whatever  he  does  or  speaks,  be  doctrinal  or  dred  men  were  embarked,  I  were  a  mad- 
apostolical.'  "    The  ancient  fathers  had  a  man  to  undertake  the  charge  without  pro- 
pious  opinion,  that  besides  the  angel-guar-  portionable  skill ;  and,  therefore,  when  there 
dian  which  is  appointed  to  the  guard  of  every  \  is  more  danger,  and  more  souls,  and  rougher 
man,  there  is  to  every  bishop  a  second  an-  j  seas,  and  more  secret  rocks,  and  horrible 
gel  appointed  to  him  at  the  consecration  ;  |  storms,  and  the  shipwreck  is  an  eternal  loss, 
and   to  this  Origen  alludes,  saying  that  the  matter  will  then  require  great  considera- 
every  bishopric  hath  two  angels,  the  one  j  tion  in  the  undertaking,  and  greatest  care  in 
visible  and  the  other  invisible.    This  is  a  j  the  conduct. 

great  matter,  and  shows  what  a  precious  Upon  this  account  we  find  many  brave 
thing  that  order  and  those  persons  are  in  persons,  in  the  first  and  in  the  middle  ages 
the  eves  of  God  ;  but  then  this  also  means,  of  the  church,  with  great  resolution  refusing 
that  we  should  live  angelic  lives,  which  the  episcopacy.  I  will  not  speak  of  those,  who, 
church  rarely  well  expresses  by  saying, 1  for  fear  of  martyrdom,  declined  it,  but  those 
that  episcopal  dignity  is  the  ecclesiastic  state  |  who,  for  fear  of  damnation,  did  refuse.  St 
of  perfection,  and  supposes  the  persons  to  be!  Bernard  was  by  three  rich  cities  severally 
so  far  advanced  in  holiness,  as  to  be  in  the  called  to  be  their  bishop,  and  by  two  to  be  their 
state  of  confirmation  in  grace.  But  I  shall  archbishop,  and  he  refused  them:  St.  Domi- 
say  nothing  of  these  things,  because  it  may  inicus  refused  four  successively  ;  St.  Thomas 


442  A  CONSECRA 


TION  SERMON. 


Serm.  IV. 


Aquinas  refused  the  archbishopric  of  Na- 
ples; and  Vincentius  Ferrarius  would  not 
accept  of  Valentia  or  Ilerda ;  and  Bernar- 
dinus  Senensis  refused  the  bishoprics  of 
Sens,  Urbin,  and  Ferrara.  They  had  rea- 
son ;  and  yet,  if  they  had  done  amiss  in 
that  office  which  they  declined,  it  had  been 
something  more  excusable ;  but  if  they  that 
seek  it,  be  as  careless  in  the  office  as  they 
are  greedy  of  the  honour,  that  will  be  found 
intolerable.  "  Electus  episcopus  ambulat 
in  disco,  recusans  volvitur  in  area,"  said 
the  hermit  in  St.  Jerome ;  c*  The  bishop 
walks  upon  round  and  trundling  stones; 
but  he  that  refuses  it,  stands  upon  a  floor." 
But  I  shall  say  no  more  of  it;  because  I 
suppose  you  have  read  it,  and  considered  it, 
in  St.  Chrysostom's  six  books,  "de  Sacer- 
dotio in  the  Apologetic  of  St.  Gregory  of 
Nazianzus :  in  the  pastoral  of  St.  Gregory  of 
Rome ;  in  St.  Dionysius'  eighth  epistle  to 
Demophilus  ;  in  the  letters  of  Epiphanius  to 
St.  Jerome;  in  St.  Austin's  epistle  to  Bishop 
Valerius ;  in  St.  Bernard's  life  of  St.  Mala- 
chy ;  in  St.  Jerome's  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
eighth  epistle  to  Fabiola.  These  things,  I 
am  sure,  you  could  not  read  without  trem- 
bling ;  and  certainly,  if  it  can  belong  to  any 
Christian,  then  "work  out  your  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling:"  that  is  the  bishop's 
burden.  For  the  bishop  is  like  a  man  that 
is  surety  for  his  friend;  he  is  bound  for 
many.,  and  for  great  sums ;  what  is  to  be 
done  in  this  case,  Solomon's  answer  is  the 
way  :  "  Do  this  now,  my  son,  deliver  thy- 
self, make  sure  thy  friend,  give  not  sleep 
to  thine  eyes,  nor  slumber  to  thine  eye- 
lids:"* that  is,  be  sedulous  to  discharge  thy 
trust,  to  perform  thy  charge;  be  zealous 
for  souls,  and  careless  of  money :  and  re- 
member this,  that  even  in  Christ's  family 
there  was  one  sad  example  of  an  apostate 
apostle ;  and  he  fell  into  that  fearful  estate 
merely  by  the  desire  and  greediness  of  mo- 
ney. Be  warm  in  zeal,  and  indifferent  in 
thy  temporalities  :  for  he  that  is  zealous  in 
temporals,  and  cold  in  the  spiritual ;  he  that 
doeth  the  accessories  of  his  calling  by  him- 
self, and  the  principal  by  his  deputies ;  he 
that  is  present  at  the  feast  of  sheep-shearing, 
and  puts  others  to  feed  the  flock;  hath  no 
sign  at  all  upon  him  of  a  good  shepherd. 
"It  is  not  fit  for  us  to  leave  the  word  of 
God,  and  to  serve  tables,"  said  the  apostles. 
And  if  it  be  a  less  worthy  office  to  serve  the 
tables  even  of  the  poor,  to  the  diminution 

*  Prov.  vi.  3,  4. 


of  our  care  in  the  dispensation  of  God*9 
word, — it  must  needs  be  an  unworthy  em- 
ployment to  leave  the  word  of  God,  and  to 
attend  the  rich  and  superfluous  furniture  of 
our  own  tables.  Remember  the  quality  of 
your  charges  :  "  Civitas  est,  vigilate  ad  cus- 
todiam  et  concordiam;  sponsa  est,  studete 
amari;  oves  sunt,  intendite  pastui."*  "  The 
church  is  a  spouse ;"  the  universal  church 
is  Christ's  spouse,  but  your  own  diocess  is 
yours ;  "  behave  yourselves  so  that  ye  be 
beloved.  Your  people  are  as  sheep,"  and 
they  must  be  fed,  and  guided,  and  preserved, 
and  healed,  and  brought  home.  "  The 
church  is  a  city,"  and  you  are  the  watch- 
men ;  "take  care  th?at  the  city  be  kept  at 
unity  in -itself;"  be  sure  to  make  peace 
amongst  your  people ;  suffer  no  hatreds,  no 
quarrels,  no  suits  at  law  amongst  the  citi- 
zens, which  you  can  avoid;  make  peace  in 
your  diocesses  by  all  the  ways  of  prudence, 
piety,  and  authority,  that  you  can;  and  let 
not  your  own  corrections  of  criminals  be  to 
any  purpose  but  for  their  amendment,  for 
the  cure  of  offenders  as  long  as  there  is  hope, 
and  for  the  security  of  those  who  are  sound 
and  whole.  Preach  often,  and  pray  con- 
tinually ;  let  your  discipline  be  with  charity, 
and  your  censures  slow ;  let  not  excommu- 
nications pass  for  trifles,  and  drive  not  away 
the  fly  from  your  brother's  forehead  with  a 
hatchet;  give  counsel  frequently,  and  dis- 
pensations seldom,  but  never  without  neces- 
sity or  great  charity ;  let  every  place  in 
your  diocess  say,  "Invenerunt  me  vigiles," 
"  The  watchmen  have  found  me  out," 
"  hassovelim ;"  they  that  walk  the  city 
round  have  sought  me  out,  and  found  me. 
"  Let  every  one  of  us,"  as  St.  Paul'sf 
expression  is,  "  show  himself  a  workman 
that  shall  not  be  ashamed;"  "operariuni 
inconfusibilem,"  mark  that;  "such  a  la- 
bourer as  shall  not  be  put  to  shame"  for 
his  illness  or  his  unskilfulness,  his  false- 
ness and  unfaithfulness,  in  that  day  when 
the  great  Bishop  of  souls  shall  make  his 
last  and  dreadful  visitation ;  for,  be  sure, 
there  is  not  a  carcass,  nor  a  skin,  nor  a  lock 
of  wool,  nor  a  drop  of  milk  of  the  whole 
flock,  but  God  shall  for  it  call  the  idle  shep- 
herd to  a  severe  account.  And  how,  think 
you,  will  his  anger  burn,  when  he  shall  see 
so  many  goats  standing  at  his  left  hand,  and 
so  few  sheep  at  his  right?  and  upon  in- 
quiry, shall  find  that  his  ministering  shep- 


*  S.  Bernard,  ad  Henr.  Episc.  Senensem, 
t  2  Tim.  ii. 


Serm.  IV. 


A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 


443 


herds  were  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing?  and 
that,  by  their  ill  example  or  pernicious  doc- 
trines, their  care  of  money  and  carelessness 
of  their  flocks,  so  many  souls  perish,  who, 
if  they  had  been  carefully  and  tenderly, 
wisely  and  conscientiously  handled,  might 
have  shined  as  bright  as  angels  ?  And  it  is 
a  sad  consideration  to  remember,  how  many 
souls  are  pitifully  handled  in  this  world,  and 
carelessly  dismissed  out  of  this  world  ;  they 
are  left  to  live  at  their  own  rate,  and  when 
they  are  sick  they  are  bidden  to  be  of  good 
comfort,  and  then  all  is  well ;  who,  when 
they  are  dead,  find  themselves  cheated  of 
their  precious  and  invaluable  eternity.  Oh, 
how  will  those  souls,  in  their  eternal  prisons, 
for  ever  curse  those  evil  and  false  guides ! 
And  how  will  those  evil  guides  themselves 
abide  in  judgment,  when  the  angels  of 
wrath  snatch  their  abused  people  into  ever- 
lasting torments  ?  For  will  God  bless  them, 
or  pardon  them,  by  whom  so  many  souls 
perish?  Shall  they  reign  with  Christ,  who 
evacuate  the  death  of  Christ,  and  make  it 
useless  to  dear  souls?  Shall  they  partake 
of  Christ's  glories,  by  whom  it  comes  to 
pass  that  there  is  less  joy  in  heaven  itself, 
even  because  sinners  are  not  converted,  and 
God  is  not  glorified  and  the  people  is  not 
instructed,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not 
filled  ?  Oh  no ;  the  curses  of  a  false  pro- 
phet will  fall  upon  them,  and  the  reward  of 
the  evil  steward  will  be  their  portion  ;  and 
they  who  destroyed  the  sheep,  or  neglected 
them,  shall  have  their  portion  with  goats 
for  ever  and  ever,  in  everlasting  burnings, 
in  which  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  dwell. 

Can  any  thing  be  beyond  this?  beyond 
damnation  ?  Surely  a  man  would  think  not : 
and  yet  I  remember  a  severe  saying  of  St. 
Gregory,  "  Scire  debent  proelati,  quod  tot 
mortibus  digni  sunt,  quot  perditionis  exem- 
pla  ad  subditos  extenderunt :"  "  One  damna- 
tion is  not  enough  for  an  evil  shepherd ; 
but  for  every  soul  who  dies  by  his  evil  ex- 
ample or  pernicious  carelessness,  he  de- 
serves a  new  death,  a  new  damnation. " — 
Let  us,  therefore,  be  wise  and  faithful,  walk 
warily,  and  watch  carefully,  and  rule  dili- 
gently, and  pray  assiduously ;  for  God  is 
more  propense  to  rewards  than  to  punish- 
ments ;  and  the  good  steward,  that  is  wise 


and  faithful  ib  his  dispensation,  shall  be 
greatly  blessed.  But  how  ?  "  He  shall  be 
made  ruler  over  the  household."  What  is 
that?  for  he  is  so  already.  True:  but  he 
shall  be  much  more:  "Ex  dispensatore 
faciet  procuratorem ;"  God  will  treat  him 
as  Joseph  was  treated  by  his  master;  "he 
was  first  a  steward,  and  then  a  procurator;" 
one  that  ruled  his  goods  without  account 
and  without  restraint.  Our  ministry  shall 
pass  into  empire,  our  labour  into  rest,  our 
watchfulness  into  fruition,  and  our  bishop- 
ric to  a  kingdom.  In  the  mean  time,  our 
bishoprics  are  a  great  and  weighty  care,  and, 
in  a  spiritual  sense,  our  dominion  is  founded 
in  grace,  and  our  rule  is  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people,  and  our  strengths  are  the  powers  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  weapons  of  our 
warfare  are  spiritual;  and  the  eye  of  God 
watches  over  us  curiously,  to  see  if  we 
watch  over  our  flocks  by  day  and  by  night. 
And  though  the  primitive  church,  as  the 
ecclesiastic  histories  observe,  when  they  de- 
posed a  bishop  from  his  office,  ever  con- 
cealed his  crime,  and  made  no  record  of  it, 
yet  remember  this,  that  God  dees  and  will 
call  us  to  a  strict  and  severe  account.  Take 
heed  that  you  may  never  hear  that  fearful 
sentence,  (( I  was  hungry,  and  ye  gave  me 
no  meat."  If  you  suffer  Christ's  little  ones 
to  starve,  it  will  be  required  severely  at 
your  hands.  And  know  this,  that  the  time 
will  quickly  come,  in  which  God  shall  say 
unto  thee,  in  the  words  of  the  prophet, 
"  Where  is  the  flock  that  was  given  thee, 
thy  beautiful  flock?  What  wilt  thou  say 
when  he  shall  visit  thee?"* 

God,  of  his  mercy,  grant  unto  us  all  to  be 
so  faithful  and  so  wise  as  to  convert  souls, 
and  to  be  so  blessed  and  so  assisted,  that  we 
may  give  an  account  of  our  charges  with, 
joy,  to  the  glory  of  God,  to  the  edification 
and  security  of  our  flocks,  and  the  salvation 
of  our  own  souls,  in  that  day  when  the 
great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls 
shall  come  to  judgment,  even  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ;  to  whom,  with  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all  honour 
and  glory,  love  and  obedience,  now  and  for 
ever  more.  Amen. 

*  Jer.  xiii.  20,  21. 


444  A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE  Serm.  V. 


SERMON  V. 

PREACHED  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  PAR- 
LIAMENT OF  IRELAND,  MAY  8,  1661 

Salus  in  multitudine  ccnsulentium. 

Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams. — 1  Sam.xv.  latter 
part  of  verse  22. 

For  rebellion  is  as  the  sin  of  witchcraft,  and  stub- 
bornness is  as  iniquity  and  idolatry. — First  part 
of  verse  23. 

In  the  world,  nothing  is  more  easy  than 
to  say  our  prayers,  and  to  obey  our  supe- 
riors ;  and  yet  in  the  world  there  is  nothing 
to  which  we  are  so  unwilling  as  to  prayer, 
and  nothing  seems  so  intolerable  as  obe- 
dience ;  for  men  esteem  all  laws  to  be  fetters, 
and  their  superiors  are  their  enemies :  and 
when  a  command  is  given,  we  turn  into  all 
shapes  of  excuse,  to  escape  from  the  impo- 
sition :  for  either  the  authority  is  incompe- 
tent, or  the  law  itself  is  statutum  non  bo- 
num';"  or  it  is  impossible  to  be  kept,  or  at 
least  very  inconvenient,  and  we  are  to  be 
relieved  in  equity ;  or  there  is  a  secret  dis 
pensation,  and  it  does  not  bind  in  my  par- 
ticular case,  or  not  now ;  or  it  is  but  the 
law  of  a  man,  and  was  made  for  a  certain 
end ;  or  it  does  not  bind  the  conscience,  but 
it  was  only  for  political  regards;  or,  if  the 
worst  happen,  1  will  obey  passively,  and 
then  I  am  innocent.  Thus  every  man  snuffs 
up  the  wind  like  te  the  wild  asses  in  the 
wilderness,"  and  thinks  that  authority  is  an 
encroachment  upon  a  man's  birth-right; 
and  in  the  mean  time  never  considers,  that 
Christ  took  upon  him  our  nature,  that  he 
might  learn  us  obedience,  and  in  that  also 
make  us  become  like  unto  God.  In  his  jus- 
tice and  in  his  mercy  he  was  inimitable  be- 
fore ;  but  before  the  incarnation  of  Christ 
we  could  not,  in  passive  graces,  imitate  God, 
who  was  impassible :  but  he  was  pleased, 
at  a  great  rate,  to  set  forward  his  duty;  and 
when  himself  became  obedient  in  the  hard- 
est point,  "obediens  usque  ad  mortem," 
and  is  now  become  to  us  "the  Author  and 
Finisher  of  our  obedience,"  as  well  as  of 
our  faith, — "  admonetur  omnis  setas  fieri 
posse  quod  aliquando  factum  est."  We 
must  needs  confess  it  very  possible  to  obey 
the  severest  of  the  Divine  laws,  even  to  die 
if  God  commands,  because  it  was  already 
done  by  a  man ;  and  we  must  needs  con- 
fess it  excellent,  because  it  was  done  by 
God  himself. 

But  this  great  example  is  of  universal  in- 
fluence in  the  whole  matter  of  obedience : 


for,  that  I  may  speak  of  that  part  of  this 
duty,  which  can  be  useful  and  concerns  us; 
men  do  not  deny  but  they  must  obey  in  all 
civil  things  ;  but  in  religion  they  have  a 
supreme  God  only,  and  conscience  is  his 
interpreter ;  and,  in  effect,  every  man  must 
be  the  judge,  whether  he  shall  obey  or  no. 
Therefore  it  is  that  I  say,  the  example  of 
our  Lord  is  the  great  determination  of  this 
inquiry  ;  for  he  did  obey  and  suffer,  accord- 
ing to  the  commands  of  his  superiors,  unde*- 
whose  government  he  was  placed ;  "  he  gave 
his  back  to  the  smiters,  and  his  cheeks  to 
the  nippers;"  he  kept  the  orders  of  the 
rulers,  and  the  customs  of  the  synagogues, 
the  law  of  Moses  and  the  rites  of  the  temple ; 
and  by  so  doing  "  he  fulfilled  all  righteous- 
ness." Christ  made  no  distinctions  in  his 
obedience ;  but  obeyed  God  "  in  all  things," 
and  those  that  God  set  over  him,  "  in  all 
things  according  to  God,"  and  in  things  of 
religion  most  of  all ,  because  to  obey  was 
of  itself  a  great  instance  of  religion  ;  and  if 
ever  religion  comes  to  be  pretended  against 
obedience,  in  any  thing  where  our  superior 
can  command,  it  is  imposture :  for  that  is 
the  purpose  of  my  text,  "  obedience  is  bet- 
ter than  sacrifice."  Our  own  judgment, 
our  own  opinion,  is  the  sacrifice  seldom  fit 
to  be  offered  to  God,  but  most  commonly 
deserving  to  be  consumed  by  fire  :  but,  take 
I  it  at  the  best,  it  is  not  half  so  good  as  obe- 
dience ;  for  that  was  indeed  Christ's  sacri- 
fice; and,  as  David  said  of  Goliah's  sword, 
fS  Non  est  alter  talis,"  there  is  no  other  sa- 
crifice that  can  be  half  so  good  :  and  when 
Abraham  had  lifted  up  his  sacrificing  knife 
to  slay  his  son,  and  so  expressed  his  obe- 
dience, God  would  have  no  more;  he  had 
the  obedience,  and  he  cared  not  for  the 
sacrifice. 

By  sacrifice  here,  then,  is  meant  the  ex- 
ternal and  contingent  actions  of  religion ; 
by  obedience,  is  meant  submission  to  au- 
thority, and  observing  the  command.  Obe- 
dience is  a  not  choosing  our  duty,  a  not  dis- 
puting with  our  betters,  not  to  argue,  not  to 
delay,  not  to  murmur ;  it  is  not  only  this, 
but  it  is  much  better;  for  it  is  love, — and 
simplicity, — and  humility, — and  usefulness ; 
and  I  think  these  do  reductively  contain  all 
that  is  excellent  in  the  whole  conjugation 
of  Christian  graces. 

My  text  is  a  perfect  proposition,  and  hath 
no  special  remark  in  the  words  of  it ;  but  is 
only  a  great  representation  of  the  most  use- 
ful truth  to  all  kingdoms  and  parliaments, 
and  councils  and  authorities,  in  the  whole 


Serm.  V.  OPENING  OF  THE  PARLIAMENT. 


445 


world :  it  is  your  charter,  and  the  sanction 
of  your  authority,  and  the  stabiliment  of 
your  peace,  and  the  honour  of  your  laws, 
and  the  great  defence  of  your  religion,  and 
the  building  up  and  the  guarding  of  the 
king's  throne.  It  is  that  by  which  all  the 
societies  in  heaven  and  earth  are  firm:  with- 
out this  you  cannot  have  a  village  prosper- 
ous, or  a  ship  arrive  in  harbour  :  it  is  that 
which  God  hath  bound  upon  us  by  hope 
and  fear,  by  wrath  and  conscience,  by  duty 
and  necessity.  Obedience  is  the  formality 
of  all  virtues,  and  every  sin  is  disobedience : 
there  can  no  greater  thing  be  said,  unless 
vou  please  to  add,  that  we  never  read  that 
the  earth  opened  and  swallowed  up  any 
man  alive  but  a  company  of  rebellious, 
disobedient  people,  who  rose  up  against 
Moses  and  Aaron,  the  prince  of  the  people, 
and  the  priest  of  God.  For  obedience  is  the 
most  necessary  thing  in  the  world,  and  "  cor- 
ruptio  optimi  est  pessima  :"  disobedience  is 
the  greatest  evil  in  the  world,  and  that  alone 
which  can  destroy  it.# 

My  text  is  instanced  in  the  matter  of  obe- 
dience to  God ;  but  yet  the  case  is  so,  that 
though  I  shall,  in  the  first  place,  discourse 
of  our  obedience  to  man,  I  shall  not  set  one 
foot  aside  from  the  main  intention  of  it  ;  be- 
cause obedience  to  our  superiors  is  really, 
and  is  accounted  to  be,  obedience  to  God ;  for 
they  are  sent  by  God;  they  are  his  vicege- 
rents, his  ministers,  and  his  ambassadors." 
"  Apostolus  cujusque  est  quisque,"  say  the 
Jews;  "Every  man's  apostle  is  himself;" 
and  "he  that  heareth  or  despiseth  you,"  said 
Christ,  "heareth  or  despiseth  me  :"  and  the 
reason  is  very  evident, — because  it  is  not  to 
be  expected  that  God  should  speak  to  us  by 
himself,  but  sometimes  by  angels,  sometimes 
by  prophets,  once  by  his  Son,  and  always 
by  his  servants. 

Now  I  desire  two  things  to  be  observed  : — 
First :  We  may  as  well  perceive  that  God 
speaks  to  us,  when  he  uses  the  ministry  of 
men,  as  when  he  uses  the  ministry  of  an- 
gels :  one  is  as  much  declared  and  as  cer- 
tain as  the  other.  And  if  it  be  said,  a  man 
may  pretend  to  come  from  God,  and  yet  de- 
liver nothing  but  his  own  errand,  that  is  no 
strange  thing:  but  remember  also  that  St. 
Paul  puts  this  supposition  in  the  case  of  an 
angel,  "  If  an  angel  preach  any  other  gos- 
pel ;"  and  we  know  that  many  angels  come 
like  angels  of  light,  who  yet  leach  nothing 


*  Nullum  malum  majus  aut  infeliciter  feracius 
quam  inobedientia. — Seneca. 


but  the  ways  of  darkness.  So  that  we  are 
still  as  much  bound  to  obey  our  superior  as 
to  obey  an  angel:  a  man  is  "pauld  minor 
angelis,"  "  a  little  lower  than  the  angels ;" 
but  we  are  much  lower  than  the  king.  Con- 
sider,'then,  with  what  fear  and  love  we 
should  receive  an  angel;  and  so  let  us  re- 
ceive all  those  whom  God  hath  sent  to  us, 
and  set  over  us ;  for  they  are  no  less ;  less, 
indeed,  in  their  persons,  but  not  in  their 
authorities.  Nay,  the  case  is  nearer  yet; 
for  we  are  not  only  bound  to  receive  God's 
deputies  as  God's  angels,  but  as  God  him- 
self: for  it  is  the  power  of  God  in  the  hand 
of  a  man,  and  "  he  that  resists,  resists  God's 
ordinance."  And  I  pray  remember,  that 
there  is  not  only  no  power  greater  than  God's, 
but  there  is  no  other ;  for  all  power  is  his. 
The  consequent  of  this  is  plain  enough;  I 
need  say  no  more  of  it:  it  is  all  one  to  us 
who  commands,  God,  or  God's  vicegerent. 
This  was  the  first  thing  to  be  observed. 

Secondly :  There  can  be  but  two  things 
in  the  world  required  to  make  obedience 
necessary;  the  greatness  of  the  authority, 
and  the  worthiness  of  the  thing.  In  the 
first  you  see  the  case  can  have  no  difference, 
because  the  thing  itself  is  but  one  :  there  is 
but  one  authority  in  the  world,  and  that  is 
God's  ;  as  there  is  but  one  sun„  whose  light 
is  diffused  into  all  kingdoms.  But  is  there 
not  great  difference  in  the  thing  commanded? 
Yes,  certainly  there  is  some  ;  but  nothing  to 
warrant  disobedience :  for,  whatever  the 
thing  be,  it  may  be  commanded  by  man,  if 
it  be  not  countermanded  by  God.  For, 

I.  It  is  not  required  that  every  thing  com- 
manded should  of  itself  be  necessary  ; — for 
God  himself  oftentimes  commands  things, 
which  have  in  them  no  other  excellency 
than  that  of  obedience.  What  made  Abra- 
ham "  the  friend  of  God  ?"  and  what  made 
his  offer  to  kill  his  son  to  be  so  pleasing  to 
God  ?  It  had  been  naturally  no  very  great 
good  to  cut  the  throat  of  a  little  child ;  but 
only  that  it  was  obedience.  What  excel- 
lency was  there  in  the  journeys  of  the  patri- 
archs from  Mesopotamia  to  Syria,  from  the 
land  of  Canaan  into  Egypt  ?  and  what 
thanks  could  the  sons  of  Israel  deserve,  that 
they  sat  still  upon  the  seventh  day  of  the 
week?  and  how  can  a  man  be  dearer  unto 
God  by  keeping  of  a  feast,  or  building  of  a 
booth,  or  going  to  Jerusalem,  or  cutting  off 
the  foreskin  of  a  boy,  or  washing  their  hands 
and  garments  in  fair  water?  There  was 
nothing  in  these  things  but  the  obedience. 
And  when  our  blessed  Lord  himself  came 
2N 


446 


A  SERMON  PRE 


ACHED  AT  THE 


Serm.  V. 


to  his  servant,  to  take  of  him  the  baptism 
of  repentance,  alas !  he  could  take  nothing 
but  the  water  and  the  ceremony  ;  for,  as 
Tertullian  observes,  he  was  "  nullius  poeni- 
tentise  debitor;"  he  was,  indeed,  "a  just 
person,  and  needed  no  repentance;"  but 
even  so  it  "  became  him  to  fulfil  all  right- 
eousness:" but  yet  even  then  it  was  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  did  descend  upon  his  holy 
head,  and  crowned  that  obedience,  though 
it  were  but  a  ceremony.  Obedience,  you 
see,  may  be  necessary,  when  the  law  is  not 
so  :  for  in  these  cases,  God's  Son  and  God's 
servants  did  obey  in  things,  which  were 
made  good  only  by  the  commandment :  and 
if  we  do  so  in  the  instances  of  human  laws, 
there  is  nothing  to  be  said  against  it,  but 
that  what  was  not  of  itself  necessary,  is 
made  so  by  the  authority  of  the  commander, 
and  the  force  of  the  commandment:  but 
there  is  no  more  in  it  than  so.  For, 

2.  We  pretend  to  be  willing  to  obey,  even 
in  things  naturally  not  necessary,  if  a  Di- 
vine command  does  interpose ;  but  if  it  be 
only  a  commandment  of  man,  and  the  thing 
be  not  necessary  of  itself,  then  we  desire  to 
be  excused.  But  will  we  do  nothing  else? 
We  ourselves  will  do  many  things  that  God 
hath  not  commanded;  and  may  not  our  su- 
periors command  us,  in  many  cases,  to  do 
what  we  may  lawfully  do  without  a  com- 
mandment? Can  we  become  a  law  unto 
ourselves,  and  cannot  the  word  and  power 
of  our  superiors  also  become  a  law  unto 
us?  hath  God  given  more  to  a  private  than 
to  a  public  hand?  But  consider  the  ill  con- 
sequents of  this  fond  opinion.  Are  all  the 
practices  of  Geneva  or  Scotland  recorded  in 
the  word  of  God?  are  the  trifling  ceremo- 
nies of  their  public  penance  recorded  in  the 
four  Gospels?  are  all  the  rules  of  decency, 
and  all  "  things  that  are  of  good  report," 
and  all  the  measures  of  prudence,  and  the 
laws  of  peace  and  war,  and  the  customs  of 
the  churches  of  God,  and  the  lines  of  public 
honesty,  are  all  these  described  to  us  by  the 
laws  of  God?  If  they  be,  let  us  see  and 
read  them,  that  we  may  have  an  end  to  all 
questions  and  minute  cases  of  conscience : 
but  if  they  be  not,  and  yet  by  the  word  of 
God  these  are  bound  upon  us  in  general, 
and  no  otherwise  j  then  it  follows,  that  the 
particulars  of  all  these,  which  may  be  infi- 
nite, and  are  innumerable,  yet  may  be  the 
matter  of  human  laws ;  and  then  are  bound 
upon  us  by  the  power  of  God,  put  into  the 
hands  of  man.  The  consequent  is  this,  that 
whatsoever  is  commanded  by  our  superiors, 


according  to  the  will  of  God,  or  whatso- 
ever is  not  against  it,  is,  of  necessity,  to  be 
obeyed. 

3.  But  what  if  our  princes  or  our  prelates 
command  things  against  the  word  of  God? 
What  then  ?  Why  nothing  then,  but  that 
we  must  obey  God,  and  not  man ;  there  is 
no  dispute  of  that.  But  what  then  again  ? 
Why,  therefore,  says  the  papist,  "  I  will  not 
obey  the  protestant  kings,  because,  against 
the  word  of  God,  they  command  me  to  come 
to  church,  where  heresy  is  preached;" — 
"  and  I  will  not  acknowledge  the  bishops," 
saith  the  presbyterian,  "  because  they  are 
against  the  discipline  and  sceptre  of  Jesus 
Christ;"  and  the  independent  hates  paro- 
chial meetings,  and  is  wholly  for  a  gathered 
church,  and  supposes  this  to  be  the  practice 
apostolical;  and  "I  will  not  bring  my  child 
to  baptism,"  saith  the  anabaptist,  "  because 
God  calls  none  but  believers  to  that  sacra- 
ment ;"  and  "  I  will  acknowledge  no  clergy, 
no  lord,  no  master,"  saith  the  quaker,  "  be- 
cause Christ  commands  us  to  '  call  no  man 
master  on  the  earth,  and  be  not  called  of 
men  rabbi/  "  And  if  you  call  upon  these 
men  to  obey  the  authority  God  hath  set 
over  them,  they  tell  you  with  one  voice, 
with  all  their  hearts,  as  far  as  the  word  of 
God  will  give  them  leave ;  but  God  is  to  be 
obeyed,  and  not  man ;  and,  therefore,  if  you 
put  the  laws  in  execution  against  them, 
they  will  obey  you  passively,  because  you 
are  stronger;  and  so  long  as  they  know  it, 
they  will  not  stir  against  you ;  but  they,  in 
the  mean  time,  are  little  less  than  martyrs, 
and  you  no  better  than  persecutors. 

What  shall  we  do  now  ?  for  here  is  evi- 
dently a  great  heap  of  disorder :  they  all  con 
fess  that  authority  must  be  obeyed,  but  whet, 
you  come  to  the  trial,  none  of  them  all  wil 
do  it,  and  they  think  they  are  not  bound  : 
but  because  their  opinions,  being  contrary 
cannot  all  be  right,  and,  it  may  be,  none  oi 
them  are, — it  is  certain,  that  all  this  while 
authority  is  infinitely  wronged  and  preju- 
diced amongst  them,  when  all  fantastic  opi- 
nions shall  be  accounted  a  sufficient  reason 
to  despise  it.  I  hope  the  presbyterian  will 
join  with  the  protestant,  and  say,  that  the 
papist,  and  the  Socinian,  and  the  independ- 
ent, and  the  anabaptist,  and  the  quaker, 
are  guilty  of  rebellion  and  disobedience,  for 
all  their  pretence  of  the  word  of  God  to  be 
on  their  side :  and  I  am  more  sure  that  all 
these  will  join  with  the  protestant,  and  say, 
that  the  presbyterian  hath  no  reason  to  dis- 
obey authority  upon  pretence  of  their  new 


Serm.  V. 


OPENING  OF  THE  PARLIAMENT. 


447 


government,  concerning  which  they  do  but 
dream  dreams,  when  they  think  they  see 
visions.  Certain  it  is  that  the  biggest  part 
:>f  dissenters  in  the  whole  world  are  crimi- 
nally disobedient;  and  it  is  a  thousand  to 
one  but  that  authority  is  in  the  right  against 
them,  and  ought  to  be  obeyed.  It  remains 
now,  in  the  next  place,  that  we  inquire  what 
authority  is  to  do  in  this  case,  and  what 
these  sectaries  and  recusants  are  to  do ;  for 
these  are  two  things  worth  inquiry. 

1.  Concerning  authority.  All  disagreeing 
persons,  to  cover  their  foul  shame  of  rebel- 
lion or  disobedience,  pretend  conscience  for 
their  judge,  and  the  Scripture  for  their  law. 
Now  if  these  men  think,  that,  by  this  means, 
they  proceed  safely,  upon  the  same  ground 
the  superior  may  do  what  he  thinks  to  be 
his  duty,  and  be  at  least  as  safe  as  they. 
If  the  rebellious  subject  can  think,  that,  by 
God's  law,  he  ought  not  to  obey,  the  prince 
may,  at  the  same  time,  think,  that,  by  God's 
law,  he  ought  to  punish  him :  and  it  is  as 
certain  that  he  is  justly  punished,  as  he 
thinks  it  certain  he  reasonably  disobeys.  Or 
is  the  conscience  of  the  superior  bound  to 
relax  his  laws,  if  the  inferior  tells  him  so  ? 
Can  the  prince  give  laws  to  the  people's 
will,  and  can  the  people  give  measures  to 
the  prince's  understanding  ?  If  any  one  of 
the  people  can  prescribe  or  make  it  neces- 
sary to  change  the  law,  then  every  one  can ; 
and  by  this  time  every  new  opinion  will  in- 
troduce a  new  law,  and  that  law  shall  be 
obeyed  by  him  only  that  hath  a  mind  to  it, 
and  that  will  be  a  strange  law,  that  binds  a 
man  only  to  do  his  own  pleasure.  But  be- 
cause the  king's  conscience  is  to  him  as  sure 
a  rule,  as  the  conscience  of  any  disobedient 
subject  can  be  to  himself,  the  prince  is  as 
much  bound  to  do  his  duty  in  government, 
as  the  other  can  be  to  follow  his  conscience 
in  disagreeing;  and  the  consequent  will  be, 
that  whether  the  subject  be  right  or  wrong 
in  the  disputation,  it  is  certain  he  hath  the 
just  reward  of  disobedience  in  the  conclu- 
sion. If  one  man's  conscience  can  be  the 
measure  of  another  man's  action,  why  shall 
not  the  prince's  conscience  be  the  subject's 
measure?  But  if  it  cannot,  then  the  prince 
is  not  to  depart  from  his  own  conscience, 
but  proceed  according  to  the  laws  which  he 
judges  just  and  reasonable. 

2.  The  superior  is  tied,  by  the  laws  of 
Christian  charity,  so  far  to  bend  in  the  minis- 
tration of  his  laws,  as  to  pity  the  invincible 
ignorance  and  weakness  of  his  abused  peo- 
ple, u  qui  devoratur  a  malis  pastoribus," 


'  as  St.  Jerome's  expression  is,  "  that  are  de- 
voured by  their  evil  shepherds;"  but  this  is 
to  last  no  longer  than  till  the  ignorance  can 
be  cured,  and  the  man  be  taught  his  duty; 
for  whatsoever  comes  after  this,  looks  so 
like  obstinacy,  that  no  laws  in  the  world 
judge  it  to  be  any  thing  else.    And  then, 
secondly,  this  also  is  to  be  understood  to  be 
the  duty  of  superiors  only  in  matters  of  mere 
opinion,  not  relating  to  practice.    For  no 
man's  opinion  must  be  suffered  to  do  mis- 
I  chief,  to  disturb  the  peace,  to  dishonour  the 
'government;  not  only  because  every  dis- 
j  agreeing  person  can,  to  serve  his  end,  pre- 
j  tend  his  conscience,  and  so  claim  impu- 
nity for  his  villany;  but  also  because  those 
things,  which  concern  the  good  of  mankind 
:  and  the  peace  of  kingdoms,  are  so  plainly 
taught,  that  no  man  who  thinks  himself  so 
j  wise  as  to  be  fit  to  oppose  authority,  can  be 
i  so  foolish  as  in  these  things  not  to  know  his 
.  duty.    In  other  things,  if  the  opinion  does 
j  neither  bite  nor  scratch,  if  it  dwells  at  home 
in  the  house  of  understanding,  and  wanders 
I  not  in  the  outhouses  of  passion  and  popu- 
j  lar  orations,  the  superior  imposes  no  laws, 
.  and  exacts  no  obedience,  and  destroys  no 
!  liberty,  and  gives  no  restraint :  this  is  the 
j  part  of  authority. 

2.  The  next  inquiry  is,  What  must  the 
disagreeing  subject  do,  when  he  supposes 
|  the  superior's  command  is  against  the  law 
I  of  God  ?    I  answer,  that  if  he  thinks  so, 
j  and  thinks  true,  he  must  not  obey  his  supe- 
rior in  that:  but  because  most  men  that 
think  so,  think  amiss, — there  are  many  par- 
ticulars fit,  by  such  persons,  to  be  consi- 
dered. 

1.  Let  such  men  think  charitably  of  others, 
and  that  all  are  not  fools  or  madmen,  who 
are  not  of  the  same  opinion  with  themselves 
or  their  own  little  party.  2.  Let  him  think 
himself  as  fallible  and  subject  to  mistake  as 
other  men  are.  3.  But  let  him  by  no  means 
think,  that  every  opinion  of  his  is  an  in- 
spiration from  God  ;  for  that  is  the  pride  and 
madness  of  a  pretended  religion:  such  a 
man  is  to  be  cured  by  physic;  for  he  could 
not  enter  into  that  persuasion  by  reason  or 
experience,  and  therefore  it  must  enter  into 
him  by  folly  or  the  anger  of  God.  4.  From 
whence  it  will  naturally  follow,  that  he 
ought  to  think  his  opinion  to  be  uncertain, 
and  that  he  ought  not  to  behave  himself 
like  the  man  that  is  too  confident;  but  be- 
cause his  obedience  is  duty,  and  his  duty 
certain,  he  will  find  it  more  wise,  and  safe, 
and  holy,  to  leave  that  which  is  disputable, 


448  A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE  Serm.  V. 


and  pursue  that  which  is  demonstrable;  to 
change  his  uncertain  opinion  for  his  certain 
duty :  for  it  is  twenty  to  one  but  he  is  de- 
ceived in  his  opinion ;  but  if  he  be,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  whatsoever  his  conscience  be,  yet, 
in  his  separation  from  authority,  he  is  a 
sinner. 

2.  Every  man  who,  by  his  opinion,  is  en- 
gaged against  authority,  should  do  well  to 
study  his  doubtful  opinion  less,  and  humi- 
lity and  obedience  more.  But  you  say,  that 
this  concerns  not  me;  for  my  disagreeing  is 
not  in  a  doubtful  matter,  but  I  am  sure  I  am 
in  the  right;  there  are  no  ifs  and  ands  in  my 
case.  Well,  it  may  be  so  :  but  were  it  not 
b-tter  that  you  did  doubt?  "A  wise  man 
feareth,"  saith  Solomon,  "  and  departeth 
from  evil ;  but  a  fool  rageth  and  is  confi- 
dent:" and  the  difference  between  a  learned 
man  and  a  novice  is  this,  that  the  young 
fellow  crieth  out,  "lam  sure  it  is  so;"  the 
better  learned  answers,  loaf  xai  to  td%a, 
"  Possibly  it  may,  and  peradventure  it  is  so, 
but  I  pray  inquire :"  and  he  is  the  best  di- 
viner, [idvtis  dpidtos  «OT"tj  iixd^tv  xaXwj.  "  he 
is  the  best  judge  that  conjectures  best,"  not 
he  that  is  most  confident;  for,  as  Xeno- 
phanes  said  wisely,  "Man  does  but  conjec- 
ture, but  God  only  knows ;"  and  it  is  no 
disparagement  to  a  wise  man  to  learn,  and, 
— by  suspecting  the  fallibility  of  things,  and 
his  own  aptness  to  mistake, — to  walk  pru- 
dently and  safely,  with  an  eye  to  God,  and 
an  ear  open  to  his  superior.  Some  men  are 
drunk  with  fancy,  and  mad  with  opinion. 
Who  believe  more  strongly  than  boys  and 
women?  who  are  so  hard  to  be  persuaded 
as  fools  ?  and  who  so  readily  suspect  their 
teachers  as  they  who  are  governed  by  chance, 
and  know  not  the  intrinsic  measures  of  good 
and  evil?  "  Q,ui  pauca  considerat,  de  facili 
pronunciat ;"  "  it  is  a  little  learning,  and  not 
enough,  that  makes  men  conclude  hastily," 
and  clap  fast  hold  on  the  conclusion,  before 
they  have  well  weighed  the  premises ;  but 
experience  and  humility  would  teach  us 
modesty  and  fear. 

3.  In  all  disputes,  he  that  obeys  his  supe- 
rior can  never  be  a  heretic  in  the  estimate 
of  law,  and  he  can  never  be  a  schismatic  in 
the  point  of  conscience ;  so  that  he  certainly 
avoids  one  great  death,  and  very  probably 
the  other.  "  Res  judicata  pro  veritate  acci- 
pitur,"  saith  the  law:  "If  the  judge  have 
given  sentence,  that  sentence  is  supposed  a 
truth:"  and  Cassiodorus  said,  according  to 
the  sentence  of  the  law,  "  Nimis  iniquum 
est,  ut  ilk  patiatur  dispendium,  qui  impe- 


rium  fecit  alienum."  Our  obedience  se- 
cures us  from  the  imputation  of  evil,  and 
error  does  but  seldom  go  in  company  with 
obedience.  But,  however,  there  is  this  ad- 
vantage to  be  gotten  by  obedience ;  that  he 
who  prefers  the  sentence  of  the  law  before 
his  own  opinion,  does  do  an  act  of  great 
humility,  and  exercises  the  grace  of  modes- 
ty, and  takes  the  best  way  to  secure  his  con- 
science and  the  public  peace,  and  pleases  the 
government  which  he  is  bound  to  please, 
and  pursues  the  excellencies  of  unity,  and 
promotes  charity  and  godly  love;  whereas, 
on  the  other  side,  he  that  goes  by  himself, 
apart  from  his  superior,  is  always  material- 
ly a  schismatic,  and  is  more  likely  to  be  de- 
ceived by  his  own  singularity,  and  preju- 
dice, and  weakness,  than  by  following  the 
guides  God  hath  set  over  him.  And  if  he 
loses  truth,  certainly  he  will  get  nothing 
else :  for  by  so  doing  we  lose  our  peace  too, 
and  give  public  offence,  and  arm  authority 
against  us,  and  are  scandalous  in  law,  and 
pull  evil  upon  our  heads ;  and  all  this  for  a 
proud  singularity,  or  a  trifling  opinion,  in 
which  we  are  not  so  likely  to  be  deceived, 
if  we  trust  ourselves  less,  and  the  public 
more.  "  In  omnibus  falli  possum,  in  obe- 
diential non  possum,"  said  St.  Teresa;  "I 
can  in  every  thing  else,  but  in  obedience  I 
can  never  be  deceived."  And  it  is  very  re- 
markable in  my  text,  that  "  rebellion"  or 
ft  disobedience"  is  compared  to  "  the  sin  of 
witchcraft."  Indeed,  it  seems  strange ;  for 
the  meaning  of  it  is  not  only  that  a  rebel  is 
as  much  hated  by  God  as  a  witch,  but  it 
means  that  the  sins  are  alike  in  their  very 
natures.  "  Quasi  peccatum  divinationis," 
saith  the  Vulgar  Latin  ;  they  that  disobey 
authority,  trusting  in  their  own  opinions, 
are  but  like  witches  or  diviners;  that  is, 
they  are  led  by  an  evil  spirit ;  pride  and  a 
lying  and  deceiving  spirit  is  their  teacher, 
and  their  answers  are  seldom  true;  for 
though  they  pretend  the  truth  of  God  for 
their  disobedience,  yet  they  (i  fall  into  the 
deception  of  the  devil ;"  and  that  is  the  end 
of  their  soothsaying.  And  let  me  add  this, 
that  when  a  man  distrusts  his  superior,  and 
trusts  himself,  if  he  misses  truth,  it  will  be 
greatly  imputed  to  him;  he  shall  feel  the 
evil  of  his  error  and  the  shame  of  his  pride, 
the  reproach  of  his  folly  and  the  punish- 
ment of  his  disobedience,  the  dishonour  of 
singularity,  and  the  restlessness  of  schism, 
and  the  scorn  of  the  multitude.  But,  on 
the  other  side,  if  he  obey  authority,  and  yet 
be  deceived,  he  is  greatly  excused  ;  he  erred 


Serm.  V. 


OPENING  OF  PARLIAMENT. 


449 


on  the  safer  side,  he  is  defended  by  the 
hands  of  many  virtues,  and  gets  peace  and 
love  of  the  congregation. 

You  see  the  blessings  of  obedience,  even 
in  the  questions  and  matters  of  religion  ;  but 
I  have  something  more  to  say,  and  it  is  not 
only  of  great  use  to  appease  the  tumultuary 
disputations  and  arguings  of  religion,  which 
have  lately  disturbed  these  nations,  but  is 
proper  to  be  spoken  to,  and  to  be  reduced  to 
practice,  by  this  honourable  and  high  court 
of  parliament. 

That  which  I  am  to  say,  is  this : — You 
have  no  other  way  of  peace,  no  better  way 
to  appease  and  quiet  the  quarrels  in  religion 
which  have  been  too  long  among  us,  but  by 
reducing  all  men  to  obedience,  and  all  ques- 
tions to  the  measures  of  the  laws ;  for  they 
on  both  sides  pretend  Scripture,  but  one 
side  only  can  pretend  to  the  laws ;  and  they 
that  do  admit  no  authority  above  their  own 
to  expound  Scripture,  cannot  deny  but  kings 
and  parliaments  are  the  makers  and  proper 
expounders  of  our  laws ;  and  if  ever  you 
mean  to  have  "truth  and  peace  kiss  each 
other,"  let  no  man  dispute  against  your 
laws.  For  did  not  our  blessed  Saviour  say, 
that  an  oath  is  the  end  of  all  questions,  and, 
after  depositions  are  taken,  all  judges  go  to 
sentence  ?  What  oaths  are  to  private  ques- 
tions, that  laws  are  to  public.  And  if  it  be 
said  that  laws  may  be  mistaken,  it  is  true ; 
but  may  not  an  oath  also  be  a  perjury  ?  and 
yet,  because,  in  human  affairs,  we  have  no 
greater  certainty,  and  greater  than  God  gives 
we  may  not  look  for, — let  the  laws  be  the 
last  determination  ;  and,  in  wise  and  reli- 
gious governments,  no  disputation  is  to  go 
beyond  them. 

2.  But  this  is  not  only  true  in  religious 
prudence  and  plain  necessity,  but  this  is  the 
way  that  God  hath  appointed,  and  that  he 
hath  blessed,  and  that  he  hath  intended  to 
be  the  means  of  ending  all  questions.  This 
we  learn  from  St.  Paul,*  "  I  exhort  that  first 
of  all,  prayers,  and  supplications,  and  inter- 
cessions, and  giving  of  thanks,  be  made  for 
all  men  j  for  kings,  and  all  that  are  in  autho- 
rity." For  all;  for  parliaments  and  for 
councils,  for  bishops  and  for  magistrates;  it 
is  for  all,  and  for  kings  above  all.  Well;  to 
what  purpose  is  all  this?  "That  we  may 
lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life,  in  all  godli- 
ness and  honesty."  Mark  that:  "kings  and 
all  that  are  in  authority,"  are  by  God  ap- 
pointed to  be  the  means  of  obtaining  unity 


*  1  Tim.  ii.  1. 
57 


and  peace  in  godliness,  iv  £vorf|3aat$,  "  in  all 
the  true  and  godly  worshippings"  of  God 

,no  unity  in  religion  without  kings  and  bish 
ops,  and  those  that  are  in  authority. 

3.  And,  indeed,  because  this  is  God's 

i  way  of  ending  our  controversies;  the  matter 

\  of  authority  is  highly  to  be  regarded.  If 
you  suffer  the  authority  of  the  king  to  be 
lessened,  to  be  scrupled,  to  be  denied  in 

1  ecclesiastical  affairs,  you  have  no  way  left 
to  silence  the  tongues  and  hands  of  gain- 

\  saying  people.  But  so  it  is ;  the  king's 
authority  is  appointed  and  enabled  by  God 

i  to  end  our  questions  of  religion  :  "  Divinatio 
in  labiis  regis"  (saith  Solomon  *)  "  in  judicio 
non  errabit  os  ejus:"  "Divination  and  a 

j  wise  sentence  in  the  lips  of  the  king,  and 
his  mouth  shall  not  err  in  judgment."  In 

I  all  Scripture  there  is  not  so  much  for  the 
pope's  infallibility,  but  by  this,  it  appears 
there  is  divinity  in  the  king's  sentence ;  for 
God  gives  to  kings,  who  are  his  vicegerents, 
a  peculiar  spirit.    And  when  Justinian  had, 

'  out  of  the  sense  of  Julian  the  lawyer,  ob- 
served that  there  were  many  cases,  for 
which  law  made  no  provision,  he  adds  : 
"  If  any  such  shall  happen, "f  "  Augustum 
imploretur  remedium,"  "  run  to  the  king  for 
remedy  ;"  for  therefore  God  hath  set  the  im- 
perial fortune  over  human  affairs,  "  lit  possit 
omnia  quae  noviter  contingunt,  et  emendare 

;  et  componere,  et  modis  ac  regulis  competenti- 
bus  tradere,"  "that  the  king  may  amend 
and  rule  and  compose  every  new  and  arising 
question."    And  it  is  not  to  be  despised, 

;  but  is  a  great  indication  of  this  truth,  that 
the  answers  of  the  Roman  princes  and 
judges  recorded  in  the  civil  law  are  such, 
that  all  nations  of  the  world  do  approve 
them,  and  are  a  great  testimony  how  the 
sentences  of  kings  ought  to  be  valued,  even 
in  matters  of  religion,  and  questions  of  great- 
est doubt.  "  Bona  conscientia  scyphus  est 
Josephi,"  said  the  old  abbot  of  Kells  ;j  "  A 
good  conscience  is  like  Joseph's  cup,"  in 
which  our  lord  the  king  divines.  And  since 
God  hath  blessed  us  with  so  good,  so  just, 
so  religious,  and  so  wise  a  prince,  let  the 
sentence  of  his  laws  be  our  last  resort,  and 
no  questions  be  permitted  after  his  judgment 
and  legal  determination;  for  wisdom  saith, 

, "  By  me  princes  rule,  by  me  they  decree 
justice :"  and  therefore  the  spirit  of  the 
king  is  a  divine  eminency,  and  is  as  the 
Spirit  of  the  most  high  God. 

*  Prov.  xvi.  10. 

tLib.  yiii.  cod.  de  Veteri  Jure  enucleando. 
X  Petrus  Cellensis,  lib.  de  Conscientia. 
2n2 


450  A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE  Serm.  V. 


4.  Let  no  man  be  too  busy  in  disputing 
the  laws  of  his  superiors  ;  for  a  man  by  that 
seldom  gets  good  to  himself,  but  seldom 
misses  to  do  mischief  unto  others :  Mrj  ept£e 
yovivsi  xav  8lxaia  ftiy#$j  said  one  in  Laertius. 
Will  a  son  contend  with  his  father?  that  is 
not  decent,  though  the  son  speak  that  which 
is  right;  he  may,  possibly,  say  well  enough, 
but  he  does  do  very  ill;  not  only  because 
he  does  not  pay  his  duty  and  reverential 
fear,  but  because  it  is  in  itself  very  often 
unreasonable  to  dispute  concerning  the  com- 
mand of  our  superior,  whether  it  be  good 
or  not;  for  the  very  commandment  can  make 
it  not  only  good,  but  a  necessary  good.  "It 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us, 
to  lay  on  you  no  greater  burden  than  these 
necessary  things,"  said  the  council  of  Jeru- 
salem;  and  yet  these  things  were  not  ne- 
cessary, but  as  they  were  commanded :  to 
abstain  from  a  strangled  hen  or  a  bloody 
pudding,  could  not  of  themselves  be  necessa- 
ry ;  but  the  commandment  came,  authority 
did  interpose,  and  then  they  were  made  so. 

5.  But  then  besides  the  advantages,  both 
of  the  spirit  and  the  authority  of  kings,  in 
matter  of  questions,  the  laws  and  decrees  of 
a  national  church  ought,  upon  the  account 
of  their  own  advantages,  to  be  esteemed  as 
a  final  sentence  in  all  things  disputed.  The 
thing  is  a  plain  command :  "  Remember  them 
which  have  the  rule  over  you,  who  have 
spoken  unto  you  the  word  of  God."*  This 
tells  what  rulers  he  means;  rulers  eccle- 
siastical; and  what  of  them?  "whose  faith 
follow,"  they  must  "praeire  in  articulis ;" 
they  are  not  masters  of  your  faith,  but 
guides  of  it;  and  "they  that  sit  in  Moses' 
chair"  must  be  heard  and  obeyed,  said  our 
blessed  Saviour.  These  words  were  not 
said  for  nothing ;  and  they  were  nothing,  if 
their  authority  were  nothing. 

For  between  the  laws  of  a  church  and 
the  opinion  of  a  subject,  the  comparison  is 
the  same  as  between  a  public  spirit  and  a 
private.  The  public  is  far  the  better;  the 
daughter  of  God,  and  the  mother  of  a  bless- 
ing, and  always  dwells  in  light.  The  pub- 
lic spirit  hath  already  passed  the  trial,  it 
hath  been  "subjected  to  the  prophets,"  tried 
and  searched  and  approved :  the  private 
is  yet  to  be  examined.  The  public  spirit  is 
uniform  and  apt  to  be  followed;  the  private 
is  various  and  multiform  as  chance,  and  no 
man  can  follow  him  that  hath  it;  for  if  he 
follows  one,  he  is  reproved  by  a  thousand ; 

*  Heb,  xiii,  7. 


and  if  he  changes,  he  may  get  a  shame  but 
no  truth ;  and  he  can  never  rest  but  in  the 
arms  and  conduct  of  his  superior.  When 
Aaron  and  Miriam  murmured  against  Moses, 
God  told  them  they  were  prophets  of  an  in- 
ferior rank  than  Moses  was.  God  communi- 
cated himself  to  them  in  dreams  and  visions; 
but  the  ruach  hakkodesh  wpn  fin  "  the  pub- 
lic spirit  of  Moses"  their  prince,  that  was 
higher:  and  what  then?  "Wherefore,  then," 
(God  said,*)  "  were  ye  not  afraid  to  speak 
against  my  servant  Moses?"  plainly  teach- 
ing us,  that  where  there  is  a  more  excellent 
spirit,  they  that  have  a  spirit  less  excellent, 
ought  to  be  afraid  to  speak  against  it.  And 
this  is  the  full  case  of  the  private  and  public 
spirit;  that  is,  of  a  subject  speaking  against 
the  spirit  and  the  laws  of  the  church.  In  hea- 
ven, and  in  the  air,  and  in  all  the  regions  of 
spirits,  the  spirit  of  a  lower  order  dares  not 
speak  against  the  spirit  of  a  higher ;  and, 
therefore,  for  a  private  spirit  to  oppose  the 
public,  is  a  disorder  greater  than  is  in  hell 
itself. 

To  conclude  this  point:  let  us  consider 
whether  it  were  not  an  intolerable  mischief, 
if  the  judges  should  give  sentence  in  causes 
of  instance  by  the  measures  of  their  own 
fancy,  and  not  by  the  laws;  who  would  en- 
dure them?  and  yet  why  may  they  not  do 
that  as  well  any  ecclesiastic  person  preach 
religion,  not  which  the  laws  allow,  but  what 
is  taught  him  by  his  own  private  opinion  ? 
but  he  that  hath  the  laws  on  his  side,  hath 
ever  something  of  true  religion  to  warrant 
him,  and  can  never  want  a  great  measure  of 
justification  :  vofios  xoi  #wpa,  "  the  laws  and 
the  customs  of  the  country,"  are  the  results 
of  wise  counsels  or  long  experience;  they 
ever  comply  with  peace  and  public  benefit; 
and  nothing  of  this  can  be  said  of  private 
religions ;  for  they  break  the  peace,  and 
trouble  the  conscience,  and.  undo  govern- 
ment, and  despise  the  laws,  and  offend 
princes,  and  dishonour  the  wisdom  of  parlia- 
ments, and  destroy  obedience. 

Well ;  but  in  the  last  place :  but  if  wt 
cannot  do  what  the  laws  command,  we  will 
suffer  what  they  impose;  and  then  all  is 
well  again.  But,  first,  who  ever  did  so  that 
could  help  it?  And,  secondly,  this  talking 
of  passive  obedience  is  but  a  mockery;  for 
what  man  did  ever  say  the  laws  were  not 
good,  but  he  also  said  the  punishment  was 
unjust?  And,  thirdly,  which  of  all  the  re- 
cusants did  not  endeavour  to  get  ground 

*  Numb.  xii.  6,  7,  8. 


Serm  V. 


OPENING  OF  PARLIAMENT. 


451 


upon  the  laws,  and  secretlv  or  openly  as-  I down  in  the  law,  "  Praesumptio  est  pro 
perse  the  authority  that  put'him  to  pain  for  auctoritate  imponentis,"  the  presumption 

of  truth  ought  to  be  on  your  side;  and 


doing  that  which  he  calls  his  duty  ?  and  can 
any  man  boast  of  his  passive  obedience  that 
calls  it  persecution?  He  may  think  to 
please  himself,  but  he  neither  does  nor  says 
any  thing  that  is  for  the  reputation  of  the 
laws  :  such  men  are  like  them  that  sail  in  a 
storm ;  they  may  possibly  be  thrown  into  a 
harbour,  but  they  are  very  sick  all  the  way. 
But  after  all  this,  I  have  one  thing  to  ob- 


since  this  is  the  most  likely  way  for  truth, 
and  the  most  certain  way  for  peace,  you  are 
to  insist  in  this,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  find 
a  better. 

I  have  another  part  or  sense  of  my  text 
yet  to  handle ;  but  because  I  have  no  mare 
time  of  my  own,  and  I  will  not  take  any  of 
yours,  I  shall  only  do  it  in  a  short  exhorta- 


serve  to  such  persons,  that  such  a  passive  ition  to  this  honourable  auditory,  and  so 
obedience  as  this  does  not  acquit  a  man  be-  i  conclude. 

fore  God  ;  and  he  that  suffers  what  the  law  j  God  hath  put  a  royal  mantle,  and  fastened 
inflicts,  is  not  discharged  in  the  court  of  j  it  with  a  golden  clasp  upon  the  shoulder  of 
conscience,  but  there  is  still  a  sinner  and  a  ' the  king,  and  he  hath  given  you  the  judge's 
debtor:  for  "  the  law  is  not  made  for  the  robe;  the  king  holds  the  sceptre,  and  he 
righteous,  but  for  sinners;"  that  is,  the  j  hath  now  permitted  you  to  touch  the  golden 
punishment  appointed  by  the  law  falls  on  ball,  and  to  take  it  awhile  into  your  hand- 
him  only  that  hath  sinned  ;  but  an  offending  ling,  and  make  obedience  to  your  laws  to 
subject  cannot,  "  with  the  fruit  of  his  body, !  be  duty  and  religion  :  but  then  remember 
pay  for  the  sin  of  his  soul :"  when  he  does  that  the  first  in  every  kind  is  to  be  the  mea- 
evil,  he  must  suffer  evil ;  but  if  he  does  not  sure  of  the  rest;  you  cannot  reasonably 
repent  besides,  a  worse  thing  will  happen  expect  that  the  subjects  should  obey  you, 
to  him ;  for  we  are  not  tied  to  obey  only  for  unless  you  obey  God.  I  do  not  speak  this 
wrath,  but  also  for  conscience.  Passive  obe-  only  in  relation  to  your  personal  duty; 
dience  is  only  the  correspondent  of  wrath,  though  in  that  also  it  would  be  considered, 
but  it  is  the  active  obedience  that  is  required  that  all  the  bishops  and  ministers  of  religion 
by  conscience;  and  whatever  the  subject  are  bound  to  teach  the  same  doctrines  by 
suffers  for  his  own  fault,  it  matters  nothing  their  lives  as  they  do  by  their  sermons ;  and 
as  to  his  duty;  but  this  also  God  will  exact  what  we  are  to  do  in  the  matters  of  doctrine, 
at  the  hands  of  every  man,  that  is  placed  you  are  also  to  do  in  matter  of  laws ;  what 
under  authority.  is  reasonable  for  the  advantages  of  religion, 

I  have  now  told  you  the  sum  of  what  I  j  is  also  the  best  method  for  the  advantages 


had  to  say  concerning  obedience  to  laws 
and  to  your  own  government ;  and  it  will 
be  to  little  purpose  to  make  laws  in  matter 


of  government ;  we  must  preach  by  our 
good  example,  and  you  must  govern  by  it ; 
and  your  good  example  in  observing  the 


of  religion,  or  in  any  thing  else,  if  the  end  j  laws  of  religion,  will  strangely  endear  them 
of  it  be,  that  every  man  shall  choose  whether ;  to  the  affections  of  the  people.    But  I  shall 


he  will  obey  or  not:  and  if  it  be  questioned 
whether  you  be  deceived  or  not,  though  the 
suffering  such  a  question  is  a  great  diminu- 
tion to  your  authority,  yet  it  is  infinitely 
more  probable  that  you  are  in  the  right  than 
that  the  disobedient  subject  is  ;  because  you 
are  conducted  with  a  public  spirit,  you  have 
a  special  title  and  peculiar  portions  of  the 
promise  of  God's  assistance, — you  have  all 
the  helps  of  counsel  and  the  advantages  of 
deliberation, — you  have  the  Scriptures  and 
the  laws, — you  are  as  much  concerned  to 
judge  according  to  truth  as  any  man, — you 
have  the  principal  of  all  capacities  and  states 
of  men  to  assist  your  consultations, — you  j  alienae,"  said  Ammianus;  "Government  is 
are  the  most  concerned  for  peace, — and  to  nothing  but  a  care  that  all  men  be  saved." 
please  God  also  is  your  biggest  interest :  and,  |  And,  therefore,  take  care  that  men  do  not 
therefore,  it  cannot  be  denied  to  be  the  most;  destroy  their  souls  by  the  abominations  of 
reasonable  thing  in  the  world  which  is  set  an  evil  life:  see  that  God  be  obeyed;  take 


rather  speak  to  you  as  you  are  in  a  capacity 
of  union  and  government;  for  as  now  you 
have  a  new  power,  so  there  is  incumbent 
upon  you  a  special  duty. 

1.  Take  care  that  all  your  power  and  your 
counsels  be  employed  in  doing  honour  and 
advantages  to  piety  and  holiness.  Then 
you  obey  God  in  your  public  capacity, 
when  by  holy  laws,  and  wise  administra- 
tions, you  take  care  that  all  the  land  be  an 
obedient  and  a  religious  people.  For  then 
you  are  princely  rulers  indeed,  when  you 
take  care  of  the  salvation  of  a  whole  nation. 
"Nihil  aliud  est  imperium  nisi  cura  salutis 


452  A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE  Serm.  V. 


care  that  the  breach  of  the  laws  of  God  may  baser  than  for  a  man  to  be  a  thief,  yet 
not  be  unpunished.  The  best  way  to  make  sacrilege  is  no  dishonour;  and,  indeed,  to  be 
men  to  be  good  subjects  to  the  king,  is  to  an  oppressor  is  a  great  and  crying  sin,  yet 
make  them  good  servants  of  God.  Suffer  to  oppress  the  church,  to  diminish  her  rents, 
not  drunkenness  to  pass  with  impunity ;  let  I  to  make  her  beggarly  and  contemptible,  that 
lust  find  a  public  shame  ;  let  the  sons  of  the  !  is  no  offence  ;  and  that  though  it  is  not  law- 
nobility  and  gentry  no  more  dare  to  dis-  j  ful  "  to  despise  government,"  yet  if  it  be 
honour  God,  than  the  meanest  of  the  peo-  church-government,  that  then  the  case  is 
pie  shall;  let  baseness  be  basely  esteemed;  altered.  Take  heed  of  that;  for  then  God 
that  is,  put  such  characters  of  shame  upon  is  dishonoured,  when  any  thing  is  the  more 
dishonourable  crimes,  that  it  be  esteemed  |  despised  by  how  much  it  relates  nearer  unto 
more  against  the  honour  of  a  gentleman  to  j  God.  No  religion  ever  did  despise  their 
be  drunk  than  to  be  kicked — more  shame  to  j  chiefest  ministers;  and  the  Christian  reli- 
fornicate  than  to  be  caned:  and  for  honour's  jgion  gives  them  the  greatest  honour.  For 
sake,  and  the  reputation  of  Christianity,  take  '  honourable  priesthood  is  like  a  shower  from 
some  course,  that  the  most  unworthy  sins  j  heaven — it  causes  blessings  every  where ; 
of  the  world  have  not  reputation  added  to  |  but  a  pitiful,  a  disheartened,  a  discouraged 
them,  by  being  the  practice  of  gentlemen  clergy,  waters  the  ground  with  a  water-pot, 
and  persons  of  good  birth  and  fortunes,  here  and  there  a  little  good,  and  for  a  little 
Let  not  them  who  should  be  examples  of  while.  But  every  evil  man  can  destroy  all 
holiness,  have  an  impunity  and  a  license  to  that  work,  whenever  he  pleases.  Take 
provoke  God  to  anger ;  lest  it  be  said,  that  heed ;  in  the  world  there  is  not  a  greater 
in  Ireland  it  is  not  lawful  for  any  man  to  t  misery  can  happen  to  any  man,  than  to  be 
sin,  unless  he  be  a  person  of  quality.  "Op-ian  enemy  to  God's  church.  All  histories 
timus  est  reipublicae  status,  ubi  nihil  deest  of  Christendom  and  the  whole  book  of  God 
nisi  licentia  pereundi:"  "  In  a  common-  have  sad  records,  and  sad  threatenings,  and 
wealth,  that  is  the  best  state  of  things  where  ,  sad  stories  of  Korah,  and  Doeg,  and  Balaam, 
every  thing  can  be  had  but  a  leave  to  sin,  a  and  Jeroboam,  and  Uzzah,  and  Ananias, 
license  to  be  undone."*  and  Sapphira,  and  Julian,  and  of  heretics 

2.  As  God  is  thus  to  be  obeyed,  and  you  and  schismatics,  and  sacrilegious  ;  and  after 
are  to  take  care  that  he  be,  so  God  also  must !  all,  these  men  could  not  prevail  finally,  but 
be  honoured,  by  paying  that  reverence  and  paid  for  the  mischief  they  did,  and  ended 
religious  obedience  which  is  due  to  those  j  their  days  in  dishonour,  and  left  nothing  be- 
persons,  whom  he  hath  been  pleased  to  i  hind  them  but  the  memory  of  their  sin,  and 
honour,  by  admitting  them  to  the  dispensa- 1  the  record  of  their  curse, 
tion  of  his  blessings,  and  the  ministries  of  j  3.  In  the  same  proportion,  you  are  to 
your  religion.  For  certain  it  is,  this  is  a  take  care  of  all  inferior  relatives  of  God  and 
right  way  of  giving  honour  and  obedience  '  of  religion.  Find  out  methods  to  relieve 
to  God.  The  church  is,  in  some  very  pe-  the  poor,  to  accommodate  and  well  dispose 
culiar  manner,  the  "  portion,"  and  the  of  the  cures  of  souls ;  let  not  the  churches 
"  called,"  the  "care"  of  God;  and  it  will  lie  waste  and  in  ruinous  heaps,  to  the  di- 
concern  you,  in  pursuance  of  your  obedience  minution  of  religion,  and  the  reproach  of 
to  God,  to  take  care  that  they,  in  whose  the  nation,  lest  the  nations  abroad  say,  that 
hands  religion  is  to  be  ministered  and  con-  the  Britons  are  a  kind  of  Christians  that  have 
ducted,  be  not  discouraged.  For  what  your  no  churches;  for  churches,  and  courts  of 
judges  are  to  the  ministry  of  laws,  that  judicature,  and  the  public  defences  of  an 
your  bishops  are  in  the  ministries  of  reli-  imperial  city,  are  "res  sacrae ;"  they  are 
scion;  and  it  concerns  you  that  the  hands  venerable  in  law,  and  honourable  in  re- 
of  neither  of  them  be  made  weak :  and  so  ligion. 

long  as  you  make  religion  your  care,  and  But  that  which  concerns  us  most  is,  that 
holiness  your  measure,  you  will  not  think  we  all  keep  close  to  our  religion.  "Ad 
that  authority  is  the  more  to  be  despised,  magnas  reipublicse  utilitates  retinetur  religio 
because  it  is  in  the  hands  of  the  church;  or  Jin  civitatibus,"  said  Cicero;  by  religion, 
that  it  is  a  sin  to  "speak  evil  of  dignities,"  and  the  strict  preserving  of  it,  ye  shall  best 
unless  they  be  ecclesiastical;  but  that  they  preserve  the  interests  of  the  nation  :  and  ac- 
may  be  reviled,  and  that  though  nothing  is  cording  to  the  precept  of  the  apostle,  "  Mark 

 !  them  which  cause  divisions  amongst  you, 

*  Seneca-  I  contrary  to  the  doctrine  that  ye  have  re- 


Serm.  V. 


OPENING  OF  PARLIAMENT. 


453 


ceived,  and  avoid  them."*  For  I  beseech  [ 
you  to  consider,  all  you  that  are  true  pro- 
testants  ;  do  you  not  think  that  your  religion 
is  holy,  and  apostolical,  and  taught  by 
Christ,  and  pleasing  unto  God?  If  you  do  | 
not  think  so,  why  do  you  not  leave  it?  but 
if  you  do  think  so,  why  are  ye  not  zealous 
for  it  ?  Is  not  the  government  a  part  of  it? 
It  is  that  which  immures,  and  adorns,  and 
conducts  all  the  rest,  and  is  established  in 
the  thirty-sixth  article  of  the  church,  in  the 
public  service-book,  and  in  the  book  of  con- 
secration :  it  is,  therefore,  a  part  of  our  re- 
ligion, and  is  not  all  of  it  worth  preserving? 
[f  it  be,  then  they  which  make  schisms 
against  this  doctrine,  by  the  rule  of  the 
apostle,  are  to  be  avoided.  "  Beatus  qui 
prasdicat  verbum  inauditum  "  Blessed  is 
he  that  preaches  a  word  that  was  never  ( 
heard  before so  said  the  Spanish  Jesuit :  | 
but  Christ  said  otherwise  :  "  No  man  having 
drunk  old  wine  straight  desires  new,  for  he 
saith  the  old  is  better."  And  so  it  is  in  re- 
ligion, "  Quod  primum  verum,"  "truth  is 
always  first and  since  episcopacy  hath 
been  of  so  lasting  an  abode,  of  so  long  a 
blessing,  since  it  hath  ever  combined  with 
government,  and  hath  been  taught  by  that 
Spirit  that  hath  so  long  dwelt  in  God's 
church,  and  hath  now,  according  to  the 
promise  of  Jesus,  that  says  "The  gates  of 
hell  shall  not  prevail  against  the  church," 
been  restored  amongst  us  by  a  heap  of  mi- 
racles ;  and  as  it  went  away,  so  it  returned 
again  in  the  hand  of  monarchy,  and  in  the 
bosom  of  our  fundamental  laws.  Suffer  no 
evil  tongue  to  speak  against  this  truth,  which 
hath  had  so  long  a  testimony  from  God, 
and  from  experience,  and  from  the  wisdom 
of  so  many  ages,  of  all  your  ancestors  and 
all  your  laws,  lest  ye  be  found  to  speak 
against  God,  and  neglect  the  things  that 
belong  unto  your  peace,  and  get  nothing  by 
it  but  news  and  danger,  and  what  other 
effects  ye  know  not.  But  Leontinus,  bishop 
of  Antioch,  stroked  his  old  white  beard,  and 
said,  "  When  this  snow  is  dissolved,  a  great 
deal  of  dirty  weather  will  follow  :"  meaning, 
that  when  the  old  religion  should  be  qups 
tioned  and  discountenanced,  the  new  reli- 
gion would  bring  nothing  but  trouble  and 
unquietness :  and  we  have  found  it  so  by  a 
sad  experience. 

4.  Ye  cannot  obey  God  unless  ye  do 
justice  :  for  this  also  is  "  better  than  sacri- 
fice," said  Solomon.f    For  Christ,  who  is 


u  the  Sun  of  righteousness,"  is  a  Sun  and 
Shield  to  them  that  do  righteously.  The 
Indian  was  not  immured  sufficiently  by  the 
Atlantic  sea,  nor  the  Bosphoran  by  the  walls 
of  ice, nor  the  Arabian  by  his  meridian  sun ; 
the  Christian  justice  of  the  Roman  princes 
brake  through  all  enclosures,  and,  by  justice, 
set  up  Christ's  standard,  and  gave  to  all  the 
world  a  testimony  how  much  could  be  done 
by  prudence  and  valour,  when  they  were 
conducted  by  the  hands  of  justice.  And 
now  you  will  have  a  great  trial  of  this  part 
of  your  obedience  to  God. 

For  you  are  to  give  sentence  in  the  causes 
of  half  a  nation  :  and  he  had  need  be  a  wise 
and  a  good  man,  that  divides  the  inheritance 
amongst  brethren ;  that  he  may  not  be 
abused  by  contrary  pretences, — nor  biassed 
by  the  interest  of  friends, — nor  transported 
with  the  unjust  thoughts  even  of  a  just  re- 
venge,—nor  allured  by  the  opportunities  of 
spoil, — nor  turned  aside  by  partiality  in  his 
own  concerns, — nor  blinded  by  gold,  which 
puts  out  the  eyes  of  wise  men, — nor  cozened 
by  pretended  zeal, — nor  wearied  with  the 
difficulty  of  questions, — nor  directed  by  a 
general  measure  in  cases  not  measurable  by 
it — nor  borne  down  by  prejudice, — nor 
abused  by  resolutions  taken  before  the  cause 
be  heard, — nor  overruled  by  national  in- 
terests. For  justice  ought  to  be  the  simplest 
thing  in  the  world,  and  is  to  be  measured  by 
nothing  but  by  truth  and  by  laws,  and  by 
the  decrees  of  princes.  But  whatever  you 
do,  let  not  the  pretence  of  a  different  religion 
make  you  think  it  lawful  to  oppress  any 
man  in  his  just  rights  :  for  opinions  are  not, 
but  laws  only,  and  "  doing  as  we  would  be 
done  to,"  are  the  measures  of  justice  :  and 
though  justice  does  alike  to  all  men,  Jew 
and  Christian,  Lutheran  and  Calvinist;  yet 
to  do  right  to  them  that  are  of  another 
opinion,  is  the  way  to  win  them;  but  if  you, 
for  conscience  sake,  do  them  wrong,  they 
will  hate  you  and  your  religion. 

Lastly:  As  "obedience  is  better  than 
sacrifice,"  so  God  also  said,  "I  will  have 
mercy,  and  not  sacrifice ;"  meaning,  that 
merr.v  is  the  best  obedience.  "  Perierat 
ivnuiu  qcjd  Dens  fecerat,  nisi  misericordia 
subvenisset,"  said  Chrysologus:  "All  the 
creatures  both  of  heaven  and  earth  would 
perish,  if  mercy  did  not  relieve  us  all." 
Other  good  things,  more  or  less,  every  man 
expects  according  to  the  portion  of  his  for- 
tune: "Ex  dementia*  omnes  idem  spe- 


*  Rom.  xvi.  17.        t  Prov.  xxi.  3. 


454 


A  SERMON,  See. 


Serm.  V. 


rant;"  but  from  mercy  and  clemency  all 
the  world  alike  do  expect  advantages.  And 
which  of  us  all  stands  here  this  day,  that 
does  not  need  God's  pardon  and  the  king's  ? 
Surely  no  man  is  so  much  pleased  with  his 
own  innocence,  as  that  he  will  be  willing  to 
quit  his  claim  to  mercy  :  and  if  we  all  need 
it,  let  us  all  show  it. 

Naturae  imperio  gemimus,  cum  funus  adultae 
Virginis  occurrit,  vel  terra  clauditur  infans, 
Et  minor  igne  rogi  

Juven. 

"  If  you  do  but  see  a  maiden  carried  to  her 
grave  a  little  before  her  intended  marriage, 
or  an  infant  die  before  the  birth  of  reason, 
nature  hath  taught  us  to  pay  a  tributary 
tear."  Alas !  your  eyes  will  behold  the 
ruin  of  many  families,  which  though  they 
sadly  have  deserved,  yet  mercy  is  not  de- 
lighted with  the  spectacle ;  and  therefore 
God  places  a  watery  cloud  in  the  eye,  that 
when  the  light  of  heaven  shines  upon  it,  it 
may  produce  a  rainbow  to  be  a  sacrament, 
and  a  memorial,  that  God  and  the  sons  of 
God  do  not  love  to  see  a  man  perish.  God 
never  rejoices  "in  the  death  of  him  that 
dies ;"  and  we  also  esteem  it  indecent  to 
have  music  at  a  funeral.  And  as  religion 
teaches  us  to  pity  a  condemned  criminal,  so 
mercy  intercedes  for  the  most  benign  inter- 
pretation of  the  laws.  You  must,  indeed, 
be  as  just  as  the  laws;  and  you  must  be 
as  merciful  as  your  religion :  and  you  have 
no  way  to  tie  these  together,  but  to  follow 
the  pattern  in  the  Mount ;  do  as  God  does, 
who  "  in  judgment  remembers  mercy." 

To  conclude  :  If  every  one  in  this  honour- 
able assembly  would  join  together  to  pro- 
mote Christian  religion,  in  its  true  notion, 
that  is,  peace  and  holiness,  the  love  of  God 
and  the  love  of  our  brother,  Christianity  in 
all  its  proper  usefulness,  and  would  not  en- 
dure in  the  nation  any  thing  against  the 
laws  of  the  holy  Jesus;  if  they  were  all 
zealous  for  the  doctrines  of  righteousness, 
and  impatient  of  sin,  in  yourselves  and  in 
the  people,  it  is  not  to  be  imagined  what  a 
happy  nation  we  should  be.  But  if  ye  di- 
vide into  parties,  and  keep  up  useless  difTe 
rences  of  names  or  interests;  if  ye  uo  nut 
join  in  the  bands  of  peace,  that  is,  the  king 
and  the  church,  religion  and  the  good  of 
the  nation,  you  can  never  hope  to  see  a 
blessing  to  be  the  end  of  your  labours.  Re- 
member the  words  of  Solomon,  "Right- 
eousness exalteth  a  nation  ;  but  sin  is  a  re- 


|  proach  to  any  people  but  when  right- 
ousness  is  advanced  in  the  hearts  and  lives 
of  the  nation,  who  shall  dare  to  reprove 
your  faith  ?  who  can  find  fault  with  your 
religion  ? 

God,  of  his  mercy,  grant,  that  in  all  your 
consultations  the  word  of  God  may  be  your 
measure,  the  Spirit  of  God  may  be  your 
guide,  and  the  glory  of  God  may  be  your 
end.  He,  of  his  mercy,  grant,  that  mode- 
ration may  be  your  limit,  and  peace  may  be 
within  your  walls,  as  long  as  you  are  there, 
and  in  all  the  land  for  ever  after.  But  re- 
member, that  since  the  honour  and  service 
of  his  majesty,  and  the  peace  and  prospe- 
rity of  the  church,  the  perpetuity  of  our 
fundamental  laws,  public  justice,  and  the 
honour  of  all  legal  authority,  the  advance- 
ment of  trade,  and  the  wealth  of  the  nation, 
is  your  design  ; — remember,  I  pray,  what 
warranty  you  have  to  expect  all  this;  no 
less  than  the  words  of  our  blessed  Saviour ; 
but  it  is  upon  these  terms  :  "  Seek  ye  first 
the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  righteousness 
thereof,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
to  you."  Amen. 


Thursday,  May  9. 
Ordered,  That  the  Speaker  do  give  the 
Reverend  Father  in  God,  the  Lord  Bishop 
of  Down,  the  thanks  of  this  house  for  his 
yesterday's  pains  ;  and  that  he  desires  him 
to  print  his  Sermon. 

John  Keating,  Cler.  Pari. 

11  die  Maii,  1661. 
Ordered,  That  Sir  Theophilus  Jones, 
Knight,  Marcus  Trever,  Esq.,  Sir  William 
Domvile,  Knight,  his  Majesty's  attorney- 
general,  and  Richard  Kirle,  Esq.,  be  and 
are  hereby  appointed  a  committee  to  return 
thanks  unto  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Down  for 
his  Sermon  preached  on  Wednesday  last 
unto  the  Lords  Justices,  and  Lords  Spiritual 
and  Temporal,  whereunto  the  House  of 
Commons  were  invited ;  and  that  they  de- 
sire his  Lordship  from  this  house  to  cause 
tne  same  to  be  forthwith  printed  and  pub- 
lished. 

Ex.  per  Philip  Fernely, 
Cler.  Dom.  Com. 

Copia  vera. 


*  Prov.  xxiv.  34. 


Serm.  VI.  A  SERMON,  &c 

SERMON  VI. 


455 


VIA  INTELLIGENTLY:  PREACHED  TO  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN,  SHOWING  BY 
WHAT  MEANS  THE  SCHOLARS  SHALL  BE- 
COME MOST  LEARNED  AND  MOST  USEFUL. 
PUBLISHED  AT  THEIR  DESIRE. 

Ad  majorem  Dei  gloriam. 

If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the 
doctrine,  whether  it  he  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak 
of  myself. — John  vii.  17. 

The  ancients,  in  their  mythological  learn 


kindles  a  great  many,  and  makes  passion 
evaporate  into  sin  :  and  though  men  es- 
teem it  learning,  yet  it  is  the  most  useless 
learning  in  the  world.  When  Eudamidas, 
the  son  of  Archidamus,  heard  old  Xeno- 
crates  disputing  about  wisdom,  he  asked 
very  soberly,  "  If  the  old  man  be  yet  dis- 
puting and  inquiring  concerning  wisdom, 
what  time  will  he  have  to  make  use  of  it?" 
Christianity  is  all  for  practice  ;  and  so  much 
time  as  is  spent  in  quarrels  about  it,  is  a  di- 


ing,  tell  us,  that  when  Jupiter  espied  the  j  minution  to  its  interest.  Men  inquire  so 
men  of  the  world  striving  for  Truth,  and  |  much  what  it  is,  that  they  have  but  little  time 
pulling  her  in  pieces  to  secure  her  to  them-  I  left  to  be  Christians.  I  remember  a  saying 
selves,  he  sent  Mercury  down  amongst  \  of  Erasmus,  "  that  when  he  first  read  the 
them  ;  and  he,  with  his  usual  arts,  dressed  New  Testament,  with  fear  and  a  good  mind, 
Error  up  in  the  imagery  of  Truth,  and .  with  a  purpose  to  understand  it  and  obey 
thrust  her  into  the  crowd,  and  so  left  them  it,  he  found  it  very  useful  and  very  plea- 
to  contend  still:  and  though  then,  by  con-  sant;  but  when,  afterwards,  he  fell  on  read- 
tention,  men  were  sure  to  get  but  little  truth,  ing  the  vast  differences  of  commentaries, 
yet  they  were  as  earnest  as  ever,  and  lost  then  he  understood  it  less  than  he  did  be- 


peace  too,  in  their  importune  contentions 
for  the  very  image  of  truth.    And  this,  in- 
deed, is  no  wonder;  but  when  truth  and 
peace  are  brought  into  the  world  together, 
and  bound  up  in  the  same  bundle  of  life ; 
when  we  are  taught  a  religion  by  the  Prince 
of  peace,  who  is  the  truth  itself  j  to  see  men 
contending  for  this  truth,  to  the  breach  of 
that  peace  ;  and  when  men  fall  out,  to  see 
that  they  should  make  Christianity  their 
theme,  that  is  one  of  the  greatest  wonders 
in  the  world.    For  Christianity  is  ^po* 
scat  $tfcav0pcorto$  vopodma.  "e  a  soft  and  gentle 
institution  ;"  vypov  xai  fislfaxw  j^oj*  it  was 
brought  into  the  world  to  soften  the  asperi- 
ties of  human  nature,  and  to  cure  the  bar- 
barities of  evil  men,  and  the  contentions  of 
the  passionate.  The  eagle,  seeing  her  breast 
wounded,  and  espying  the  arrow  that  hurt 
her  to  be  feathered,  cried  out,  n??pov  ^£  tbv 
rttspwtov  6wuj£fc,  "The  feathered  nation  is 
destroyed  by  their  own  feathers ;"  that  is,  a 
Christian  fighting  and  wrangling  with  a 
Christian;  and,  indeed,  that  is  very  sad; 
but  wrangling  about  peace  too,  that  peace 
itself  should  be  the  argument  of  a  war,  that 
is  unnatural ;  and  if  it  were  not  that  there 
are  many,  who  are  "homines  multae  reli- 
gionis,  nullius  pene  pietatis,"  "men  of 
much   religion  and  little  godliness,"  —  it 
would  not  be  that  there  should  be  so  many 
quarrels  in  and  concerning  that  religion, 
which  is  wholly  made  up  of  truth  and 
peace,  and  was  sent  amongst  us  to  reconcile 
the  hearts  of  men,  when  they  were  tempted 
to  uncharitableness  by  any  other  unhappy 
Disputation  cures  no  vice,  but 


fore,  then  he  began  not  to  understand  it :; 
for,  indeed,  the  truths  of  God  are  best  dressed 
in  the  plain  culture  and  simplicity  of  the 
Spirit ;  but  the  truths  that  men  commonly 
teach,  are  like  the  reflections  of  a  multiply- 
ing-glass ;  for  one  piece  of  good  money, 
you  shall  have  forty  that  are  fantastical; 
and  it  is  forty  to  one  if  your  finger  hit  upon 
the  right.  Men  have  wearied  themselves 
in  the  dark,  having  been  amused  with  false 
fires ;  and,  instead  of  going  home,  have 
wandered  all  night  iv  6Sot$  apdtais,  "  in  un- 
trodden, unsafe,  uneasy  ways;"  but  have 
not  found  out  what  their  soul  desires.  But, 
therefore,  since  we  are  so  miserable,  and 
are  in  error,  and  have  wandered  very  far, 
we  must  do  as  wandering  travellers  used  tc 
do — go  back  just  to  that  place  from  whence 
they  wandered,  and  begin  upon  a  new  ac- 
count. Let  us  go  to  the  truth  itself,  to  Christ ; 
and  he  will  tell  us  an  easy  way  of  ending  all 
our  quarrels ;  for  we  shall  find  Christianity 
to  be  the  easiest  and  the  hardest  thing  in  the 
world  :  it  is  like  a  secret  in  arithmetic,  in- 
finitely hard  till  it  be  found  out  by  a  right 
operation,  and  then  it  is  so  plain,  we  won- 
der we  did  not  understand  it  earlier. 

Christ's  way  of  finding  out  of  truth,  is  by 
"  doing  the  will  of  God."  We  will  try 
that  by  and  by,  if  possibly  we  may  find  that 
easy  and  certain  :  in  the  mean  time,  let  us 
consider  what  ways  men  have  propounded 
to  find  out  truth,  and  upon  the  foundation 
of  that  to  establish  peace  in  Christendom. 

1.  That  there  is  but  one  true  way,  is 
agreed  upon;  and  therefore  almost  every 
church  of  one  denomination  that  lives  un- 


456 


A  SERMON  PREACHED  TO 


Serm.  VI. 


der  government,  propounds  to  you  a  system 
or  collective  body  of  articles,  and  tells  you 
that  is  the  true  religion,  and  they  are  the 
church,  and  the  peculiar  people  of  God : 
like  Brutus  and  Cassius,  of  whom  one  says, 
"  Ubicunque  ipsi  essent,  prastexebant  esse 
rempublicam,"  "They  supposed  themselves 
were  the  commonwealth ;"  and  these  are 
the  church,  and  out  of  this  church  they 
will  hardly  allow  salvation :  but  of  this 
there  can  be  no  end ;  for  divide  the  church 
into  twenty  parts,  and  in  what  part  soever 
your  lot  falls,  you  and  your  party  are  damned 
by  the  other  nineteen ;  and  men  on  all 
hands  almost  keep  their  own  proselytes  by 
affrighting  them  with  the  fearful  sermons 
of  damnation :  but,  in  the  mean  time,  here 
is  no  security  to  them,  that  are  not  able  to 
judge  for  themselves,  and  no  peace  for  them 
that  are. 

2.  Others  cast  about  to  cure  this,  and 
conclude,  that  it  must  be  done  by  submis- 
sion to  an  infallible  guide;  this  must  do 
it  or  nothing;  and  this  is  the  way  of  the 
church  of  Rome  :  follow  but  the  pope  and 
his  clergy,  and  you  are  safe,  at  least  as  safe 
as  their  warrant  can  make  you.  Indeed, 
this  were  a  very  good  way,  if  it  were  a  way 
at  all ;  but  it  is  none ;  for  this  can  never 
end  our  controversies :  not  only  because 
the  greatest  controversies  are  about  this  in- 
fallible guide ;  but  also  because,  1 .  We  can- 
not find,  that  there  is  upon  earth,  any  such 
guide  at  all.  2.  We  do  not  find  it  necessary 
that  there  should.  3.  We  find  that  they 
who  pretend  to  be  this  infallible  guide,  are 
themselves  infinitely  deceived.  4.  That  they 
do  not  believe  themselves  to  be  infallible, 
whatever  they  say  to  us ;  because  they  do 
not  put  an  end  to  all  their  own  questions 
that  trouble  them.  5.  Because  they  have 
no  peace,  but  what  is  constrained  by  force 
and  government.  6.  And  lastly  :  Because 
if  there  were  such  a  guide,  we  should  fail 
of  truth  by  many  other  causes :  for,  it  may 
be,  that  guide  would  not  do  his  duty ;  or 
we  are  fallible  followers  of  this  infallible 
leader;  or  we  should  not  understand  his 
meaning  at  all  times  ;  or  we  should  be  per- 
verse at  some  times,  or  something  as  bad ; 
because  we  all  confess,  that  God  is  an  infal- 
lible guide,  and  that  some  way  or  other  he 
does  teach  us  sufficiently,  and  yet  it  does 
come  to  pass,  by  our  faults,  that  we  are  as 
far  to  seek  for  peace  and  truth  as  ever. 

3.  Rome  very  wise  men,  finding  this  to 
fail,  have  undertaken  to  reconcile  the  diffe- 
rences of  Christendom,  by  a  way  of  modera- 


jtion.  Thus  they  have  projected  to  reconcile 
the  papists  and  the  Lutherans  and  the  Cal- 
vinists,  the  remonstrants  and  contra-remon- 
strants,  and  project,  that  each  side  should 
abate  of  their  asperities,  and  pare  away 
something  of  their  propositions,  and  join  in 
common  terms  and  phrases  of  accommoda- 
tion,— each  of  them  sparing  something,  and 
promising  they  shall  have  a  great  deal  of 
peace  for  the  exchange  of  a  little  of  their 
opinion.  This  was  the  way  of  Cassander, 
Modrevius,  Andreas  Frisius,  Erasmus,  Spa- 
lato,  Grotius,  and,  indeed,  of  Charles  the 
Fifth,  in  part,  but  something  more  heartily 
of  Ferdinand  the  Second.  This  device  pro- 
duced the  conferences  at  Poissy,  at  Mont- 
pelier,  at  Ratisbon,  at  the  Hague,  at  many 
places  more :  and  what  was  the  event  of 
these  %  Their  parties,  when  their  delegates 
returned,  either  disclaimed  their  modera- 
tion,— or  their  respective  princes  had  some 
other  ends  to  serve, — or  they  permitted  the 
j  meetings  upon  uncertain  hopes,  and  a  trial 
'  if  any  good  might  come ;  or,  it  may  be, 
they  were  both  in  the  wrong,  and  their  mu- 
tual abatement  was  nothing  but  a  mutual 
quitting  of  what  they  could  not  get,  and  the 
shaking  hands  of  false  friends  ;  or,  it  may 
be,  it  was  all  of  it  nothing  but  hypocrisy 
and  arts  of  craftiness,  and,  like  Lucian's 
man,  every  one  could  be  a  man  and  a  pes- 
tle when  he  pleased.  And  the  council  of 
Trent,  though  under  another  cover,  made 
use  of  the  artifice,  but  made  the  secret 
manifest  and  common  :  for  at  this  day  the 
Jesuits,  in  the  questions  "  de  auxiliis  Di- 
vina3  gratiae,"  have  prevailed  with  the  Do- 
minicans to  use  their  expressions,  and  yet 
they  think  they  still  keep  the  sentence  of 
their  own  order.  From  hence  can  succeed 
nothing  but  folly  and  a  fantastic  peace : 
this  is  but  the  skinning  of  an  old  sore ;  it 
will  break  out  upon  all  occasions. 

4.  Others,  who  understand  things  beyond 
the  common  rate,  observing  that  many  of 
our  controversies  and  peevish  wranglings 
are  kept  up  by  the  ill  stating  of  the  question, 
1  endeavour  to  declare  things  wisely,  and 
make  the  matter  intelligible,  and  the  words 
clear;  hoping  by  this  means' to  cutoff  all 
disputes.  Indeed,  this  is  a  very  good  way, 
so  far  as  it  can  go ;  and  would  prevail  very 
|  much,  if  all  men  were  wise,  and  would 
consent  to  those  statings,  and  would  not  fall 
jout  upon  the  main  inquiry,  when  it  were 
well  stated ;  but  we  find,  by  a  sad  expe- 
rience, that  few  questions  are  well  stated; 
and  when  they  are,  they  arc  not  consented 


Serm.  VI. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


457 


to ;  and  when  they  are  agreed  on  by  both 
sides  that  they  are  well  stated,  it  is  nothing 
else  but  a  drawing  up  the  armies  in  bat- 
talia with  great  skill  and  discipline ;  the 
next  thing  they  do  is,  they  thrust  their 
swords  into  one  another's  sides. 

5.  What  remedy  after  all  this  ?  Some 
other  good  men  have  propounded  one  way 
yet  j  but  that  is  a  way  of  peace,  rather  than 
truth  j  and  that  is,  that  all  opinions  should 
be  tolerated,  and  none  persecuted,  and  then 
all  the  world  will  be  at  peace.  Indeed,  this 
relies  upon  a  great  reasonableness  :  not  only 
because  opinions  cannot  be  forced,  but  be- 
cause if  men  receive  no  hurt,  it  is  to  be 
hoped  they  will  do  none.  But  we  find  that 
this  alone  will  not  do  it;  for  besides  that 
all  men  are  not  so  just  as  not  to  do  any  in- 
jury,— for  some  men  begin  the  evil ;  be- 
sides this,  I  say,  there  are  very  many  men 
amongst  us,  who  are  not  content  that  you 
permit  them  ;  for  they  will  not  permit 
you,  but  "rule  over  your  faith,"  and  say 
that  their  way  is  not  only  true,  but  neces- 
sary ;  and  therefore  the  truth  of  God  is  at 
stake,  and  all  indifference  and  moderation  is 
carnal  wisdom,  and  want  of  zeal  for  God ; 
nay,  more  than  so,  they  preach  for  tolera- 
tion when  themselves  are  under  the  rod, 
who,  when  they  got  the  rod  into  their  own 
hands,  thought  toleration  itself  to  be  intole- 
rable. Thus  do  the  papists,  and  thus  the 
Calvinists  ;  and,  for  their  cruelty,  they  pre- 
tend charity.  They  will,  indeed,  force  you 
to  come  in,  but  it  is  in  true  zeal  for  your 
soul ;  and  if  they  do  you  violence,  it  is  no 
more  than  if  they  pull  your  arm  out  of 
joint,  when,  to  save  you  from  drowning, 
they  draw  you  out  of  a  river;  and  if  you 
complain,  it  is  no  more  to  be  regarded  than 
the  outcries  of  children  against  their  rulers, 
or  sick  men  against  physicians.  But  as  to 
the  thing  itself,  the  truth  is,  it  is  better  in 
contemplation  than  practice ;  for  reckon  all 
that  is  got  by  it  when  you  come  to  handle 
it,  and  it  can  never  satisfy  for  the  infinite 
disorders  happening  in  the  government ;  the 
scandal  to  religion,  the  secret  dangers  to  pub- 
lic societies,  the  growth  of  heresy,  the  nurs- 
ing up  of  parties  to  a  grandeur  so  consi- 
derable, as  to  be  able,  in  their  own  time,  to 
change  the  laws  and  the  government.  So  that 
if  the  question  be,  whether  mere  opinions 
are  to  be  persecuted, — it  is  certainly  true, 
they  ought  not.  But  if  it  be  considered 
how,  by  opinions,  men  rifle  the  affairs  of 
kingdoms,  it  is  also  as  certain,  they  ought 
not  to  be  made  public  and  permitted.  And 
58 


what  is  now  to  be  done?  Must  truth  be 
for  ever  in  the  dark,  and  the  world  for  ever 
be  divided,  and  societies  disturbed,  and  go- 
vernments weakened,  and  our  spirits  de- 
bauched with  error,  and  the  uncertain  opi- 
nions and  the  pedantry  of  talking  men  ? 
Certainly  there  is  a  way  to  cure  all  this 
evil ;  and  the  wise  Governor  of  all  the  world 
hath  not  been  wanting  in  so  necessary  a 
matter  as  to  lead  us  into  all  truth.  But  the 
way  hath  not  yet  been  hit  upon,  and  yet  I 
have  told  you  all  the  ways  of  man,  and  his 
imaginations,  in  order  to  truth  and  peace; 
and  you  see  these  will  not  do  ;  we  can  find 
no  rest  for  the  soles  of  our  feet,  amidst  all 
the  waters  of  contention  and  disputations, 
and  little  artifices  of  divided  schools.  "Eve- 
ry man  is  a  liar,"  and  his  understanding  is 
weak,  and  his  propositions  uncertain,  and 
his  contrivances  imperfect,  and  neither  truth 
nor  peace  does  come  from  man.  I  know  I 
am  in  an  auditory  of  inquisitive  persons, 
whose  business  is  to  study  for  truth,  that 
they  may  find  it  for  themselves,  and  teach 
it  unto  others.  I  am  in  a  school  of  pro- 
phets and  prophets'  sons,  who  all  ask  Pi- 
late's question,  "What  is  truth?"  You 
look  for  it  in  your  books,  and  you  tug  hard 
for  it  in  your  disputations,  and  you  derive 
it  from  the  cisterns  of  the  fathers,  and  you 
inquire  after  the  old  ways,  and  sometimes 
are  taken  with  new  appearances,  and  you 
rejoice  in  false  lights,  or  are  delighted  with 
little  umbrages  and  peep  of  day.  But  where 
is  there  a  man,  or  a  society  of  men,  that 
can  be  at  rest  in  his  inquiry,  and  is  sure  he 
understands  all  the  truths  of  God?  Where 
is  there  a  man,  but  the  more  he  studies  and 
inquires,  still  he  discovers  nothing  so  clearly 
as  his  own  ignorance?  This  is  a  demon- 
stration that  we  are  not  in  the  right  way, 
that  we  do  inquire  wisely,  that  our  method 
is  not  artificial.  If  men  did  fall  upon  the 
right  way,  it  were  impossible  so  many 
learned  men  should  be  engaged  in  contrary 
parties  and  opinions.  We  have  examined 
all  ways  but  one,  all  but  God's  way.  Let 
us,  having  missed  in  all  the  other,  try  this ; 
let  us  go  to  God  for  truth ;  for  truth  comes 
from  God  only,  and  his  ways  are  plain,  and 
his  sayings  are  true,  and  his  promises 
"Yea  and  Amen;"  and  if  we  miss  the 
truth,  it  is  because  we  will  not  find  it ;  for 
certain  it  is,  that  all  that  truth  which  God 
hath  made  necessary,  he  hath  also  made 
legible  and  plain  :  and  if  we  will  open  our 
eyes,  we  shall  see  the  sun,  and  if  "  we  will 
walk  in  the  light,  we  shall  rejoice  in  the 
20 


458 


A  SERMON  P 


REACHED  TO 


Seem.  VI. 


light;"  only  let  us  withdraw  the  curtains, 
let  us  remove  the  "  impediments,  and  the 
sin  that  doth  so  easily  beset  us  ;w  that  is 
God's  way.  Every  man  must,  in  his  sta- 
tion, do  that  portion  of  duty  which  God  re- 
quires of  him,  and  then  he  shall  be  taught 
of  God  all  that  is  fit  for  him  to  learn.  There 
is  no  other  way  for  him  but  this.  "  The 
fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom, 
and  a  good  understanding  have  all  they  that 
do  thereafter."*  And  so  said  David  of 
himself,  "  I  have  more  understanding  than 
my  teachers ;  because  I  keep  thy  command- 
ments, "f  And  this  is  the  only  way  which 
Christ  hath  taught  us.  If  you  ask  "  What 
is  truth  ?"  you  must  not  do  as  Pilate  did — 
ask  the  question,  and  then  go  away  from 
him  that  only  can  give  you  an  answer ;  for 
as  God  is  the  author  of  truth,  so  he  is  the 
teacher  of  it ;  and  the  way  to  learn  it  is  this 
of  my  text ;  for  so  saith  our  blessed  Lord, 
".  If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God 
or  no." 

My  text  is  simple  as  truth  itself,  but 
greatly  comprehensive,  and  contains  a  truth 
that  alone  will  enable  you  to  understand  all 
mysteries,  and  to  expound  all  prophecies, 
and  to  interpret  all  scriptures,  and  to  search 
into  all  secrets;  all,  I  mean,  which  concern 
our  happiness  and  our  duty ;  and,  it  being 
an  affirmative  hypothetical,  is  plainly  to  be 
resolved  into  this  proposition, — "  The  way 
to  judge  of  religion  is  by  doing  of  our  duty ; 
and  theology  is  rather  a  Divine  life  than  a 
Divine  knowledge."  In  heaven,  indeed, 
we  shall  first  see,  and  then  love :  but  here 
on  earth,  we  must  first  love,  and  love  will 
open  our  eyes  as  well  as  our  hearts ;  and  we 
shall  then  see,  and  perceive,  and  understand. 

In  the  handling  of  which  proposition,  I 
shall  first  represent  to  you,  that — the  cer- 
tain causes  of  our  errors  are  nothing  but 
direct  sin, — nothing  makes  us  fools  and  igno- 
rants  but  living  vicious  lives ;  and  then  I  shall 
proceed  to  the  direct  demonstration  of  the 
article  in  question,  that — holiness  is  the  only 
way  of  truth  and  understanding. 

1.  No  man  understands  the  word  of  God, 
as  it  ought  to  be  understood,  unless  he  lays 
aside  all  affections  to  sin ;  of  which  because 
we  have  taken  very  little  care,  the  product 
hath  been,  that  we  have  had  very  little  wis- 
dom, and  very  little  knowledge,  in  the  ways 
of  God.  Kowaa  tali  tyOaptixrj  ttj$  ap^S,  said 
Aristotle;   "Wickedness   does  corrupt  a 


*  Psal.  cxi.  10.  t  Psal.  cxix. 


man's  reasoning ;"  it  gives  him  false  prin- 
ciples and  evil  measure  of  things ;  the  sweet 
wine  that  Ulysses  gave  to  the  Cyclops,  put 
his  eye  out;  and  a  man  that  hath  contracted 
evil  affections,  and  made  a  league  wTilh  sin, 
sees  only  by  those  measures.  A  covetous 
man  understands  nothing  to  be  good  that  is 
not  profitable ;  and  a  voluptuous  man  likes 
your  reasoning  well  enough,  if  you  dis- 
course of  "bonum  jucundum,"  the  plea- 
sures of  the  sense,  the  ravishments  of  lust, 
the  noises  and  inadvertencies,  the  mirth  and 
songs  of  merry  company  ;  but  if  you  talk  to 
him  of  the  melancholy  lectures  of  the  cross, 
the  content  of  resignation,  the  peace  of  meek- 
ness, and  the  joys  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  of 
rest  in  God,  after  your  long  discourse,  and 
his  great  silence,  he  cries  out,  "  What  is  the 
matter  ?"  He  knows  not  what  you  mean. 
Either  you  must  fit  his  humour,  or  change 
your  discourse. 

I  remember  that  Arrian  tells  of  a  gentle- 
man that  was  banished  from  Rome,  and  in 
his  sorrow  visited  the  philosopher,  and  he 
heard  him  talk  wisely,  and  believed  him, 
and  promised  him  to  leave  all  the  thoughts 
of  Rome,  and  splendours  of  the  court,  and 
retire  to  the  course  of  a  severe  philosophy  ; 
but  before  the  good  man's  lectures  were 
done,  there  came  7twaxl8ts  arto  tov  Kou'oapoj, 
"  letters  from  Caesar,"  to  recall  him  home, 
to  give  him  pardon,  and  promise  him  great 
employment.  He  presently  grew  weary  of 
the  good  man's  sermon,  and  wished  he 
would  make  an  end,  thought  his  discourse 
wTas  dull  and  flat;  for  his  head  and  heart 
were  full  of  another  story  and  new  princi- 
ples ;  and  by  these  measures  he  could  hear 
only,  and  he  could  understand. 

Every  man  understands  by  his  affections 
more  than  by  his  reason  :  and  when  the 
wolf  in  the  fable  went  to  school  to  learn  to 
spell,  whatever  letters  were  told  him,  he 
could  never  make  any  thing  of  them  but 
(t  agnus ;"  he  thought  of  nothing  but  his 
belly :  and  if  a  man  be  very  hungry,  you 
must  give  him  meat,  before  you  give  him 
counsel.  A  man's  mind  must  be  like  your 
proposition,  before  it  can  be  entertained  ; 
for  whatever  you  put  into  a  man,  it  will 
smell  of  the  vessel ;  it  is  a  man's  mind  that 
gives  the  emphasis,  and  makes  your  argu- 
ment to  prevail. 

And  upon  this  account  it  is,  that  there  are 
so  many  false  doctrines  in  the  only  article 
of  repentance.  Men  know  they  must 
repent,  but  the  definition  of  repentance  they 
take  from  the  convenience  of  their  own 


Serm.  VI. 


THE  UNIVERSITY   OF  DUBLIN. 


459 


affairs :  what  they  will  not  part  with,  that  |  their  superiors  1  and  they  do  not  see  what 
is  not  necessary  to  be  parted  with  ;  and  1  they  can  read  every  day,  that  it  is  a  sin  "  to 
they  will  repent,  but  not  restore :  they  will  speak  evil  of  dignities." 
say,  " Nollem  factum,"  "they  wish  they  j  A  man  would  think  it  a  very  easy  thing 
had  never  done  it;"  but  since  it  is  done, :  to  understand  the  thirteenth  chapter  to  the 
you  must  give  them  leave  to  rejoice  in  their !  Romans,  "  Whosoever  resistelh  the  power, 
purchase:  they  will  ask  forgiveness  of  God ;  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God:"  and  yet 
but  they  sooner  forgive  themselves,  and  sup-  we  know  a  generation  of  men  to  whom 
pose  that  God  is  of  their  mind  :  if  you  tie ;  these  words  were  so  obscure,  that  they 
them  to  hard  terms,  your  doctrine  is  not  to  I  thought  it  lawful  to  fight  against  their  king 
be  understood,  or  it  is  but  one  doctor's  |  A  man  would  think  it  easy  to  believe, 
opinion,— and  therefore  they  will  fairly  take  that  those  who  were  "in  the  gainsaying  of 
their  leave,  and  get  them  another  teacher.  Koran,"  who  rose  up  against  the  high 
What  makes  these  evil,  these  dangerous  priest,  were  in  a  very  sad  condition  :  and 
and  desperate  doctrines  ?  Not  the  obscurity  yet  there  are  too  many  amongst  us,  who  are 
of  the  thing,  but  the  cloud  upon  the  heart;  in  the  gainsaying  of  Korah,  and  think  they 
for  say  you  what  you  will,  he  that  hears  !  do  very  well  j  that  they  are  the  godly  party, 
must  be  the  expounder,  and  we  can  never '  and  the  good  people  of  God  ?  Why  ? 
suppose  but  a  man  will  give  sentence  in  What  is  the  matter  ?    In  the  world  there 


behalf  of  what  he  passionately  loves.  And 
so  it  comes  to  pass,  that,  as  Rabbi  Moses 
observed,  as  God  for  the  greatest  sin  imposed 
the  least  oblation,  as  a  she-goat  for  the  sin 
of  idolatry ;  for  a  woman  accused  of  adul- 
tery, a  barley  cake :  so  do  most  men  ;  they 


can  be  nothing  plainer  than  these  words, 
"  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to  the  higher 
powers ;"  and  that  you  need  not  make  a 
scruple  who  are  these  higher  powers,  it  is 
as  plainly  said,  u  There  is  no  power  but  of 
God ;"  all  that  are  set  over  you  by  the  laws 


think  to  expiate  the  worst  of  their  sins  with !  of  your  nation,  these  "are  over  you  in  the 
a  trifling,  with  a  pretended,  little,  in signifi- |  Lord :"  and  yet  men  will  not  understand 
cant  repentance.  God,  indeed,  did  so,  that  these  plain  things ;  they  deny  to  do  their 
the  cheapness  of  the  oblation  might  teach  !  notorious  duty,  and  yet  believe  they  are  in 

the  right ;  and  if  they  sometimes  obey  "  for 
wrath,"  they  oftener  disobey  for  "  con- 
ance  :  but  men  take  any  argument  to  lessen  I  science  sake."  Where  is  the  fault  ?  The 
their  pleasures  or  their  estates, — and  that!  words  are  plain,  the  duty  is  certain,  the 
repentance  may  be  nothing  but  a  word, —  j  book  lies  open;  but,  alas!  "it  is  sealed 
and  mortification  signify  nothing  against  j  within,"  that  is,  "  men  have  eyes  and  will 
their  repentance,  that  they  may  not  lessen  not  see,  ears  and  will  not  hear."    But  the 


them  to  hope  for  pardon,  not  from  the  cere- 
mony, but  from  a  severe  internal  repent- 


their  pleasures,  but  be  a  term  of  art  only,  i  wonder  is  the  less 
fitted  for  the  schools  or  for  the  pulpit, — but  God  said  to  Jonah, 
nothing  relative  to  practice,  or  to  the  exter- 
mination of  their  sin.    So  that  it  is  no 


for  we  know  when 
Doest  thou  well  to  be 
angry?  he  answered  God  to  his  face,  "I  do 
well  to  be  angry  even  unto  the  death." 


wonder  we  understand  so  little  of  religion :  Let  God  declare  his  mind  never  so  plainly  , 
it  is  because  we  are  in  love  with  that  which  |  if  men  will  not  lay  aside  the  evil  principle 
destroys  it;  and  as  a  man  does  not  care  to  that  is  within,  their  open  love  to  their  secret 
hear  what  does  not  please  him,  so  neither  j  sin,  they  may  kill  an  apostle,  and  yet  be  so 


does  he  believe  it ;  he  cannot,  he  will  not 
understand  it. 

And  the  same  is  the  case  in  the  matter  of 
pride ;  the  church  hath  extremely  suffered 
by  it  in  many  ages.  Arius  missed  a  bishop- 
ric, and  therefore  turned  heretic ;  tra'pa^f 


ignorant  as  to  "think  they  do  God  good 
service  ;"  they  may  disturb  kingdoms,  and 
break  the  peace  of  a  well-ordered  church, 
and  rise  up  against  their  fathers,  and  be 
cruel  to  their  brethren,  and  stir  up  the 
people  to  sedition  ;  and  all  this  with  a  cold 


try  £%xty0U»> ,  saith  the  story  ;  "  he  disturbed  ,  stomach  and  a  hot  liver,  with  a  hard  heart 
and  shaked  the  church;"  for  he  did  not  land  a  tender  conscience,  with  humble  car- 
understand  this  truth, — that  the  peace  of  the  riage  and  a  proud  spirit.  For  thus  men 
church  was  better  than  the  satisfaction  of  hate  repentance,  because  they  scorn  to  con- 
his  person,  or  the  promoting  his  foolish  fess  an  error ;  they  will  not  return  to  peace 
opinion.  And  do  not  we  see  and  feel,  that  and  truth,  because  they  fear  to  lose  the 
at  this  very  day,  the  pride  of  men  makes  it  good  opinion  of  the  people,  whom  them- 
seem  impossible  for  many  persons  to  obey  j  selves  have  cozened;  they  are  afraid  to  be 


460 


A  SERMON  PR 


EACHED  TO 


Serm.  VI. 


good,  lest  they  should  confess  they  have 
formerly  done  amiss :  and  he, — that  ob- 
serves how  much  evil  is  done,  and  how 
many  heresies  are  risen,  and  how  much 
obstinacy  and  unreasonable  perseverance  in 
folly  dwells  in  the  world  upon  the  stock  of 
pride, — may  easily  conclude,  that  no  learn- 
ing is  sufficient  to  make  a  proud  man  under- 
stand the  truth  of  God,  unless  he  first  learn 
to  be  humble.  But "  Obedite  et  intelligent," 
saith  the  prophet;  "Obey,"  and  be  humble, 
leave  the  foolish  affections  of  sin,  "and  then 
ye  shall  understand."  That  is  the  first  par- 
ticular: all  remaining  affections  to  sin  hinder 
the  learning  and  understanding  of  the  things 
of  God. 

2.  He  that  means  to  understand  the  will 
of  God  and  the  truth  of  religion,  must  lay 
aside  all  inordinate  affections  to  the  world. 
St.  Paul  complained  that  there  was  at  "that 
day  a  veil  upon  the  hearts  of  the  Jews,  in 
the  reading  of  the  Old  Testament;"*  they 
looked  for  a  temporal  prince  to  be  their  Mes- 
sias,  and  their  affections  and  hopes  dwelt  in 
secular  advantages ;  and  so  long  as  that 
veil  was  there,  they  could  not  see,  and  they 
would  not  accept  the  poor  despised  Jesus. 

For  the  things  of  the  world,  besides  that 
they  entangle  one  another,  and  make  much 
business,  and  spend  much  time,  they  also 
take  up  the  attentions  of  a  man's  mind,  and 
spend  his  faculties,  and  make  them  trifling 
and  secular  with  the  very  handling  and  con- 
versation. And,  therefore,  the  Pythagoreans, 
taught  their  disciples  ^copc-cr^oy  d?t6  *tov  tfi^ua- 
to$,  sis  to  xoXuj$  tycxoaotytip,  "  a  separation 
from  the  things  of  the  body,  if  they  would 
purely  find  out  truth  and  the  excellencies  of 
wisdom."  Had  not  he  lost  his  labour,  that 
would  have  discoursed  wisely  to  Apicius, 
and  told  him  of  the  books  of.  fate  and  the 
secrets  of  the  other  world,  the  abstractions 
of  the  soul,  and  its  brisker  immortality,  that 
saints  and  angels  eat  not,  and  that  the  spirit 
of  a  man  lives  for  ever  upon  wisdom,  and 
holiness,  and  contemplation  ?  The  fat  glut- 
ton would  have  stared  awhile  upon  the 
preacher,  and  then  have  fallen  asleep.  But 
if  you  had  discoursed  well  and  knowingly 
of  a  lamprey,  a  large  mullet,  or  a  boar, 
"animal  propter  convivia  natum,"  and  have 
sent  him  a  cook  from  Asia  to  make  new 
sauces,  he  would  have  attended  carefully, 
and  taken  in  your  discourses  greedily.  And 
so  it  is  in  the  questions  and  secrets  of  Chris- 
tianity :  which  made  St.  Paul,  when  he  in- 


*  2  Cor.  iii.  14. 


tended  to  convert  Felix,  discourse  first  with 
him  about  "  temperance,  righteousness,  and 
judgment  to  come."  He  began  in  the  right 
point;  he  knew  it  was  to  no  purpose  to 
preach  Jesus  Christ  crucified  to  an  intem- 
perate person,  to  a  usurper  of  other  men's 
rights,  to  one  whose  soul  dwelt  in  the  world, 
and  cared  not  for  the  sentence  of  the  last 
day.  The  philosophers  began  their  wisdom 
with  the  meditation  of  death,  and  St.  Paul 
his  with  the  discourse  of  the  day  of  judg- 
ment :  to  take  the  heart  off  from  this  world 
and  the  amabilities  of  it,  which  dishonour 
and  baffle  the  understanding,  and  made  Solo- 
mon himself  become  a  child,  and  fooled  into 
idolatry,  by  the  prettiness  of  a  talking  wo- 
man. Men,  now-a-days,  love  not  a  religion 
that  will  cost  them  dear.  If  your  doctrine 
calls  upon  men  to  part  with  any  consider- 
able part  of  their  estates,  you  must  pardon 
them  if  they  cannot  believe  you ;  they  un- 
derstand it  not.  I  shall  give  you  one  great 
instance  of  it. 

When  we  consider  the  infinite  unreason- 
ableness that  is  in  the  popish  religion,  how 
against  common  sense  their  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  is,  how  against  the  com- 
mon experience  of  human  nature  is  the  doc- 
trine of  the  pope's  infallibility,  how  against 
Scripture  is  the  doctrine  of  indulgences  and 
purgatory ;  we  may  well  think  it  a  wonder, 
that  no  more  men  are  persuaded  to  leave 
such  unlearned  follies.  But  then,  on  the 
other  side,  the  wonder  will  cease,  if  we 
mark  how  many  temporal  ends  are  served 
by  these  doctrines.  If  you  destroy  the  doc- 
trine of  purgatory  and  indulgences,  you 
take  away  the  priest's  income,  and  make 
the  see  apostolic  to  be  poor;  if  you  deny 
the  pope's  infallibility,  you  will  despise  his 
authority,  and  examine  his  propositions, 
and  discover  his  failings,  and  put  him  to 
answer  hard  arguments,  and  lessen  his 
power :  and,  indeed,  when  we  run  through 
all  the  propositions  of  difference  between 
them  and  us,  and  see  that,  in  every  one  of 
them,  they  serve  an  end  of  money  or  of 
power ;  it  will  be  very  visible  that  the  way 
to  confute  them  is  not  by  learned  disputa- 
tions,— for  we  see  they  have  been  too  long 
without  effect,  and  without  prosperity  :  the 
men  must  be  cured  of  their  affections  to  the 
world,  "  ut  nudi  nudum  sequantur  cruci- 
fixum,"  "that  with  naked  and  divested  af- 
fections they  might  follow  the  naked  cruci- 
fied Jesus;"  and  then  they  would  soon 
learn  the  truths  of  God,  which,  till  then, 
will  be  impossible  to  be  apprehended.  'Ev 


Serm.  VI.  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


461 


tifxxjytoaptt  ifyrioecH  *«  Lavt^v  rtapetedyovow,\he  is  a  philosopher  in  his  passions.*"  Pas- 
"Men,"  as  St.  Basil  says,  "when  they  ex-!sionate  men  are  to  be  taught  the  first  ele- 


poand  Scripture,  always  bring  in  something' 
of  themselves  :"  but  till  there  be,  as  one 
said,  i*^fjm$tj  ix  tov  anrfkaiov,  "a  rising  out" 
from  their  own  seats,  until  they  go  out 
'•from  their  dark  dungeons,"  they  can 
never  see  the  light  of  heaven.  And  how 
many  men  are  there  amongst  us,  who  are, 
therefore,  enemies  to  the  religion,  because  it 
seems  to  be  against  their  profit  ?  The  argu- 
ment of  Demetrius  is  unanswerable:  "By 
this  craft  they  get  their  livings  :"  leave  them 
in  their  livings,  and  they  will  let  your  reli- 
gion alone;  if  not,  they  think  they  have 
reason  to  speak  against  it.  When  men's 
souls  are  possessed  with  the  world,  their 
souls  cannot  be  invested  with  holy  truths. 
Xp)J  artb  tovtmv  avtyv  -\vxr\v  ^vxovaOat,  as  St. 
Isidore  said  :  "  the  soul  must  be"  informed, 
"  ensouled,"  or  animated  with  the  proposi- 
tions that  you  put  in;  or  you  shall  never  do 
any  good,  or  get  disciples  to  Christ.  Now 
because  a  man  cannot  serve  two  masters ; 
because  he  cannot  vigorously  attend  two  ob- 
jects :  because  there  can  be  but  one  soul  in 
any  living  creature ;  if  the  world  have  got 
possession,  talk  no  more  of  your  questions, 
shut  your  Bibles,  and  read  no  more  of  the 
words  of  God  to  them,  for  they  cannot  tell 
of  "the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God,  or 
of  the  world."  That  is  the  second  parti- 
cular :  worldly  affections  hinder  true  under- 
derstandings  in  religion. 

3.  No  man,  how  learned  soever,  can  un- 
derstand the  word  of  God,  or  be  at  peace  in 
the  questions  of  religion,  unless  he  be  a 
master  over  his  passions  : 

Tu  quoque  si  vis  lumine  claro 
Cernere  verum,  gaudia  pelle, 
Pelle  timorem  ;  nubila  mens  est 
Vinctaque  fraenis,  haec  ubi  regnant : 

said  the  wise  Boethius;  a  man  must  first 
learn  himself  before  he  can  learn  God.  "  Tua 
te  fallit  imago  ;"  nothing  deceives  a  man  so 
soon  as  a  man's  self;  when  a  man  is  (that 
I  may  use  Plato's  expression)  (svurtsfyvwhos 
tvj  ysvsasi,  "mingled  with  his  nature,"  and 
his  congenial  infirmities  of  anger  and  desire, 
he  can  never  have  any  thing  but  d^vSpw 
So|av,  "  a  knowledge  partly  moral  and  partly 
natural :"  his  whole  life  is  but  imagination; 
his  knowledge  is  inclination  and  opinion  ; 
he  judges  of  heavenly  things  by  the  mea- 
sures of  his  fears  and  his  desires,  and  his 
reason  is  half  of  it  sense,  and  determinable 
by  the  principles  of  sense.  Evys  6tv  $l%q3o- 
iv  Ttdesoi,  then  "  a  man  learns  well,  when 


ments  of  religion  ;  and  let  men  pretend  to  as 
much  learning  as  they  please,  they  must 
begin  again  at  Christ's  cross;  they  must 
learn  true  mortification  and  crucifixion  of 
their  anger  and  desires,  before  they  can  be 
good  scholars  in  Christ's  school, — or  be  ad- 
milted  into  the  more  secret  inquiries  of  reli- 
gion,— or  profit  in  spiritual  understanding. 
It  was  an  excellent  proverb  of  the  Jews, 
"  In  passionibus  Spiritibus  Sanctus  non  ha- 
bitat," "  The  Holy  Ghost  never  dwells  in 
the  house  of  passion."  Truth  enters  into 
the  heart  of  man,  when  it  is  empty,  and 
clean,  and  still;  but  when  the  mind  is 
shaken  with  passion  as  with  a  storm,  you 
can  never  hear  the  "  voice  of  the  charmer, 
though  he  charm  very  wisely  :"  and  you 
will  very  hardly  sheath  a  sword,  when  it  is 
held  by  a  loose  and  a  paralytic  arm.  He 
that  means  to  learn  the  secrets  of  God's  wis- 
dom, must  be,  as  Plato  says,  trjv  toywop  £u>f}v 
ovolu>ia£vos,  "  his  soul  must  be  consubstan- 
tiated  with  reason,"  not  invested  with  pas- 
sion :  to  him  that  is  otherwise,  things  are 
but  in  the  dark,  his  notion  is  obscure,  and  his 
sight  troubled  ;  and,  therefore,  though  we  of- 
ten meet  with  passionate  fools,  yet  we  seldom 
or  never  hear  of  a  very  passionate  wise  man. 

I  have  now  done  with  the  first  part  of  my 
undertaking,  and  proved  to  you  that  our 
evil  life  is  the  cause  of  our  controversies 
and  ignorances  in  religion  and  of  the  things 
of  God.  You  see  what,  hinders  us  from  be- 
coming good  divines.  But  all  this  while, 
we  are  but  in  the  preparation  to  the  myste- 
ries of  godliness  :  when  we  have  thrown  off 
all  affections  to  sin,  when  we  have  stripped 
ourselves  from  all  fond  adherences  to  the 
things  of  the  world,  and  have  broken  the 
chains  and  dominion  of  our  passions  ;  then 
we  may  say  with  David,  "  Ecce  paratum 
est  cor  meum,  Deus ;"  "My  heart  is  ready, 
i  O  God,  my  heart  is  ready :"  then  we  may 
'  say,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  hear- 
eth  :"  but  we  are  not  yet  instructed.  It  re- 
mains, therefore,  that  we  inquire  what  is 
that  immediate  principle  or  means,  by  which 
we  shall  certainly  and  infallibly  be  led  into 
all  truth,  and  be  taught  the  mind  of  God, 
and  understand  all  his  secrets ;  and  this  is 
worth  our  knowledge.  I  cannot  say  that 
this  will  end  your  labours,  and  put  a  period 
to  your  studies,  and  make  your  learning 
easy  ;  it  may  possibly  increase  your  labour, 
but  it  will  make  it  profitable  ;  it  will  not  end 
*  Nazianz.  ad  Philagrium. 
2o  2 


462 


A  SERMON  PREACHED  TO 


Serm.  VI. 


your  studies,  but  it  will  direct  them;  it  will 
not  make  human  learning  easy,  but  it  will 
make  it  "wise  unto  salvation,"  and  conduct 
it  into  true  notices  and  ways  of  wisdom. 

1  am  now  to  describe  to  you  the  right 
way  of  knowledge:  "  Qui  facit  voluntatem 
Patris  mei,"  saith  Christ ;  that  is  the  way ; 
do  God's  will,  and  you  shall  understand 
God's  word.    And  it  was  an  excellent  say- 
ing of  St.  Peter,  "  Add  to  your  faith  vir- 
tue,"* &.c.    "  If  these  things  be  in  you  and 
abound,  ye  shall  not  be  unfruitful  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
For  in  this  case,  it  is  not  enough  that  our 
hinderances  of  knowledge  are  removed;  for 
that  is  but  the  opening  of  the  covering  of 
the  book  of  God ;  but  when  it  is  opened,  it 
is  written  with  a  hand  that  every  eye  can-  j 
not  read.    Though  the  windows  of  the  east 
be  open,  yet  every  eye  cannot  behold  the 
glories  of  the  sun  :   'O^a^uoj  /jlyj  rfkiozihru j 
yivo/xsvos  r-%vov  ov  pTJjtsi,  saith  Plotinus  :  "  The  j 
eye  that  is  not  made  solar,  cannot  see  the , 
sun  ;" — the  eye  must  be  fitted  to  the  splen- j 
dour;  and  it  is  not  the  wit  of  the  man,  but  the  j 
spirit  of  the  man ;  not  so  much  his  head  as  j 
his  heart,  that  learns  the  Divine  philosophy. ' 

1.  Now,  in  this  inquiry,  I  must  take  one  | 
thing  for  a  "prsecognitum,"  that  every  good  | 
man  is  fcodYSaxtoj,  he  is  u  taught  of  God"."  j 
and,  indeed,  unless  he  teach  us,  we  shall  i 
make  but  ill  scholars  ourselves,  and  worse j 
guides  to  others.    "  Nemo  potest  Deum 
scire,  nisi  a  Deo  doceatur,"  said  St.  Ire-  { 
naeus.f    If  God  teaches  us,  then  all  is  well; 
but  if  we  do  not  learn  wisdom  at  his  feet, 
from  whence  should  we  have  it?  it  can 
come  from  no  other  spring.  And,  therefore, 
it  naturally  follows,  that  by  how  much  I 
nearer  we  are  to  God,  by  so  much  better 
we  are  like  to  be  instructed. 

But  this  being  supposed,  as  being  most 
evident,  we  can  easily  proceed,  by  wonder- 
ful degrees  and  steps  of  progression,  in  the 
economy  of  this  divine  philosophy  :  For, 

2.  There  is,  in  every  righteous  man,  a 
new  vital  principle;  the  Spirit  of  grace  is  the 
Spirit  of  wisdom,  and  teaches  us  by  secret 
inspirations,  by  proper  arguments,  by  actual 
persuasions,  by  personal  applications,  by 
effects  and  energies :  and  as  the  soul  of  a 
man  is  the  cause  of  all  his  vital  operations, 
so  is  the  Spirit  of  God  the  life  of  that  life, 
and  the  cause  of  all  actions  and  productions 
spiritual:  and  the  consequence  of  this  is 
what  St.  John  tells  us  of,  "  Ye  have  re- 
ceived  the  unction  from  above,  and  that 

*  2  Pet.  i.  5.  tLib'vi.  cap.  13. 


anointing  teacheth  you  all  things:"*  All 
things  of  some  one  kind;  that  is,  certainly, — 
all  things  that  pertain  to  life  and  godliness ; — 
all  that  by  which  a  man  is  wise  and  bappy. 
We  see  this  by  common  experience.  Unless 
the  soul  have  a  new  life  put  into  it,  unless 
there  be  a  vital  principle  within,  unless  the 
Spirit  of  life  be  the  informer  of  the  spirit  of 
the  man, — the  word  of  God  will  be  as  dead 
in  the  operation,  as  the  body  in  its  powers 
and  possibilities.  "Sol  et  homo  generant 
hominem,"  saith  our  philosophy  ;  "  A  man 
alone  does  not  beget  a  man,  but  a  man  and 
the  sun;"  for  without  the  influence  of  the 
celestial  bodies,  all  natural  actions  are  inef- 
fective :  and  so  it  is  in  the  operations  of 
the  soul. 

Which  principle  divers  fanatics,  both 
among  us  and  in  the  church  of  Rome,  mis- 
understanding, look  for  new  revelations,  and 
expect  to  be  conducted  by  ecstasy,  and  will 
not  pray  but  in  a  transfiguration,  and  live 
upon  raptures  and  extravagant  expectations, 
and  separate  themselves  from  the  conversa- 
tion of  men,  by  affections,  by  new  measures 
and  singularities,  and  destroy  order,  and 
despise  government,  and  live  upon  illiterate 
phantasms  and  ignorant  discourses.  These 
men  do  ^bvSsgOcu  to  ovyiov  Jlvsiipa,  "  they  belie 
the  Holy  Ghost:"  for  the  Spirit  of  God 
makes  men  wise :  it  is  an  evil  spirit  that 
makes  them  fools.  The  Spirit  of  God  makes 
us  "  wise  unto  salvation ;"  it  does  not  spend 
its  holy  influences  in  disguises  and  convul- 
sions of  the  understanding:  God's  Spirit 
does  not  destroy  reason,  but  heightens  it; 
he  never  disorders  the  beauties  of  govern- 
ment, but  is  a  God  of  order ;  it  is  the  Spirit 
of  humility,  and  teaches  no  pride ;  he  is  to 
be  found  in  churches  and  pulpits,  upon  al- 
tars, and  in  the  doctors'  chairs  ;  not  in  con- 
venticles, and  mutinous  corners  of  a  house  : 
he  goes  in  company  with  his  own  ordi- 
nances, and  makes  progressions  by  the  mea- 
sures of  life;  his  infusions  are  just  as  our 
acquisitions,  and  his  graces  pursue  the  me- 
thods of  nature  :  that  which  was  imperfect, 
he  leads  on  to  perfection,  and  that  which  was 
weak,  he  makes  strong :  he  opens  the  heart, 
not  to  receive  murmurs,  or  to  attend  to  se- 
cret whispers,  but  to  hear  the  word  of  God  ; 
and  then  he  opens  the  heart,  and  creates  a 
new  one;  and  without  this  new  creation, 
this  new  principle  of  life,  we  may  hear  the 
word  of  God,  but  we  can  never  understand 
it;  we  hear  the  sound,  but  are  never  the 
better  ;  unless  there  be  in  our  hearts  a  secret 


*  1  John  ii.  27. 


Skim.  VI. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


463 


conviction  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  gospel  I  and,  therefore,  he  does  not  only  understand 


itself  is  a  dead  letter,  and  worketh  not  in  us 
the  light  and  righteousness  of  God. 

Do  not  we  see  this  by  daily  experience? 
Even  those  things  which  a  good  man  and 
an  evil  man  know,  they  do  not  know  them 
both  alike.  A  wicked  man  does  know  that 
good  is  lovely,  and  sin  is  of  an  evil  and 
destructive  nature;  and  when  he  is  reproved, 
he  is  convinced ;  and  when  he  is  observed, 
he  is  ashamed;  and  when  he  has  done,  he 
is  unsatisfied  ;  and  when  he  pursues  his  sin, 
he  does  it  in  the  dark  :  tell  him  he  shall  die, 
and  he  sighs  deeply,  but  he  knows  it  as  well 


the  sermons  of  the  Spirit,  and  perceives 
their  meaning,  but  he  pierces  deeper,  and 
knows  the  meaning  of  that  meaning ;  that  is, 
the  secret  of  the  Spirit,  that  which  is  spiritu- 
ally discerned,  that  which  gives  life  to  the 
proposition,  and  activity  to  the  soul.  And 
the  reason  is,  because  he  hath  a  divine 
principle  within  him,  and  a  new  under- 
standing; that  is,  plainly,  he  hath  love,  and 
that  is  more  than  knowledge ;  as  was  rarely- 
well  observed  by  St.  Paul,  "  Knowledge 
puffeth  up,  but  charity  edifieth;"  that  is, 
charitv  makes  the  best  scholars.    No  ser- 


as  you  :  proceed,  and  say,  that  after  death  mons  can  edify  you,  no  Scriptures  can  build 
comes  judgment,  and  the  poor  man  believes  i  you  up  a  holy  building  to  God,  unless  the 
and  trembles ;  he  knows  that  God  is  angry  love  of  God  be  in  your  hearts,  and  "  purify 
with  him;  and  if  you  tell  him,  that  for 
aught  he  knows  he  may  be  in  hell  to-mor- 
row, he  knows  that  it  is  an  intolerable  truth, 


your  souls  from  all  filthiness  of  the  flesh 
and  spirit.^' 

But  so  it  is  in  the  regions  of  stars,  where 


but  it  is  also  undeniable :  and  yet,  afier  all  a  vast  body  of  fire  is  so  divided  by  eccentric 

motions,  that  it  looks  as  if  Nature  had  parted 
them  into  orbs  and  round  shells  of  plain  and 
purest  materials  :  but  where  the  cause  is 
simple,  and  the  matter  without  variety,  the 
motions  must  be  uniform ;  and  in  heaven 
air;  as  long  as  her  flight  lasted,  the  air  we  should  either  espy  no  motion,  or  no  va- 


this,  he  runs  to  commit  his  sin  with  as  cer- 
tain an  event  and  resolution  as  if  he  knew 
no  argument  against  it:  these  notices  of 
things  terrible  and  true  pass  through  his 
as   an  eagle  through  the 


was  shaken,  but  there  remains  no  path  be- 
hind her. 

Now,  since,  at  the  same  time,  we  see 
other  persons,  not  so  learned,  it  may  be,  not 
so  much  versed  in  Scripture, — yet  they  say; 
a  thing  is  good  and  lay  hold  of  it ;  they 
believe  glorious  things  of  heaven,  and  they 


riety.  But  God,  who  designed  the  heavens 
to  be  the  causes  of  all  changes  and  motions 
here  below,  hath  placed  his  angels  in  their 
houses  of  light,  and  given  to  every  one  of 
his  appointed  officers  a  portion  of  the  fiery 
matter  to  circumagitate  and  roll ;  and  now 
the  wonder  ceases :  for  if  it  be  inquired  why 


live  accordingly,  as  men  that  believe  them-  this  part  of  the  fire  runs  eastward,  and  the 
selves;  half  a  word  is  enough  to  make  them  other  to  the  south,  thev  being  both  indiffer- 


understand ;  a  nod  is  a  sufficient  reproof ;  the 
crowing  of  a  cock,  the  singing  of  a  lark, 
the  dawning  of  the  day,  and  the  washing 
their  hands,  are  to  them  competent  memo- 
rials of  religion,  and  warnings  of  their  duty. 
What  is  the  reason  of  this  difference?  They 


ent  to  either, — it  is  because  an  angel  of  God 
sits  in  the  centre,  and  makes  the  same  mat- 
ter turn,  not  by  the  bent  of  its  own  mobility 
and  inclination,  but  in  order  to  the  needs  of 
man,  and  the  great  purposes  of  God  :  and 
so  it  is  in  the  understandings  of  men;  when 


both  read  the  Scriptures,  they  read  and  hear  they  all  receive  the  same  notions,  and  are 

the  same  sermons,  they  have  capable  under-  taught  by  the  same  master,  and  give  full 

standings,  they  both  believe  what  they  hear!  consent  to  all  the  propositions,  and  can,  of 

and  what  they  read,  and  yet  the  event  is  themselves,  have  nothing  to  distinguish  them 

vastly  different.    The  reason  is  that  which  in  the  events,  it  is  because  God  has  sent  his 

I  am  now  speaking  of;  the  one  understands  Divine  Spirit,  and  kindles  a  new  fire,  and 

by  one  principle,  the  other  by  another;  the  creates  a  braver  capacity,  and  applies  the 


one  understands  by  nature,  and  the  other  by 
grace ;  the  one  by  human  learning,  and  the 
other  by  Divine;  the  one  reads  the  Scrip- 
tures without,  and  the  other  within;  the | 
one  understands  as  a  son  of  man,  the  other 


actives  to  the  passives,  and  blesses  their  ope- 
ration ;  for  there  is,  in  the  heart  of  man, 
such  a  dead  sea,  and  an  indisposition  to  holy 
flames,  like  as  in  the  cold  rivers  of  the  north, 
so  as  the  fires  will  not  burn  them,  and  the 


as  a  son  of  God;  the  one  perceives  by  the  sun  itself  will  never  warm  them,  till  God's 
proportions  of  the  world,  and  the  other  by!  Holy  Spirit  does,  from  the  temple  of  the 
the  measures  of  the  Spirit;  the  one  under- j  New  Jerusalem,  bring  a  holy  flame,  and 
stands  by  reason,  and  the  other  by  love;,  make  it  shine  and  burn. 


464 


A  SERMON  PREACHED  TO 


Serm.  VI. 


"  The  natural  man,"  saith  the  holy  apos- ;  ment."*  And,  though  this  be  irregular  and 
tie,  "  cannot  perceive  the  things  of  the  j  infrequent,  yet  it  is  a  reward  of  their  piety, 
Spirit;  they  are  foolishness  unto  him;  for  and  the  proper  increase  also  of  the  spiritual 
they  are  spiritually  discerned for  he  that  man.  We  find  this  spoken  by  God  to  Da- 
discourses  of  things  by  the  measures  of  niel,  and  promised  to  be  the  lot  of  the  right- 
sense,  thinks  nothing  good  but  that  which  eous  man  in  the  days  of  the  Messias:f 
is  delicious  to  the  palate,  or  pleases  the  brut- j"  Many  shall  be  purified,  and  made  white, 


ish  part  of  man;  and  therefore,  while  he 
estimates  the  secrets  of  religion  by  such 
measures,  they  must  needs  seem  as  insipid 
as  cork,  or  the  uncondited  mushroom;  for 


and  tried ;  but  the  wicked  shall  do  wicked- 
ly : " — and  what  then  1 — "  None  of  the  wicked 
shall  understand,  but  the  wise  shall  under- 
stand."   Where,  besides  that  the  wise  man 


they  have  nothing  at  all  of  that  in  their  |  and  the  wicked  are  opposed,  plainly  signify- 
constitution.  A  voluptuous  person  is  like  ing  that  the  wicked  man  is  a  fool  and  an  igno- 
the  dogs  of  Sicily,  so  filled  with  the  deli-  rant;  it  is  plainly  said,  that  "None  of  the  wick- 
ciousness  of  plants  that  grow  in  every  fur-  ed  shall  understand"  the  wisdom  and  myste- 
row  and  hedge,  that  they  can  never  keep  riousness  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Messias. 
the  scent  of  their  game.  'ASiWov  wd^M  4.  A  good  life  is  the  best  way  to  under- 
vBatv  jtvp'  ovVcoj  otfuu  tfpv^v  xol  x(vedw%w,  said  stand  wisdom  and  religion,  because,  by  the 
St.  Chrysostom:  "The  fire  and  water  can  | experiences  and  relishes  of  religion,  there 
can  never  mingle;  so  neither  can  sensuality 
and  the  watchfulness  and  wise  discerning 


of  the  spirit." — "  Pilato  interroganti  de  veri- 
tate,  Christus  non  respondit;"  "When  the 
wicked  governor  asked  of  Christ  concerning 
truth,  Christ  gave  him  no  answer."  He 
was  not  fit  to  hear  it. 

He,  therefore,  who  so  understands  the 
words  of  God,  that  he  not  only  believes, 
out  loves  the  proposition ;  he  who  consents 
with  all  his  heart,  and,  being  convinced  of 
the  truth,  does  also  apprehend  the  necessity 


'is  conveyed  to  them  such  a  sweetness,  to 
which  all  wicked  men  are  strangers  :  there 
is  in  the  things  of  God,  to  them  which  prac- 
tise them,  a  deliciousness  that  makes  us  love 
them,  and  that  love  admits  us  into  God's 
cabinet,  and  strangely  clarifies  the  under- 
standing, by  the  purification  of  the  heart. 
For  when  our  reason  is  raised  up  by  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  it  is  turned  quickly  into 
experience ;  when  our  faith  relies  upon  the 
principles  of  Christ,  it  is  changed  into  vision ; 
and  so  long  as  we  know  God  only  in  the 


and  obeys  the  precept,  and  delights  in  the  ways  of  man,  by  contentious  learning,  by 
discovery,  and  lays  his  hand  upon  his  heart,  arguing  and  dispute, — we  see  nothing  but 
and  reduces  the  notices  of  things  to  the  the  shadow  of  him ;  and  in  that  shadow  we 


practice  of  duty ;  he  who  dares  trust  his 
proposition,  and  drives  it  on  to  the  utmost 
issue,  resolving  to  go  after  it  whithersoever 
it  can  invite  him;  this  man  walks  in  the 
Spirit;  at  least  thus  far  he  is  gone  towards 
it;  his  understanding  is  brought  "in  obse- 
quium  Christi,"  "  into  the  obedience  of 
Christ."  This  is  a  "  loving-  God  with  all 
our  mind;"  and  whatever  goes  less  than 
this,  is  but  memory,  and  not  understanding; 
or  else  such  notice  of  things,  by  which  a 
man  is  neither  the  wiser  nor  the  better. 

3.  Sometimes  God  gives  to  his  choicest,  his 
most  elect  and  precious  servants,  a  know- 
ledge even  of  secret  things,  which  he  com- 
municates not  to  others.  We  find  it  greatly 
remarked  in  the  case  of  Abraham,  "And 
the  Lord  said,  shall  I  hide  from  Abraham 
that  thing  that  I  do?"f  Why  not  from 
Abraham? — God  tells  us:  "For  I  know 
him,  that  he  will  command  his  children  and 
his  household  after  him,  and  they  shall  keep 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice  and  judg- 


*\  Cor.  ii.  14. 


t  Gen.  xviii.  17. 


meet  with  many  dark  appearances,  little  cer- 
tainty, and  much  conjecture :  but  when  we 
know  him  koy«  o.7io$avHtxc>  yatojv^  fospa,  with 
the  eyes  of  holiness,  and  the  intuition  of 
gracious  experiences,  with  a  quiet  spirit  and 
the  peace  of  enjoyment ;  then  we  shall  hear 
what  we  never  heard,  and  see  what  our  eyes 
never  saw ;  then  the  mysteries  of  godliness 
shall  be  opened  unto  us,  and  clear  as  the 
windows  of  the  morning :  and  this  is  really 
well  expressed  by  the  apostle,  "If  we  stand 
up  from  the  dead,  and  wake  from  sleep, 
then  Christ  shall  give  us  light."! 

For  although  the  Scriptures  themselves 
are  written  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  yet  they 
are  written  within  and  without ;  and  besides 
the  light  that  shines  upon  the  face  of  them, 
unless  there  be  a  light  shining  within  our 
hearts,  unfolding  the  leaves,  and  interpreting 
the  mysterious  sense  of  the  Spirit,  convin- 
cing our  consciences  and  preaching  to  our 
hearts,  to  look  for  Christ  in  the  leaves  of  the 
gospel,  is  to  "look  for  the  living  amongst  the 

*  Ver.  19.      +Dan.  xii.  10.      \  Eph.  v.  14. 


Serm.  VI. 


1    THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


465 


dead."  There  is  a  life  in  them,  but  that 
Hie  is,  according  to  St.  Paul's  expression, 
•'hid  with  Christ  in  God:"  and,  unless  the 
Spirit  of  God  be  the  "  promo-condus,"  we 
shall  never  draw  it  forth. 

Human  learning  brings  excellent  minis- 
tries towards  this;  it  is  admirably  useful  for 
I  he  reproof  of  heresies,  for  the  detection  of 
fallacies,  for  the  letter  of  the  Scripture,  for 
Collateral  testimonies,  for  exterior  advan- 
tages; but  there  is  something  beyond  this, 
that  human  learning,  without  the  addition 
of  Divine,  can  never  reach.  Moses  was 
learned  in  all  the  learning  of  the  Egyptians  ; 
and  the  holy  men  of  God  contemplated  the 
glories  of  God  in  the  admirable  order,  mo- 
tion, and  influences  of  the  heavens  ;  but 
besides  all  this,  they  were  taught  of  God 
something  far  beyond  these  prettinesses. 
Pythagoras  read  Moses'  books,  and  so  did 
Plato;  and  yet  they  became  not  proselytes 
of  the  religion,  though  they  were  learned 
scholars  of  such  a  master.  The  reason  is, 
because  that  which  they  drew  forth  from 
thence,  was  not  the  life  and  secret  of  it. 

Tradidit  arcano  quodcunque  volumine  Moses. 

Juv. 

There  is  a  secret  in  these  books,  which  few 
men,  none  but  the  godly,  did  understand; 
and  though  much  of  this  secret  is  made 
manifest  in  the  gospel,  yet  even  here,  also 
there  is  a  letter,  and  there  is  a  spirit ;  still 
there  is  a  reserve  for  God's  secret  ones,  even 
all  those  deep  mysteries  which  the  Old  Testa- 
ment covered  in  figures,  and  stories,  and 
names,  and  prophecies,  and  which  Christ 
hath,  and  by  his  Spirit  will  yet  reveal  more 
plainly  to  all  that  will  understand  them  by 
their  proper  measures.  For,  although  the 
gospel  is  infinitely  more  legible  and  plain 
than  the  obscurer  leaves  of  the  law,  yet 
there  is  a  seal  upon  them  also  ;  "  which 
seal  no  man  shall  open,  but  he  that  is  wor- 
thy." We  may  understand  something  of 
it  by  the  three  children  of  the  captivity ; 
they  were  all  skilled  in  all  the  wisdom  of 
the  Chaldees,  and  so  was  Daniel:  but  there 
was  something  beyond  that  in  him;  "the 
wisdom  of  the  most  high  God  was  in  him;" 
and  that  taught  him  a  learning  beyond  his 
learning. 

In  all  Scripture  there  is  a  spiritual  sense, 
a  spiritual  cabala,  wrhich,  as  it  tends  directly 
to  holiness,  so  it  is  best  and  truest  under- 
stood by  the  sons  of  the  Spirit,  who  love 
God,  and  therefore  know  him.  rVwcrij  sxaa- 
fit'  o^uotoT'jyT'a  ytWat,  "  Every  thing  is  best 
known  by  its'  wn  similitudes  and  analogies." 


But  I  must  take  some  other  time  to  speak 
fully  of  these  things :  I  have  but  one  thing 
more  to  say,  and  then  I  shall  make  my 
applications  of  this  doctrine,  and  so  con 
elude. 

5.  Lastly  :  there  is  a  -sort  of  God's  deai 
servants  who  walk  in  perfectness,  who 
"  perfect  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God  ;"  and 
they  have  a  degree  of  clarity  and  Divine 
knowledge  more  than  we  can  discourse  of, 
and  more  certain  than  the  demonstrations 
of  geometry,  brighter  than  the  sun,  and 
indeficient  as  the  light  of  heaven.  This  is 
called  by  the  apostle  the  dnavyao/xa  tov  &ov' 
Christ  is  this  "  brightness  of  God,"  mani- 
fested in  the  hearts  of  his  dearest  servants. 

'AM.'  fyw  i$  xaOapuv   /u-fportcov  <J>p£m  rtvpoov 

But  I  shall  say  no  more  of  this  at  this 
time,  for  this  is  to  be  felt,  and  not  to  be 
talked  of ;  and  they  that  never  touched  it 
with  their  finger,  may  secretly,  perhaps, 
laugh  at  it  in  their  heart,  and  be  never  the 
wiser.  All  that  I  shall  now  say  of  it  is,  that  a 
good  man  is  united  unto  God,  xtvtpov  xevipc? 
ovva^as,  as  a  flame  touches  a  flame,  and  com- 
bines into  splendour  and  to  glory  :  so  is  the 
spirit  of  a  man  united  unto  Christ  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  These  are  the  friends  of  God, 
and  they  best  know  God's  mind,  and  they 
only  that  are  so,  know  how  much  such  men 
do  know.  They  have  a  special  unction  from 
above  :  so  that  now  you  are  come  to  the 
top  of  all ;  this  is  the  highest  round  of  the 
ladder,  and  the  angels  stand  upon  it :  they 
dwell  in  love  and  contemplation,  they  wor- 
ship and  obey,  but  dispute  not:  and  our 
quarrels  and  impertinent  wranglings  about 
religion  are  nothing  else  but  the  want  of  the 
I  measures  of  this  state.  Our  light  is  like  a 
j  candle  ;  every  wind  of  vain  doctrine  blows 
!  it  out,  or  spends  the  wax,  and  makes-  the 
|  light  tremulous;  but  the  lights  of  heaven 
are  fixed  and  bright,  and  shine  for  ever. 

But  that  we  may  speak  not  only  things 
mysterious,  but  things  intelligible;  how 
does  it  come  to  pass,  by  what  means  and 
what  economy  is  it  effected,  that  a  holy  life 
is  the  best  determination  of  all  questions, 
and  the  surest  way  of  knowledge?  Is  it  to 
be  supposed,  that  a  godly  man  is  better 
enabled  to  determine  the  questions  of  purga- 
tory or  transubstantiation  ?  is  the  gift  of 
chastity  the  best  way  to  reconcile  Thomas 
and  Scotus?  and  is  a  temperate  man  always 


466 


A  SERMON  PRE  ACHED  TO  Serm.  VI. 


a  better  scholar  than  a  drunkard?  To  this 
I  answer,  that  in  all  things  in  which  true 
wisdom  consists,  holiness,  which  is  the  best 
wisdom,  is  the  surest  way  of  understanding 
them.    And  this, 

L.  Is  effected  by  holiness  as  a  proper  and 
natural  instrument :  for  naturally  every 
thing  is  best  discerned  by  its  proper  light 
and  congenial  instrument. 

Voir}  fiiv  yap  yaiar  6ftu)7ia/x£i' ,  vBati  5'  v8u>p. 

For  as  the  eye  sees  visible  objects,  and  the 
understanding  perceives  the  intellectual;  so 
does  the  Spirit  the  things  of  the  Spirit.  "The 
natural  man,"  saith  St.  Paul,  "  knows  not 
the  things  of  God,  for  they  are  spiritually 
discerned  :"  that  is,  they  are  discovered  by 
a  proper  light,  and  concerning  these  things 
an  unsanctified  man  discourses  pitifully, 
with  an  imperfect  idea,  as  a  blind  man  does 
of  light  and  colours,  which  he  never  saw. 

A  good  man,  though  unlearned  in  secu- 
lar notices,  is  like  the  windows  of  the  temple, 
narrow  without  and  broad  within :  he  sees 
not  so  much  of  what  profits  not  abroad, 
but  whatsoever  is  within,  and  concerns 
reiigion  and  the  glorifications  of  God,  that 
he  sees  with  a  broad  inspection :  but  all 
human  learning,  without  God,  is  but  blind- 
ness and  ignorant  folly. 

But  when  it  is  bixaLosvvri  ^s^afifiivij  ttj 
Qddos  trs  fojqdeCas,  "  righteousness  dipped  in 
the  wells  of  truth ;"  it  is  like  an  eye  of  gold 
in  a  rich  garment,  or  like  the  light  of  hea- 
ven, it  shows  itself  by  its  own  splendour. 
What  learning  is  it  to  discourse  of  the  philo- 
sophy of  the  sacrament,  if  you  do  not  feel 
the  virtue  of  it?  and  the  man  that  can  with 
eloquence  and  subtilty  discourse  of  the  in- 
strumental efficacy  of  baptismal  waters, 
talks  ignorantly  in  respect  of  him  who  hath 

the  answer  of  a  good  conscience"  within, 
and  is  cleansed  by  the  purifications  of  the 
Spirit.  If  the  question  concern  any  thing 
that  can  perfect  a  man  and  make  him  happy, 
all  that  is  the  proper  knowledge  and  notice 
of  the  good  man.  How  can  a  wicked  man 
understand  the  purities  of  the  heart?  and 
how  can  an  evil  and  unworthy  communi- 
cant tell  what  it  is  to  have  received  Christ 
by  faith,  to  dwell  with  him,  to  be  united  to 
him,  to  receive  him  in  his  heart?  The 
good  man  only  understands  that:  the  one 
sees  the  colour,  and  the  other  feels  the  sub- 
stance; the  one  discourses  of  the  sacrament, 
and  the  other  receives  Christ;  the  one 
discourses  for  or  against  transubstantiation, 
but  the  good  man  feels  h  mself  to  be  changed, 


and  so  joined  to  Christ,  that  he  only  under 
stands  the  true  sense  of  transubstantiation, 
while  he  becomes  to  Christ  bone  of  his  bone, 
flesh  of  his  flesh,  and  of  the  same  spirit  with 
his  Lord. 

We  talk  much  of  reformation,  and  (bless- 
ed be  God)  once  we  have  felt  the  good  of 
it;  nut  of  late  we  have  smarted  under  the 
name  and  pretension  :  the  woman  that  lost 
j  her  groat,  "  everrit  domum,"  not  "evertit;" 
j  u  she  swept  the  house,  she  did  not  turn  the 
i  house  out  of  doors."  That  was  but  an  ill 
;  reformation,  that  untiled  the  roof  and  broke 
the  walls,  and  was  digging  down  the  founda- 
!  tion. 

Now  among  all  the  pretensions  of  reform- 
ation, who  can  tell  better  what  is,  and 
!what  is  not,  true  reformation,  than  he  that 
is  truly  reformed  himself?  He  knows  what 
pleases  God,  and  can  best  tell  by  what  in- 
struments he  is  reconciled.  "The  mouth 
of  the  just  bringeth  forth  wisdom  ;  and  the 
lips  of  the  righteous  know  what  is  accept- 
able," saith  Solomon.*  He  cannot  be 
cozened  by  names  of  things,  and  feels  that 
reformation  to  be  imposture  that  is  sacri- 
!  legious  :  himself  is  humble  and  obedient,  and 
therefore  knows  that  is  not  truth  that  per- 
suades to  schism  and  disobedience:  and 
most  of  the  questions  of  Christendom  are 
such  which  either  are  good  for  nothing,  and 
therefore  to  be  laid  aside;  or  if  they  be  com- 
plicated with  action,  and  are  ministries  of 
practice,  no  man  can  judge  them  so  well  as 
the  spiritual  man.  That  which  best  pleases 
God,  that  which  does  good  to  our  neigh- 
bour, that  which  teaches  sobriety,  that 
which  combines  with  government,  that 
!  which  speaks  honour  of  God,  and  does 
;  him  honour, — llmt  only  is  truth.  Holiness, 
|  therefore,  is  a  proper  and  natural  instru- 
j  ment  of  Divine  knowledge,  and  must  needs 
I  be  the  best  way  of  instruction  in  the  ques- 
tions of  Christendom,  because  in  the  most 
of  them,  a  duly  is  complicated  with  the  pro- 
position. 

No  man  that  intends  to  live  holily,  can 
ever  suffer  any  pretences  of  religion  to  be 
made  to  teach  him  to  fight  against  his  king. 
And  when  the  men  of  Geneva  turned  their 
bishop  out  of  doors,  they  might  easily  have 
considered,  that  the  same  person  was  their 
prince  too;  and  that  must  needs  be  a  strange 
religion,  that  rose  up  against  Moses  and 
Aaron  at  the  same  time:  but  that  hath  been 
the  method   ever  since.     There  was  no 


*  Prov.  x.  31,  32. 


Serm.  VI. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


467 


church  till  then  ever  governed  without  an 
apostle  or  a  bishop  ;  and  since  then,  they 
who  go  from  their  bishop,  have  said  very 
often  to  their  king  too,  "  Nolumus  hunc 
regnare:"  and  when  we  see  men  pretending 
religion,  and  yet  refuse  to  own  the  king's 
supremacy,  they  may,  upon  the  stock  of 
holiness,  easilv  reprove  their  own  folly,  by 
considering  that  such  recusancy  does  intro- 
duce into  our  churches  the  very  worst,  the 
most  intolerable  parts  of  popery  :  for  per- 
fect submission  to  kings  is  the  glory  of  the 
protestant  cause:  and  really  the  reprovable 
doctrines  of  the  church  of  Rome  are  by  no- 
thing so  much  confuted,  as  that  they  destroy 
good  life  by  consequent  and  evident  deduc- 
tion ;  as  by  an  induction  of  particulars  were 
easy  to  make  apparent,  if  this  were  the 
proper  season  for  it. 

2.  Holiness  is  not  only  an  advantage  to 
the  learning  all  wisdom  and  holiness,  but 
for  the  discerning  that  which  is  wise  and 
holy  from  what  is  trifling,  and  useless,  and 
contentious  ;  and  to  one  of  these  heads  all 
questions  will  return:  and  therefore,  in  all, 
from  holiness  we  have  the  best  instructions. 
And  this  brings  me  to  the  next  particle  of 
the  general  consideration.  For  that  which 
we  are  taught  jy  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God, 
this  new  nature,  this  vital  principle  within 
us,  it  is  that  which  is  worth  our  learning; 
not  vain  and  empty,  idle  and  insignificant 
notions,  in  which  when  you  have  laboured 
till  your  eyes  are  fixed  in  their  orbs,  and 
your  flesh  unfixed  from  its  bones,  you  are 
no  better  and  no  wiser.  Tf  the  Spirit  of 
God  be  your  teacher,  he  will  teach  you 
such  truths  as  will  make  you  know  and 
love  God,  and  become  like  to  him,  and 
enjoy  him  for  ever,  by  passing  from  simili- 
tude to  union  and  eternal  fruition.  But 
what  are  you  the  better,  if  any  man  should 
pretend  to  teach  you  whether  every  angel 
makes  a  species  ?  and  what  is  the  indivi- 
duation of  the  soul  in  the  state  of  separa- 
tion? what  are  you  the  wiser,  if  you  should 
study  and  find  out  what  place  Adam  should 
for  ever  have  lived  in,  if  he  had  not  fallen? 
and  what  is  any  man  the  more  learned,  if 
he  hears  the  disputes,  whether  Adam  should 
have  multiplied  children  in  the  state  of 
innocence,  and  what  would  have  been  the 
event  of  things,  if  one  child  had  been  born 
before  his  father's  sin  ? 

Too  many  scholars  have  lived  upon  air 
and  empty  notions  for  many  ages  past,  and 
troubled  themselves  with  tying  and  untying 
knots,  like  hypochondriacs  in  a  fit  of  melan- 


choly, thinking  of  nothing,  and  troubling 
themselves  with  nothing,  and  falling  out 
about  nothings,  and  being  very  wise  and  very- 
learned  in  things  that  are  not,  and  work  not, 
and  were  never  planted  in  paradise  by  the 
finger  of  God.  Men's  notions  are  too  often 
like  the  mules,  begotten  by  equivocal  and  un- 
natural generations;  but  they  make  no  spe- 
cies; they  are  begotten,  but  they  can  beget 
nothing  ;  they  are  the  effects  of  long  study, 
but  they  can  do  no  good  when  they  are 
produced ;  they  are  not  that  which  Solomon 
calls  "  viam  intelligent, "  "  the  way  of 
understanding."  If  the  Spirit  of  God  be  our 
teacher,  we  shall  learn  to  avoid  evil,  and  to 
do  good,  to  be  wise  and  to  be  holy,  to  be 
profitable  and  careful ;  and  they  that  walk 
in  this  way,  shall  find  more  peace  in  their 
consciences,  more  skill  in  the  Scriptures, 
more  satisfaction  in  their  doubts,  than  can 
be  obtained  by  all  the  polemical  and  imper- 
tinent disputations  of  the  world.  And  if 
the  Holy  Spirit  can  teach  us  how  vain  a 
thing  it  is  to  do  foolish  things,  he  also 
will  teach  us  how  vain  a  thing  it  is  to 
trouble  the  world  with  foolish  questions,  to 
disturb  the  church  for  interest  or  pride,  to 
resist  government  in  things  indifferent,  to 
spend  the  people's  zeal  in  things  unprofit* 
able,  to  make  religion  to  consist  in  out- 
sides,  and  opposition  to  circumstances,  and 
trifling  regards.  No,  no  ;  the  man  that  is 
wise,  he  that  is  conducted  by  the  Spirit  oi 
God, — knows  better  in  what  Chrises  king- 
dom does  consist,  than  to  throw  away  his 
time  and  interest,  and  peace  and  safety — for 
what  ?  for  religion  ?  no  :  for  the  body  of 
religion  ?  not  so  much  :  for  the  garment  ot 
the  body  of  religion?  no,  not  for  so  much; 
but  for  the  fringes  of  the  garment  of  tb*3 
body  of  religion;  for  such,  and  no  better, 
are  the  disputes  that  trouble  our  discon- 
tented brethren  ;  they  are  things,  or  rather 
circumstances  and  manners  of  things,  ta 
which  the  soul  and  spirit  is  not  at  ail  con- 
cerned. 

3.  Holiness  of  life  is  the  best  way  of  find- 
ing out  truth  and  understanding;  not  only 
as  a  natural  medium,  nor  only  as  a  prudent 
medium,  but  as  a  means  by  way  of  Divine 
blessing.  "He  that  hath  my  command- 
ments and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth 
me;  and  he  that  loveth  me,  shall  beloved 
of  my  Father,  and  I  will  love  him,  and  wil) 
manifest  myself  to  him."*  Here  we  have 
a  promise  for  it;  and  upon  that  we  may  rely. 

*  John  xiv.  21. 


468  A  SERMON  PREACHED  TO  Serm.  VI. 


The  old  man  that  confuted  the  Arian 
priest  by  a  plain  recital  of  his  creed,  found 
a  mighty  power  of  God  effecting  his  own 
work  by  a  strange  manner,  and  by  a  very 
plain  instrument ;  it  wrought  a  Divine  bless- 
ing just  as  sacraments  use  to  do;  and  this 
tightening  sometimes  comes  in  a  strange 
manner,  as  a  peculiar  blessing  to  good  men. 
For  God  kept  the  secrets  of  his  kingdom 
from  the  wise  heathens  and  the  learned 
Jews,  revealing  them  to  babes  ;  not  because 
<hey  had  less  learning,  but  because  they  had 
more  love ;  they  were  children  and  babes  in 
malice ;  they  loved  Christ,  and  so  he  be- 
came to  them  a  light  and  a  glory.  St.  Paul 
had  more  learning  than  they  all;  and  Moses 
was  instructed  in  all  the  learning  of  the 
Egyptians  ;  yet  because  he  was  the  meekest 
man  upon  earth,  he  was  also  the  wisest; 
and  to  his  human  learning,  in  which  he 
was  excellent,  he  had  a  Divine  light  and 
excellent  wisdom  superadded  to  him,  by 
way  of  spiritual  blessings.  And  St.  Paul, 
though  he  went  very  far  to  the  knowledge 
of  many  great  and  excellent  truths  by  the 
force  of  human  learning,  yet  he  was  far 
short  of  perfective  truth  and  true  wisdom, 
till  he  learned  a  new  lesson  in  a  new  school, 
•ntthe  feet  of  one  greater  than  his  Gamaliel: 
his  learning  grew  much  greater,  his  notions 
brighter,  his  skill  deeper, — by  the  love  of 
Christ,  and  his  desires,  his  passionate  de- 
sires after  Jesus. 

The  force  and  use  of  human  learning, 
and  of  thi3  Divine  learning  I  am  now  speak- 
ing of,  are  both  well  expressed  by  the  pro- 
phet Isaiah;  "And  the  vision  of  all  is 
become  unto  you  as  the  words  of  a  book 
that  is  sealed,  which  men  deliver  to  one  that 
ii  learned,  saying,  Read  this,  I  pray  thee: 
and  he  saith,  I  cannot,  for  it  is  sealed.  And 
the  book  is  delivered  to  him  that  is  not 
learned,  saying,  Read  this,  I  pray  thee ;  and 
he  saith,  I  am  not  learned."*  He  that  is 
no  learned  man,  who  is  not  bred  up  in  the 
schools  of  the  prophets,  cannot  read  God's 
book  for  want  of  learning.  For  human 
learning  is  the  gate  and  first  entrance  of 
Divine  vision  ;  not  the  only  one  indeed,  but 
♦.he  common  gate.  But  beyond  this,  there 
must  be  another  learning;  for  he  that  is 
learned,  bring  the  book  to  him,  and  you  are 
not  much  the  better  as  to  the  secret  part  of 
it,  if  the  book  be  sealed,  if  his  eyes  be  closed, 
if  his  heart  be  not  opened,  if  God  does  not 
speak  to  him  in  the  secret  way  of  discipline. 


Human  learning  is  an  excellent  foundation : 
but  the  top-stone  is  laid  by  love  and  con- 
i  formity  to  the  will  of  God.  For  we  may 
further  observe,  that  blindness,  error,  and 
ignorance,  are  the  punishments  which  God 
sends  upon  wicked  and  ungodly  men. 
"Etiamsi  propter  nostras  intelligentiae  tardi- 
tatem  et  vitsc  demeritum,  Veritas  nondum  se 
apertissime  ostenderit,"  was  St.  Austin's 
expression:  "The  truth  hath  not  yet  been 
manifested  fully  to  us,  by  reason  of  our 
demerits:"  our  sins  have  hindered  the 
brightness  of  the  truth  from  shining  upon 
us.  And  St.  Paul  observes,  that  when  the 
heathens  gave  themselves  "  over  to  lusts, 
God  gave  them  over  to  strong  delusions, 
and  to  believe  a  lie."*  But  "  God  giveth 
to  a  man  that  is  good  in  his  sight,  wisdom, 
and  knowledge,  and  joy,"  said  the  wise 
preacher.f  But  this  is  most  expressly  pro- 
mised in  the  New  Testament,  and  particu- 
larly in  that  admirable  sermon,  which  our 
blessed  Saviour  preached  a  little  before  his 
death :  "  The  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy 
Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my 
name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things. "J 
Well,  there  is  our  teacher  told  of  plainly  : 
but  how  shall  we  obtain  this  teacher,  and 
how  shall  we  be  taught?  Christ  will  pray 
for  us  that  we  may  have  this  Spirit.^  Thai 
is  well :  but  shall  all  Christians  have  the 
Spirit?  Yes,  all  that  will  live  like  Chris- 
tians: for  so  said  Christ,  "If  ye  love  me, 
keep  my  commandments;  and  I  will  pray 
the  Father,  and  he  will  give  you  another 
Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you  for 
ever;  even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  whom  the 
world  cannot  receive,  because  it  seeth  him 
not,  neither  knoweth-  him."  Mark  these 
things.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  our  teacher: — 
he  will  abide  with  us  for  ever  to  be  our 
teacher : — he  will  teach  us  all  things  ; — but 
how  ?  "  If  ye  love  Christ,"  if  ye  keep  his 
commandments,  but  not  else:  if  ye  be  of 
the  world,  that  is,  of  worldly  affections,  ye 
cannot  see  him,  ye  cannot  know'  him.  And 
this  is  the  particular  I  am  now  to  speak  to ; 
the  way  by  which  the  Spirit  of  God  teaches 
us  in  all  the  ways  and  secrets  of  God,  is 
love  and  holiness. 

"  Secreta  Dei  Deo  nostro  et  filiis  domus 
ejus,"  "God's  secrets  are  to  himself  and 
the  sons  of  his  house,"  saith  the  Jewish 
proverb.  Love  is  the  great  instrument  of 
Divine  knowledge,  that  is  the  v-^/ua  ru* 
BvSaaxofxevuv,  "  the  height  of  all  that  is  to  be 


Isa.  xxix.  11,  12. 


*  Rom.  i.  25,  26. 
t  John  xiv.  26. 


t  Eccl.  ii.  26. 
$  lb.  15,  \6,  17. 


Serm.  VI. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


469 


taught  or  learned."  Love  is  obedience,  and  j  ness  of  "  the  Father  begetting  him  to  a  new 
we  learn  his  words  best  when  we  practise  life,"  the  wisdom  of  "the  Son  building  him 
them;  *A  yap  o*c  f/uu&xvorfas  nam**  taCra  up  in  a  most  holy  faith,"  and  the  "  love  of 
rtowvvtfs  /AavSuio/Atv,  said  Aristotle;-  "  those  the  Spirit  of  God  making  him  to  become 
things  which  they  that  learn  ought  to  prac-  like  unto  God." 


tise, — even  while  they  practise  they  will 
best  learn." — "  Q,uisquis  non  venit,  profecto 


He  that  hath  passed  from  his  childhood 
in  grace,  under  the  spiritual  generation  of 


neo  diuicit :  ita  enim  Dominus  docet  per  the  Father,  and  is  gone  forward  to  be  a 
Spirhus  gratiam,  ut  quod  quisque  didicerit,  young  man  in  Christ,  strong  and  vigorous 


non  tantum  cognoscendo  videat,  sed  etiam 
volendo  appetat  et  agendo  perficiat;"  St. 


in  holy  actions  and  holy  undertakings,  and 
from  thence  is  become  an  old  disciple,  and 


Austin  :+  "Unless  we  come  to  Christ,  we  strong  and  grown  old  in  religion,  and  the 

shall  never  learn  :  for  so  our  blessed  Lord  conversation  of  the  Spirit;  this  man  best 

teaches  us  by  the  grace  of  his  Spirit,  that  understands  the  secret  and  undiscernible 

what  any  one  learns,  he  not  only  sees  it  by  economy,  he  feels  this  unintelligible  mystery, 


knowledge,  but  desires  it  by  choice,  and 
perfects  it  by  practice." 

4.  When  this  is  reduced  to  practice  and 
experience,  we  find  not  only  in  things  of 


and  sees  with  his  heart  what  his  tongue  can 
never  express,  and  his  metaphysics  can 
never  prove.  In  these  cases  faith  and  love 
are  the  best  knowledge,  and  Jesus  Christ  is 


practice,  but  even  in  deepest  mysteries,  not  j  best  known  by  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
only  the  choicest  and  most  eminent  saints,  t  Christ;  and  if  the  kingdom  of  God  be  in  us, 
but  even  every  good  man  can  best  tell  what ;  then  wre  know  God,  and  are  known  of  him ; 
is  true,  and  best  reprove  an  error.  |  and  when  we  communicate  of  the  Spirit  of 

He  that  goes  about  to  speak  of  and  to  un-  |  God,  when  we  pray  for  him,  and  have  re- 
derstand  the  mysterious  Trinity,  and  does  it  ceived  him,  and  entertained  him,  and  dwell 
by  words  and  names  of  man's  invention,  or  i  with  him,  and  Avarmed  ourselves  by  his  holy 


by  such  which  signify  contingently,  if  he 
reckons  this  mystery  by  the  mythology  of 
numbers,  by  the  cabala  of  letters,  by  the 


fires, — then  we  know  him  too  :  but  there 
is  no  other  satisfactory  knowledge  of  the 
blessed  Trinity  but  this :   and,  therefore, 


distinctions  of  the  school,  and  by  the  weak  .  whatever  thing  is  spoken  of  God  meta 


inventions  of  disputing  people;  if  he  only 
talks  of  essences  and  existences,  hypostasies 
and  personalities,  distinctions  without  differ- 
ence, and  priority  in  coeqnalities,  and  unity 
in  pluralities,  and  of  superior  predicates  of 
no  larger  extent  than  the  inferior  subjects  : — 


physically,  there  is  no  knowing  of  God 
theologically,  and  as  he  ought  to  be  known, 
but  by  the  measures  of  holiness,  and  the 
proper  light  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

But  in  this  case  experience  is  the  best 
learning,  and  Christianity  is  the  best  institu- 


he  may  amuse  himself,  and  find  his  under-  tion,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  best  teacher, 
standing  will  be  like  St.  Peter's  upon  the  j  and  holiness  is  the  greatest  wisdom;  and 
mount  of  Tabor  at  the  transfiguration:  he  j  he  that  sins  most,  is  the  most  ignorant, — 
may  build  three  tabernacles  in  his  head,  and  :  and  the  humble  and  obedient  man  is  the 


talk  something,  but  he  knows  not  what. 
But  the  good  man  that  feels  the  M  power  of 
the  Father,"  and  he  to  whom  "  the  Son" 
is  become  "wisdom,  righteousness,  sanc- 


best  scholar :  "  For  the  Spirit  of  God  is  a 
loving  Spirit,  and  will  not  enter  into  a 
polluted  soul:  but  he  that  keepeth  the  law, 
getteth  the  understanding  thereof;  and  the 


tification,  and  redemption;"  he  in  "whose  perfection  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  wis- 
heart  the  love  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  dom,"  said  the  wise  Ben-Sirach*  And 


spread;"  to  whom  God  hath  communicated 
the  "Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter;" — this 
man,  though  he  understands  nothing  of  that 
which  is  unintelligible,  yet  he  only  under- 
stands the  mysteriousness  of  the  holy  Trinity. 
No  man  can  be  convinced  well  and  wisely 
of  the  article  of  the  holy,  blessed,  and  un- 
divided Trinity,  but  he  that  feels  the  mighti- 

*  Lib.  ii.  Ethic,  c.  1. 

t  De  Gratia  Christi,  lib.  i.  c.  14.  Nullum 
bonum  perfeete  noscuur  quod  non  pertecte  amatur. 
■*ug.  lib.  lxxxiii.Qu.  de  Gratia  Christi. 


now  give  me  leave  to  apply  the  doctrine  to 
you,  and  so  I  shall  dismiss  you  from  this 
attention. 

Many  ways  have  been  attempted  to  re- 
concile the  differences  of  the  church  in  mat- 
;  ters  of  religion,  and  all  the  counsels  of  man 
have  yet  proved  ineffective :  let  us  now  try 
God's  method,  let  us  betake  ourselves  to 
live  holily,  and  then  the  Spirit  of  God  will 
lead  us  into  all  truth.    And  indeed — it  mat 

*  Ecclus.  xxi.  11. 
2  P 


470 


A  SERMON  PREACHED  TO  Serm.  VI. 


ters  not  what  religion  any  man  is  of,  if  he 
be  a  villain  ; — the  opinion  of  his  sect,  as  it 
will  not  save  his  soul,  so  neither  will  it  do 
good  to  the  public:  but  this  is  a  sure  rule, 
if  the  holy  man  best  understands  wisdom 
and  religion,  then  by  the  proportions  of 
holiness  we  shall  best  measure  the  doctrines, 
that  are  obtruded  to  the  disturbance  of  our 
peace,  and  the  dishonour  of  the  gospel. 
And,  therefore, 

1.  That  is  no  good  religion,  whose  prin- 
ciples destroy  any  duty  of  religion.  He 
that  shall  maintain  it  to  be  lawful  to  make 
a  war  for  the  defence  of  his  opinion,  be  it 
what  it  will,  his  doctrine  is  against  godli- 
ness. Any  thing  that  is  proud,  any  thing 
that  is  peevish  and  scornful,  any  thing  that 
is  uncharitable,  is  against  the  vyuuvovaa 
bt&aaxo&ia.,  that  "form  of  sound  doctrine" 
which  the  apostle  speaks  of.  And  I  re- 
member that  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  telling 
of  George,  a  proud  and  factious  minister, 
that  he  was  an  informer  against  his  brethren, 
he  says,  he  did  it  "  oblitus  professionis  suae, 
qua?  nil  nisi  justum  suadet  et  lene  ;"  "  He 
forgot  his  profession,  which  teaches  nothing 
but  justice  and  meekness,  kindnesses  and 
charity." — And  however  Bellarmine  and 
others  are  pleased  to  take  but  indirect  and 
imperfect  notice  of  it,  yet  goodness  is  the 
best  note  of  the  church. 

2.  It  is  but  an  ill  sign  of  holiness  when  a 
man  is  busy  in  troubling  himself  and  his 
superior  in  little  scruples  and  fantastic  opi- 
nions, about  things  not  concerning  the  life 
of  religion,  or  the  pleasure  of  God,  or  the 
excellencies  of  the  Spirit.  A  good  man 
knows  how  to  please  God,  how  to  converse 
with  him,  how  to  advance  the  kingdom  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  to  set  forward  holiness,  and 
the  love  of  God  and  of  his  brother;  and  he 
knows  also  that  there  is  no  godliness  in 
spending  our  time  and  our  talk,  our  heart 
and  our  spirits,  about  the  garments  and  out- 
sides  of  religion  :  and  they  can  ill  teach 
others,  that  do  not  know  that  religion  does 
not  consist  in  these  things  ;  but  obedience 
may,  and  reductively  that  is  religion:  and 
he  that,  for  that  which  is  no  part  of  religion, 
destroys  religion  directly,  by  neglecting  that 
duty  that  is  adopted  into  religion, — is  a  man 
of  fancy  and  of  the  world  ;  but  he  gives  but 
an  ill  account,  that  he  is  a  man  of  God  and 
a  son  of  the  Spirit. 

Spend  not  your  time  in  that  which  profits 
not;  for  your  labour  and  your  health,  your 
time  and  your  studies  are  very  valuable; 
and  it  is  a  thousand  pities  to  see  a  diligent 


and  a  hopeful  person  spend  himself  in 
gathering  cockle-shells  and  little  pebbles,  in 
telling  sands  upon  the  shores,  and  making 
garlands  of  useless  daisies.  Study  that 
which  is  profitable,  that  which  will  make 
you  useful  to  churches  and  commonwealths, 
that  which  will  make  you  desirable  and 
wise.  Only  I  shall  add  this  to  you,  that  in 
learning  there  are  variety  of  things,  as  well 
as  in  religion  :  there  is  mint  and  cummin, 
and  there  are  the  weighty  things  of  the  law: 
so  there  are  studies  more  and  less  useful, 
and  every  thing  that  is  useful  will  be  re- 
quired in  its  time:  and  I  may  in  this  also 
use  the  words  of  our  blessed  Saviour, 
"  These  things  ought  you  to  look  after,  and 
not  to  leave  the  other  unregarded."  But 
^your  great  care  is  to  be  in  the  things  of 
God  and  of  religion,  in  holiness  and  true 
wisdom,  remembering  the  saying  of  Origen, 
"  That  the  knowledge  that  arises  from  good- 
ness is  ^elottpov  tv  7tdar]$  drtoSfttfos,  '  some- 
thing that  is  more  certain  and  more  divine 
than  all  demonstration,'  than  all  other  learn- 
ings of  the  word." 

3.  That  is  no  good  religion  that  disturbs 
government,  or  shakes  a  foundation  of  pub- 
lic peace.  Kings  and  bishops  are  the  found- 
ations and  the  great  principles  of  unity,  of 
peace,  and  government;  like  Rachel  and 
Leah,  they  build  up  the  house  of  Israel: 
and  those  blind  Samsons  that  shake  these 
pillars,  intend  to  pull  the  house  down.  "  My 
son,  fear  God  and  the  king,"  saith  Solomon  : 
"  and  meddle  not  with  them  that  are  given 
to  change."  That  is  not  truth  that  loves 
changes  ;  and  the  new  nothings  of  heretical 
and  schismatical  preachers  are  infinitely  far 
from  the  blessings  of  truth. 

In  the  holy  language,  truth  hath  a  mys- 
terious name,  nDN  "ernet;"  it  consists  of 
three  letters,  the  first  and  the  last  and  the 
middlemost  of  the  Hebrew  letters;  implying 
to  us,  that  truth  is  first,  and  will  be  last,  and 
it  is  the  same  all  the  wTay,  and  combines 
and  unites  all  extremes;  it  ties  all  ends  to- 
gether.— "Truth  is  lasting,  and  ever  full  of 
blessing  :" — For  the  Jews  observe  that  those 
letters  which  signify  truth,  are  both  in  the 
figure  and  the  number  quadrate,  firm,  and 
cubical;  these  signify  a  foundation,  and  an 
abode  for  ever.  Whereas,  on  the  other 
side,  the  word  which  in  Hebrew  signifies  a 
lie,  nnc  "  secher,"  is  made  of  letters  whose 
numbers  are  imperfect,  and  their  figure 
pointed  and  voluble;  to  signify  that  a  lie 
hath  no  foundation. 

And  this  very  Nervation  vill  give  good 


Serm.  VI. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


471 


ight  in  our  questions  and  disputes:  and  I 
give  my  instance  in  episcopal  government, 
which  hath  been  of  so  lasting  an  abode,  of 
so  long  a  blessing,  hath  its  firmament  by  the 
principles  of  Christianity,  hath  been  blessed 
by  the  issues  of  that  stabiliment  ;  it  hath  for 
sixteen  hundred  years  combined  with  mon- 
archy, and  hath  been  taught  by  the  Spirit, 
which  hath  so  long  dwelt  in  God's  church, 
and  hath  now — according  to  the  promise  of 
Jesus,  that  says,  "  the  gates  of  hell  shall 
never  prevail  against  the  church" — been  re-  I 
stored  amongst  us  by  a  heap  of  miracles  ; 
and  as  it  went  away,  so  now  it  is  returned 
again  in  the  hand  of  monarchy,  and  in  the 
bosom  of  our  fundamental  laws.  Now  that 
doctrine  must  needs  be  suspected  of  error,  j 
and  an  intolerable  lie,  that  speaks  against ; 
this  truth,  which  hath  had  so  long  a  testi- 
mony from  God,  and  from  the  wisdom  and 
experience  of  so  many  ages,  of  all  our  an- 
cestors,  and  all  our  laws. 

When  the  Spirit  of  God  wrote  in  Greek, 
Christ  is  called  A  and  Q;  if  he  had  spoken  ' 
Hebrew,  he  had  been  called  k  and  n,  that 
is,  rose  "  emet ;"  he  is"  truth/'  "  the  same 
yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever:"  and1 
whoever  opposes  this  holy  sanction,  which  j 
Christ's   Spirit  hath   sanctified,  his  word  i 
hath  warranted,  his  blessings  have  endear- 
ed, his  promises   have   ratified,  and  his 
church  hath  always  kept  ;  he  fights  against 
this  nss  "  emet/'  and  "  secher"  is  his  por- , 
lion  ;  his  lot  is  a  "  lie  ;"  his  portion  is  there, 
where  holiness  can  never  dwell. 

And  now  to  conclude:  to  you,  fathers 
and  brethren,  you  who  are  or  intend  to  be  I 
of  the  clergy  ;  you  see  here  the  best  com- ! 
pendium  of  your  studies,  the  best  abbrevia- 
ture of  your  labours,  the  truest  method  of 
Wisdom,  and  the  infallible,  the  only  way  of 
judging  concerning  the  disputes  and  ques- 
tions in  Christendom.  It  is  not  by  reading 
multitudes  of  books,  but  by  studying  the 
truth  of  God :  it  is  not  by  laborious  com- 
mentaries of  the  doctors  that  you  can  finish 
your  work,  but  by  the  expositions  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  :  it  is  not  by  the  rules  of  me- ' 
taphysics,  but  by  the  proportions  of  holi- 
ness :  and  when  all  books  are  read,  and  all 
arguments  examined,  and  all  authorities 
alleged,  nothing  can  be  found  to  be  true  that 
is  unholy.  "  Give  yourselves  to  reading,  to 
exhortation,  and  to  doctrine,"  saith  St.  Paul. 
Read  all  good  books  you  can  ;  but  exhorta- 
tion unto  good  life  is  the  best  instrument, 
and  the  best  teacher  of  true  doctrine,  of  that 
which  is  "  according  to  godliness." 


And  let  me  tell  you  this,  the  great  learn- 
ing of  the  fathers  was  more  owing  to  their 
piety  than  to  their  skill;  more  to  God  than 
to  themselves :  and  to  this  purpose  is  that 
excellent  ejaculation  of  St.  Chrysostom,* 
with  which  I  will  conclude :  "  O  blessed 
and  happy  men,  whose  names  are  in  the 
book  of  life,  from  whom  the  devils  fled, 
and  heretics  did  fear  them,  who  (by  holi- 
ness) have  stopped  the  mouths  of  them  that 
spake  perverse  things!  But  I,  like  David, 
will  cry  out,  '  Where  are  thy  loving-kind- 
nesses which  have  been  ever  of  old  V  Where 
is  the  blessed  quire  of  bishops  and  doctors, 
who  shined  like  lights  in  the  world,  and 
contained  the  word  of  life?  *  Dulce  est 
meminisse/  1  their  very  memory  is  plea- 
sant.' Where  is  that  Evodias,  the  sweet 
savour  of  the  church,  the  successor  and 
imitator  of  the  holy  apostles  1  Where  is  Ig 
natius,  in  whom  God  dwelt  ?  Where  is  St. 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  that  bird  of  Pa- 
radise, that  celestial  eagle  ?  Where  is  Hip- 
poly  tus,  that  good  man,  avrt?  x?r,^'°i>  1  tha* 
gentle  sweet  person  ?'  Where  is  great  St. 
Basil,  a  man  almost  equal  to  the  apostles  ? 
Where  is  Athanasius,  rich  in  virtue  ?  Where 
is  Gregory  Xyssen,  that  great  divine  ?  And 
Ephrem  the  great  Syrian,  that  stirred  up 
the  sluggish,  and  awakened  the  sleepers, 
and  comforted  the  afflicted,  and  brought  the 
young  men  to  discipline;  the  looking-glass 
of  the  religious,  the  captain  of  the  penitents, 
the  destruction  of  heresies,  the  receptacle 
of  graces,  the  habitation  of  the  Holy  Ghost?" 
These  were  the  men  that  prevailed  against 
error,  because  they  lived  according  to  truth: 
and  whoever  shall  oppose  you,  and  the  truth 
you  walk  by,  may  better  be  confuted  by 
your  lives  than  by  your  disputations.  Let 
your  adversaries  have  no  evil  thing"  to  sajr 
of  you,  and  then  you  will  best  silence  them: 
for  all  heresies  and  false  doctrines  are  but 
like  Myron's  counterfeit  cow,  it  deceived 
none  but  beasts  :  and  these  can  cozen  none 
but  the  wicked  and  the  negligent,  them  that 
love  a  lie,  and  live  according  to  it.  But  if 
ye  become  burning  and  shining  lights;  if 
ye  do  not  detain  the  truth  in  unrighteous- 
ness ;  if  ye  walk  in  light,  and  live  in  the 
Spirit;  your  doctrines  will  be  true,  and  that 
truth  will  prevail.  But  if  ye  live  wickedly 
and  scandalously,  every  little  schismatic 
shall  put  you  to  shame,  and  draw  disciples 
after  him,  and  abuse  your  flocks,  and  feed 


*  Lib.  de  Consummat.  Secu'.i.  inter  opera  bJpb- 
rem  Syri. 


472 


A  SERMON  PRE 


ACHED  AT  THE 


Serm.  VII. 


them  with  colocynths  and  hemlock,  and 
place  heresy  in  the  chairs  appointed  for 
your  religion. 

I  pray  God  give  you  all  grace  to  follow 
this  wisdom,  to  study  this  learning,  to  labour 
for  the  understanding  of  godliness;  so  your 
time  and  your  studies,  your  persons  and 
your  labours,  will  be  holy  and  useful,  sanc- 
tified and  blessed,  beneficial  to  men  and 
pleasing  to  God,  through  him  who  is  the 
wisdom  of  the  Father,  who  is  made  to  all 
that  love  him  wisdom,  and  righteousness, 
and  sanctification,  and  redemption:  "To 
whom  with  the  Father,"  &c. 


SERMON  VII. 

PREACHED  IN  CHRIST'S  CHURCH,  DUBLIN, 
AT  THE  FUNERAL  OF  THE  MOST  REVE- 
REND FATHER  IN  GOD,  JOHN,  LATE  LORD 
ARCHBISHOP  OF  ARMAGH,  AND  PRIMATE 
OF  ALL  IRELAND,  JULY  16,  1663:  WITH  A 
SUCCINCT  NARRATIVE  OF  HIS  WHOLE  LIFE. 

But  every  man  in  his  own  order:  Christ  the  first- 
fruits;  afterv)ard  they  that  are  Christ's  at  his 
coming. — 1  Cor.  xv.  23. 

The  condition  of  man,  in  this  world,  is  so 
limited  and  depressed,  so  relative  and  im- 
perfect, that  the  best  things  he  does,  he 
does  weakly, — and  the  best  things  he  hath, 
are  imperfections  in  their  very  constitution. 
I  need  not  tell  how  little  it  is  that  we  know : 
the  greatest  indication  of  this  is,  that  we  can 
never  I  ell  how  many  things  we  know  not; 
and  we  may  soon  span  our  own  knowledge, 
but  our  ignorance  we  can  never  fathom. 
Our  very  will,  in  which  mankind  pretends 
to  be  most  noble  and  imperial,  is  a  direct 
state  of  imperfection ;  and  our  very  liberty 
of  choosing  good  and  evil  is  permitted  to  us, 
not  to  make  us  proud,  but  to  make  us  hum- 
hie;  for  it  supposes  weakness  of  reason  and 
weakness  of  love.  For  if  we  understood  all 
the  degrees  of  amiability  in  the  service  of 
God,  or  if  we  had  such  love  to  God  as  he 
deserves,  and  so  perfect  a  conviction  as 
were  fit  for  his  services,  we  could  no  more 
deliberate  :  for  liberty  of  will  is  like  the  mo- 
tion of  a  magnetic  needle  toward  the  north, 
ful  of  trembling  and  uncertainty  till  it  were 
fixed  in  the  beloved  point;  it  wavers  as  long 
as  it  is  fc-2e,  and  is  at  rest  when  it  can 
choose  no  more.  And  truly  what  is  the 
hope  of  man?  It  is  indeed  the  resurrection 
of  the  soul  in  this  world  from  sorrow  and 
her  saddest  pressures,  and  like  the  twilight 


to  the  day,  and  the  harbinger  of  joy ;  but 
still  it  is  but  a  conjugation  of  infirmities, 
and  proclaims  our  present  calamity,  only 
because  it  is  uneasy  here,  it  thrusts  us  for- 
ward toward  the  light  and  glories  of  the  re- 
surrection. 

For  as  a  worm  creeping  with  her  belly  on 
the  ground,  with  her  portion  and  share  of 
Adam's  curse,  lifts  up  its  head  to  partake  a 
little  of  the  blessings  of  the  air,  and  opens 
the  junctures  of  her  imperfect  body,  and 
curls  her  little  rings  into  knots  and  combina- 
tions, drawing  up  her  tail  to  a  neighbour- 
hood of  the  head's  pleasure  and  motion  ; 
but  still  it  must  return  to  abide  the  fate  of 
its  own  nature,  and  dwell  and  sleep  upon 
the  dust :  so  are  the  hopes  of  a  mortal  man  ; 
he  opens  his  eyes,  and  looks  upon  fine 
things  at  distance,  and  shuts  them  again 
with  weakness,  because  they  are  too  glori- 
ous to  behold  ;  and  the  man  rejoices  because 
he  hopes  fine  things  are  staying  for  him; 
but  his  heart  aches,  because  he  knows  there 
are  a  thousand  ways  to  fail  and  miss  of 
those  glories ;  and  though  he  hopes,  yet  he 
enjoys  not;  he  longs,  but  he  possesses  not, 
and  must  be  content  with  his  portion  of 
dust;  and  being  "a  worm,  and  no  man," 
must  lie  down  in  this  portion,  before  he  can 
receive  the  end  of  his  hopes,  the  salvation 
of  his  soul  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 
For  as  death  is  the  end  of  our  lives,  so  is 
the  resurrection  the  end  of  our  hopes;  and 
as  we  die  daily,  so  we  daily  hope :  but 
death,  which  is  the  end  of  our  life,  is  the 
enlargement  of  our  spirits  from  hope  to  cer- 
tainty, from  uncertain  fears  to  certain  ex- 
pectations, from  the  death  of  the  body  to 
the  life  of  the  soul;  that  is,  to  partake  of 
the  light  and  life  of  Christ,  to  rise  to  life  as 
he  did ;  for  his  resurrection  is  the  beginning 
of  ours  :  he  died  for  us  alone,  not  for  him- 
self; but  he  rose  again  for  himself  and  us 
too.  So  that  if  he  did  rise,  so  shall  we; 
the  resurrection  shall  be  universal;  good 
and  bad,  all  shall  rise,  but  not  altogether : 
first  Christ,  then  we  that  are  Christ's ;  and 
yet  there  is  a  third  resurrection,  though  not 
spoken  of  here;  but  thus  it  shall  be,  "The 
dead  of  Christ  shall  rise  first;"  that  is,  next 
to  Christ ;  and  after  them,  the  wicked  shall 
rise  to  condemnation. 

So  that  you  see  here  is  the  sum  of  affairs 
treated  of  in  my  text:  not  whether  it  be 
lawful  to  eat  a  tortoise  or  a  mushroom,  or 
|  to  tread  with  the  foot  bare  upon  the  ground 
|  within  the  octaves  of  Easter.    It  is  not  here 
I  inquired,  whether  angels  be  material  or  im- 


Serm.  VII.     FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE. 


473 


material ;  or  whether  the  dwellings  of  dead 
infants  he  within  the  air  or  in  the  regions  of 
the  earth  ?  the  inquiry  here  is,  whether  we 
are  to  be  Christians  or  not?  whether  we 
are  to  live  good  lives  or  not?  or  whether  it 
be  permitted  to  us  to  live  with  lust  or  cove- 
lousness,  acted  with  all  the  daughters  of  ra- 
pine and  ambition  ?  whether  there  be  any 
such  thing  as  sin,  any  judicatory  for  con- 
sciences, nny  rewards  of  piety,  any  differ- 
ence of  good  and  bad,  any  rewards  after 
this  life  ?  This  is  the  design  of  these  words 
by  proper  interpretation  :  lor  if  men  shall 
die  like  dogs  and  sheep,  they  will  certainly 
live  like  wolves  and  foxes;  but  he  that  be- 
lieves the  article  of  the  resurrection,  hath 
entertained  the  greatest  demonstration  in 
the  world,  that  nothing  can  make  us  happy 
but  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  conformity 
to  the  life  and  death  of  the  holy  Jesus. 
Here,  therefore,  are  the  great  hinges  of  all 
religion  :  1.  Christ  is  already  risen  from  the 
dead.  2.  We  also  shall  rise  in  God's  time 
and  our  order.  Christ  is  the  first-fruits. 
But  there  shall  be  a  full  harvest  of  the  resur- 
rection, and  all  shall  rise.  My  text  speaks 
only  of  the  resurrection  of  ^ie  just,  of  them 
that  belong  to  Christ :  explicitly,  I  say,  of 
these;  and,  therefore,  directly  of  resurrec- 
tion to  life  eternal.  But  because  he  also  says 
there  shall  be  an  order  for  every  man  ;  and 
yet  every  man  does  not  belong  to  Christ; 
therefore,  indirectly  also,  he  implies  the 
more  unirersal  resurrection  unto  judgment: 
but  this  shall  be  the  last  thing  that  shall  be 
done ;  for,  according  to  the  proverb  of  the 
Jews,  Michael  flies  but  with  one  wing,  and 
Gabriel  with  two  :  God  is  quick  in  sending 
angels  of  peace,  and  they  By  apace;  but 
the  messengers  of  wrath  come  slowly  ;  God 
is  more  hasty  to  glorify  his  servants  than  to 
condemn  the  wicked.  And,  therefore,  in 
the  story  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  we  ,find 
that  the  beggar  died  first;  the  good  man, 
Lazarus,  was  first  taken  away  from  his 
misery  to  his  comfort,  and  afterwards  the 
rich  man  died ;  and  as  the  good,  many 
times,  die  first,  so  all  of  them  rise  first,  as 
if  it  were  a  matter  of  haste :  and  as  the 
mother's  breasts  swell  and  shoot,  and  long 
to  give  food  to  her  babe,  so  God's  bowels 
did  yearn  over  his  banished  children,  and 
he  longs  to  cause  them  to  eat  and  drink  in 
his  kingdom.  And  at  last  the  wicked  shall 
rise  unto  condemnation,  for  that  muv  be 
done  too ;  every  man  in  his  own  order : 
first  Christ,  then  Christ's  servants,  and,  at 
last,  Christ's  enemies.  The  first  of  these  is 
,  60 


I  the  great  ground  of  our  faith ;  the  second 
is  the  consummation  of  all  our  hopes  :  the 
first  is  the  foundation  of  God,  that  stands 
sure  :  the  second  is  that  superstructure  that 
shall  never  perish  :  by  the  first  we  believe 
in  God  unto  righteousness;  by  the  second 
we  live  in  God  unto  salvation:  but  the 
third,  for  that  also  is  true,  and  must  be 
considered,  is  the  great  affrightment  of  all 
them  that  live  ungodly.  But/  in  the  whole. 
Christ's  resurrection  and  ours  is  the  A  and 
12  of  a  Christian  ;  that  as  "Jesus  Christ  is 
the  same  yesterday,  and  to  day,  and  the 
same  for  ever,"  so  may  wre  in  Christ  be- 
come the  morrow  of  the  resurrection,  the 

j  same  or  better  than  yesterday  in  our  natural 
life  ;  the  same  body  and  the  same  soul,  tied 
together  in  the  same  essential  union,  with 
this  only  difference,  that  not  nature,  but 
grace  and  glory,  with  an  hermetic  seal,  give 
us  a  new  signature,  whereby  we  shall  be  no 
more  changed,  but  like  unto  Christ  our 
Head,  we  shall  become  the  same  for  ever. 
Of  these  I  shall  discourse  in  order.  1.  That 
Christ,  who  is  "the  first-fruits,"  is  the  first 
in  this  order  ;  he  is  already  risen  from  the 
dead.  2.  We  shall  all  take  our  turns,  we 
shall  die,  and  as  sure  as  death,  we  shall  all 
rise  again.  And,  3.  This  very  order  is  ef- 
fective of  the  thing  itself.  That  Christ  is 
first  risen  is  the  demonstration  and  cer- 
tainty of  ours ;  for  because  there  is  an  or- 
der in  this  economy,  the  first  in  the  kind  is 
the  measure  of  the  rest.  If  Christ  be  the 
first-fruits,  we  are  the  whole  vintage;  and 
we  shall  all  die  in  the  order  of  nature,  and 
shall  rise  again  in  the  order  of  Christ : 
n  They  that  are  Christ's,"  and  are  found  so 
"at  his  coming,"  shall  partake  of  his  re- 
surrection. But  Christ  first,  then  they  that 
are  Christ's  :  that  is  the  order. 

1.  Christ  is  the  first-fruits  ;  he  is  alreadv 

j  risen  from  the  dead:  for  he  alone  could  not 
be  held  by  death.  "  Free  among  the  dead." 

^pi^sv  at  yepiov  toft 
AZ6aj  o  itiaAaiysMfS 
Kou.  Xao,36poj  xvitv 
'Aff^autraro  fii^tov. 

Synes.  6.  Hym. 

Death  was  sin's  eldest  daughter,  and  ihe 
grave-clothes  were  her  first  mantle ;  but 
Christ  was  Conqueror  over  both,  and  came 
to  take  that  away,  and  to  disarm  this.  This 
was  a  glory  fit  for  the  Head  of  mankind,  but 
it  was  too  great  and  too  good  to  be  easily 
believed  by  incredulous  and  weak-hearted 
man.  It  was  at  first  doubted  by  all  that 
2  p  2 


474  A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE        Serm.  VII. 


were  concerned;  but  they  that  saw  it  had 
no  reason  to  doubt  any  longer.  But  what  is 
that  to  us,  who  saw  it  not?  Yes,  very 
much:  "  Valde  dubitatum  est  ab  illis,  ne 
dubilaretur  a  nobis,"  saith  St.  Austin; 
"  They  doubted  very  much,  that,  by  their 
confirmation,  we  might  be  established,  and 
doubt  no  more."  Mary-  Magdelene  saw 
him  first,  and  she  ran  with  joy,  and  said 
"she  had  seen  the  Lord,  and  that  he  was 
risen  from  the  dead  ;  but  they  believed  her 
not.  After  that,  divers  women  together 
saw  him,"  and  they  told  it,  but  had  no 
thanks  for  their  pains,  and  obtained  no  cre- 
dit among  the  disciples :  the  two  disciples  that 
went  to  Emmaus,  saw  him,  talked  with  him, 
ate  with  him,  and  they  ran  and  told  it :  they 
told  true,  but  nobody  believed  them  :  then  St. 
Peter  saw  him,  but  he  was  not  yet  got  into 
the  chair  of  the  catholic  church,  they  did 
not  think  him  infallible,  and  so  they  believed 
him  not  at  all.  Five  times  in  one  day  he 
appeared ;  for  after  all  this,  he  appeared  to 
the  eleven ;  they  were  indeed  transported 
with  joy  and  wonder;  but  they  would 
scarce  believe  their  own  eyes,  and  though 
they  saw  him,  they  doubted.  Well,  all  this 
was  not  enough  ;  he  was  seen  also  of 
James,  and  suffered  Thomas  to  thrust  his 
hand  into  his  side,  and  appeared  to  St.  Paul, 
and  was  seen  by  "five  hundred  brethren  at 
once."  So  that  there  is  no  capacity  of 
mankind,  no  time,  no  place,  but  had  an  ocu- 
lar demonstration  of  his  resurrection.  He 
appeared  to  men  and  women,  to  the  clergy 
and  the  laity,  to  sinners  of  both  sexes :  to 
weak  men  and  to  criminals,  to  doubters  and 
deniers  at  home  and  abroad,  in  public  and 
in  private,  in  their  houses  and  their  jour- 
neys, unexpected  and  by  appointment,  be- 
times in  the  morning  and  late  at  night,  to 
them  in  conjunction  and  to  them  in  disper- 
sion, when  they  did  look  for  him  and  when 
they  did  not ;  he  appeared  upon  earth  to 
many,  and  to  St.  Paul  and  to  St.  Stephen 
from  heaven  ;  so  that  we  can  require  no 
greater  testimony  than  all  these  are  able  to 
give  us ;  and  they  saw  for  themselves  and 
for  us  too,  that  the  faith  and  certainty  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  might  be  conveyed  to 
all  that  shall  die,  and  follow  Christ  in  their 
own  order. 

Now  this  being  matter  of  fact,  cannot  be 
supposed  infinite,  but  limited  to  time  and 
place,  and,  therefore,  to  be  proved  by  them 
who,  at  that  time,  were  upon  the  place ; 
good  men  and  true,  simple  and  yet  losers  by 
the  bargain,  many  and  united,  confident  and 


constant,  preaching  it  all  their  life,  and 
stoutly  maintaining  it  at  their  death ;  men 
that  would  not  deceive  others,  and  men  that 
could  not  be  deceived  themselves,  in  a  mat- 
ter so  notorious,  and  so  proved,  and  so  seen  : 
and  if  this  be  not  sufficient  credibility  in  a 
matter  of  fact,  as  this  was,  then  we  can 
hyve  no  story  credibly  transmitted  to  us,  no 
records  kept,  no  acts  of  courts,  no  narratives 
of  the  days  of  old,  no  traditions  of  our  fa- 
thers, no  memorials  of  them  in  the  third 
generation.  Nay,  if  from  these  we  have 
not  sufficient  causes  and  arguments  of  faith, 
how  shall  we  be  able  to  know  the  will  of 
Heaven  upon  earth  ?  unless  God  do  not  only 
tell  it  once,  but  always,  and  not  only  always 
to  some  men,  but  always  to  ail  men  :  for  if 
some  men  must  believe  others,  they  can 
never  do  it  in  any  thing  more  reasonably  than 
in  this ;  and  if  wie  may  not  trust  them  in 
this,  then,  without  a  perpetual  miracle,  no 
man  could  have  faith  ;  for  faith  could  never 
come  by  hearing,  by  nothing  but  by  seeing. 
But  if  there  be  any  use  of  history,  any 
faith  in  men,  any  honesty  in  manners,  any 
truth  in  human  intercourse  ;  if  there  be  any 
use  of  apostles  or  teachers,  of  ambassadors 
or  letters,  of  ears  or  hearing ;  if  there  be 
any  such  thing  as  the  grace  of  faith,  that  is 
less  than  demonstration  or  intuition;  then 
we  may  be  as  sure  that  Christ,  the  first- 
fruits,  is  already  risen,  as  all  these  credibili- 
ties can  make  us.  But  let  us  take  heed  ;  as 
God  hates  a  lie,  so  he  hates  incredulity ;  an 
obstinate,  a  foolish,  and  pertinacious  under- 
standing. What  we  do  every  minute  of  our 
lives,  in  matters  of  little  and  great  concern- 
ment, if  we  refuse  to  do  it  in  religion,  which 
yet  is  to  be  conducted,  as  all  human  affairs 
are,  by  human  instruments,  and  arguments 
of  persuasion  proper  to  the  nature  of  the 
thing,  it  is  an  obstinacy  as  cross  to  human 
reason,  as  it  to  Divine  faith. 

But  this  article  was  so  clearly  proved,  that 
presently  it  came  to  pass  that  men  were  no 
.longer  ashamed  of  the  cross,  but  it  was 
|  worn  upon  breasts,  printed  in  the  air,  drawn 
upon  foreheads,  carried  upon  banners,  put 
upon  crowns  imperial;  presently  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  religion  of  the  despised  Jesus 
did  infinitely  prevail ;  a  religion  that  taught 
men  to  be  meek  and  humble,  apt  to  receive 
injuries,  but  unapt  to  do  any;  a  religion 
that  gave  countenance  to  the  poor  and  piti- 
ful, in  a  time  when  riches  were  adored,  and 
ambition  and  pleasure  had  possessed  the 
heart  of  all  mankind ;  a  religion  that  would 
change  the  face  of  things,  and  the  hearts  of 


Serm.  VII.     FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE. 


475 


men,  and  break  vile  habits  into  gentleness 
and  counsel ;  that  such  a  religion,  in  such  a 
time,  by  the  sermons  and  conduct  of  fisher- 
men, men  of*  mean  breeding  and  illiberal 
aris.  should  so  speedily  triumph  over  the 
philosophy  of  the  world,  and  the  arguments 
of  the  subtle,  and  the  sermons  of  the  elo- 
quent; the  power  of  princes  and  the  in- 
terests of  states,  the  inclinations  of  nature 
and  the  blindness  of  zeal,  the  force  of  cus- 
tom and  the  solicitation  of  passion,  the  plea- 
sures of  sin  and  the  busy  arts  of  the  devil; 
that  is,  against  wit  and  power,  superstition 
and  wilfulness,  fame  and  money,  nature 
and  empire,  which  are  all  the  causes  in  this 
world  that  can  make  a  thinar  impossible ;  j 
this,  this  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  power  of 
God,  and  is  the  great  demonstration  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus.    Every  thing  was  an 
argument  for  it,  and  improved  it;  no  objec- 
tion could  hinder  it,  no  enemies  destroy  it; 
whatsoever  was  for  them,  it  made  the  leli- 
gion  to  increase ;  whatsoever  was  against 
them,  made  it  to  increase;  sunshine  and 
storms,  fair  weather  or  foul,  it  was  all  one 
as  to  the  event  of  things  :  for  they  were  in- 
struments in  the  hands  of  God,  who  could 
make  what  himself  should  choose  to  be  the 
product  of  any  cause;  so  that  if  the  Chris- 
tians had  peace,  they  went  abroad  and 
brought  in  converts :  if  they  had  no  peace  but 
persecution,  the  converts  came  in  to  them. 
In  prosperity,  they  allured  and  enticed  the 
world  by  the  beauty  of  holiness  ;  in  afflic- 
tion and  trouble,  they  amazed  all  men  with 
the  splendour  of  their  innocence  and  the 
glories  of  their  patience  ;  and  quickly  it  was 
that  the  world  became  disciple  to  the  glori- 
ous Nazarene,  and  men  could  no  longer 
doubt  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  when  it 
became  so  demonstrated  by  the  certainty  of 
them  that  saw  it,  and  the  courage  of  them 
that  died  for  it,  and  the  multitude  of  them 
that  believed  it ;  who,  by  their  sermons 
and  their  actions,  by  their  public  offices  and 
discourses,  by  festivals  and  eucharists,  by 
arguments  of  experience  and  sense,  by  rea- 
son and  religion,  by  persuading  rational 
men,  and  establishing  believing  Christians, 
by  their  living  in  the  obedience  of  Jesus, 
and  dying  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  have 
greatly   advanced  his  kingdom,  and  his 
power,  and  his  glory,  into  which  he  en- 
tered after  his  resurrection  from  the  dead. 
For  he  is  the  first-fruits  ;  and  if  we  hope  to 
rise  through  him,  we  must  confess  that 
himself  is  first  risen  from  the  dead.    That  is 
the  first  particular. 


2.  There  is  an  order  for  us  also :  we  also 
shall  rise  again : 

Combustusque  senex  tumulo  procedit  adultns  ; 
Consumens  dat  membra  rogus  ; 

The  ashes  of  old  Camillus  shall  stand  up 
spritely  from  his  urn;  and  the  funeral  fires 
shall  produce  a  new  warmth  to  the  dead 
bones  of  all  those,  who  died  under  the  arms 
of  all  the  enemies  of  the  Roman  greatness. 
This  is  a  less  wonder  than  the  former;  for 
"  admonetur  omnis  selas  jam  fieri  posse  quod 
aliquando  factum  est."  If  it  was  done  once, 
it  may  be  done  again:  for  since  it  could 
never  have  been  done  but  by  a  Power  that 
is  infinite,  that  infinite  must  also  be  eter- 
nal and  indeficient.  By  the  same  almighty 
Power,  which  restored  life  to  the  dead 
body  of  our  living  Lord,  we  may  all  be 
restored  to  a  new  life  in  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead. 

When  man  was  not,  what  powrer,  what 
causes  made  him  to  be?    Whatsoever  it 
was,  it  did  then  as  great  a  work  as  to  raise 
his  body  to  the  same  being  again ;  and  be- 
cause we  know  not  the  method  of  nature's 
secret  changes,  and  how  we  can  be  fa- 
shioned beneath  "in  secreto  terrae,"  and 
cannot  handle  and  discern  the  possibilities 
and  seminal  powers  in  the  ashes  of  dis- 
solved bones,  must  our  ignorance  in  philo- 
sophy be  put  in  balance  against  the  articles 
of  religion,  the  hopes  of.  mankind,  the  faith 
of  nations,  and  the  truth  of  God?    And  are 
our  opinions  of  the  power  of  God  so  low, 
that  our  understanding  must  be  his  mea- 
sure; and  he  shall  be  confessed  to  do  no- 
thing, unless  it  be  made  plain  in  our  philo- 
sophy?   Certainly  we  have  a  low  opinion 
of  God,  unless  we  believe  he  can  do  more 
things  than  we  can  understand ;  but  let  us 
hear  St.  Paul's  demonstration;  if  the  corn 
dies  and  lives  again  ;  if  it  lays  its  body  down, 
suffers  alteration,  dissolution,  and  death, — 
but  at  the  spring,  rises  again  in  the  verdure 
of  a  leaf,  in  the  fulness  of  the  ear,  in  the 
kidneys  of  wheat;  if  it  proceeds  from  fettle 
to  great,  from  nakedness  to  ornament,  from 
emptiness  to  plenty,  from  unity  to  multi- 
tude, from  death  to  life  :  be  a  Sadducee  no 
more,  shame  not  thy  understanding,  and 
reproach  not  the  weakness  of  thy  faith,  by 
thinking  that  corn  can  be  restored  to  life, 
and  man  cannot;  especially  since  in  every 
creature,  the  obediential  capacity  is  infinite, 
and  cannot  admit  degrees;  for  every  crea- 
ture can  be  any  thing  under  the  power  of 
God,  which  cannot  be  less  than  infinite. 


476 


A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE        Serm.  VII. 


But  we  find  no  obscure  footsteps  of  this  i 
mystery  even  amongst  the  heathens :  Pliny 
reports  that  Apion  the  grammarian,  by  the 
use  of  the  plant  osiris,  called  Homer  from 
his  grave ;  and  in  Valerius  Maximus  we 
find  that  iElius  Tubero  returned  to  life, 
when  he  was  seated  in  his  funeral  pile ;  and 
in  Plutarch,  that  Soleus,  after  three  days' 
burial,  did  live;  and  in  Valerius,  that  Eris 
Pamphylius  did  so  after  ten  days.*  And  it 
was  so  commonly  believed  that  Glaucus, 
who  was  choked  in  a  vessel  of  honey,  did 
rise  again,  that  it  grew  to  a  proverb :  "  Glau- 
cus, poto  melle,  surrexit;"  "Glaucus,  hav- 
ing tasted  honey,  died  and  lived  again."  I 
pretend  not  to  believe  these  stories  to  be  true ; 
but  from  these  instances  it  may  be  concluded, 
that  they  believed  it  possible  that  there  should 
be  a  resurrection  from  the  dead  ;  and  na- 
tural reason,  and  their  philosophy,  did  not 
wholly  destroy  their  hopes  and  expectation 
to  have  a  portion  in  this  article. 

For  God,  knowing  that  the  great  hopes 
of  man,  that  the  biggest  endearment  of 
religion,  the  sanction  of  private  justice, 
the  band  of  piety  and  holy  courage, — does 
wholly  derive  from  the  article  of  the  resur- 
rection,— was  pleased  not  only  to  make  it 
credible,  but  easy  and  familiar  to  us;  and 
so  we  converse  every  night  with  the  image 
of  death,  that  every  morning  we  find  an 
argument  of  the  resurrection.  Sleep  and 
death  have  but  one  mother,  and  they  have 
one  name  in  common. 

Soles  occidere  et  redire  possunt ; 
Nobis  cum  semel  occidit  brevis  lux, 
Nox  est  perpetua  una  dormienda. — Catull. 

Charnel-houses  are  but  xot^r'^pta,  "  ceme- 
teries" or  sleeping-piaces;  and  they  that  die, 
are  fallen  asleep,  and  the  resurrection  is  but 
an  awakening  and  standing  up  from  sleep  : 
but  in  sleep  our  senses  are  as  fast  bound 
by  nature,  as  our  joints  are  by  the  grave- 
clothes  ;  and  unless  an  angel  of  God  awaken 
us  every  morning,  we  must  confess  our- 
selves as  unable  to  converse  with  men,  as 
we  now  are  afraid  to  die  and  to  converse 
with  spirits.  But,  however,  death  itself  is 
no  more;  it  is  but  darkness  and  a  shadow, 
a  rest  ana  a  forgetfulness.  What  is  there 
more  in  death  ?  What  is  there  less  in  sleep? 
For  do  we  not  see  by  experience  that  no- 
thing of  equal  loudness  does  awaken  us 
sooner  than  a  man's  voice,  especially  if  he 
be  called  by  name  ?  and  thus  also  it  shall  be 

*  Lib.  i.  c.  8. 


in  the  resurrection :  we  shall  be  awakened 
by  the  voice  of  a  man,  and  he  that  called 
Lazarus  by  name  from  his  grave,  shall  also 
call  us  :  for  although  St.  Paul  affirms,  "  that 
the  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  there  shall  be 
the  voice  of  an  archangel;"  yet  this  is  not 
a  word  of  nature,  but  of  office  and  ministry : 
Christ  himself  is  that  archangel,  and  he  shall 
"  descend  with  a  mighty  shout,"  saith  the 
apostle;*  "and  all  that  are  in  the  grave 
shall  hear  \\u  voice,"  saith  St.  John  :t  so 
that  we  shall  be  awakened  by  the  voice  of  a 
man,  because  we  are  only  fallen  asleep  by 
the  decree  of  God  ;  and  when  the  cock  and 
the  lark  calls  us  up  to  prayer  and  labour, 
the  first  thing  we  see  is  an  argument  of  our 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  And  when  we 
consider  what  the  Greek  church  reports, — 
that  amongst  them  the  bodies  of  those  that 
die  excommunicate  will  not  return  to  dust 
till  the  censure  be  taken  off; — we  may,  with 
a  little  faith  and  reason,  believe,  that  the 
same  power  that  keeps  them  from  their  na- 
tural dissolution,  can  recall  them  to  life  and 
union.  I  will  not  now  insist  upon  the  story 
of  the  rising  bones  seen  every  year  in 
Egypt,  nor  the  pretences  of  the  chemists, 
that  they,  from  the  ashes  of  flowers,  can 
reproduce,  from  the  same  materials,  the 
same  beauties  in  colour  and  figure ;  for  he 
that  proves  a  certain  truth  from  an  uncer- 
tain argument,  is  like  him  that  wears  a 
wooden  leg,  when  he  hath  two  sound  legs 
already;  it  hinders  his  going,  but  helps  him 
not:  the  truth  of  God  stands  not  in  need  of 
such  supporters;  nature  alone  is  a  sufficie^ 
preacher : 

Quae  nunc  berba  fuit,  lignum  jacet,'  herba  futura. 
Aeriae  nudantur  aves  cum  penna  vetusta, 
Et  nova  subvestit  reparatas  pluma  volucres.t 

Night  and  day  ;  the  sun  returning  to  the 
same  point  of  east ;  every  change  of  species 
in  the  same  matter;  generation  and  corrup- 
tion ;  the  eagle  renewing  her  youth,  and  the 
snake  her  skin  ;  the  silk-worm  and  the  swal- 
lows ;  the  care  of  posterity,  and  the  care  of 
an  immortal  name;  winter  and  summer; 
i  the  fall  and  spring;  the  Old  Testament  and 
,  the  New;  the  words  of  Job ;  and  the  visions 
'  of  the  prophets ;  the  prayer  of  Ezekiel  for 
f  the  resurrection  of  the  men  of  Ephraim ; 

and  the  return  of  Jonas  from  the  whale's 
;  belly  ;  the  histories  of  the  Jews  and  the  nar- 
!  ratives  of  Christians;  the  faith  of  believers 


*  1  Thes.  iv.  16.  +  John  v.  28. 

X  Dracontius  de  Opere  Dei. 


Serm.  VII. 

and  the  philosophy  of  the  reasonable; — all 
join  in  the  verification  of  this  mystery. 
And  amongst  these  heaps,  it  is  not  of  the 
least  consideration,  that  there  was  never 
any  good  man,  who  having  been  taught  this 
article,  but  if  he  served  God,  he  also  relied 
upon  this.  If  he  believed  God,  he  believed 
this:  and  therefore  St.  Paul  says,  that  they 
who  were  ara'Sa  ^  txovtes,  were  also  a^ioi 
iv  xoofiy,  "  they  who  had  no  hope"  (mean- 
ing of  the  resurrection)  "were  also  atheists, 
and  without  God  in  the  world."  And  it  is 
remarkable  what  St.  Austin  observes,  that 
when  the  world  saw  the  righteous  Abel  de- 
stroyed, and  that  the  murderer  outlived  his 
crime,  and  built  up  a  numerous  family,  and 
grew  mighty  upon  earth, — they  neglected 
the  service  of  God  upon  that  account,  till 
God,  in  pity  of  their  prejudice  and  foolish 
arguings,  took  Enoch  up  to  heaven  to  re- 
cover them  from  their  impieties,  by  showing 
them  that  their  bodies  and  souls  should  be 
rewarded  for  ever  in  an  eternal  union.  But 
Christ,  the  first-fruits,  is  gone  before,  and 
himself  did  promise,  that  when  himself  was 
lifted  up,  he  would  draw  all  men  after  him: 
"  Every  man  in  his  own  order;  first  Christ, 
then  they  that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming." — 
And  so  I  have  done  with  the  second  parti- 
cular; not  Christ  only,  but  we  also  shall 
rise  in  God's  time  and  our  order. 

But  concerning  this  order  I  must  speak  a 
word  or  two,  not  only  for  the  fuller  hand- 
ling the  text,  but  because  it  will  be  matter 
of  application  of  what  hath  been  already 
spoken  of  the  article  of  the  resurrection. 

3.  First,  Christ,  and  then  we ;  and  we, 
therefore,  because  Christ  is  already  risen  : 
but  you  must  remember,  that  the  resurrec- 
tion and  exaltation  of  Christ  was  the  reward 
of  his  perfect  obedience  and  purest  holiness; 
and  he  calling  us  to  an  imitation  of  the 
same  obedience,  and  the  same  perfect  holi- 
ness, prepares  a  way  for  us  to  the  same  re- 
surrection. If  we,  by  holiness,  become  the 
sons  of  God,  as  Christ  was,  we  shall  also, 
as  he  was,  become  the  sons  of  God  in  the 
resurrection  :  but  upon  no  other  terms.  So 
said  our  blessed  Lord  himself:  "Ye  which 
have  followed  me  in  the  regeneration,  when 
the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  on  the  throne  of 
his  glory,  ye  also  shall  sit  upon  thrones 
judging  the  tribes  of  Israel."*  For  as  it 
was  with  Christ  the  first-fruits,  so  it  shall 
be  with  all  Christians  in  their  own  order : 
as  with  the  head,  so  it  shall  be  with  the 

*  Luke  xiv.  14. 


477 

members.  He  was  the  Son  of  God  by  love 
and  obedience,  and  then  became  the  Son  of 
God  by  resurrection  from  the  dead  to  life 
eternal,  and  so  shail  we  ;  but  we  cannot  be 
so  in  any  other  way.  To  them  that  are 
Christ's;  and  to  none  else,  shall  this  be 
given:  for  we  must  know  that  God  hath 
sent  Christ  into  the  world  to  be  a  great  ex- 
ample and  demonstration  of  the  economy 
and  dispensation  of  eternal  life.  As  God 
brought  Christ  to  glory,  so  he  will  bring  us, 
but  by  no  other  method.  He  first  obeyed 
the  will  of  God,  and  patiently  suffered  the 
will  of  God  ;  he  died  and  rose  again,  and 
entered  into  glory  ;  and  so  must  we.  Thus 
Christ  is  made  "via,  Veritas,  et  vita,"  "  the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life;"  that  is,  the 
true  way  to  eternal  life :  he  first  trod  this 
winepress,  and  we  must  insist  in  the  same 
steps,  or  we  shall  never  partake  of  this 
blessed  resurrection.  He  was  made  the  Son 
of  God  in  a  most  glorious  manner,  and  we 
by  him,  by  his  merit,  by  his  grace,  and  by 
his  example;  but  other  than  this  there  is  no 
way  of  salvation  for  us  :  that  is  the  first  and 
great  effect  of  this  glorious  order. 

4.  But  there  is  one  thing  more  in  it  yet : 
"  Every  man  in  his  own  order;  first  Christ, 
and  then  they  that  are  Christ's  :"  but  what 
shall  become  of  them  that  are  not  Christ's? 
why  there  is  an  order  for  them  too :  first, 
"  they  that  are  Christ's  ;  and  then  they  that 
are  not  his  :"  "  Blessed  and  holy  is  he  that 
hath  his  part  in  the  first  resurrection  :"* 
there  is  a  first  and  a  second  resurrection 
even  after  this  life;  "The  dead  in  Christ 
shall  rise  first  :"f  now  blessed  are  they  that 
have  their  portion  here;  "for  upon  these 
the  second  death  shall  have  no  power." 
As  for  the  recalling  the  wicked  from  their 
graves,  it  is  no  otherwise  in  the  sense  of  the 
Spirit  to  be  called  a  resurrection,  than  taking 
a  criminal  from  the  prison  to  the  bar  is  a 
giving  of  liberty.  When  poor  Attilius  Avi- 
ola  had  been  seized  on  by  an  apoplexy,  his 
friends,  supposing  him  dead,  carried  him  to 
his  funeral  pile;  but  when  the  fire  began 
to  approach,  and  the  heat  to  warm  the  body, 
he  revived,  and  seeing  himself  encircled 
with  funeral  flames,  called  out  aloud  to  his 
friends  to  rescue,  not  the  dead,  but  the  living 
Aviola  from  that  horrid  burning:  but  it 
could  not  be,  he  only  was  restored  from  his 
sickness  to  fall  into  death,  and  from  his  dull 
disease  to  a  sharp  and  intolerable  torment.J 
Just  so  shall  the  wicked  live  again ;  they 

*  Rev.  xx.  6.     1 1  Thess.  iv.  16.     t  Pliny. 


FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE. 


478 


A  SERMON  PRE 


ACHED  AT  THE 


Serm.  VII 


shall  receive  their  souls,  that  they  may  be  a 
portion  for  devils ;  they  shall  receive  their 
bodies,  that  they  may  feel  the  everlasting 
burning;  they  shall  see  Christ,  that  they  may 
"look  on  him  whom  they  have  pierced;" 
and  they  shall  hear  the  voice  of  God  pass- 
ing upon  them  the  intolerable  sentence; 
they  shall  come  from  their  graves,  that  they 
may  go  into  hell ;  and  live  again,  that  they 
may  die  for  ever.  So  have  we  seen  a  poor 
condemned  criminal,  the  weight  of  whose 
sorrows,  sitting  heavily  upon  his  soul,  hath 
benumbed  him  into  a  deep  sleep,  till  he 
hath  forgotten  his  groans,  and  laid  aside  his 
deep  sighings ;  but,  on  a  sudden,  comes  the 
messenger  of  death,  and  unbinds  the  poppy 
garland,  scatters  the  heavy  cloud  that  en- 
circled his  miserable  head,  and  makes  him 
return  to  acts  of  life,  that  he  may  quickly 
descend  into  death  and  be  no  more.  So  is 
every  sinner  that  lies  down  in  shame,  and 
makes  his  grave  with  the  wicked;  he  shall 
indeed  rise  again,  and  be  called  upon  by  the 
voice  of  the  archangel ;  but  then  he  shall 
descend  into  sorrows  greater  than  the  reason 
and  the  patience  of  a  man,  weeping  and 
shrieking  louder  than  the  groans  of  the 
miserable  children  in  the  valley  of  Hinnom. 

These,  indeed,  are  sad  stories,  but  true  as 
the  voice  of  God,  and  the  sermons  of  the 
holy  Jesus.  They  are  God's  words,  and 
God's  decrees;  and  I  wish  that  all  who  pro- 
fess the  belief  of  these,  would  consider  sadly 
what  they  mean.  If  ye  believe  the  arti- 
cle of  the  resurrection,  then  you  know,  that, 
in  your  body,  you  shall  receive  what  you 
did  in  the  body,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad. 
It  matters  not  now  very  much,  whether  our 
bodies  be  beauteous  or  deformed;  for  if  we 
glorify  God  in  our  bodies,  God  shall  make 
our  bodies  glorious.  It  matters  not  much, 
whether  we  live  in  ease,  and  pleasure,  or 
eat  nothing  but  bitter  herbs ;  the  body  that 
lies  in  dust  and  ashes,  that  goes  stooping 
and  feeble,  that  lodges  at  the  foot  of  the 
cross,  and  dwells  in  discipline,  shall  be  feast- 
ed at  the  eternal  supper  of  the  Lamb.  And 
ever  remember  this,  that  beastly  pleasures, 
and  lying  lips,  and  a  deceitful  tongue,  and  a 
heart  that  sendeth  forth  proud  things,  are  no 
good  dispositions  to  a  blessed  resurrection. 

Ov  xaxbv  apfjLOvlrjv  avalkvEfitv  avOpdrtovo. 

"  It  is  not  good,  that  in  the  body  we  live  a 
life  of  dissolution,  for  that  is  no  good  har- 
mony with  that  purpose  i'  glory  which  God 
designs  the  body." 


Kcu  tdxo.  6'  ix  yaivji  £%rtl£ofiev  1 1$  $ao$  (Mew, 
Ailtyxv'  drot^o/xii/wf  ortt'tfw  6a  deoi  rt'htdov'tai, 
said  Phocylides ;  "  for  we  hope  that  from 
our  beds  of  darkness  we  shall  rise  into  re- 
gions of  light,  and  shall  become  like  unto 
God :"  they  shall  partake  of  a  resurrection 
to  life ;  and  what  this  can  infer  is  very  ob- 
vious: for  if  it  be  so  hard  to  believe  a  resur- 
rection from  one  death,  let  us  not  be  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins ;  for  a  resurrection  from 
iwo  deaths  will  be  harder  to  be  believed, 
and  harder  to  be  effected.  But  if  any  of 
you  have  lost  the  life  of  grace,  and  so  for- 
feited all  your  title  to  a  life  of  glory,  betake 
yourselves  to  an  early  and  an  entire  piety, 
that  when,  by  this  first  resurrection,  you 
have  made  this  way  plain  before  your  face, 
you  may  with  confidence  expect  a  happy 
resurrection  from  your  graves :  for  if  it  be 
possible  that  the  Spirit,  when  it  is  dead  in 
sin,  can  arise  to  a  life  of  righteousness; 
much  more  it  is  easy  to  suppose,  that  the 
body,  after  death,  is  capable  of  being  re- 
stored again  :  and  this  is  a  consequent  of  St. 
Paul's  argument:  "  If,  when  ye  were  ene- 
mies, ye  were  reconciled  by  his  death,  much 
more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved 
by  his  life  ;"*  plainly  declaring,  that  it  is  a 
harder  and  more  wonderful  thing  for  a  wick- 
ed man  to  become  the  friend  of  God,  than 
for  one  that  is  so,  to  be  carried  up  to  hea- 
ven and  partake  of  his  glory.  The  first  re- 
surrection is  certainly  the  greater  miracle : 
but  he  that  hath  risen  once,  may  rise  again ; 
and  this  is  as  sure  as  that  he  that  dies  once 
may  die  again,  and  die  for  ever.  But  he 
who  partakes  of  the  death  of  Christ  by  mor- 
tification, and  of  his  resurrection  by  holiness 
of  life  and  a  holy  faith,  shall,  according  to 
the  expression  of  the  prophet'  Isaiah,  u  En- 
ter into  his  chamber  of  death  ;"f  when  na- 
ture and  God's  decree  "  shall  shut  the  doors 
upon  him,  and  there  he  shall  be  hidden  for 
a  little  moment:"  but  then  shall  they  that 
dwell  in  dust  awake  and  sing;  with  Christ's 
dead  body  shall  they  arise ;  all  shall  rise, 
but  "every  man  in  his  own  order;  Christ, 
the  first-fruits,  then  they  that  are  Christ's  at 
his  coming."  Amen. 

I  have  now  done  with  my  meditation  of 
the  resurrection ;  but  we  have  a  new  and  a 
sadder  subject  to  consider.  It  is  glorious 
and  brave  when  a  Christian  contemplates 
those  glories,  which  stand  at  the  foot  of  the 
account  of  all  God's  servants;  but  when  we 
consider,  that  before  all  or  any  thing  of  this 


*  Rom.  v.  10.  t  Isai.  xxvi.  20. 


Sirm.  VII. 


FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE. 


479 


happens,  every  Christian  must  twice  "  ex-  remember  his  very  many  worthy  deeds, 
uere  hominem,"  "  put  off  the  old  man,"  done  for  this  poor  afflicted  and  despised 


and  then  lie  down  in  dust  and  the  disho- 
nours of  the  grave;  it  is  "  vinum  myrrha- 
tum,"  there  is  "  myrrh  put  into  our  wine;" 
it  is  wholesome,  but  it  will  allay  all  our  !  good  report :"  and  that  excellent  preacher, 
pleasures  of  that  glorious  expectation;  but  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Hebrews, 


church.  St.  Paul  made  an  excellent  fune- 
ral oration,  as  it  were  instituting  a  feast  o( 
a'1  saints,  who  all  died  "  having  obtained  a 


no  man  can  escape  it.  After  that  the  great 
Cyrus  had  ruled  long  in  a  mighty  empire 


made  a  sermon  of  their  commemoration. 
For  since  good  men,  while  they  are  alive, 


yet  there  came  a  message  from  heaven,  not  have  their  conversation  in  heaven;  when 
so  sad  it  may  be,  yet  as  decretory  as  the  !  they  are  in  heaven,  it  is  also  fit  that  they 
hand-writing  on  the  wall  that  arrested  his  I  should,  in  their  good  names,  live  upon 
successor  Darius,  Xv  vxeva^ov,  w  Kvps.  jJSjj  earth.    And  as  their  great  examples  are  an 


ydp  ds  §(oii  artft,  "Prepare  thyself,  O  Cy- 
rus, and  then  go  unto  the  gods;"*  he  laid 
aside  his  tire  and  his  beauteous  diadem,  and 
covered  his  face  with  a  cloth,  and  in  a  sin- 
gle linen  laid  his  honoured  head  in  a  poor 
humble  srrave  :  and  none  of  us  all  can  avoid 


excellent  sermon  to  the  living,  and  the  prais- 
ing them,  when  envy  and  flattery  can  have 
no  interest  to  interpose,  as  it  is  the  best  and 
most  vigorous  sermon  and  incentive  to  great 
things;  so  to  conceal  what  good  God  hath 
wrought  by  them,  is  great  unthankfulness 


this  sentence ;  for  if  wit  and  learning,  great  to  God  and  to  good  men. 


fame  and  great  experience  ;  if  wise  notices 
of  things,  and  an  honourable  fortune ;  if 


When  Dorcas  died,  the  apostle  came  to 
see  the  dead  corpse,  and  the  friends  of  the 


courage  and  skill,  if  prelacy  and  an  honour- !  deceased  expressed  their  grief  and  their  love, 
able  age,  if  any  thing  that  could  give  great- !  by  showing  the  coats  that  she,  whilst  she 
ness  and  immunity  to  a  wise  and  prudent  j  lived,  wrought  with  her  own  hands  :  she 


man,  could  have  been  put  in  bar  against  a 
sad  day,  and  have  gone  for  good  plea,  this 
sad  scene  of  sorrows  had  not  been  the  en- 
tertainment of  this  assembly.  But  tell  me, 
where  are  those  great  masters,  who,  while 
they  lived,  flourished  in  their  studies  ?  "  Jam 
eorum  praebendas  alii  possident,  et  nescio 
utrum  de  iis  cogitant;"  "other  men  have 
got  their  prebends  and  their  dignities,  and 
who  knows  whether  ever  they  remember 
them  or  not?"  While  they  lived,  they 
seemed  nothing ;  when  they  are  dead,  every 
man  for  a  while  speaks  of  them  what  they 
please ;  and  afterwards  they  are  as  if  they 
had  not  been.    But  the  piety  of  the  Chris- 


was  a  good  needle-woman  and  a  good 
housewife,  and  did  good  to  mankind  in  her 
little  way,  and  that  itself  ought  not  to  be 
forgotten  ;  and  the  apostle  himself  was  not 
displeased  with  their  little  sermons,  and 
that  tv$ruiopos  which  the  women  made 
upon  that  sad  interview.  But  if  we  may 
have  the  same  liberty  to  record  the  worthy 
things  of  this  our  most  venerable  father  and 
brother,  and  if  there  remains  no  more  of  that 
envy  which  usually  obscures  the  splendour 
of  living  heroes;  if  you  can  with  your  cha- 
ritable though  weeping  eyes  behold  the  great 
gifts  of  God  with  which  he  adorned  this 
great  prelate,  and  not  object  the  failings  of 


tian  church  hath  made  some  little  provision  j  humanity  to  the  participation  of  the  graces 
towards  an  artificial  immortality  for  brave  j  of  the  Spirit,  or  think  that  God's  gifts  are 
and  worthy  persons;  and  the  friendships  |  the  less  because  they  are  born  in  earthen 
which  our  dead  contracted  while  they  were  |  vessels,  rtdWt j  yap  x%vra  Swpa  xfpawaTifWH 
alive,  require  us  to  continue  a  fair  memory  as  fyoptovuv,  for  all  men  bear  mortality  about 
long  as  we  can  ;  but  they  expire  in  monthly  j  them,  and  the  cabinet  is  not  so  beauteous  as 
minds,  or  at  most  in  a  faint  and  declining  the  diamond  that  shines  within  its  bosom; 
anniversary;  J  then  we  may,  without  interruption,  pay  this 

(duty  to  piety,  and  friendship,  and  thankful- 
_  ,  „  j  ness ;  and  deplore  our  sad  loss  by  telling  a 
r'  r  *  *  'true  and  sad  story  of  this  great  man,  whom 
And  we  have  great  reason  so  to  do  in  this  |  God  hath  lately  taken  from  our  eyes, 
present  sad  accident  of  the  death  of  our  late  j  He  was  bred  in  Cambridge,  in  Sidney- 
most  reverend  primate,  whose  death  the  College,  under  Mr.  Hulet,  a  grave  and  a 
cnurch  of  Ireland  hath  very  great  reason  to  worthy  man  j  and  he  showed  himself  not 
deplore;  and  we  have  great  obligation  to  \  only  a  fruitful  plant  by  his  great  progress 
 in  his  studies,  but  made  him  another  return 


Cyrop. 


|  of  gratitude,  taking  care  to  provide  a  good 


480  A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE        Serm.  VII. 


employment  for  him  in  Ireland,  where  he 
then  began  to  be  greatly  interested.  It  was 
spoken  as  an  honour  to  Augustus  Caesar, 
that  he  gave  his  tutor  an  honourable  fune- 
ral; and  Marcus  Antoninus  erected  a  statue 
unto  his  :  and  Gratian  the  emperor  made 
his  master  Ausonius  to  be  consul;  and  our 
worthy  primate,  knowing  the  obligation 
which  they  pass  upon  us,  who  do  "  obste- 
tricare  gravida?  animce,"  "help  the  partu- 
rient soul"  to  bring  forth  fruits  according  to 
its  seminal  powers,  was  careful  not  only  to 
reward  the  industry  of  such  persons,  so  use- 
ful to  the  church  in  the  cultivating  "  in- 
fantes  palmarum,"  4f  young  plants,"  whose 
joints  are  to  be  stretched  and  made  straight; 
but  to  demonstrate  that  *his  scholar  knew 
how  to  value  learning,  when  he  knew  so 
well  how  to  reward  the  teacher. 

Having  passed  the  course  of  his  studies 
in  the  university,  and  done  his  exercise  with 
that  applause  which  is  usually  the  reward 
of  pregnant  wit  and  hard  study,  he  was  re- 
moved into  Yorkshire,  where  first,  in  the 
city  of  York,  he  was  an  assiduous  preacher; 
but,  by  the  disposition  of  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence, he  happened  to  be  engaged  at  North- 
allerton in  disputation  with  three  pragma- 
tical Romish  priests  of  the  Jesuits'  order, 
whom  he  so  much  worsted  in  the  confer- 
ence, and  so  shamefully  disadvantaged  by 
the  evidence  of  truth,  represented  wisely 
and  learnedly,  that  the  famous  primate  of 
York,  Archbishop  Matthews,  a  learned  and 
an  excellent  prelate,  and  a  most  worthy 
preacher,  hearing  of  that  triumph,  sent  for 
him,  and  made  him  his  chaplain ;  in  whose 
service  he  continued  till  the  death  of  the 
primate,  but,  in  that  time,  had  given  so 
much  testimony  of  his  dexterity  in  the  con- 
duct of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  affairs,  that 
he  grew  dear  to  his  master.  In  that  em- 
ployment he  was  made  prebendary  of  York, 
and  then  of  Rippon,  the  dean  of  which 
church  having  made  him  his  sub-dean,  he 
managed  the  affairs  of  that  church  so  well, 
that  he  soon  acquired  a  greater  fame,  and 
entered  into  the  possession  of  many  hearts, 
and  admiration  to  those  many  more  that 
knew  him.  Thers  and  at  his  parsonage  he 
continued  long  to  do  the  duty  of  a  learned 
and  good  preacher,. and  by  his  wisdom,  elo- 
quence, and  deportment,  so  gained  the  affec- 
tions of  the  nobility,  gentry,  and  commons 
of  that  country,  that  at  his  return  thither 
upon  the  blessed  restoration  of  his  most 
sacred  majesty,  he  knew  himself  obliged 
enough,  and  was  so  kind  as  to  give  them  a 


visit ;  so  they,  by  their  coming  in  great  num- 
bers to  meet  him,  their  joyful  reception  of 
him,  their  great  caressing  of  him  when  he 
was  there,  their  forward  hopes  to  enjoy 
him  as  their  bishop,  their  trouble  at  his  de- 
parture, their  unwillingness  to  let  him  go 
away,  gave  signal  testimonies  that  they 
were  wise  and  kind  enough  to  understand 
and  value  his  great  worth. 

But  while  he  lived  there,  he  was  like  a 
diamond  in  the  dust,  or  Lucius  Quinctius 
at  the  plough ;  his  low  fortune  covered  a 
most  valuable  person,  till  he  became  ob- 
served by  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  lord  pre- 
sident of  York,  whom  we  all  knew  for  his 
great  excellencies,  and  his  great  but  glorious 
misfortunes.  This  rare  person  espied  the 
great  abilities  of  Doctor  Bramhall,  and  made 
him  his  chaplain,  and  brought  him  into  Ire- 
land, as  one  who,  he  believed,  would  prove 
the  most  fit  instrument  to  serve  in  that  de- 
sign, which,  for  two  years  before  his  arrival 
here,  he  had  greatly  meditated  and  resolved, 
the  reformation  of  religion,  and  the  repara- 
tion of  the  broken  fortunes  of  the  church. 
The  complaints  were  many,  the  abuses 
great,  the  causes  of  the  church  vastly  nu- 
merous; but  as  fast  as  they  were  brought 
in,  so  fast  they  were  by  the  Jord  deputy  re- 
ferred back  to  Dr.  Bramhall,  who,  by  his 
indefatigable  pains,  great  sagacity,  peipe- 
tual  watchfulness,  daily  and  hourly  consul- 
tations, reduced  things  to  a  more  tolerable 
condition,  than  they  had  been  left  in  by  the 
schismatical  principles  of  some,  and  the 
unjust  prepossessions  of  others,  for  many 
years  before:  for  at  the  reformation,  the 
popish  bishops  and  priests  seemed  to  con- 
form, and  did  so,  that  keeping  their  bishop- 
rics they  might  enrich  their  kindred  and 
dilapidate  the  revenues  of  the  church,  which 
by  pretended  offices,  false  informations,  fee- 
farms  at  contemptible  rents,  and  ungodly 
alienations,  were  made  low  as  poverty  itself, 
and  unfit  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  them 
that  served  the  altar,  or  the  noblest  purposes 
of  religion  :  for  hospitality  decayed,  and  the 
bishops  were  easy  to  be  oppressed  by  those 
that  would;  and  they  complained,  but  for  a 
long  time  had  no  helper,  till  God  raised  up 
that  glorious  instrument  the  Earl  of  Straf- 
ford, who  brought  over  with  him  as  great 
affections  to  the  church  and  to  all  public  in- 
terests, and  as  admirable  abilities,  as  ever 
before  his  time  did  invest  and  adorn  any  of 
the  king's  vicegerents;  and  God  fitted  his 
hand  with  an  instrument  good  as  his  skill 
was  great :  for  the  first  specimen  of  his  abi- 


Serm.VII.     FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE. 


481 


lities  and  diligence  in  recovery  of  some  lost 
tithes,  being  represented  to  his  late  majesty, 
of  blessed  and  glorious  memory,  it  pleased 
his  majesty,  upon  the  death  of  Bishop  Down- 
ham,  to  advance  the  Doctor  to  the  bishopric 
of  Derry,  which  he  not  only  adorned  with 
an  excellent  spirit  and  a  wise  government, 
but  did  more  than  double  the  revenue,  not 
by  taking  any  thing  from  them  to  whom  it 
was  due,  but  by  resuming  something  of 
the  churches'  patrimony,  which  by  undue 
means  was  detained  in  unfitting  hands. 

But  his  care  was  beyond  his  diocess,  and 
his  zeal  broke  out  to  warm  all  his  brethren ; 
and,  though  by  reason  of  the  favour  and 
piety  of  king  James,  the  escheated  counties 
were  well  provided  for  their  tithes,  yet  the 
bishoprics  were  not  so  well,  till  the  primate, 
then  bishop  of  Derry,  by  the  favour  of  the 
lord  lieutenant  and  his  own  incessant  and 
assiduous  labour  and  wise  conduct,  brought 
in  divers  impropriations,  cancelled  many  J 
unjust  alienations,  and  did  restore  them  to 
a  condition  much  more  tolerable ;  I  say ! 
much  more  tolerable ;  for  though  he  raised 
them  above  contempt,  yet  they  were  not 
near  to  envy ;  but  he  knew  there  could  not 
ill  all  times  be  wanting  too  many,  that  en-j 
vied  to  the  church  every  degree  of  pros- 
perity :  so  Judas  did  to  Christ  the  expense 
of  ointment ;  and  so  Dionysius  told  the 
priest,  when  himself  stole  the  golden  cloak 
from  Apollo,  and  gave  him  one  of  Area- 1 
dian  home-spun,  that  it  was  warmer  for  him 
in  winter  and  cooler  in  summer.  And  for 
ever  since,  the  church,  by  God's  blessing 
and  the  favour  of  religious  kings  and  princes, 
and  pious  nobility,  hath,  been  endowed 
with  fair  revenues,  "inimicus  homo,"  "the 
enemy"  hath  not  been  wanting,  by  pretences 
of  religion,  to  take  away  God's  portion  from 
the  church,  as  if  his  word  were  intended  as 
an  instrument  to  rob  his  houses.  But  when 
the  Israelites  were  governed  by  a  §eoxpatia, 
and  "  God  was  their  king,"  and  Moses  his 
lieutenant,  and  things  were  of  his  manage- 
ment,— he  was  pleased,  by  making  great 
provisions  for  them  that  ministered  in  the 
service  of  the  tabernacle,  to  consign  this 
truth  for  ever; — that  men,  as  they  love 
God,  at  the  same  rate  are  to  make  provisions 
for  his  priests.  For  when  himself  did  it,  he 
not  only  gave  the  forty-eight  cities,  with  a 
mile  of  glebe  round  about  their  city  every 
way,  and  yet  the  whole  country  was  but  a 
hundred  and  forty  miles  long,  or  thereabouts, 
from  Dan  to  Beersheba ;  but  besides  this 
they  had  the  tithe  of  all  increase,  the  first- 
61 


fruits,  offerings,  vows,  redemptions,  and  in 
short,  they  had  twenty-four  sorts  of  dues,  as 
Buxtorf  relates ;  and  all  this  either  brought 
to  the  barn  home  to  them  without  trouble, 
or  else,  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  required, 
brought  to  the  temple ;  the  first  to  make  it 
more  profitable,  and  the  second  to  declare 
that  they  received  it  not  from  the  people, 
but  from  God,  not  the  people's  kindness, 
but  the  Lord's  inheritance  :  insomuch  that 
this  small  tribe  of  Levi,  which  was  not  the 
fortieth  part  of  the  people,  as  the  Scripture 
computes  them,  had  a  revenue  almost  treble 
to  any  of  the  largest  of  the  tribes*  I  will 
not  insist  on  what  Villalpandus  observes,f 
it  may  easily  be  read  in  the  forty-fifth  of 
Ezekiei,  concerning  that  portion  which  God 
reserves  for  himself  and  his  service ;  but 
whatsoever  it  be,  this  I  shall  say,  that  it  is 
confessedly  a  prophecy  of  the  gospel ;  but 
this  I  add,  that  they  had  as  little  to  do,  and 
much  less  than  a  Christian  priest ;  and  yet 
in  all  the  twenty-four  courses  the  poorest 
priest  among  them  might  be  esteemed  a 
rich  man.J  I  speak  not  this  to  upbraid  any 
man,  or  any  thing  but  sacrilege  and  murmur, 
nor  to  any  other  end  but  to  represent  upon 
what  great  and  religious  grounds  the  then 
bishop  of  Derry  did,  with  so  much  care  and 
assiduous  labour,  endeavour  to  restore  the 
church  of  Ireland  to  that  splendour  and  ful- 
ness ;  which  as  it  is  much  conducing  to  the 
honour  of  God  and  of  religion,  God  himself 
being  the  judge,  so  it  is  much  more  neces- 
sary for  you  than  it  is  for  us;  and  so  this 
wise  prelate  rarely  well  understood  it;  and 
having  the  same  advantage  and  blessing  as 
now  we  have,  a  gracious  king,  and  a  lieu- 
tenant patron  of  religion  and  the  church, 
he  improved  the  te  deposita  pietatis,"  as 
Origen§  calls  them,  "  the  gages  of  piety," 
which  the  religion  of  the  ancient  princes 
and  nobles  of  this  kingdom  had  bountifully- 
given  to  such  a  comfortable  competency, 
that  though  there  be  place  left  for  present 
and  future  piety  to  enlarge  itself,  yet  no 
man  hath  reason  to  be  discouraged  in  his 
duty ;  insomuch  that  as  I  have  heard  from 
a  most  worthy  hand,  that  at  his  going  into 
England  he  gave  account  to  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury  of  30,000i.  a  year,  in  the  re- 
covery of  which  he  was  greatly  and  princi- 
pally instrumental.  But  the  goods  of  this 
world  are  called  "waters"  by  Solomon  : 

*  Numb.  i.  46.  Hi.  39. 
t  Seld.  Hist,  of  Tithes,  c  2.  t 
t  See  Philo.  -rtA  to!;  t/vu  yrpx  itpimr. 
$  Tract  25.  in  St.  Matthew. 
2Q, 


482 


A  SERMON  PREA 


CHED  AT  THE 


Serm.  VII. 


stolen  waters  are  sweet,  and  they  are  too 
unstable  to  be  stopped :  some  of  these  waters 
did  run  back  from  their  proper  channel,  and 
return  to  another  course  than  God  and  the 
laws  intended;  yet  his  labours  and  pious 
counsels  were  not  the  less  acceptable  to  God 
and  good  men,  and  therefore  by  a  thankful 
and  honourable  recognition,  the  convocation 
of  the  church  of  Ireland  has  transmitted  in 
record  to  posterity  their  deep  resentment  of 
his  singular  services  and  great  abilities  in 
this  whole  affair.  And  this  honour  will 
for  ever  remain  to  that  bishop  of  Derry  ;  he 
had  a  Zerubbabel  who  repaired  the  temple 
and  restored  its  beauty ;  but  he  was  the 
Joshua,  the  high  priest,  who  under  him 
ministered  this  blessing  to  the  congregations 
of  the  Lord. 

But  his  care  was  not  determined  in  the 
exterior  part  only,  and  accessaries  of  reli- 
gion ;  he  was  careful,  and  he  was  prosperous 
in  it,  to  reduce  that  divine  and  excellent 
service  of  our  church  to  public  and  constant 
exercise,  to  unity  and  devotion ;  and  to  cause 
the  articles  of  the  church  of  England  to  be 
accepted  as  the  rule  of  public  confessions 
and  persuasions  here,  that  they  and  we 
might  be  "populus  unius  labii,"  "of  one 
heart  and  one  lip,"  building  up  our  hopes 
of  heaven  on  a  most  holy  faith  ;  and  taking 
away  that  Shibboleth  which  made  this 
church  lisp  too  indecently,  or  rather,  in 
some  little  degree,  to  speak  the  speech  of 
Ashdod,  and  not  the  language  of  Canaan  ; 
and  the  excellent  and  wise  pains  he  took 
m  this  particular,  no  man  can  dehonestate 
or  reproach,  but  he  that  is  not  willing  to 
confess,  that  the  church  of  England  is  the 
best  reformed  church  in  the  world.  But 
when  the  brave  Roman  infantry,  under  the 
conduct  of  Manlius,  ascended  up  to  the 
capitol  to  defend  religion  and  the  altars  from 
the  fury  of  the  Gauls,  they  all  prayed  to 
God,  "  Ut  quemadmodum  ipsi  ad  defenden- 
dum  templum  ejus  concurrissent,  ita  ille  vir- 
tutera  eorum  numine  suo  tueretur  :"  "That 
as  they  came  to  defend  his  temple  by  their 
arms,  so  he  would  defend  their  persons  and 
that  cause  with  his  power  and  divinity. 
"And  this  excellent  man  in  the  cause  of 
religion  found  the  like  blessing  which  they 
prayed  for;  God,  by  the  prosperity  of  his 
labours  and  a  blessed  effect,  gave  testimony 
not  only  of  the  piety  and  wisdom  of  his 
purposes,  but  that  he  loves  to  bless  a  wise 
instrument,  when  it  is  vigorously  employed 
in  a  wise  and  religious  labour.  He  over- 
came the  difficulty  in  defiance  of  all  such 


pretences,  as  were  made  even  from  religion 
itself,  to  obstruct  the  better  procedure  of 
real  and  material  religion. 

These  were  great  things  and  a  matter  of 
great  envy,  and,  like  the  fiery  eruptions  of 
Vesuvius,  might,  with  the  very  ashes  of 
consumption,  have  buried  another  man. 
At  first  indeed,  as  his  blessed  Master,  the 
most  holy  Jesus,  had,  so  he  also  had  his 
"annum  acceptabilem."  At  first  the  pro- 
duct was  nothing  but  great  admiration  at  his 
stupendous  parts,  and  wonder  at  his  mighty 
diligence  and  observation  of  his  unusual 
zeal  in  so  good  and  great  things ;  but  this 
quickly  passed  into  the  natural  daughters 
of  envy,  suspicion,  and  detraction,  the  spirit 
of  obloquy  and  slander.  His  zeal  for  reco- 
very of  the  church-revenues  was  called 
oppression  and  rapine,  covetousness  and  in- 
justice; his  care  of  reducing  religion  to 
wise  and  justifiable  principles  was  called 
popery  and  Arminianism,  and  I  know  not 
what  names,  which  signify  what  the  authors 
are  pleased  to  mean,  and  the  people  to  con- 
strue and  to  hate.  The  intermedial  pros- 
perity of  his  person  and  fortune,  which  he 
had  as  an  earnest  of  a  greater  reward  to  so 
well-meant  labours,  was  supposed  to  be  the 
production  of  illiberal  arts  and  ways  of  get- 
ting ;  and  the  necessary  refreshment  of  his 
wearied  spirits,  which  did  not  always  supplv 
all  his  needs,  and  were  sometimes  less  than 
the  permissions  even  of  prudent  charity, 
they  called  intemperance  :  "Dederunt  enim 
malum  Metelli  Nsevio  poetae;"  their  own 
surmises  were  the  bills  of  accusation ;  and 
the  splendour  of  his  great  oyoflofpyta,  or 
"  doing  of  good  works,"  was  the  great  pro- 
bation of  all  their  calumnies.  But  if  envy 
be  the  accuser,  what  can  be  the  defences  of 
innocence? 

Saucior  invidia?  morsu,  quaerenda  medela  est ; 
Die  quibus  in  terris  sentiet  aeger  opem? 

Our  blessed  Saviour,  knowing  the  unsatis- 
fiable  angers  of  men  if  their  money  or 
estates  were  meddled  with,  refused  to  divide 
an  inheritance  amongst  brethren  :  it  was 
not  to  be  imagined  that  this  great  person 
(invested,  as  all  his  brethren  were,  with  the 
infirmities  of  mortality,  and  yet  employed 
in  dividing,  and  recovering,  and  apportion 
ing  of  lands)  should  be  able  to  bear  all  tha 
reproach,  which  jealousy,  and  suspicion, 
and  malicious  envy  could  invent  against 
!  him.  But  art'  ixOp^v  rtoXKa  /xavOdvovaiv  oi 
\oofol,  said  Sophocles:  and  so  did  he;  the 
affrightments  brought  to  his  great  fame  and 


Serm.VII.      FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE. 


483 


reputation  made  him  to  walk  more  warily, 
and  do  justly,  and  act  prudently,  and  con- 
duct his  affairs  by  the  measures  of  laws,  as 
far  as  he  understood,  and  indeed  that  was  a 
very  great  way:  but  there  was  "aperta  jus- 
titia,  clausa  manus,"  "justice  was  open, 
but  his  hand  was  shut ;"  and,  though  every 
slanderer  could  tell  a  story,  yet  none  couid 
prove  that  ever  he  received  "a  bribe  to  blind 
his  eyes,  to  the  value  of  a  pair  of  gloves  :w 
it  was  his  own  expression,  when  he  gave 
glory  to  God  who  had  preserved  him  inno- 
cent. But,  because  every  man's  cause  is 
right  in  his  own  eyes,  it  was  hard  for  him 
so  to  acquit  himself,  that  in  the  intrigues  of 
law  and  difficult  cases,  some  of  his  enemies 
should  not  seem  (when  they  were  heard 
alone)  to  speak  reason  against  him.  But 
see  the  greatness  of  truth  and  prudence,  and 
how  greatly  God  stood  with  him.  When 
the  numerous  armies  of  vexed  people, 

Turba  gravis  paci,  placidasque  inimica  quieti. 

Mart. 

heaped  up  catalogues  of  accusations,  when 
the  parliament  of  Ireland,  imitating  the 
violent  procedures  of  the  then  disordered 
English,  when  his  glorious  patron  was 
taken  from  his  head,  and  he  was  disrobed 
of  his  great  defences ;  when  petitions  were 
invited  and  accusations  furnished,  and  ca- 
lumny was  rewarded  and  managed  with 
art  and  power,  when  there  were  above  two 
hundred  petitions  put  in  against  him,  and 
himself  denied  leave  to  answer  by  word  of 
mouth  ;  when  he  was  long  imprisoned,  and 
treated  so  that  a  guilty  man  would  have 
been  broken  into  affrightment  and  pitiful 
and  low  considerations;  yet  then  he  him- 
self, standing  almost  alone,  like  Callimachus 
at  Marathon,  invested  with  enemies  and 
covered  with  arrows,  defended  himself  be- 
yond all  the  powers  of  guiltiness,  even 
with  the  defences  of  truth  and  the  bravery 
of  innocence,  and  answered  the  petitions  in 
writing,  sometimes  twenty  in  a  day,  with 
so  much  clearness,  evidence  of  truth,  reality 
of  fact,  and  testimony  of  law,  that  his  very 
enemies  were  ashamed  and  convinced ; 
they  found  they  had  done  like  iEsop's 
viper,  they  licked  the  file  till  their  tongues 
bled  ;  but  himself  was  wholly  invulnerable. 
They  were  therefore  forced  to  leave  their 
muster-rolls  and  decline  the  particulars,  and 
fall  to  their  h  (itiya,  to  accuse  him  for  going 
about  to  subvert  the  fundamental  laws :  the 
way  by  which  great  Strafford  and  Canter- 
bury fell;  which  was  a  device,  when  all 
reasons  failed,  to  oppress  the  enemy  by  the 


bold  affirmation  of  a  conclusion  they  could 
not  prove:  they  did  like  those  "gladiators" 
whom  the  Romans  called  "retiarii,  "when 
they  could  not  stab  their  enemy  with  their 
daggers,  they  threw  nets  over  him,  and 
covered  him  with  a  general  mischief.  But 
the- martyr  King  Charles  the  First,  of  most 
glorious  and  eternal  memory,  seeing  so  great 
a  champion  likely  to  be  oppressed  with 
numbers  and  despair,  sent  what  rescue  he 
could,  his  royal  letter  for  his  bail,  which 
was  hardly  granted  to  him;  and  when  it 
was,  it  was  upon  such  hard  terms,  that  his 
very  delivery  was  a  persecution.  So  neces- 
sary it  was  for  them,  who  intended  to  do 
mischief  to  the  public,  to  take  away  the 
strongest  pillars  of  the  house.  This  thing 
I  remark  to  acquit  this  great  man  from  the 
tongue  of  slander,  which  had  so  boldly 
spoken,  that  it  was  certain  something  would 
stick;  yet  was  so  impotent  and  unarmed, 
that  it  could  not  kill  that  great  fame,  which 
his  greater  worthiness  had  procured  him. 
It  was  said  of  Hippasus  the  Pythagorean, 
that  being  asked  how  and  what  he  had 
done,  he  answered,  "Nondum  nihil;  neque 
enim  adhuc  mihi  invidetur;"  "I  have  done 
nothing  yet,  for  no  man  envies  me."  He 
that  does  great  things,  cannot  avoid  the 
tongues  and  teeth  of  envy ;  but  if  calumnies 
must  pass  for  evidences,  the  bravest  heroes 
must  always  be  the  most  reproached  per- 
sons in  the  world. 

Nascitur  JEtolicus,  pravum  ingeniosus  ad  omne  ; 
Qui  facere  assuerat,  patriae  non  degener  artis, 
Candidade  nigris,  et  de  candentibus  atra. 

Every  thing  can  have  an  ill  name  and 
an  ill  sense  put  upon  it;  but  God,  who 
takes  care  of  reputations  as  he  does  of  lives, 
by  the  orders  of  his  Providence  confutes  the 
slander,  "  ut  memoria  justorum  sit  in  bene- 
dictionibus,"  "that  the  memory  of  the 
righteous  man  might  be  embalmed  with 
honour:"  and  so  it  happened  to  this  great 
man;  for  by  a  public  warranty,  by  the  con- 
current consent  of  both  houses  of  parlia- 
ment, the  libellous  petitions  against  him, 
the  false  records  and  public  monuments  of 
injurious  shame,  were  cancelled,  and  he 
was  restored,  "  in  integrum,"  to  that  fame 
where  his  great  labours  and  just  procedures 
had  first  estated  him  ;  which  though  it  was 
but  justice,  yet  it  was  also  such  honour,  th& : 
it  is  greater  than  the  virulence  of  tongues 
which  his  worthiness  and  their  envy  haa 
armed  against  him. 

But  yet  the  great  scene  of  his  troubles 
was  but  newly  opened.    I  shall  not  refuse 


484 


A  SERMON  PRE 


ACHED  AT  THE 


Serm.  VII. 


to  speak  yet  more  of  his  troubles,  as  re- 
membering that  St.  Paul,  when  he  dis- 
courses of  the  glories  of  the  saints  departed, 
he  tells  more  of  their  sufferings  than  of  their 
prosperities,  as  being  that  laboratory  and 
crucible,  in  which  God  makes  his  servants 
vessels  of  honour  to  his  glory.  The  storm 
quickly  grew  high  ;  "  et  transitum  est  a 
linguis  ad  gladios;"  and  that  was  indeed 
o&ixla  "ixovoa  6Vtta,  " Iniquity  had  put  on 
arms ;"  when  it  is  "  armata  nequitia,"  then 
a  man  is  hard  put  to  it.  The  rebellion  break- 
ing out,  the  bishop  went  to  his  charge  at 
Derry  ;  and  because  he  was  within  the  de- 
fence of  walls,  the  execrable  traitor,  Sir  Phe- 
lim  O'Neale,  laid  a  snare  to  bring  him  to  a 
dishonourable  death  ;  for  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  the  bishop,  pretending  intelligence  be- 
tween them,  desired  that  according  to  their 
former  agreement  such  a  gate  might  be  de- 
livered to  him.  The  messenger  was  not  ad- 
vised to  be  cautious,  nor  at  all  instructed  in 
the  art  of  secrecy  ;  for  it  was  intended  that 
he  should  be  searched,  intercepted,  and 
hanged  for  aught  they  cared  :  but  the  ar- 
row was  shot  against  the  bishop,  that  he 
might  be  accused  for  base  conspiracy,  and 
die  with  shame  and  sad  dishonour.  But 
here  God  manifested  his  mighty  care  of  his 
servants ;  he  was  pleased  to  send  into  the 
heart  of  the  messenger  such  an  aflright- 
ment,  that  he  directly  ran  away  with  the 
letter,  and  never  durst  come  near  the  town 
to  deliver  it.  This  story  was  published  by 
Sir  Phelim  himself,  who  added,  that  if  he 
could  have  thus  insnared  the  bishop,  he  had 
good  assurance  the  town  should  have  been 
his  own  :  "  Sed  bonitas  Dei  prsvalitura  est 
super  omnem  malitiam  hominis ;"  "The 
goodness  of  God  is  greater  than  all  the 
malice  of  men  j"  and  nothing  could  so  prove 
how  dear  that  sacred  life  was  to  God,  as 
his  rescue  from  the  dangers.  ef  Stantia  non 
poterant  tecta  probare  Deos:"#  "To  have 
kept  him  in  a  warm  house  had  been  nothing, 
unless  the  roof  had  fallen  upon  his  head ; 
that  rescue  was  a  remark  of  Divine  favour 
and  providence."  But  it  seems  Sir  Phe- 
lim's  treason  against  the  life  of  this  worthy 
man  had  a  correspondent  in  the  town ;  and 
it  broke  out  speedily  ;  for  what  they  could 
not  effect  by  malicious  stratagem,  they  did 
in  part  by  open  force;  they  turned  the 
bishop  out  of  the  town,  and  upon  trifling 
and  unjust  pretences  searched  his  carriages, 
and  took  what  they  pleased,  till  they  were 


*  Mart. 


ashamed  to  take  more :  they  did  worse 
than  divorce  him  from  his  church;  for  in 
all  the  Roman  divorces  they  said,  "  Tuas 
tibi  res  habeto,"  "  Take  your  goods  and  be 
gone;"  but  plunder  was  religion  then. 
However,  though  the  usage  was  sad,  yet 
it  was  recompensed  to  him  by  his  taking 
sanctuary  in  Oxford,  where  he  was  gra- 
ciously received  by  that  most  incomparable 
and  divine  prince;  but  having  served  the 
king  in  Yorkshire,  by  his  pen,  and  by  his 
counsels,  and  by  his  interests,  he  returned 
back  to  Ireland,  where,  under  the  excellent 
conduct  of  his  Grace  the  now  lord  lieu- 
tenant, he  ran  the  risk  and  fortune  of  op- 
pressed virtue. 

But  God  having  still  resolved  to  afflict  us, 
the  good  man  was  forced  into  the  fortune 
of  the  patriarchs,  to  leave  his  country  and 
his  charges,  and  seek  for  safety  and  bread 
in  a  strange  land  ;  for  so  the  prophets  were 
used  to  do,  wandering  up  and  down  in 
sheep's  clothing;  but  poor  as  they  were, 
the  world  was  not  worthy  of  them  :  and 
this  worthy  man,  despising  the  shame,  took 
up  his  cross  and  followed  his  Master. 

Exilium  causa  ipsa  jubet  sibi  dulce  videri, 
Et  desiderium  dulce  levat  patriae. 

He  was  not  ashamed  to  suffer,  where  the 
cause  was  honourable  and  glorious ;  but  so 
God  provided  for  the  needs  of  his  banished, 
and  sent  a  man  who  could  minister  comfort 
to  the  afflicted,  and  courage  to  the  perse- 
cuted, and  resolutions  to  the  tempted,  and 
strength  to  that  religion  for  which  they  all 
suffered. 

And  here  this  great  man  was  indeed  tri- 
umphant ;  this  was  one  of  the  last  and  best 
scenes  of  his  life :  j^utpcu  yap  ini-koyoi  ^ap- 
rvpfS  oofyuitatoi,  "  The  last  days  are  the  best 
witnesses  of  a  man."  But  so  it  was,  that  he 
stood  up  in  public  and  brave  defence  for  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church  of 
England  ;  first,  by  his  sufferings  and  great 
example  ;  for,  "Verbis  tantum  philosophari, 
non  est  doctoris,  sed  histrionis  ;"  "  To  talk 
well  and  not  to  do  bravely,  is  for  a  come- 
dian, not  a  divine:"  but  this  great  man  did 
both ;  he  suffered  his  own  calamity  with 
great  courage,  and  by  his  wise  discourses 
strengthened  the  hearts  of  others. 

For  there  wanted  not  diligent  tempters  in 
the  church  of  Rome,  who  taking  advantage 
of  the  afflictions  of  his  sacred  majesty,  in 
which  state  men  commonly  suspect  every 
thing,  and  like  men  in  sickness  are  willing 
to  change  from  side  to  side,  hoping  for  ease 
and  finding  none,  flew  at  royal  game,  and 


Serm.VII.      FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE. 


485 


hoped  to  draw  away  the  king  from  that  re- 
ligion which  his  most  royal  father,  the  hest 
man  and  the  wisest  prince  in  the  world,  had 
sealed  with  the  best  blood  in  Christendom, 
and  which  himself  sucked  in  with  his  edu- 
cation, and  had  confirmed  by  choice  and 
reason,  and  confessed  publicly  and  bravely, 
and  hath  since  restored  prosperously.  Mil- 
litiere  was  the  man,  witty  and  bold  enough 
to  attempt  a  zealous  and  a  foolish  undertak- 
ing, who  addressed  himself  with  ignoble, 
indeed,  but  witty  arts,  to  persuade  the  king 
to  leave  what  was  dearer  to  him  than  his 
eyes.  It  is  true,  it  was  a  wave  dashed 
against  a  rock,  and  an  arrow  shot  against 
the  sun,  it  could  not  reach  him  ;  but  the 
bishop  of  Derry  turned  it  also,  and  made  it 
fall  upon  the  shooter's  head ;  for  he  made 
so  ingenious,  so  learned,  and  so  acute  reply 
to  that  book ;  he  so  discovered  the  errors  of 
the  Roman  church,  retorted  the  arguments, 
stated  the  questions,  demonstrated  the  truth, 
and  shamed  their  procedures,  that  nothing 
could  be  a  greater  argument  of  the  bishop's 
learning,  great  parts,  deep  judgment,  quick- 
ness of  apprehension,  and  sincerity  in  the 
catholic  and  apostolic  faith  ;  or  of  the  follies 
and  prevarications  of  the  church  of  Rome. 
He  wrote  no  apologies  for  himself,  though 
it  were  much  to  be  wished  that,  as  Junius 
wrote  his  own  life,  or  Moses  his  own  story, 
so  we  might  have  understood  from  himself 
how  great  things  God  had  done  for  him  and 
by  him  :  but  all  that  he  permitted  to  God, 
and  was  silent  in  his  own  defences  ;  ee  Glo- 
riosius  enim  est  injuriam  tacendo  fugere, 
quam  respondendo  superare:"  but  when 
the  honour  and  conscience  of  his  king,  and 
the  interest  of  a  true  religion  was  at  stake, 
the  fire  burned  within  him,  and  at  last  he 
spake  with  his  tongue ;  he  cried  out  like  the 
son  of  Croesus  :  "Avflpawte,  w  xfswe  KpotW,* 
Take  heed  and  meddle  not  with  the  king  : 
his  person  is  too  sacred,  and  religion  too 
dear  to  him  to  be  assaulted  by  vulgar  hands. 
In  short,  he  acquitted  himself  in  this  affair 
with  so  much  truth  and  piety,  learning  and 
judgment,  that  in  those  papers  his  memory 
will  last  until  very  late  succeeding  genera- 
tions. 

But  this  most  reverend  prelate  found  a 
nobler  adversary,  and  a  braver  scene  for 
his  contention  :  he  found  that  the  Roman 
priests,  being  wearied  and  baffled  by  the 
wise  discourses  and  pungent  arguments  of 
the  English  divines,  had  studiously  declined 

*  Herod. 


any  more  to  dispute  the  particular  questions 
against  us,  but  fell  at  last  upon  -a  general 
charge,  imputing  to  the  church  of  England 
the  great  crime  of  schism  ;  and  by  this  they 
thought  they  might  with  most  probability 
deceive  unwary  and  unskilful  readers  ;  for 
they  saw  the  schism,  and  they  saw  we  had 
left  them ;  and  because  they  considered  not 
the  causes,  they  resolved  to  out-face  us  in 
the  charge  :  but  now  it  was  that  "  dignum 
nactus  argumentum,"  "  having  an  argu- 
ment fit"  to  employ  his  great  abilities, 

Consecrat  hie  paesul  calamum  calamique  labores, 
Ante  aras  Domino  laeta  trophaea  suo  ; 

"the  bishop  now  dedicates  his  labours  to 
the  service  of  God"  and  of  his  church,  un- 
dertook the  question,  and  in  a  full  discourse 
proves  the  church  of  Rome  not  only  to  be 
guilty  of  the  schism,  by  making  it  necessary 
to  depart  from  them ;  but  they  did  actuate 
the  schisms,  and  themselves  made  the  first 
separation  in  the  great  point  of  the  pope's 
supremacy,  which  was  the  palladium  for 
which  they  principally  contended.  He 
made  it  appear  that  the  popes  of  Rome 
were  usurpers  of  the  rights  of  kings  and 
bishops  ;  that  they  brought  in  new  doctrines 
in  every  age;  that  they  imposed  their  own 
devices  upon  Christendom  as  articles  of 
faith,  that  they  prevaricated  the  doctrines  of 
the  apostles,  that  the  church  of  England  only 
returned  to  her  primitive  purity,  that  she 
joined  with  Christ  and  his  apostles,  that  she 
agreed  in  all  the  sentiments  of  the  primi- 
tive church.  He  stated  the  questions  so 
wisely,  and  conducted  them  so  prudently, 
and  handled  them  so  learnedly,  that  I  may 
I  truly  say,  they  were  never  more  materially 
I  confuted  by  any  man,  since  the  questions 
have  so  unhappily  disturbed  Christendom, 
i  Verum  hoc  eos  male  ussit:"  and  they 
!  finding  themselves  smitten  under  the  fifth 
:  rib,  set  up  an  old  champion  of  their  own,  a 
Goliah  to  fight  against  the  armies  of  Israel : 
the  old  bishop  of  Chalcedon,  known  to 
many  of  us,  replied  to  this  excellent  book ; 
but  was  so  answered  by  a  rejoinder  made 
by  the  lord  bishop  of  Derry,  in  which  he  so 
pressed  the  former  arguments,  refuted  the 
cavils,  brought  in  so  many  impregnable  au- 
thorities and  probations,  and  added  so  many 
moments  and  weights  to  his  discourse,  that 
the  pleasures  of  reading  the  book  would  be 
the  greatest,  if  the  profit  to  the  church  of 
God  were  not  greater. 

I    Flumina  jam  lactis,  jam  flumina  nectaris  ibant, 
I    Flavaque  de  viridi  stillabant  ilice  mella.  Ovid. 
2*2 


466 


A  SERMON  PREACHED  AT  THE        Serm.  VII. 


For  so  Samson's  riddle  was  again  expound- 
ed, "  Out  of  the  strong  came  meat,  and  out 
of  the  eater  came  sweetness."  His  argu- 
ments were  strong,  and  the  eloquence  was 
sweet  and  delectable ;  and  though  there 
started  up  another  combatant  against  him, 
yet  he  had  only  the  honour  to  fall  by  the 
hands  of  Hector  :  still  "  haeret  lateri  lethalis 
arundo the  headed  arrow  went  in  so  far, 
that  it  could  not  be  drawn  out,  but  the  barbed 
steel  stuck  behind  :  and  whenever  men  will 
desire  to  be  satisfied  in  those  great  questions, 
the  bishop  of  Derry's  book  shall  be  his  oracle. 

I  will  not  insist  upon  his  other  excellent 
writings  ;  but  it  is  known  every  where  with 
what  piety  and  acumen  he  wrote  against  the 
Manichean  doctrine  of  "fatal  necessity," 
which  a  late  witty  man  had  pretended  to 
adorn  with  a  new  visor :  but  this  excellent 
person  washed  off  the  ceruse  and  the  mere- 
tricious paintings,  rarely  well  asserted  the 
economy  of  the  Divine  Providence,  and  hav- 
ing once  more  triumphed  over  his  adversary, 
"  plenus  victoriarum  et  tropaeorum,"  betook 
himself  to  the  more  agreeable  attendance 
upon  sacred  offices ;  and  having  usefully  and 
wisely  discoursed  of  the  sacred  rite  of  con- 
firmation, imposed  his  hands  upon  the  most 
illustrious  princes,  the  dukes  of  York  and 
Gloucester,  and  the  princess  royal,  and  minis- 
tered to  them  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  ministerially  established  them  in  the  re- 
ligion and  service  of  the  holy  Jesus.  And 
one  thing  more  I  shall  remark ;  that  at  his 
leaving  those  parts  upon  the  king's  return, 
some  of  the  remonstrant  ministers  of  the  Low 
Countries  coming  to  take  their  leaves  of  this 
great  man,  and  desiring  that  by  his  means 
the  church  of  England  would  be  kind  to 
them,  he  had  reason  to  grant  it,  because  they 
were  learned  men,  and  in  many  things  of  a 
most  excellent  belief;  yet  he  reproved  them, 
and  gave  them  caution  against  it,  that  they 
approached  too  near  and  gave  too  much  coun- 
tenance to  the  great  and  dangerous  errors  of 
the  Socinians. 

He  thus  having  served  God  and  the  king 
abroad,  God  was  pleased  to  return  to  the 
king  and  to  us  all,  as  in  the  days  of  old,  and 
we  sang  the  song  of  David,  "  In  convertendo 
captivitatem  Sion,"  when  king  David  and 
all  his  servants  returned  to  Jerusalem.  This 
great  person  having  trod  in  the  wine-press, 
was  called  to  drink  of  the  wine,  and,  as  an 
honorary  reward  of  his  great  services  and 
abilities,  was  chosen  primate  of  this  national 
church,  in  which  time  we  are  to  look  upon 
him,  as  the  king  and  the  king's  great  vicege- 


rent did,  as  a  person  concerning  whose  abi- 
lities the  world  had  too  great  testimony  ever 
to  make  a  doubt.  It  is  true  he  was  in  the 
declension  of  his  age  and  health;  but  his  very 
ruins  were  goodly ;  and  they  who  saw  the 
broken  heaps  of  Pompey's  theatre,  and  the 
crushed  obelisks,  and  the  old  face  of  beau  te 
ous  Philaenium,  could  not  but  admire  the  dis 
ordered  glories  of  such  magnificent  structures, 
which  were  venerable  in  their  very  dust. 

He  ever  was  used  to  overcome  all  dif 
Acuities,  only  mortality  was  too  hard  for  him, 
but  still  his  virtues  and  his  spirit  were  im- 
mortal ;  he  still  took  great  care,  and  still  had 
new  and  noble  designs,  and  proposed  to  him- 
self admirable  things.  He  governed  his  pro- 
vince with  great  justice  and  sincerity  ; 

Unus  amplo  consulens  pastor  gregi, 
Somnos  tuetur  omnium  solus  vigil. 

And  had  this  remark  in  all  his  governments, 
that  as  he  was  a  great  hater  of  sacrilege,  so 
he  professed  himself  a  public  enemy  to  non- 
residence,  and  often  would  declare  wisely 
and  religiously  against  it,  allowing  it,  in  no 
case  but  of  necessity,  or  the  greater  good  of 
the  church.  There  are  great  things  spoken  of 
his  predecessor,  St.  Patrick,  that  he  founded 
seven  hundred  churches  and  religious  con- 
vents, that  he  ordained  five  thousand  priests, 
and,  with  his  own  hands,  consecrated  three 
hundred  and  fifty  bishops.  How  true  the 
story  is  I  know  not ;  but  we  were  all  wit- 
nesses that  the  late  primate,  whose  memory 
we  now  celebrate,  did,  by  an  extraordinary 
contingency  of  Providence,  in  one  day,  con- 
secrate two  archbishops  and  ten  bishops ;  and 
did  benefit  to  almost  all  the  churches  in  Ire- 
land, and  was  greatly  instrumental  to  the  re- 
endowments  of  the  whole  clergy  ;  and  in  the 
greatest  abilities  and  incomparable  industry, 
was  inferior  to  none  of  his  most  glorious 
antecessors. 

Since  the  canonization  of  saints  came  into 
the  church,  we  find  no  Irish  bishop  canon- 
ized, except  St.  Laurence  of  Dublin,  and  St. 
Malachias  of  Down ;  indeed  Richard  of  Ar- 
magh's canonization  was  propounded,  but 
not  effected ;  but  the  character  which  was 
given  of  that  learned  primate  by  Trithemius,* 
does  exactly  fit  this  our  late  father  :  "  Vir  in 
Divinis  Scripturis  eruditus,  secularis  phi- 
losophise jurisque  canonici  non  ignarus,  cla- 
rus  ingenio,  sermone  scholasticus,  in  decla- 
mandis  sermonibus  ad  populum  excellentis 
industrial  :"  "  He  was  learned  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, skilled  in  secular  philosophy,  and  not 

*  De  Scriptor,  Eccles. 


Serm.  VII.       FUNERAL  OF  TH 

unknowing  in  the  civil  and  canon  laws,  (in  : 
which  studies  I  wish  the  clergy  were,  with  j 
some  carefulness  and  diligence,  still  more 
conversant,)  he  was  of  an  excellent  spirit,  a  j 
scholar  in  his  discourses,  an  early  and  in-  j 
dustrious  preacher  to  the  people."    And  as 
if  there  were  a  more  particular  sympathy  be- ! 
tween  their  souls,  our  primate  had  so  great 
a  veneration  to  his  memory,  that  he  pur-  j 
posed,  if  he  had  lived,  to  have  restored  his 
monument  in  Dundalk,  which  time.,  or  im- 
piety, or  unthankfulness,  had  either  omitted 
or  destroyed.   So  great  a  lover  he  was  of  all  j 
true  and  inherent  worth,  that  he  loved  it  in  I 
the  very  memory  of  the  dead,  and  to  have  \ 
such  great  examples  transmitted  to  the  in- 
tuition and  imitation  of  posterity. 

At  his  coming  to  the  primacy,  he  knew  he 
should  at  first  espy  little  besides  the  ruins  of  j 
discipline,  a  harvest  of  thorns,  and  heresies 
prevailing  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  the  j 
churches  possessed  by  wolves  and  intruders, 
men's  hearts  greatly  estranged  from  true  re- 
ligion ;  and,  therefore,  he  set  himself  to  weed 
the  fields  of  the  church ;  he  treated  the  ad- 
versaries sometimes  sweetly,  sometimes  he 
confuted  them  learnedly,  sometimes  he  re- 
buked them  sharply.  He  visited  his  charges 
diligently  and  in  his  own  person,  not  by 
proxies  and  instrumental  deputations:  "Quae-  j 
rens  non  nostra,  sed  nos,  et  quae  sunt  Jesu 
Christi  :"  "  He  designed  nothing  that  we  ■ 
know  of  but  the  redintegration  of  religion," 
the  honour  of  God  and  the  king,  the  restoring 
of  collapsed  discipline,  and  the  renovation  of 
faith  and  the  service  of  God  in  the  churches. 
And  still  he  was  indefatigable,  and  even  at : 
the  last  sa»ne  of  his  life,  intended  to  under-  j 
take  a  regal  visitation.    "  Quid  enim  vultis  i 
me  otiosum  a  Domino  comprehendi  1"  said  J 
one,  "  He  was  not  willing  that  God  should  ; 
take  him  unemployed      but,  good  man,  he  j 
felt  his  tabernacle  ready  to  fall  in  pieces,  and  | 
could  go  no  further, — for  God  would  have  no  j 
more  work  done  by  that  hand ;  he,  therefore,  j 
espying  this,  put  his  house  in  order,  and  had  ] 
lately  visited  his  diocess,  and  done  what  he 
then  could,  to  put  his  charge  in  order ;  for 
he  had,  a  good  while  since,  received  the  sen- 
tence of  death  within  himself,  and  knew  he 
was  shortly  to  render  an  account  of  his  , 
stewardship ;   he,  therefore,  upon  a  brisk  j 
alarm  of  death,  which  God  sent  him  the  last j 
January,  made  his  will ;  in  which,  besides  the  ( 
prudence  and  presence  of  spirit  manifested 
in  making  just  and  wise  settlement  of  his  es- 1 
tate,  and  provisions  for  his  descendants  j  at ' 


E  LORD  PRIMATE.  487 

midnight,  and  in  the  trouble  of  his  sickness 
and  circumstances  of  addressing  death,  still 
kept  a  special  sentiment,  and  made  confes- 
sion of  God's  admirable  mercies,  and  gave 
thanks  that  God  had  permitted  him  to  live  to 
see  the  blessed  restoration  of  his  majesty  and 
the  church  of  England,  confessed  his  faith 
to  be  the  same  as  ever,  gave  praises  to  God 
that  he  was  born  and  bred  up  in  this  religion, 
and  prayed  to  God,  and  hoped  he  should  die 
in  the  communion  of  this  church,  which  he 
declared  to  be  the  most  pure  and  apostolical 
church  in  the  whole  world. 

He  prayed  to  God  to  pardon  his  frailties 
and  infirmities,  relied  upon  the  mercies  of 
God  and  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  and, 
with  a  singular  sweetness,  resigned  up  his 
soul  into  the  hands  of  his  Redeemer. 

But  God,  who  is  the  great  Choragus  and 
Master  of  the  scenes  of  life  and  death,  was 
not  pleased  then  to  draw  the  curtains  ;  there 
was  an  epilogue  to  his  life  yet  to  be  acted 
and  spoken.  He  returned  to  actions  and 
life,  and  went  on  in  the  methods  of  the  same 
procedure  as  before ;  was  desirous  still  to  es- 
tablish the  affairs  of  the  church,  complained 
of  some  disorders  which  he  purposed  to  re- 
dress, girt  himself  to  the  work;  but  though 
his  spirit  was  willing,  yet  his  flesh  was  weak ; 
and  as  the  apostles  in  the  vespers  of  Christ's 
passion,  so  he  in  the  eye  of  his  own  dissolu- 
tion, was  heavy,  not  to  sleep,  but  heavy  unto 
death ;  and  looked  for  the  last  warning,  which 
seized  on  him  in  the  midst  of  business ;  and 
though  it  was  sudden,  yet  it  could  not  be  un- 
expected, or  unprovided  by  surprise,  and 
therefore  could  be  no  other  than  that  sv^avosia 
which  Augustus  used  to  wish  unto  him- 
self, a  civil  and  well-natured  death,  without 
the  amazement  of  troublesome  circum- 
stances, or  the  great  cracks  of  a  falling  house, 
or  the  convulsions  of  impatience.  Seneca 
tells  that  Bassus  Aufidius  was  wont  to  say, 
"  Sperare  se  nullum  dolorem  esse  in  illo  ex- 
tremo  anhelitu ;  si  tamen  esset,  habere  ali- 
qantum  int  ipssi  brevitate  solatii:"*  "He 
hoped  that  the  pains  of  the  last  dissolution 
were  little  or  none ;  or  if  they  were  it  was  full 
of  comfort  that  they  could  be  but  short.  It 
happened  so  to  this  excellent  man  ;  his  pas- 
sive fortitude  had  been  abundantly  tried  be- 
fore, and  therefore  there  was  the  less  need 
of  it  now ;  his  active  graces  had  been  abun- 
dantly demonstrated  by  the  great  and  good 
things  he  did ;  and  therefore,  his  last  scene 


*  Epist.  30. 


488 


FUNERAL  OF  THE  LORD  PRIMATE.      Serm.  VIL 


was  not  so  laborious,  but  God  called  him 
away  something  after  the  manner  of  Moses, 
which  the  Jews  express  by  "osculum  oris 
Dei,"  "  the  kiss  of  God's  mouth ;"  that  is, 
a  death  indeed  fore-signified,  but  gentle  and 
serene,  and  without  temptation. 

To  sum  up  all :  he  was  a  wise  prelate,  a 
learned  doctor,  a  just  man,  a  true  friend,  a 
great  benefactor  to  others,  a  thankful  benefi- 
ciary where  he  was  obliged  himself.  He  was 
a  faithful  servant  to  his  masters,  a  loyal  sub- 
ject to  the  king,  a  zealous  assertor  of  his  re- 
ligion against  popery  on  the  one  side,  and 
fanaticism  on  the  other.  The  practice  of  his 
religion  was  not  so  much  in  forms  and  ex- 
terior ministries,  though  he  was  a  great  ob- 
server of  all  the  public  rites  and  ministries 
of  the  church,  as  it  was  in  doing  good  for 
others.  He  was  like  Myson,  whom  the  Scy- 
thian Anacharsis  so  greatly  praised,  6  Miiuw 

otxov  olxrjaas  xotfiws.  "  he  governed  his  fa- 
mily well,"  he  gave  to  all  their  due  of  main- 
tenance and  duty;  he  did  great  benefit  to  man- 
kind ;  he  had  the  fate  of  the  apostle  St.  Paul, 
he  passed  "  through  evil  report  and  good  re- 
port, as  a  deceiver,  and  yet  true."  He  was 
a  man  of  great  business  and  great  resort: 
"  Semper  aliquis  in  Cydonis  domo,"  as  the 
Corinthians  said  j  "  There  was  always  some- 
body in  Cydon's  house."  He  wasfwpfc£wj»  tbv 
)3tw  tp79  xai  "  he  divided  his  life  into 

labour  and  his  book."  He  took  care  of  his 
churches  when  he  was  alive,  and  even  after 
his  death,  having  left  five  hundred  pounds 
for  the  repair  of  his  cathedral  of  Armagh  and 
St.  Peter's  church  in  Drogheda.  He  was  an 
excellent  scholar,  and  rarely  well  accom- 
plished ;  first  instructed  to  great  excellency 
by  natural  parts,  and  then  consummated  by 
stud  y  and  experience.  Melancthon  was  used 
to  say,  that  himself  was  a  logician,  Pomera- 
nus  a  grammarian,  Justus  Jonas  an  orator, 
but  that  Luther  was  all  these.  It  was  greatly 
true  of  him,  that  the  single  perfections  which 
make  many  men  eminent,  were  united  in  this 
primate,  and  made  him  illustrious. 

At,  at,  Quinctilium  perpetuus  sopor 
Urget  ?  cui  Pudor,  et,  Justitiae  soror, 
Incorrupta  Fides,  nudaque  Veritas, 
Quando  ullum  invenient  parem  ? 

It  will  be  hard  to  find  his  equal  in  all 
things :  "  Fortasse  tanquam  Phoenix  anno 

*  Synes.  Ep.  57. 


quingentesimo  nascitur,"  (that  I  may  use 
the  words  of  Seneca,)  "nec  est  mirum  ex 
intervallo  magna  generari ;  mediocria  et  in 
turbam  nascentia  saepe  fortuna  producit: 
eximia  vero  ipsa  raritate  commendat."  For 
in  him  were  visible  the  great  lines  of  Hook- 
er's judiciousness,  of  Jewel's  learning,  of 
the  acuteness  of  bishop  Andrews.  He  was 
skilled  in  more  great  things  than  one :  and 
as  one  said  of  Phidias,  he  could  not  only 
make  excellent  statues  of  ivory,  but  he 
could  work  in  stone  and  brass.  He  showed 
his  equanimity  in  poverty,  and  his  justice 
in  riches;  he  was  useful  in  his  country, 
and  profitable  in  his  banishment;  for,  as 
Parous  was  at  Anvilla,  Luther  at  Witten- 
burg,  St.  Athanasius  and  St.  Chrysostom  in 
their  banishment,  St.  Jerome  in  his  retire- 
ment at  Bethlehem,  they  were  oracles  to 
them  that  needed  it :  so  was  he  in  Holland 
and  France,  where  he  was  abroad ;  and  be- 
side the  particular  endearments  which  his 
friends  received  from  him,  for  he  did  do 
relief  to  his  brethren  that  wanted,  and  sup- 
plied the  soldiers  out  of  his  store  in  York- 
shire, when  himself  could  but  ill  spare  it : 
but  he  received  public  thanks  from  the  con- 
vocation of  which  he  was  president,  and  pub- 
lic justification  from  the  parliament  where 
he  was  speaker;  so  that  although,  as  one 
said,  "Miraculi  instar  vitae  iter,  si  longum, 
sine  offensione  percurrere ;"  yet  no  man 
had  greater  enemies,  and  no  man  had  greater 
justifications. 

But  God  hath  taken  our  Elijah  from  our 
heads  this  day  :  I  pray  God  that  at  least  his 
mantle  may  be  left  behind,  and  that  his 
spirit  may  be  doubled  upon  his  successor; 
and  that  we  may  all  meet  together  with  him 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Lamb,  where  every 
man  shall  receive  according  to  his  deeds, 
whether  they  be  good  or  whether  they  be 
evil.  I  conclude  with  the  words  of  Caius 
Plinius  :  fe  Equidem  beatos  puto  quibus 
Deorum  munere  datum  est,  aut  facere  scri- 
benda,  aut  scribere  legenda  :"  "  he  wrote 
many  things  fit  to  be  read,  and  did  very 
many  things  worthy  to  be  written:"  which 
if  we  wisely  imitate,  we  may  hope  to  meet 
him  in  the  resurrection  of  the  just,  and  feast 
with  him  in  the  eternal  supper  of  the  Lamb, 
there  to  sing  perpetual  anthems  to  the  ho- 
nour of  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost;  to  whom  be  all  honour,  &c. 


Serm.  VIII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


489 


SERMON  VIII. 

PREACHED  AT  THE  OBSEQUIES  OF  THE 
RIGHT  HONOURABLE  AND  MOST  VIRTUOUS 
LADY,  THE  LADY  FRANCES,  COUNTESS  OF 
CARBERY,  WHO  DECEASED  OCTOBER  9,  1650, 
AT  HER  HOUSE,  GOLDEN  GROVE,  IN  CAER- 
MARTHEN  SHIRE. 

For  we  must  needs  die,  and  are  as  water  spill  on 
the  ground,  which  cannot  be  gathered  up  again; 
neither  doth  God  respect  any  person:  yet  doth  he 
devise  means,  that  his  banished  be  not  expelled 
from  him. — 2  Sam.  xiv.  14. 

When  our  blessed  Saviour  and  his  disci- 
ples viewed  the  temple,  some  one  amongst 
them  cried  out,  "  Magister,  aspice,  quales 
lapides!"  "Master,  behold  what  fair,  what 
great  stones  are  here!"  Christ  made  no 
other  reply,  but  foretold  their  dissolution, 
and  a  world  of  sadness  and  sorrow  which 
should  bury  that  whole  nation,  when  the 
teeming  cloud  of  God's  displeasure  should 
produce  a  storm,  which  was  the  daughter 
of  the  biggest  anger,  and  the  mother  of  the 
greatest  calamity,  which  ever  crushed  any 
of  the  sons  of  Adam;  "The  time  shall 
come,  that  there  shall  not  be  left  one  stone 
upon  another."  The  whole  temple  and  the 
religion,  the  ceremonies  ordained  by  God, 
and  the  nation  beloved  by  God,  and  the 
fabric  erected  for  the  service  of  God,  shall 
run  to  their  own  period,  and  lie  down  in 
their  several  graves.  Whatsoever  had  a 
beginning,  can  also  have  an  ending ;  and  it 
shall  die,  unless  it  be  daily  watered  with 
the  purls  flowing  from  the  fountain  of  life, 
and  refreshed  with  the  dew  of  heaven  and 
the  wells  of  God :  and  therefore,  God  had 
provided  a  tree  in  Paradise  to  have  supported 
Adam  in  his  artificial  immortality ;  immor- 
tality was  not  in  his  nature,  but  in  the 
hands  and  arts,  in  the  favour  and  superad- 
ditions  of  God.  Man  was  always  the  same 
mixture  of  heat  and  cold,  of  dryness  and 
moisture  ;  ever  the  same  weak  thing,  apt  to 
feel  rebellion  in  the  humours,  and  to  suffer 
the  evils  of  a  civil  war  in  his  body  natural : 
and,  therefore,  health  and  life  was  to  de- 
scend upon  him  from  heaven,  and  he  was 
to  suck  life  from  a  tree  on  earth ;  himself 
being  but  ingrafted  into  a  tree  of  life,  and 
adopted  into  the  condition  of  an  immortal 
nature.  But  he  that  in  the  best  of  his  days 
was  but  a  scion  of  this  tree  of  life,  by  his 
sin  was  cut  off  from  thence  quickly,  and 
planted  upon  thorns,  and  his  portion  was 
for  ever  after  among  the  flowers,  which  to- 
day spring  and  look  like  health  and  beauty, 
and  in  the  evening  they  are  sick,  and  at 
night  are  dead,  and  the  oven  is  their  grave : 
62 


and,  as  before,  even  from  our  first  spring 
from  the  dust  on  earth,  we  might  have  died, 
if  we  had  not  been  preserved  by  the  con- 
tinual flux  of  a  rare  providence;  so  now 
that  we  are  reduced  to  the  laws  of  our  own 
nature,  "we  must  needs  die."  It  is  na- 
tural, and  therefore  necessary  :  it  is  become 
a  punishment  to  us,  and  therefore  it  is  un- 
avoidable; and  God  hath  bound  the  evil 
upon  us  by  bands  of  natural  and  insepa- 
rable propriety,  and  by  a  supervening  unal- 
terable decree  of  heaven  ;  and  we  are  fallen 
from  our  privilege,  and  are  returned  to  the 
condition  of  beasts,  and  buildings,  and  com- 
mon things:  and  we  see  temples  defiled 
unto  the  ground,  and  they  die  by  sacrilege ; 
and  great  empires  die  by  their  own  plenty 
and  ease,  full  humours,  and  factious  sub- 
jects ;  and  huge  buildings  fall  by  their  own 
weight,  and  the  violence  of  many  winters 
eating  and  consuming  the  cement,  which  is 
the  marrow  of  their  bones ;  and  princes  die 
like  the  meanest  of  their  servants ;  and  every 
thing  finds  a  grave  and  a  tomb:  and  the 
very  tomb  itself  dies  by  the  bigness  of  its 
pompousness  and  luxury, 


■Phario  nutantia  ponder  saxo 


Quae  cineri  vanus  dat  ruitura  labor.  Mart. 

and  becomes  as  friable  and  uncombined  dust, 
as  the  ashes  of  the  sinner  or  the  saint  that 
lay  under  it,  and  is  now  forgotten  in  his  bed 
o£  darkness.  And  to  this  catalogue  of  mor- 
tality man  is  enrolled  with  a  "  statutum  est ;" 
"  It  is  appointed  for  all  men  once  to  die,  and 
after  death  comes  judgment:"  and  if  a  man 
can  be  stronger  than  nature,  or  can  wrestle 
with  a  decree  of  heaven,  or  can  escape  from 
a  Divine  punishment  by  his  own  arts,  so 
that  neither  the  power  nor  the  providence 
of  God,  nor  the  laws  of  nature,  nor  the  bands 
of  eternal  predestination  can  hold  him,  then 
he  may  live  beyond  the  fate  and  period  of 
flesh,  and  last  longer  than  a  flower :  but  if 
all  these  can  hold  us  and  tie  us  to  conditions, 
then  we  must  lay  our  heads  down  upon  a 
turf,  and  entertain  creeping  things  in  the 
cells  and  little  chambers  of  our  eyes,  and 
dwell  with  worms  till  time  and  death  shall 
be  no  more.  H  We  must  needs  die" — that 
is  our  sentence :  but  that  is  not  all. 

"  We  are  as  water  spilt  on  the  ground, 
which  cannot  be  gathered  up  again."  Stay, 

1.  We  are  as  water,  weak,  and  of  no  con- 
sistence, always  descending,  abiding  in  no 
certain  place,  unless  where  we  are  detained 
with  violence ;  and  every  little  breath  of  wind 
makes  us  rough  and  tempestuous,  and  trou- 


490 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


Serm.  VIII. 


bles  our  faces;  every  trifling  accident  dis- 
composes us  ;  and,  as  the  face  of  the  waters 
wafting  in  a  storm,  so  wrinkles  itself,  that  it 
makes  upon  its  forehead  furrows  deep  and 
hollow  like  a  grave ;  so  do  our  great  and 
little  cares  and  trifles  first  make  the  wrinkles 
of  old  age,  and  then  they  dig  a  grave  for  us  : 
and  there  is  in  nature  nothing  so  contempti- 
ble, but  it  may  meet  wiih  us  in  such  circum- 
stances, that  it  may  be  too  hard  for  us  in  our 
weaknesses ;  and  the  sting  of  a  bee  is  a 
weapon  sharp  enough  to  pierce  the  finger 
of  a  child  or  the  lip  of  a  man ;  and  those 
creatures  which  nature  hath  left  without 
weapons,  yet  they  are  armed  sufficiently  to 
vex  those  parts  of  men,  which  are  left  de- 
fenceless and  obnoxious  to  a  sun-beam,  to 
the  roughness  of  a  sour  grape,  to  the  uneven- 
ness  of  a  gravel  stone,  to  the  dust  of  a  wheel, 
or  the  unwholesome  breath  of  a  star  looking 
awry  upon  a  sinner. 

2.  But  besides  the  weaknesses  and  natural 
decayings  of  our  bodies,  if  chances  and  con- 
tingencies be  innumerable,  then  no  man  can 
reckon  our  dangers,  and  the  preternatural 
causes  of  our  death :  so  that  he  is  a  vain 
person,  whose  hopes  of  life  are  too  con- 
fidently increased  by  reason  of  his  health ; 
and  he  is  too  unreasonably  timorous,  who 
thinks  his  hopes  at  an  end  when  he  dwells 
in  sickness.  For  men  die  without  rule,  and 
with  and  without  occasions;  and  no  man 
suspecting  or  foreseeing  any  of  death's  ad- 
dresses, and  no  man  in  his  whole  condition 
is  weaker  than  another.  A  man  in  a  long 
consumption  is  fallen  under  one  of  the  so- 
lemnities and  preparations  to  death;  but  at 
the  same  instant,  the  most  healthful  person 
is  as  near  death,  upon  a  more  fatal  and  a 
more  sudden,  but  a  less  discerned  cause. 
There  are  but  few  persons  upon  whose 
foreheads  every  man  can  read  the  sentence 
of  death,  written  in  the  lines  of  a  lingering 
sickness,  but  they  sometimes  hear  the  pass- 
ing-bell ring  for  stronger  men,  even  long 
before  their  own  knell  calls  at  the  house  of 
their  mother  to  open  her  womb,  and  make  a 
bed  for  them.  No  man  is  surer  of  to-morrow 
than  the  weakest  of  his  brethren  :  and  when 
Lepidus  and  Aufidius  stumbled  at  the  thres- 
hold of  the  senate,  and  fell  down  and  died, 
the  blow  came  from  heaven  in  a  cloud ;  but 
it  struck  more  suddenly  than  upon  the  poor 
slave  that  made  sport  upon  the  theatre  with 
a  premeditated  and  fore- described  death: 
"  Q,uod  quisque  vitet,  nunquam  homini  satis 
Cautum  est  in  boras."  There  are  sicknesses 
that  walk  in  darkness ;  and  there  are  exter- 


minating angels,  that  fly  wrapt  up  in  the 
curtains  of  immateriality  and  an  uncom- 
municating  nature;  whom  we  cannot  see, 
but  we  feel  their  force,  and  sink  under  their 
sword;  and  from  heaven  the  veil  descends 
that  wraps  our  heads  in  the  fatal  sentence. 
There  is  no  age  of  man  but  it  hath  proper 
to* itself  some  posterns  and  outlets  for  death, 
besides  those  infinite  and  open  ports  out  of 
which  myriads  of  men  and  women  every 
day  pass  into  the  dark,  and  the  land  of  for- 
getfulness.  Infancy  hath  life  but  in  effigy, 
or  like  a  spark  dwelling  in  a  pile  of  wood ; 
the  candle  is  so  newly  lighted,  that  every 
little  shaking  of  the  taper,  and  every  ruder 
breath  of  air,  puts  it  out,  and  it  dies.  Child- 
hood is  so  tender,  and  yet  so  unwary ;  so 
soft  to  all  the  impressions  of  chance,  and 
yet  so  forward  to  run  into  them,  that  God 
knew  there  could  be  no  security  without  the 
care  and  vigilance  of  an  angel-keeper ;  and 
the  eyes  of  parents  and  the  arms  of  nurses, 
the  provisions  of  art,  and  all  the  effects  of 
human  love  and  providence,  are  not  sufficient 
to  keep  one  child  from  horrid  mischiefs,  from 
strange  and  early  calamities  and  deaths, 
unless  a  messenger  be  sent  from  heaven  to 
stand  sentinel,  and  watch  the  very  playings 
and  sleepings,  the  eatings  and  drinkings  of 
the  children  ;  and  it  is  a  long  time  before  na- 
ture makes  them  capable  of  help  :  for  there 
are  many  deaths,  and  very  many  diseases  to 
which  poor  babes  are  exposed ;  but  they 
have  but  very  few  capacities  of  physic ;  to 
show  that  infancy  is  as  liable  to  death  as  old 
age,  and  equally  exposed  to  danger,  and 
equally  incapable  of  a  remedy;  with  this 
only  difference,  that  old  age  hath  diseases  in- 
curable by  nature,  and  the  diseases  of  child- 
hood are  incurable  by  art;  and  both  the  states 
are  the  next  heirs  of  death. 

3.  But  all  the  middle  way  the  case  is 
altered :  nature  is  strong,  and  art  is  apt  to 
give  ease  and  remedy,  but  still  there  is  no 
security;  and  there  the  case  is  not  altered. 
1.  For  there  are  so  many  diseases  in  men 
that  are  not  understood.  2.  So  many  new 
ones  every  year.  3.  The  old  ones  are  so 
changed  in  circumstance,  and  intermingled 
with  so  many  collateral  complications.  4. 
The  symptoms  are  oftentimes  so  alike.  5. 
Sometimes  so  hidden  and  fallacious.  6. 
Sometimes  none  at  all ;  as  in  the  most  sudden 
and  most  dangerous  imposthumations.  7. 
And  then,  the  diseases,  in  the  inward  parts  of 
the  body,  are  oftentimes  such,  to  which  no 
application  can  be  made.  8.  They  are  so  far 
off,  that  the  effects  of  all  medicines  can  no 


v 


Serm.  VIII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


491 


otherwise  come  to  them,  than  the  effect  andi 
juices  of  all  meats;  that  is,  not  till  after  two  j 
or  three  alterations  and  decoctions,  which 
change  the  very  species  of  the  medicament. 
9.  And,  after  all  this,  very  many  principles 
in  the  art  of  physic  are  so  uncertain,  that 
after  they  have  been  believed  seven  or  eight 
ages,  and  that  upon  them  much  of  the  prac- 1 
tice  hath  been  established,  they  come  to  be 
considered  by  a  witty  man,  and  other  esta- 
blished in  their  stead  ;  by  which  men  must 
practise,  and  by  which  three  or  four  gene- 
rations of  men  more  (as  happens)  must  live 
or  die.  10.  And  all  this  while  the  men  are 
sick,  and  they  take  things  that  certainly  make 
them  sicker  for  the  present,  and  very  uncer- 1 
tainly  restore  health  for  the  future:  that  it 
may  appear  of  what  a  large  extent  is  human 
calamity;  when  God's  providence  hath  not 
only  made  it  weak  and  miserable  upon  the  cer- 
tain stock  of  a  various  nature,  and  upon  the 
accidents  of  an  infinite  contingency ;  but  even  j 
from  the  remedies  which  are  appointed,  our 
dangers  and  our  troubles  are  certainly  in- 
creased :  so  that  we  may  Avell  be  likened  to 
water ;  our  nature  is  no  stronger,  our  abode , 
no  more  certain;  if  the  sluices  be  opened, 
"It  falls  away  and  runneth  apace;"  if  its ( 
current  be  stopped  it  swTells  and  grows  trou- 
blesome, and  spills  over  with  a  greater  dif-  j 
fusion  ;  if  it  be  made  to  stand  still,  it  putrefies : 
and  all  this  we  do.  For, 

4.  In  all  the  process  of  our  health,  we  are 
running  to  our  grave :  we  open  our  own 
sluices  by  viciousuess  and  unworthy  actions ; 
we  pour  in  drink,  and  let  out  life;  we  in- 
crease diseases,  and  know  not  how  to  bear  ' 
them  ;  we  strangle  ourselves  with  our  own  I 
intemperance ;  we  suffer  the  fevers  and  the 
inflammations  of  lust,  and  we  quench  our 
souls  with  drunkenness  :  we  bury  our  un- 
derstandings in  loads  of  meat  and  surfeits ; 
and  then  we  lie  down  upon  our  beds,  and 
roar  with  pain  and  disquietness  of  our  souls  : 
nay,  we  kill  one  another's  souls  and  bodies 
with  violence  and  folly,  with  the  effects  of 
pride  and  uncharitableness ;  we  live  and  die 
like  fools,  and  bring  a  new  mortality  upon 
ourselves  ;  wars  and  vexatious  cares,  and 
private  duels  and  public  disorders,  and  every 
thing  that  is  unreasonable,  and  every  thing 
that  is  violent:  so  that  now  we  may  add 
this  fourth  gate  to  the  grave  :  besides  nature, 
and  chance,  and  the  mistakes  of  art,  men 
die  with  their  own  sins,  and  then  enter  into 
the  grave  in  haste  and  passion,  and  pull 
the  heavy  stone  of  the  monument  upon  their 
own  heads.    And  thus  we  make  ourselves 


like  water  spilt  on  the  ground ;  we  throw 
away  our  lives  as  if  they  were  unprofitable 
(and  indeed  most  men  make  them  so) ;  we 
let  our  years  slip  through  our  fingers  like 
water;  and  nothing  is  to  be  seen  but  like 
a  shower  of  tears  upon  a  spot  of  ground ; 
there  is  a  grave  digged,  and  a  solemn  mourn- 
ing and  a  great  talk  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  when  the  days  are  finished,  they  shall 
be,  and  they  shall  be  remembered  no  more : 
and  that  is  like  water  too, — when  it  is  spilt, 
"  It  cannot  be  gathered  up  again." 
There  is  no  redemption  from  the  grave. 

Inter  se  mortales  mutua  vivunt : 
Et,  quasi  cursores,  vitai  lampada  tradunt. — Lucr. 

Men  live  in  their  course  and  by  turns  ;  their 
light  burns  awhile,  and  then  it  burns  blue 
and  faint,  and  men  go  to  converse  with 
spirits,  and  then  they  reach  the  taper  to  an- 
other; and  as  the  hours  of  yesterday  can 
never  return  again,  so  neither  can  the  man 
whose  hours  they  were,  and  who  lived 
them  over  once,  he  shall  never  come  to  live 
them  again,  and  live  them  better.  When 
Lazarus,  and  the  "widow's  son  of  Nain,  and 
Tabitha,  and  the  saints  that  appeared  in 
Jerusalem  at  the  resurrection  of  our  blessed 
Lord,  arose,  they  came  into  this  world,  some 
as  strangers  only  to  make  a  visit,  and  all  of 
them  to  manifest  a  glory  :  but  none  came 
upon  the  stock  of  a  new  life,  or  entered 
upon  the  stage  as  at  first,  or  to  perform  the 
course  of  a  new  nature :  and  therefore  it 
is  observable,  that  we  never  read  of  any 
wicked  person  that  was  raised  from  the 
dead:  Dives  would  fain  have  returned  to 
his  brother's  house ;  but  neither  he,  nor  any 
from  him  could  be  sent :  but  all  the  rest  in 
the  New  Testament  (one  only  excepted) 
were  expressed  to  have  been  holy  persons, 
or  else  by  their  age  were  declared  innocent. 
Lazarus  was  beloved  of  Christ :  those  souls 
that  appeared  at  the  resurrection,  were  the 
souls  of  saints  :  Tabitha,  raised  by  St.  Peter, 
was  a  charitable  and  a  holy  Christian  :  and 
the  maiden  of  twelve  years  old,  raised  by 
our  blessed  Saviour,  had  not  entered  into 
the  regions  of  choice  and  sinfulness:  and 
the  only  exception  of  the  widow's  son,  is 
indeed  none  at  all,  for  in  it  the  Scripture  is 
wrholly  silent ;  and  therefore  it  is  very  pro- 
bable that  the  same  process  was  used,  God, 
in  all  other  instances,  having  chosen  to  ex- 
emplify his  miracles  of  nature  to  purposes 
of  the  spirit,  and  in  spiritual  capacities.  So 
that  although  the  Lord  of  nature  did  not 
break  the  bands  of  nature  in  some  instances, 
to  manifest  his  glory  to  succeeding  great 


492 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


Serm.  VIII. 


and  never-failing  purposes;  yet  (besides 
that  this  shall  be  no  more)  it  was  also  in- 
stanced in  such  persons  who  were  holy  and 
innocent,  and  within  the  verge  and  compre- 
hensions of  the  eternal  mercy.  We  never 
read  that  a  wicked  person  felt  such  a  mira- 
cle, or  was  raised  from  the  grave  to  try  the 
second  time  for  a  crown  ;  but  where  he  fell, 
there  he  lay  down  dead,  and  saw  the  light 
no  more. 

This  consideration  I  intend  to  you  as  a 
severe  monitor  and  an  advice  of  carefulness, 
that  you  order  your  affairs  so  that  you  may 
be  partakers  of  the  first  resurrection;  that  is, 
from  sin  to  grace,  from  the  death  of  vicious 
habits  to  the  vigour,  life,  and  efficacy  of  an 
habitual  righteousness  :  for  (as  it  happened 
to  those  persons  in  the  New  Testament  now 
mentioned,  to  them,  I  say,  in  the  literal  sense) 
"  Blessed  are  they  that  have  part  in  the  first 
resurrection ;  upon  them  the  second  death 
shall  have  no  power:"  meaning  that  they 
who,  by  the  power  of  Christ  and  his  Holy 
Spirit,  were  raised  to  life  again,  were  holy 
and  blessed  souls,  and  such  who  were  writ- 
ten in  the  book  of  God  ;  and  that  this  grace 
happened  to  no  wicked  and  vicious  person  : 
so  it  is  most  true  in  the  spiritual  and  in- 
tended sense  :  you  only  that  serve  God  in 
a  holy  life ;  you  who  are  not  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins ;  you  who  serve  God  with 
an  early  diligence,  and  an  unwearied  in- 
dustry, and  a  holy  religion,  you,  and  you 
only,  shall  come  to  life  eternal,  you  only 
shall  be  called  from  death  to  life ;  the  rest 
of  mankind  shall  never  live  again,  but  pass 
from  death  to  death ;  from  one  death  to  an- 
other, to  a  worse ;  from  the  death  of  the 
body  to  the  eternal  death  of  body  and  soul : 
and  therefore  in  the  Apostle's  Creed  there 
is  no  mention  made  of  the  resurrection  of 
wicked  persons ;  but  of  "  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  to  everlasting  life."  The  wicked 
indeed  shall  be  haled  forth  from  their  graves, 
from  their  everlasting  prisons,  where,  in 
chains  of  darkness,  they  are  kept  unto  the 
judgment  of  the  great  day  :  but  this  there- 
fore cannot  be  called,  "  in  sensu  favoris,"  a 
resurrection  ;  but  the  solemnities  of  the  eter- 
nal death ;  it  is  nothing  but  a  new  capacity 
of  dying  again ;  such  a  dying  as  cannot 
signify  rest;  but  where  death  means  no- 
thing but  an  intolerable  and  never  ceasing 
calamity ;  and  therefore  these  words  of  my 
text  are  otherwise  to  be  understood  of  the 
wicked,  otherwise  of  the  godly :  the  wicked 
are  spilt  like  water,  and  shall  never  be 
gathered  up  again;  no,  not  in  the  gather- 


ings of  eternity ;  they  shall  be  put  into  ves- 
sels of  wrath,  and  set  upon  the  flames  of 
hell;  but  that  is  not  a  gathering,  but  a  scat- 
tering from  the  face  and  presence  of  God. 
But  the  godly  also  come  under  the  sense  of 
these  words  :  they  descend  into  their  graves, 
and  shall  no  more  be  reckoned  among  the 
living;  they  have  no  concernment  in  all 
| that  is  done  under  the  sun.  Agamemnon 
hath  no  more  to  do  with  the  Turk's  armies 
invading  and  possessing  that  part  of  Greece 
where  he  reigned,  than  had  the  Hippocen- 
taur,  who  never  had  a  being ;  and  Cicero 
hath  no  more  interest  in  the  present  evils  of 
Christendom,  than  we  have  to  do  with  his 
boasted  discovery  of  Catiline's  conspiracy. 
What  is  it  to  me  that  Rome  was  taken  by 
the  Gauls  %  and  what  is  it  now  to  Camillus, 
if  different  religions  be  tolerated  amongst  us? 
These  things  that  now  happen  concern  the 
living,  and  they  are  made  the  scenes  of  our 
duty  or  danger  respectively :  and  when  our 
wives  are  dead,  and  sleep  in  charnel-houses, 
they  are  not  troubled  when  we  laugh  loudly 
at  the  songs  sung  at  the  next  marriage- 
feast;  nor  do  they  envy  when  another 
snatches  away  the  gleanings  of  their  hus- 
bands' passion. 

It  is  true,  they  envy  not,  and  they  lie  in 
a  bosom  where  there  can  be  no  murmur ; 
and  they  that  are  consigned  to  kingdoms, 
and  to  the  feast  of  the  marriage-supper  of 
the  Lamb,  the  glorious  and  eternal  Bride- 
groom of  holy  souls,  they  cannot  think  our 
marriages  here,  our  lighter  laughings  and 
vain  rejoicings,  considerable,  as  to  them. 
And  "  yet  there  is  a  relation  continued 
still:"  Aristotle  said,  that  to  affirm  the  dead 
take  no  thought  for  the  good  of  the  living, 
is  a  disparagement  to  the  laws  of  that 
friendship,  which,  in  their  state  of  sepa- 
ration, they  cannot  be  tempted  to  rescind. 
And  the  church  hath  taught  in  general, 
that  they  pray  for  us,  they  recommend  to 
God  the  state  of  all  their  relatives,  in  the 
union  of  the  intercession  that  our  blessed 
Lord  makes  for  them  and  us :  and  St.  Am- 
brose gave  some  things  in  charge  to  his 
dying  brother  Satyrus,  that  he  should  do 
for  him  in  the  other  world  :  he  gave  it  him, 
I  say,  when  he  was  dying,  not  when  he 
was  dead.  And  certain  it  is,  that,  though 
our  dead  friends'  affection  to  us  is  not  to  be 
estimated  according  to  our  low  conceptions, 
yet  it  is  not  less,  but  much  more  than  ever 
it  was ;  it  is  greater  in  degree,  and  of  an- 
other kind. 
But  then  we  should  do  well  also  to  re- 


Serm.  VIII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


493 


member  that  in  this  world  we  are  something, 
besides  flesh  and  blood;  that  we  may  not,| 
without  violent  necessities,  run  into  new! 
relations,  but  preserve  the  affections  we 
bore  to  our  dead  when  they  were  alive :  we  | 
must  not  so  live  as  if  they  were  perished, 
but  so  as  pressing  forward  to  the  most  inti- 
mate participation  of  the  communion  of 
saints.  And  we  also  have  some  ways  to 
express  this  relation,  and  to  bear  a  part  in 
this  communion,  by  actions  of  intercourse 
with  them,  and  yet  proper  to  our  state : 
such  as  are  strictly  performing  the  will  of 
the  dead,  providing  for,  and  tenderly  and 
wisely  educating  their  children,  paying  their 
debts,  imitating  their  good  example,  pre- 
serving their  memories  privately,  and  pub- 
licly keeping  their  memorials,  and  desiring 
of  God,  with  hearty  and  constant  prayer, 
that  God  would  give  them  a  joyful  resur- 
rection, and  a  merciful  judgment, — for  so 
St.  Paul  prayed  in  behalf  of  Onesiphorus  ;* 
that  <(  God  would  show  them  mercy  in  that 
day that  fearful,  and  yet  much  to  be  de- 
sired day,  in  which  the  most  righteous  per- 
son hath  need  of  much  mercy  and  pity,  and 
shall  find  it.  Now  these  instances  of  duty 
show,  that  the  relation  remains  still ;  and 
though  the  relict  of  a  man  or  woman  hath 
liberty  to  contract  new  relations,  yet  I  do 
not  find  they  have  liberty  to  cast  off  the  old, 
as  if  there  were  no  such  thing  as  immor- 
tality of  souls.  Remember  that  we  shall 
converse  together  again ;  let  us  therefore 
never  do  any  thing  of  reference  to  them, 
which  we  shall  be  ashamed  of  in  the  day 
when  all  secrets  shall  be  discovered,  and 
that  we  shall  meet  again  in  the  presence  of 
God :  in  the  mean  time,  God  watcheth  con- 
cerning all  their  interest,  and  he  will,  in  his 
time,  both  discover  and  recompense.  For 
though,  as  to  us,  they  are  like  water  spilt ; 
yet,  to  God,  they  are  as  water  fallen  in  the 
sea,  safe  and  united  in  his  comprehension 
and  enclosures. 

But  we  are  not  yet  passed  the  considera- 
tion of  the  sentence :  this  descending  to  the 
grave  is  the  lot  of  all  men,  "  neither  doth 
God  respect  the  person  of  any  man the 
rich  is  not  protected  for  favour,  nor  the  poor 
for  pity  ;  the  old  man  is  not  reverenced  for 
his  age,  nor  the  infant  regarded  for  his  ten- 
derness ;  youth  and  beauty,  learning  and  pru- 
dence, wit  and  strength,  lie  down  equally  in 
the  dishonours  of  the  grave.  All  men,  and 
all  natures,  and  all  persons  resist  the  ad- 

*2  Tim.i.  18. 


dresses  and  solemnities  of  death,  and  strive 
to  preserve  a  miserable  and  unpleasant  life ; 
and  yet  they  all  sink  down  and  die.  For  so 
have  I  seen  the  pillars  of  a  building,  assisted 
with  artificial  props,  bending  under  the 
pressure  of  a  roof,  and  pertinaciously  resist- 
ing the  infallible  and  prepared  ruin, 

Donee  certa  dies,  omni  compage  soluta, 
•        Ipsum  cum  rebus  subruat  auxilium  ; 

"till  the  determined  day  comes,  and  then 
the  burden  sunk  upon  the  pillars,  and  dis- 
ordered the  aids  and  auxiliary  rafters  into  a 
common  ruin  and  a  ruder  grave  :  so  are  the 
desires  and  weak  arts  of  man;  with  little 
aids  and  assistances  of  care  and  physic,  we 
strive  to  support  our  decaying  bodies,  and 
to  put  off  the  evil  day ;  but  quickly  that  day 
will  come,  and  then  neither  angels  nor  men 
can  rescue  us  from  our  grave ;  but  the  roof 
sinks  down  upon  the  walls,  and  the  walls 
descend  to  the  foundation ;  and  the  beauty 
of  the  face,  and  the  dishonours  of  the  belly, 
the  discerning  head  and  the  servile  feet,  the, 
thinking  heart  and  the  working  hand,  the 
eyes  and  the  guts  together  shall  be  crushed 
into  the  confusion  of  a  heap,  and  dwell  with 
creatures  of  an  equivocal  production,  with 
worms  and  serpents,  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  our  own  bones,  in  a  house  of  dirt  and 
darkness. 

Let  not  us  think  to  be  excepted  or  de- 
ferred :  if  beauty,  or  wit,  or  youth,  or  noble- 
ness, or  wealth,  or  virtue,  could  have  been 
a  defence  and  an  excuse  from  the  grave,  we 
had  not  met  here  to-day  to  mourn  upon 
the  hearse  of  an  excellent  lady  :  and  God 
only  knows,  for  which  of  us  next  the 
mourners  shall  go  about  the  streets,  or  weep 
in  houses. 

Zcv$  fiev  7iov  toys  olSs  xai  addmtOL  $soi  &&M3 

II.  y. 

We  have  lived  so  many  years ;  and  every 
day,  and  every  minute,  we  make  an  escape 
from  those  thousands  of  dangers  and  deaths 
that  encompass  us  round  about :  and  such 
escapings  we  must  reckon  to  be  an  extraor- 
dinary fortune ;  and,  therefore,  that  it  can- 
not last  long.  Vain  are  the  thoughts  of 
man,  who,  when  he  is  young  or  healthful, 
thinks  he  hath  a  long  thread  of  life  to  run 
over,  and  that  it  is  violent  and  strange  for 
young  persons  to  die,  and  natural  and  pro- 
per only  for  the  aged.  It  is  as  natural  for  a 
man  to  die  by  drowning  as  by  fever:  and 
what  greater  violence  or  more  unnatural 
thing  is  it,  that  the  horse  threw  his  rider 
into  the  river,  than  that  a  drunken  meeting 
2R 


494 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


Serm.  VIII. 


cast  him  into  a  fever  ?  and  the  strengths  of 
youth  are  as  soon  broken  by  the  strong  sick- 
nesses of  youth,  and  the  stronger  intempe- 
rance, as  the  weakness  of  old  age  by  a 
cough,  or  an  asthma,  or  a  continual  rheum : 
nay,  it  is  more  natural  for  young  men  and 
women  to  die,  than  for  old ;  because  that 
is  more  natural  which  hath  more  natural 
causes,  and  that  is  more  natural  which  is 
most  common :  but  to  die  with  age  is  an 
extreme  rare  thing;  and  there  are  more 
persons  carried  forth  to  burial  before  the 
five  and  thirtieth  year  of  their  age,  than 
after  it;  and,  therefore,  let  no  vain  con- 
fidence make  you  hope  for  long  life:  if 
you  have  lived  but  little,  and  are  still  in 
youth,  remember  that  now  you  are  in  your 
biggest  throng  of  dangers,  both  of  body  and 
soul ;  and  the  proper  sins  of  youth  to  which 
they  rush  infinitely  and  without  considera- 
tion, are  also  the  proper  and  immediate 
instruments  of  death.  But  if  you  be  old, 
you  have  escaped  long  and  wonderfully, 
and  the  time  of  your  escaping  is  out: 
you  must  not  for  ever  think  to  live  upon 
wonders,  or  that  God  will  work  miracles  to 
satisfy  your  longing  follies,  and  unreason- 
able desires  of  living  longer  to  sin  and  to  the 
world.  Go  home  and  think  to  die,  and 
what  you  would  choose  to  be  doing  when 
you  die,  that  do  daily  :  for  you  will  all  come 
to  that  pass  to  rejoice  that  you  did  so,  or 
wish  that  you  had  :  that  will  be  the  condi- 
tion of  every  one  of  us :  for  "God  regardeth 
no  man's  person. " 

Well !  but  all  this  you  will  think  is  but  a 
sad  story.  What?  we  must  die,  and  go  to 
darkness  and  dishonour;  and  we  must  die 
quickly,  and  we  must  quit  all  our  delights, 
and  all  our  sins,  or  do  worse,  infinitely 
worse ;  and  this  is  the  condition  of  us  all, 
from  which  none  can  be  excepted;  every 
man  shall  be  spilt  and  fall  into  the  ground, 
and  "  be  gathered  up  no  more."  Is  there 
no  comfort  after  all  this ?  "shall  we  go 
from  hence,  and  be  no  more  seen,"  and 
have  no  recompense  ? 

11  Misero  misere,"  aiunt,  "  omnia  ademit. 
Una  dies  infausta  tibi  tot  praemia  vitae." — Lucr. 

Shall  we  exchange  our  fair  dwellings  for  a 
coffin,  our  softer  beds  for  the  moistened  and 
weeping  turf,  and  our  pretty  children  for 
worms ;  and  is  there  no  allay  to  this  huge 
calamity  ?  yes,  there  is :  there  is  a  yet  in 
the  text :  "  for  all  this,  yet  doth  God  devise 
means  that  his  banished  be  not  expelled 
from  him  :" — All  this  sorrow  and  trouble  is 
but  a  phantasm,  and  receives  its  account 


and  degrees  from  our  present  conceptions, 
and  the  proportion  to  our  relishes  and  gust. 

When  Pompey  saw  the  ghost  of  his  first 
lady,  Julia,  who  vexed  his  rest  and  his  con- 
science, for  superinducing  Cornelia  upon 
her  bed,  within  the  ten  months  of  mourn- 
ing, he  presently  fancied  it,  either  to  be  an 
illusion,  or  else  that  death  could  be  no  very 
great  evil : 

Aut  nihil  est  sensus  animis  in  morte  relictum, 
Aut  mors  ipsa  nihil. — Lucan. 

"  Either  my  dead  wife  knows  not  of  my  un- 
handsome marriage,  and  forgetfulness  of 
her ;  or  if  she  does,  then  the  dead  live." 

Longae,  canitis  si  cognita,  vitae 
Mors  media  est. — Id. 

"  Death  is  nothing  but  the  middle  point  be- 
tween two  lives,  between  this  and  another:" 
concerning  which  comfortable  mystery  the 
Holy  Scripture  instructs  our  faith,  and  en- 
tertains our  hope  in  these  words:  God  is 
still  the  "  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Ja- 
cob; for  all  do  live  to  him;"  and  the  souls 
of  saints  are  with  Christ:  "  I  desire  to  be 
dissolved,"  (saith  St.  Paul,)  "  and  to  be 
with  Christ,  for  that  is  much  better:"  and, 
"  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the 
Lord  ;  they  rest  from  their  labours,  and  their 
works  follow  them :  for  we  know  that  if  our 
earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dis- 
solved, we  have  a  building  of  God,  a  house 
not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  hea- 
vens :"  and  this  state  of  separation  St.  Paul 
calls  "  a  being  absent  from  the  body,  and 
being  present  with  the  Lord."*  This  is  one 
of  God's  means  which  he  hath  devised, 
that  although  our  dead  are  like  persons  ba- 
nished from  this  world,  yet  they  are  not  ex- 
pelled from  God  :  they  are  "  in  the  hands 
of  Christ;"  they  are  "in  his  presence;" 
they  are,  or  shall  be,  "  clothed  with  a  house 
of  God's  making ;"  "  they  rest  from  all  their 
labours ;"  "  all  tears  are  wiped  from  their 
eyes,"  and  all  discontents  from  their  spirits; 
and  in  the  state  of  separation,  before  the 
soul  be  reinvested  with  her  new  house,  the 
spirits  of  all  persons  are  with  God,  so  se- 
cured, and  so  blessed,  and  so  sealed  up  for 
glory,  that  this  state  of  interval  and  imper- 
fection is,  in  respect  of  its  certain  event  and 
end,  infinitely  more  desirable  than  all  the 
riches,  and  all  the  pleasures,  and  all  the 
vanities,  and  all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world. 

I  will  not  venture  to  determine  what  are 
the  circumstances  of  the  abode  of  holy  souls 


*  1  Cor.  xv.  18.  1  Thess.  iv.  16.  Rev.  xiv, 
113.    John  v.  24.    2  Cor.  v.  6,  8. 


Serm.  VIII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


495 


in  their  separate  dwellings;  and  yet,  possi-j 
bly,  that  might  be  easier  than  to  tell  what 
or  how  the  soul  is  and  works  in  this  world, 
where  it  is  in  the  body  "tanquam  in  aliena 
domo,"  "  as  in  prison,"  in  fetters  and  re- 
straints ;  for  here  the  soul  is  discomposed 
and  hindered;  it  is  not  as  it  shall  be,  as  it 
ought  to  be,  as  it  was  intended  to  be;  it  is 
not  permitted  to  its  own  freedom  and  proper 
operation;  so  that  all  that  we  can  under- 
stand of  it  here,  is,  that  it  is  so  incommo- 
dated  with  a  troubled  and  abated  instrument, 
that  the  object  we  are  to  consider  cannot  be 
offered  to  us  in  a  right  line,  in  just  and  equal 
propositions  :  or  if  it  could,  yet  because  we 
are  to  understand  the  soul  by  the  soul,  it 
becomes  not  only  a  troubled  and  abused  ob- 
ject, but  a  crooked  instrument;  and  we  here 
can  consider  it  just  as  a  weak  eye  can  be- 
hold a  staff  thrust  into  the  waters  of  a  trou- 
bled river,  the  very  water  makes  a  refrac- 
tion, and  the  storm  doubles  the  refraction, 
and  the  water  of  the  eye  doubles  the  species, 
and  there  is  nothing  right  in  the  thing  :  the 
object  is  out  of  its  just  place,  and  the  me- 
dium is  troubled,  and  the  organ  is  impotent: 
" At  cum  exierit,  et  in  liberum  caelum,  quasi 
in  domum  suam,  venerit ;"  "  when  the  soul 
is  entered  into  her  own  house,  into  the  free 
regions  of  the  rest,"  and  the  neighbourhood 
of  heavenly  joys,  then  its  operations  are 
more  spiritual,  proper,  and  proportioned  to 
its  being;  and,  though  we  cannot  see  at 
such  a  distance,  yet  the  object  is  more  fitted, 
if  we  had  a  capable  understanding ;  it  is  in 
itself  in  a  more  excellent  and  free  condition. 

Certain  it  is  that  the  body  does  hinder 
many  actions  of  the  soul ;  it  is  an  imperfect' 
body  and  a  diseased  brain,  or  a  violent  pas- 
sion, that  makes  fools :  no  man  hath  a  fool- 
ish soul ;  and  the  reasonings  of  men  have 
infinite  difference  and  degrees,  by  reason  of 
the  body's  constitution.  Among  beasts, 
which  have.no  reason,  there  is  a  greater 
likeness  than  between  men,  who  have ;  and 
as  by  faces  it  is  easier  to  know  a  man  from 
a  man,  than  a  sparrow  from  a  sparrow,  or 
a  squirrel  from  a  squirrel ;  so  the  difference 
is  very  great  in  our  souls;  which  difference, 
because  it  is  not  originally  in  the  soul,  (and 
indeed  cannot  be  in  simple  or  spiritual  sub- 
stances of  the  same  species  or  kind,)  it  must 
needs  derive  wholly  from  the  body,  from  its 
accidents  and  circumstances  ;  from  whence 
it  follows,  that  because  the  body  casts  fet- 
ters and  restraints,  hinderances  and  impedi- 
ments upon  the  soul,  that  the  soul  is  much 
freer  in  the  state  of  separation ;  and  if  it 


hath  any  act  of  life,  it  is  much  more  noble 
and  expedite. 

That  the  soul  is  alive  after  our  death,  St. 
Paul  affirms :  "  Christ  died  for  us,  that  whe- 
ther we  wake  or  sleep,  we  should  live  toge- 
ther ^with  him."*  Now  it  were  strange  that 
we  should  be  alive,  and  live  with  Christ, 
and  yet  do  no  act  of  life :  the  body  when  it 
is  asleep  does  many ;  and  if  the  soul  does 
none,  the  principle  is  less  active  than  the 
instrument;  but  if  it  does  any  act  at  all  in 
separation,  it  must  necessarily  be  an  act  or 
effect  of  understanding;  there  is  nothing 
else  it  can  do,  but  this  it  can ;  for  it  is  but  a 
weak  and  an  unlearned  proposition  to  say, 
that  tjie  soul  can  do  nothing  of  itself,  no- 
thing without  the  phantasms  and  provisions 
of  the  body  :  for, 

1 .  In  this  life  the  soul  hath  one  principle 
clearly  separate,  abstracted,  and  immaterial; 
I  mean  "  the  spirit  of  grace,"  which  is  a 
principle  of  life  and  action,  and  in  many 
instances  does  not  at  all  communicate  with 
matter,  as  in  the  infusion,  superinduction, 
and  creation  of  spiritual  graces. 

2.  As  nutrition,  generation,  eating  and 
drinking,  are  actions  proper  to  the  body  and 
its  state ;  so  ecstasies,  visions,  raptures,  in- 
tuitive knowledge  and  consideration  of  itself, 
acts  of  volition,  and  reflex  acts  of  under- 
standing, are  proper  to  the  soul. 

3.  And  therefore  it  is  observable  that  St. 
Paul  said,  that  "  he  knew  not  whether  his 
visions  and  raptures  were  in  or  out  of  the 
body;"  for  by  that  we  see  his  judgment  of 
the  thing,  that  one  was  as  likely  as  the 
other,  neither  of  them  impossible  or  unrea- 

'  sonable ;  and  therefore,  that  the  soul  is  as 
capable  of  action  alone  as  in  conjunction. 

4.  If  in  the  state  of  blessedness,  there  are 
some  actions  of  the  soul  which  do  not  pass 
through  the  body,  such  as  contemplation  of 
God,  and  conversing  with  spirits,  and  re- 

!  ceiving  those  influences  and  rare  immis- 
sions,  which  coming  from  the  holy  and 
mysterious  Trinity,  make  up  the  crown  of 
glory;  it  follows  that  the  necessity  of  the 
body's  ministry  is  but  during  the  state  of 
this  life,  and  as  long  as  it  converses  with 
fire  and  water,  and  lives  with  corn  and  flesh, 
and  is  fed  by  the  satisfaction  of  material 
appetites;  which  necessity  and  manner  of 
conversation,  when  it  ceases,  it  can  be  no 
longer  necessary  for  the  soul  to  be  served 
by  phantasms  and  material  representations. 

5.  And  therefore,  when  the  body  shall  be 

*  1  Thess.  v.  10. 


496  A  FUNERA 


L  SERMON. 


Seem.  VIII. 


reunited,  it  shall  be  so  ordered  that  then  the 
body  shall  confess  it  gives  not  any  thing, 
but  receives  all  its  being  and  operation,  its 
manner  and  abode,  from  the  soul ;  and  that 
then  it  comes  not  to  serve  a  necessity,  but 
to  partake  a  glory :  for  as  the  operations  of 
the  soul,  in  this  life,  begin  in  the  body,  and 
by  it  the  object  is  transmitted  to  the  soul; 
so  then  they  shall  begin  in  the  soul,  and 
pass  to  the  body;  and  as  the  operations  of 
the  soul,  by  reason  of  its  dependence  on  the 
body,  are  animal,  natural,  and  material ;  so 
in  the  resurrection,  the  body  shall  be  spi- 
ritual, by  reason  of  the  pre-eminence,  in- 
fluence, and  prime  operation  of  the  soul. 
Now  between  these  two  states  stands  the 
state  of  separation,  in  which  the  operations 
of  the  soul  are  of  a  middle  nature,  that  is, 
not  so  spiritual  as  in  the  resurrection,  and 
not  so  animal  and  natural  as  in  the  state  of 
conjunction. 

To  all  which  I  add  this  consideration, 
that  our  souls  have  the  same  condition  that 
Christ's  soul  had  in  the  state  of  separation, 
because  he  tcok  on  him  all  our  nature,  and 
all  our  condition  ;  and  it  is  certain,  Christ's 
soul,  in  the  three  days  of  his  separation,  did 
exercise  acts  of  life,  of  joy  and  triumph,  and 
did  not  sleep,  but  visited  the  souls  of  the 
fathers,  trampled  upon  Ue  pride  of  devils, 
and  satisfied  those  longing  souls  which  were 
prisoners  of  hope :  and  from  all  this  we  may 
conclude,  that  the  souls  of  all  the  servants 
of  Christ  are  alive,  and  therefore  do  the  ac- 
tions of  life,  and  proper  to  their  state ;  and, 
therefore,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  soul 
works  clearer,  and  understands  brighter,  and 
discourses  wiser,  and  rejoices  louder,  and 
loves  nobler,  and  desires  purer,  and  hopes 
stronger,  than  it  can  do  here. 

But  if  these  arguments  should  fail,  yet  the 
felicity  of  God's  saints  cannot  fail :  for  sup- 
pose the  body  to  be  a  necessary  instrument, 
but  out  of  tune  and  discomposed  by  sin  and 
anger,  by  accident  and  chance,  by  defect 
and  imperfections,  yet  that  it  is  better  than 
none  at  all;  and  that  if  the  soul  works  im- 
perfectly with  an  imperfect  body,  that  then 
she  works  not  at  all  when  she  hath  none : 
and  suppose  also  that  the  soul  should  be  as 
much  without  sense  or  perception  in  death, 
as  it  is  in  a  deep  sleep,  which  is  the  image 
and  shadow  of  death ;  yet  then  God  devises 
other  means  that  his  banished  be  not  expel- 
led from  him.  For, 

2.  God  will  restore  the  soul  to  th'e  body, 
and  raise  the  body  to  such  a  perfection,  that 
it  shall  be  an  organ  fit  to  praise  him  upon ; 


it  shall  be  made  spiritual  to  minister  to  the 
soul,  when  the  soul  is  turned  into  a  spirit ; 
then  the  soul  shall  be  brought  forth  by  an- 
gels from  her  incomparable  and  easy  bed, 
from  her  rest  in  Christ's  holy  bosom,  and 
be  made  perfect  in  her  being,  and  in  all  her 
operations  :  and  this  shall  first  appear  by 
that  perfection,  which  the  soul  shall  receive, 
as  instrumental  to  the  last  judgment;  for 
then  she  shall  see  clearly  all  the  records  of 
this  world,  all  the  register  of  her  own  me- 
mory :  for  all  that  we  did  in  this  life  is  laid 
up  in  our  memories ;  and  though  dust  and 
forgetfulness  be  drawn  upon  them,  yet  when 
God  shall  lift  us  from  our  dust,  then  shall 
appear  clearly  all  that  we  have  done,  writ- 
ten in  the  tables  of  our  conscience,  which  is 
the  soul's  memory.  We  see  many  times, 
and  in  many  instances,  that  a  great  memory 
is  hindered  and  put  out,  and  we,  thirty  years 
after,  come  to  think  of  something  that  lay 
so  long  under  a  curtain ;  we  think  of  it  sud- 
denly, and  without  a  line  of  deduction,  or 
proper  consequence :  and  all  those  famous 
memories  of  Simonides  and  Theodactes,  of 
Hortensius  and  Seneca,  of  Sceptius,  Metro- 
dorus,  and  Carneades,  of  Cyneas  the  am- 
bassador of  Pyrrhus,  are  only  the  records 
better  kept,  and  less  disturbed  by  accident 
and  disease :  for  even  the  memory  of  He- 
rod's son  of  Athens,  of  Bathyllus,  and  the 
dullest  person  now  alive,  is  so  great,  and  by 
God  made  so  sure  a  record  of  all  that  ever 
he  did,  that  as  soon  as  ever  God  shall  but 
tune  our  instrument,  and  draw  the  curtains, 
and  but  light  up  the  candle  of  immortality, 
there  we  shall  find  it  all,  there  we  shall  see 
all,  and  the  whole  world  shall  see  all ;  then 
we  shall  be  made  fit  to  converse  with  God 
after  the  manner  of  spirits,  we'  shall  be  like 
to  angels. 

In  the  mean  time,  although  upon  the  per  ■ 
suasion  of  the  former  discourse,  it  be  highly 
probable  that  the  souls  of  God's  servants  do 
live  in  a  state  of  present  blessedness,  and  in 
the  exceeding  joys  of  a  certain  expectation 
of  the  revelation  of  the  day  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  coming  of  Jesus ;  yet  it  will  concern  us 
only  to  secure  our  state  by  holy  living,  and 
leave  the  event  to  God,  that  (as  St.  Paul 
said)  "  whether  present  or  absent,  whether 
sleeping  or  waking,"  whether  perceiving  or 
perceiving  not,  "  we  may  be  accepted  of 
him;"  that  when  we  are  banished  this 
world,  and  from  the  light  of  the  sun,  we 
may  not  be  expelled  from  God,  and  from 
the  light  of  his  countenance,  but  that,  from 
our  beds  of  sorrow,  our  souls  may  pass  into 


Serm.  VIII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


497 


the  bosom  of  Christ,  and  from  thence  to  his 
right  hand  in  the  day  of  sentence :  "  For 
we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment- 
seat  of  Christ and  then  if  we  have  done 
well  in  the  body,  we  shall  never  be  expelled 
from  the  beatifical  presence  of  God,  but  be 
domestics  of  his  family,  and  heirs  of  his 
kingdom,  and  partakers  of  his  glory.  Amen. 

I  have  now  done  with  my  text,  but  yet 
am  to  make  you  another  sermon.  I  have 
told  you  the  necessity  and  the  state  of  death, 
it  may  be,  too  largely  for  such  a  sad  story;  I 
shall.,  therefore,  now  with  a  better  compen- 
dium teach  you  how  to  live,  by  telling  you 
a  plain  narrative  of  a  life,  which  if  you 
imitate,  and  write  after  the  copy,  it  will 
make  that  death  shall  not  be  an  evil,  but  a 
thing  to  be  desired,  and  to  be  reckoned  among 
the  purchases  and  advantages  of  your  for- 
tune. When  Martha  and  Mary  went  to 
weep  over  the  grave  of  their  brother,  Christ 
met  them  there,  and  preached  a  funeral  ser- 
mon, discoursing  of  the  resurrection,  and 
applying  to  the  purposes  of  faith,  and  con- 
fession of  Christ,  and  glorification  of  God. 
We  have  no  other,  we  can  have  no  better 
precedent  to  follow:  and  now  that  we  are 
come  to  weep  over  the  grave  of  our  dear 
sister,  this  rare  personage,  we  cannot  choose 
but  have  many  virtues  to  learn,  many  to 
imitate,  and  some  to  exercise. 

I  choose  not  to  declare  her  extraction  and 
genealogy;  it  was  indeed  fair  and  honourable; 
but  having  the  blessing  to  be  descended  from 
worthy  and  honoured  ancestors,  and  herself 
to  be  adopted  and  ingrafted  into  a  more  noble 
family ;  yet  she  felt  such  outward  append- 
ages to  be  none  of  hers,  because  not  of  her 
choice ;  but  the  purchase  of  the  virtues  of 
others,  which  although  they  did  engage  her 
to  do  noble  thirds,  yet  they  would  upbraid 
all  degenerate  and  less  honourable  lives  than 
were  those,  which  began  and  increased  the 
honour  of  the  families.  She  did  not  love 
her  fortune  for  making  her  noble;  but 
thought  it  would  be  a  dishonour  to  her,  if 
she  did  not  continue  a  nobleness  and  excel- 
lency of  virtue  fit  to  be  owned  by  persons 
relating  to  such  ancestors.  It  is  fit  for  us  all 
to  honour  the  nobleness  of  a  family;  but  it 
is  also  fit  for  them  that  are  noble,  to  despise 
it,  and  to  establish  their  honour  upon  the 
foundation  of  doing  excellent  things,  and 
suffering  in  good  causes,  and  despising  dis- 
honourable actions,  and  in  communicating 
good  things  to  others  :  for  this  is  the  rule  in 
nature;  those  creatures  are  most  honourable, 
which  have  the  greatest  power  and  do  the 
63 


greatest  good;  and  accordingly  myself  have 
been  a  witness  of  it,  how  this  excellent  lady 
would,  by  an  act  of  humility  and  Christian 
abstraction,  strip  herself  of  all  that  fair  ap- 
pendage and  exterior  honour,  which  decked 
herperson  and  her  fortune,  and  desired  to 
be  owned  by  nothing  but  what  was  her  own, 
that  she  might  only  be  esteemed  honourable 
according  to  that  which  is  the  honour  of  a 
Christian  and  a  wise  man. 

2.  She  had  a  strict  and  severe  education, 
and  it  was  one  of  God's  graces  and  favours 
to  her:  for  being  the  heiress  of  a  great  for- 
tune, and  living  amongst  the  throng  of  per- 
sons, in  the  sight  of  vanities  and  empty 
temptations,  that  is,  in  that  part  of  the  king- 
dom where  greatness  is  too  often  expressed 
in  great  follies  and  great  vices,  God  had 
provided  a  severe  and  angry  education  to 
chastise  the  forwardness  of  a  young  spirit 
and  a  fair  fortune,  that  she  might  for  ever 
be  so  far  distant  from  a  vice,  that  she  might 
only  see  it  and  loathe  it,  but  never  taste  of 
it,  so  much  as  to  be  put  to  her  choice  whether 
she  would  be  virtuous  or  not.  God  intend- 
ing to  secure  this  soul  to  himself,  would  not 
suffer  the  follies  of  the  world  to  seize  upon 
her,  by  way  of  too  near  a  trial,  or  busy 
temptation. 

3.  She  was  married  young;  and  besides 
her  business  of  religion,  seemed  to  be  or- 
dained in  the  providence  of  God  to  bring  to 
this  honourable  family  a  part  of  her  fair 
fortune,  and  to  leave  behind  her  a  fairer 
issue,  worth  ten  thousand  times  her  portion : 
and  as  if  this  had  been  all  the  public  business 
of  her  life,  when  she  had  so  far  served  God's 
ends,  God  in  mercy  would  also  serve  hers, 
and  take  her  to  an  early  blessedness. 

4.  In  passing  through  which  line  of  pro- 
vidence, she  had  the  art  to  secure  her  eter- 
nal interest,  by  turning  her  condition  into 
duty,  and  expressing  her  duly  in  the  greatest 
eminency  of  a  virtuous,  prudent,  and  rare 
affection,  that  hath  been  known  in  any  ex- 
ample. I  will  not  give  her  so  low  a  testi- 
mony, as  to  say  only  that  she  was  chaste; 
she  was  a  person  of  that  severity,  modesty, 
and  close  religion,  as  to  that  particular,  that 
she  was  not  capable  of  uncivil  temptation ; 
and  you  might  as  well  have  suspected  the 
sun  to  smell  of  the  poppy  that  he  looks  on, 
as  that  she  could  have  been  a  person  apt  to 
be  sullied  by  the  breath  of  a  foul  question. 

5.  But  that  which  I  shall  note  in  her,  is 
that  which  I  would  have  exemplar  to  all 
ladies,  and  to  all  women :  she  had  a  love 
so  great  for  her  lord,  so  entirely  given  up  to 

2r2 


498 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


Serm.  VIII. 


h  dear  affection,  that  she  thought  the  same  i  yet  her  care  and  her  severity  was  ever  vic- 
things,  and  loved  the  same  loves,  and  hated  j  torious ;  and  she  knew  not  how  to  do  an  ill 
according  to  the  same  enmities,  and  breathed  i  turn  to  their  severer  part,  by  her  more  tender 


in  his  soul,  and  lived  in  his  presence,  and 
languished  in  his  absence;  and  all  that  she 
was  or  did,  was  only  for,  and  to,  her  dearest 
lord: 

Si  gaudet,  si  flet,  si  tacet,  hunc  loquitur ; 
Ccenat,  propinat,  poscit,  negat,  innuit,  unus 
Naevius  est : 

Martial. 

And  although  this  was  a  great  enamel  to 


and  forward  kindness.  And  as  her  custom 
was,  she  turned  this  also  into  love  to  her 
lord  :  for  she  was  not  only  diligent  to  have 
them  bred  nobly  and  religiously,  but  also 
was  careful  and  solicitous,  that  they  should 
be  taught  to  observe  all  the  circumstances 
and  inclinations,  the  desires  and  wishes  of 
their  father ;  as  thinking  that  virtue  to  have 
no  good  circumstances,  which  was  not 
the  beauty  of  her  soul,  yet  it  might  in  some t  dressed  by  his  copy,  and  ruled  by  his  lines 
degrees  be  also  a  reward  to  the  virtues  of  land  his  affections:  and  her  prudence  in  the 
her  lord:  for  she  would  often  discourse  it  to  managing  her  children  was  so  singular  and 
them  that  conversed  with  her,  that  he  would  I  rare,  that  whenever  you  mean  to  bless  this 


improve  that  interest  which  he  had  in  her 
affection,  to  the  advantages  of  God  and  of 


family,  and  pray  a  hearty  and  a  profitable 
prayer  for  it,  beg  of  God,  that  the  children 


religion;  and  she  would  delight  to  say,  that  may  have  those  excellent  things  which  she 
he  called  her  to  her  devotions,  he  encouraged '  designed  to  them,  and  provided  for  them  in 
her  good  inclinations,  he  directed  her  piety,  her  heart  and  wishes ;  that  they  may  live  by 
he  invited  her  with  good  books;  and  then  j  her  purposes,  and  may  grow  thither,  whither 
she  loved  religion,  which  she  saw  was  not!  she  would  fain  have  brought  them.  All 
only  pleasing  to  God,  and  an  act  or  state  of  these  were  great  parts  of  an  excellent  reli- 
duty,  but  pleasing  to  her  lord,  and  an  act  gion,  as  they  concerned  her  greatest  tempo- 
also  of  affection  and  conjugal  obedience ;  ral  relations. 

and  what  at  first  she  loved  the  more  for-j  7.  But  if  we  examine  how  she  demeaned 
wardly  for  his  sake,  in  the  using  of  religion, \  herself  towards  God,  there  also  you  will 
left  such  relishes  upon  her  spirit,  that  she  j  find  her  not  of  a  common,  but  of  an  exem- 
found  in  it  amiability  enough  to  make  her 
love  it  for  its  own.  So  God  usually  brings 
us  to  him  by  instruments  of  nature  and 
affections,  and  then  incorporates  us  into  his 
inheritance  by  the  more  immediate  relishes 
of  heaven,  and  the  secret  things  of  the 
Spirit.    He  only  was  (under  God)  the  light 


plar  piety  :  she  was  a  great  reader  of  Scrip- 
ture, confining  herself  to  great  proportions 
every  day ;  which  she  read,  not  to  the  pur- 
poses of  vanity,  and  impertinent  curiosities, 
not  to  seem  knowing,  or  to  become  talking, 
not  to  expound  and  rule ;  but  to  teach  her 
all  her  duty,  to  instruct  her  in  the  know- 
of  her  eyes,  and  the  cordial  of  her  spirits,  j  ledge  and  love  of  God  and  of  her  neigh- 


and  the  guide  of  her  actions,  and  the  mea 
sure  of  her  affections,  till  her  affections 
swelled  up  into  a  religion,  and  then  it  could 


bours ;  to  make  her  more  humble,  and  to 
teach  her  to  despise  the  world  and  all  its 
gilded  vanities ;  and  that  she  might  enter- 


go  no  higher,  but  was  confederate  with  tain  passions  wholly  in  design  and  order  to 
those  other  duties  which  made  her  dear  to  heaven.  I  have  seen  a  female  religion  that 
God :  which  rare  combination  of  duty  and  wholly  dwelt  upon  the  face  and  tongue ; 
religion,  I  choose  to  express  in  the  words  [that  like  a  wanton  and  an  undressed  tree, 
of  Solomon  ;  "She  forsook  not  the  guide  of  spends  ail  its  juice  in  suckers  and  irregular 
her  youth,  nor  brake  the  covenant  of  her  branches,  in  leaves  and  gum,  and  after  all 
God."*  such  goodly  outsides,  you  should  never  eat 

6.  As  she  was  a  rare  wife,  so  she  was  an  an  apple,  or  be  delighted  with  the  beauties 
excellent  mother:  for  in  so  tender  a  consti-  or  the  perfumes  of  a  hopeful  blossom.  But 
tution  of  spirit  as  hers  was,  and  in  so  great  the  religion  of  this  excellent  lady  was  of 
a  kindness  towards  her  children,  there  hath  another  constitution  ;  it  took  root  downward 
seldom  been  seen  a  stricter  and  more  curious  in  humility,  and  brought  forth  fruit  upward 
care  of  their  persons,  their  deportment,  their  |  in  the  substantial  graces  of  a  Christian,  in 


nature,  their  disposition,  their  learning,  and 
their  customs :  and  if  ever  kindness  .  and 
•care  did  contest  and  make  parties  in  her, 

*  Prov.  ii.  17. 


charity  and  justice,  in  chastity  and  modesty, 
in  fair  friendships  and  sweetness  of  society  : 
she  had  not  very  much  of  the  forms  and 
outsides  of  godliness,  but  she  was  hugely 
careful  for  the  power  of  it,  for  the  moral, 


Serm.  VIII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


499 


essential,  and  useful  parts;  such  which 
would  make  her  be,  not  seem  to  be,  religious. 


a  mother,  that  she  desired  to  become  a 
channel  of  ffreat  blessings  to  it  unto  future 


8.  She  was  a  very  constant  person  at  her  ages,  and  was  extremely  jealous  lest  any 


prayers,  and  spent  all  her  time,  which  na- 
ture did  permit  to  her  choice,  in  her  devo- 


uring should  be  done,  or  lest  any  thing  had 
been  done,  though  an  age  or  two  since, 


tions,  and  reading,  and  meditating,  and  the  which  should  entail  a  curse  upon  the  inno- 


necessary  offices  of  household  government; 
every  one  of  which  is  an  action  of  religion, 
some  by  nature,  some  by  adoption.  To 
these,  also,  God  gave  her  a  very  great  love 
to  hear  the  word  of  God  preached  5  in  which, 


cent  posterity ;  and,  therefore,  (although 
I  do  not  know  that  ever  she  was  tempted 
with  an  offer  of  the  crime,)  yet  she  did  infi- 
nitely remove  all  sacrilege  from  her  thoughts, 
and  delighted  to  see  her  estate  of  a  clear  and 


because  I  sometimes  had  the  honour  to  mi-  disentangled  interest :  she  would  have  no 


nister  to  her,  I  can  give  this  certain  testimony, 
that  she  was  a  diligent,  watchful,  and  atten- 
tive hearer:  and  to  this,  had  so  excellent  a 
judgment,  that  if  ever  I  saw  a  woman  whose 
judgment  was  to  be  revered,  it  was  hers 
alone:  and  I  have  sometimes  thought  that 
the  eminency  of  her  discerning  faculties  did 
reward  a  pious  discourse,  and  placed  it  in  the 


mingled  rights  with  it ;  she  would  not  re- 
ceive any  thing  from  the  church,  but  reli- 
gion and  a  blessing;  and  she  never  thought 
a  curse  and  a  sin  far  enough  off,  but  would 
desire  it  to  be  infinitely  distant ;  and  that  as 
to  this  family  God  had  given  much  honour, 
and  a  wise  head  to  govern  it,  so  he  would 
also  for  ever  give  many  more  blessings  : 


regions  of  honour  and  usefulness,  and  gather-  '  and  because  she  knew  the  sins  of  parents 
ed  it  up  from  the  ground,  where  commonly  !  descend  upon  children,  she  endeavoured, 
such  homilies  are  spilt,  or  scattered  in  neglect  by  justice  and  religion,  by  charity  and 
and  inconsideration.  But  her  appetite  was  ;  honour,  to  secure  that  her  channel  should 
not  soon  satisfied  with  what  was  useful  to  !  convey  nothing  but  health,  and  a  fair  ex- 


her  soul :  she  was  also  a  constant  reader  of 
sermons,  and  seldom  missed  to  read  one 
every  day ;  and  that  she  might  be  full  of 
instruction  and  holy  principles,  she  had 
lately  designed  to  have  a  large  book,  in 
which  she  purposed  to  have  a  stock  of  re 


ample,  and  a  blessing. 

10.  And  though  her  accounts  to  God 
were  made  up  of  nothing  but  small  parcels, 
little  passions,  and  angry  words,  and  trifling 
discontents,  which  are  the  allays  of  the  piety 
of  the  most  holy  persons ;  yet  she  was  early 


ligion  transcribed  in  such  assistances  as  she  at  her  repentance ;  and  toward  the  latter  end 
would  choose,  that  she  might  be  "  readily  of  her  days  grew  so  fast  in  religion,  as  if 
furnished  and  instructed  to  every  good  j  she  had  had  a  revelation  of  her  approaching 
work."  But  God  prevented  that,  and  hath  j  end,  and,  therefore,  that  she  must  go  a  great 
filled  her  desires,  not  out  of  cisterns  and  j  way  in  a  little  time :  her  discourses  more 
little  aqueducts,  but  hath  carried  her  to  the  !  full  of  religion,  her  prayers  more  frequent, 
fountain,  where  "she  drinks  of  the  plea-  her  charity  increasing,  her  forgiveness  more 
sures  of  the  river,"  and  is  full  of  God.  ;  forward,  her  friendships  more  communica- 
9.  She  always  lived  a  life  of  much  inno-  !  tive,  her  passion  more  under  discipline ;  and 
cence,  free  from  the  violences  of  great  sins;  so  she  trimmed  her  lamp,  not  thinking  her 
her  person,  her  breeding,  her  modesty,  her  |  night  was  so  near,  but  that  it  might  shine 
honour,  her  religion,  her  early  marriage, ;  also  in  the  day-time,  in  the  temple,  and 
the  guide  of  her  soul,  and  the  guide  of  her  |  before  the  altar  of  incense. 


youth,  were  as  so  many  fountains  of  re- 
straining grace  to  her,  to  keep  her  from  the 
dishonours  of  a  crime.  "  Bonum  est  por- 
tare  jugum  ab  adolescentia :"  "It  is  good 
to  bear  the  yoke  of  the  Lord  from  our 
youth:"  and  though  she  did  so,  being 
guarded  by  a  mighty  Providence,  and  a 
great  favour  and  grace  of  God,  from  stain- 
ing her  fair  soul  with  the  spots  of  hell,  yet 
she  had  strange  fears  and  early  cares  upon 
her;  but  these  were  not  only  for  herself, 
but  in  order  to  others,  to  her  nearest  rela- 
tives :  for  she  was  so  great  a  lover  of  this 
honourable  family,  of  which  now  she  was 


But  in  this  course  of  hers  there  were 
some  circumstances,  and  some  appendages 
of  substance,  which  were  highly  remark- 
able. 

1.  In  all  her  religion,  and  in  all  her 
actions  of  relation  towards  God,  she  had  a 
strange  evenness  and  untroubled  passage, 
sliding  toward  her  ocean  of  God  and  of 
infinity,  with  a  certain  and  silent  motion. 
So  have  I  seen  a  river,  deep  and  smooth, 
passing  with  a  still  foot  and  a  sober  face, 
and  paying  to  the  "  fiscus,"  the  great  "ex- 
chequer" of  the  sea,  the  prince  of  all  the 
watery  bodies,  a  tribute  large  and  full ;  and 


500 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


Serm.  VIII. 


hard  by  it,  a  little  brook  skipping  and 
making  a  noise  upon  its  unequal  and  neigh- 
bour bottom  ;  and  after  all  its  talking  and 
bragged  motion,  it  paid  to  its  common 
audit  no  more  than  the  revenues  of  a  little 
cloud,  or  a  contemptible  vessel :  so  have  I 
sometimes  compared  the  issues  of  her  reli- 
gion to  the  solemnities  and  famed  outsides 
of  another's  piety.  It  dwelt  upon  her  spirit, 
and  was  incorporated  with  the  periodical 
work  of  every  day  :  she  did  not  believe  that 
religion  was  intended  to  minister  to  fame 
and  reputation,  but  to  pardon  of  sins,  to  the 
pleasure  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 
For  religion  is  like  the  breath  of  heaven;  if 
it  goes  abroad  into  the  open  air,  it  scatters 
and  dissolves  like  camphire;  but  if  it  enters 
into  a  secret  hollowness,  into  a  close  con- 
veyance, it  is  strong  and  mighty,  and  comes 
forth  with  vigour  and  great  effect  at  the 
other  end,  at  the  other  side  of  this  life,  in  j 
the  days  of  death  and  judgment. 

2.  The  other  appendage  of  her  religion, 
which  also  was  a  great  ornament  to  all  the 
parts  of  her  life,  was  a  rare  modesty  and 
humility  of  spirit,  a  confident  despising  and 
undervaluing  of  herself.  For  though  she 
had  the  greatest  judgment,  and  the  greatest 
experience  of  things  and  persons,  that  I 
ever  yet  knew  in  a  person  of  her  youth, 
and  sex,  and  circumstances ;  yet,  as  if  she 
knew  nothing  of  it,  she  had  the  meanest 
opinion  of  herself;  and  like  a  fair  taper, 
when  she  shined  to  all  the  room,  yet  round 
about  her  own  station,  she  had  cast  a 
shadow  and  a  cloud,  and  she  shined  to 
every  body  but  herself.  But  the  perfectness 
of  her  prudence  and  excellent  parts  could 
not  be  hid  :  and  all  her  humility,  and  arts 
of  concealment,  made  the  virtues  more 
amiable  and  illustrious.  For  as  pride  sul- 
lies the  beauty  of  the  fairest  virtues,  and 
makes  our  understanding  but  like  the  craft 
and  learning  of  a  devil ;  so  humility  is  the 
greatest  eminency,  and  art  of  publication  in 
the  whole  world ;  and  she,  in  all  her  arts 
of  secrecy  and  hiding  her  worthy  things, 
was  but  "like  one  that  hideth  the  wind, 
and  covers  the  ointment  of  her  right  hand." 

I  know  not  by  what  instrument  it  hap- 
pened ;  but  when  death  drew  near,  before  it 
made  any  show  upon  her  body,  or  revealed 
itself  by  a  natural  signification,  it  was  con- 
veyed to  her  spirit :  she  had  a  strange  secret 
persuasion  that  the  bringing  this  child  should 
be  her  last  scene  of  life  :  and  we  have 
known,  that  the  soul,  when  she  is  about  to 
disrobe  herself  of  her  upper  garment,  some- 


times speaks  rarely  ;  «  Magnifica  verba 
mors  prope  admota  excutit;"*  sometimes 
it  is  prophetical;  sometimes  God,  by  a 
superinduced  persuasion  wrought  by  in- 
struments, or  accidents  of  his  own,  serves 
the  ends  of  his  own  providence,  and  the 
salvation  of  the  soui:  but  so  it  was,  that 
the  thought  of  death  dwelt  long  with  her, 
and  grew  from  the  first  steps  of  fancy  and 
fear,  to  a  consent, — from  thence  to  a 
strange  credulity,  and  expectation  of  it; 
and  without  the  violence  of  sickness  she 
died,  as  if  she  had  done  it  voluntarily,  and 
by  design,  and  for  fear  her  expectation 
should  have  been  deceived ;  or  that  she 
should  seem  to  have  had  an  unreasonable 
fear  or  apprehension ;  or  rather,  as  one 
said  of  Cato,  "  Sic  abiit  e  vita,  ut  causam 
moriendi  nactam  se  esse  gauderet ;"  ''she 
died  as  if  she  had  been  glad  of  the  oppor- 
tunity." 

And  in  this  I  cannot  but  adore  the  provi- 
dence and  admire  the  wisdom  and  infinite 
mercies  of  God ;  for  having  a  tender  and 
soft,  a  delicate,  and  fine  constitution  and 
breeding,  she  was  tender  to  pain,  and  ap- 
prehensive of  it  as  a  child's  shoulder  is  of  a 
load  and  burden:  " Grave  est  tenerse  cervici 
jugum:"  and  in  her  often  discourses  of  death, 
which  she  would  renew  willingly  and  fre- 
quently, she  would  tell,  that  "she  feared  not 
death,  but  she  feared  the  sharp  pains  of 
death :"  "  Emori  nolo,  me  esse  mortuam  non 
euro."  The  being  dead,  and  being  freed  from 
the  troubles  and  dangers  of  this  world,  she 
hoped  wTould  be  for  her  advantage,  and 
therefore,  that  was  no  part  of  her  fear ;  but 
she  believing  the  pangs  of  death  were  great, 
and  the  use  and  aids  of  reason  little,  had 
reason  to  fear  lest  they  should  do  violence 
to  her  spirit,  and  the  decency  of  her  resolu- 
tion. But  God,  that  knew  her  fears  and 
her  jealousy  concerning  herself,  fitted  her 
with  a  death  so  easy,  so  harmless,  so  pain- 
less, that  it  did  not  put  her  patience  to  a 
severe  trial.  It  was  not  in  all  appearance 
of  so  much  trouble  as  two  fits  of  a  common 
ague,  so  careful  was  God  to  demonstrate  to 
all  that  stood  in  that  sad  attendance,  that 
this  soul  was  dear  to  him, — and  that  since 
she  had  done  so  much  of  her  duty  towards 
it,  he  that  began  would  also  finish  her  re- 
demption by  an  act  of  a  rare  providence 
and  a  singular  mercy.  Blessed  be  that 
'goodness  of  God,  who  does  such  careful 
actions  of  mercy  for  the  ease  and  security 


Seneca. 


Serm.  VIII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


501 


of  his  servants  !  But  this  one  instance  was 
a  great  demonstration,  that  the  apprehen- 
sion of  death  is  worse  than  the  pains  of 
death;  and  that  God  loves  to  reprove  the 
unreasonableness  of  our  fears,  by  the  mighti- 
ness and  by  the  arts  of  his  mercy. 

She  had  in  her  sickness,  if  I  may  so  call 
it, — or  rather  in  the  solemnities  and  graver 
preparations  towards  death, — some  curious 
and  well-becoming  fears  concerning  the 
final  state  of  her  soul ;  but  from  thence  she 
passed  into  a  **  deliquium,"  or  "  a  kind  of 
trance  ;"  and  as  soon  as  she  came  forth  of 
it,  as  if  it  had  been  a  vision,  or  that  she  had 
conversed  with  an  angel,  and  from  his 
hand  had  received  a  label  or  scroll  of  the 
book  of  life,  and  there  seen  her  name  en- 
rolled, she  cried  out  aloud,  "  Glory  be  to 
God  on  high!  now  I  am  sure  I  shall  be 
saved."  Concerning  which  manner  of  dis- 
coursing we  are  wholly  ignorant  what 
judgment  can  be  made;  but,  certainly, 
there  are  strange  things  in  the  other  world, 
and  so  there  are  in  all  the  immediate  prepa- 
rations to  it ;  and  a  little  glimpse  of  heaven, 
a  minute's  conversing  with  an  angel,  any 
ray  of  God,  any  communication  extraordi- 
nary from  the  spirit  of  comfort,  which  God 
gives  to  his  servants  in  strange  and  un- 
known manners,  are  infinitely  far  from  illu- 
sions, and  they  shall  then  be  understood  by 
us  when  we  feel  them,  and  when  our  new 
and  strange  needs  shall  be  refreshed  by  such 
unusual  visitations. 

But  I  must  be  forced  to  use  summaries 
and  arts  of  abbreviature  in  the  enumerating 
those  things,  in  which  this  rare  personage 
was  dear  to  God  and  all  her  relatives. 

If  we  consider  her  person,  she  was  in  the 
flower  of  her  age,  "jucundum  cum  Eetas 
florida  ver  ageret  ;"*  of  a  temperate,  plain, 
and  natural  diet,  without  curiosity  or  an 
intemperate  palate;  she  spent  less  time  in 
dressing  than  many  servants ;  her  recre- 
ations were  little  and  seldom,  her  prayers 
often,  her  reading  much;  she  was  of  a 
most  noble  and  charitable  soul,  a  great 
lover  of  honourable  actions,  and  as  great  a 
despiser  of  base  things;  hugely  loving  to 
oblige  others,  and  very  unwilling  to  be  in 
arrear  to  any  upon  the  stock  of  courtesies 
and  liberality  ;  so  free  in  all  acts  of  favour, 
that  she  wrould  not  stay  to  hear  herself 
thanked,  as  being  unwilling  that  what  good 
went  from  her  to  a  needful  or  an  obliged 
person,  should  ever  return  to  her  again. 

•  Catullus. 


:  She  was  an  excellent  friend,  and  hugely 
'  dear  to  very  many,  especially  to  the  best 
and  most  discerning  persons;  to  all  that 
conversed  with  her,  and  could  understand 
J  her-  great  worth  and  sweetness.  She  was 
of  an  honourable,  a  nice  and  tender  reputa- 
tion ;  and  of  the  pleasures  of  this  world, 
which  were  laid  before  her  in  heaps,  she 
took  a  very  small  and  inconsiderable  share, 
as  not  loving  to  glut  herself  with  vanity,  or 
take  her  portion  of  good  things  here  below. 

If  we  look  on  her  as  a  wife,  she  was 
chaste  and  loving,  fruitful  and  discreet, 
humble  and  pleasant,  witty  and  compliant, 
rich  and  fair ;  and  wanted  nothing  to  the 
making  her  a  principal  and  precedent  to  the 
best  wives  of  the  world,  but  a  long  life  and 
a  full  age. 

If  we  remember  her  as  a  mother,  she  was 
kind  and  severe,  careful  and  prudent,  very 
tender,  and  not  at  all  fond ;  a  greater  lover 
of  her  children's  souls  than  of  their  bodies, 
and  one  that  would  value  them  more  by  the 
strict  rules  of  honour  and  proper  worth, 
|  than  by  their  relation  to  herself. 

Her  servants  found  her  prudent  and  fit 
;  to  govern,  and  yet  open-handed  and  apt  to 
reward;  a  just  exacter  of  their  duty,  and  a 
great  rewarder  of  their  diligence. 
!  She  was  in  her  house  a  comfort  to  her 
dearest  lord,  a  guide  to  her  children,  a  rule 
to  her  servants,  an  example  to  all. 

But  as  she  related  to  God  in  the  offices 
:  of  religion,  she  was  even  and  constant, 
silent  and  devout,  prudent  and  material ; 
she  loved  what  she  now  enjoys,  and  she 
|  feared  what  she  never  felt,  and  God  did  for 
her  what  she  never  did  expect ;  her  fears 
went  beyond  all  her  evil ;  and  yet  the  good 
|  which  she  had  received,  was,  and  is,  and 
ever  shall  be,  beyond  all  her  hopes. 

She  lived  as  we  all  should  live,  and  she 
died  as  I  fain  would  die  : 

Cum  mihi  supremos  Lachesis  perneverit  annos, 
Non  aliter  cineres  mando  jacere  meos. 

Mart. 

I  pray  God  I  may  feel  those  mercies  on  my 
death-bed  that  she  felt,  and  that  I  may  feel 
the  same  effect  of  my  repentance  which  she 
feels  of  the  many  degrees  of  her  innocence. 
Such  was  her  death,  that  she  did  not  die  too 
soon ;  and  her  life  was  so  useful  and  excel- 
lent, that  she  could  not  have  lived  too  long: 
"  Nemo  parum  diu  vixit,  qui  virtutis  per- 
fecta;  perfecto  functus  est  munere."  And 
as  now  in  the  grave  it  shall  not  be  inquired 
concerning  her,  how  long  she  lived,  but 
now  well;  so  to  us  who  live  after  her,  to 


502 


A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY 


Serm.  IX. 


suffer  a  longer  calamity, — it  may  be  some 
ease  to  our  sorrows,  and  some  guide  to  our 
lives,  and  some  security  to  our  conditions, 
to  consider  that  God  hath  brought  the  piety 
of  a  young  lady  to  the  early  rewards  of  a 
never-ceasing  and  never-dying  eternity  of 
glory.  And  we  also,  if  we  live  as  she  did, 
shall  partake  of  the  same  glories ;  not  only 
having  the  honour  of  a  good  name,  and  a 
dear  and  honoured  memory,  but  the  glories 
of  these  glories,  the  end  of  all  excellent 
labours,  and  all  prudent  counsels,  and  all 
holy  religion,  even  the  salvation  of  our 
souls,  in  that  day  when  all  the  saints,  and 
among  them  this  excellent  woman,  shall  be 
shown  to  all  the  world  to  have  done  more, 
and  more  excellent  things  than  we  know  of, 
or  can  describe.  "  Mors  illos  consecrat, 
quorum  exitum,  et  qui  timent,  laudant:" 
"  death  consecrates  and  makes  sacred  that 
person,  whose  excellency  was  such,  that 
they  that  are  not  displeased  at  the  death, 
cannot  dispraise  the  life;  but  they  that 
mourn  sadly,  think  they  can  never  com- 
mend sufficiently." 


night's  lodging  to  the  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth.  It  would  have  disturbed  an  excellent 
patience  to  see  him,  whom  but  just  before 
they  beheld  transfigured,  and  in  a  glorious 
epiphany  upon  the  mount,  to  be  so  neglected 
by  a  company  of  hated  Samaritans,  as  to  be 
forced  to  keep  his  vigils  where  nothing  but 
the  welkin  should  have  been  his  roof,  not 
any  thing  to  shelter  his  precious  head  from 
the  descending  dews  of  heaven. 


Temperet  ? — My. 


Quis  talia  fando 


SERMON  IX. 

PREACHED  IN  ST.  MARY'S  CHURCH,  OXFORD, 
UPON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  GUN- 
POWDER TREASON. 

But  when  James  and  John  saw  this,  they  said, 
I^ord,  wilt  thou  that  we  command  fire  to  come 
from  heaven,  and  consume  them,  even  as  Elias 
did  ? — Luke  ix.  54. 

I  shall  not  need  to  strain  much  to  bring 
my  text  and  the  day  together.  Here  is 
"  fire,"  in  the  text  "  consuming  fire,"  like 
that  whose  "Antevorta"  we  do  this  day 
commemorate.  This  fire  called  for  by  the 
disciples  of  Christ;  so  was  ours  too,  by 
Christ's  disciples  at  least,  and  some  of  them 
entitled  to  our  great  Master  by  the  compella- 
tion  of  his  holy  name  of  Jesus. 

I  would  say  the  parallel  holds  thus  far, 
but  that  the  persons  of  my  text,  however 
"  Boanerges,"  "sons  of  thunder,"  and  of  a 
reprovable  spirit,  yet  are  no  way  considera- 
ble in  the  proportion  of  malice  with  the  per- 
sons of  the  day.  For  if  I  consider  the  cause 
that  moved  James  and  John  to  so  inconsi- 
derate a  wrath,  it  bears  a  fair  excuse:* 
the  men  of  Samaria  turned  their  Lord  and 
Master  out  of  doors,  denying  to  give  a 

*  Ver.  53. 


It  had  been  the  greater  wonder  if  they  had 
not  been  angry.  But  now  if  we  should 
level  our  progress  by  the  same  line,  and 
guess  that  in  the  present  affair  there  was  an 
equal  cause,  because  a  greater  fire  was  in- 
tended,— we  shall  too  much  betray  the  in- 
genuity of  apparent  truth,  and  the  blessing 
of  this  anniversary.  They  had  not  half  such 
a  cause  for  an  excuse  to  afar  greater  malice, 
it  will  prove  they  had  none  at  all;  and, 
therefore,  their  malice  was  so  much  the 
more  malicious,  because  causeless  and  to- 
tally inexcusable. 

However,  I  shall  endeavour  to  join  their 
consideration  in  as  near  a  parallel  as  I  can; 
which  if  it  be  not  exact, — as  certainly  it 
cannot,  where  we  have  already  discovered 
so  much  difference  in  degrees  of  malice,  yet, 
by  laying  them  together,  we  may  better  take 
their  estimate,  though  it  be  only  by  seeing 
their  disproportion. 

The  words,  as  they  lay  in  their  own 
order,  point  out,  1.  The  persons  that  asked 
the  question.  2.  The  cause  that  moved 
them.  3.  The  person  to  whom  they  pro- 
pounded it.  4.  The  question  itself.  5.  And 
the  precedent  they  urged  to  move  a  grant, 
drawn  from  a  very  fallible  topic,  a  singular 
example,  in  a  special  and  different  case. 
The  persons  here  were  Christ's  disciples, 
and  so  they  are  in  our  case,  designed  to  us 
by  that  glorious  sirname  of  Christianity : 
they  will  be  called  catholics;  but  if  our 
discovery  perhaps  rise  higher,  and  that  the 
see  apostolic  prove  sometimes  guilty  of  so 
reprovable  a  spirit,  then  we  are  very  near 
to  a  parallel  of  the  persons,  for  they  were 
disciples  of  Christ  and  apostles.  2.  The 
cause  was  the  denying  of  toleration  of  abode 
upon  the  grudge  of  an  old  schism ;  religion 
was  made  the  instrument.  That  which 
should  have  taught  the  apostles  to  be  cha- 
ritable, and  the  Samaritans  hospitable,  was 
made  a  pretence  to  justify  the  unhospitable- 
ness  of  the  one,  and  the  uncharitableness 


Seem.  IX. 


OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON. 


503 


of  the  other.  Thus  far  we  are  right ;  for 
the  malice  of  this  present  treason  stood  upon 
the  same  base.  3.  Although  neither  side 
much  doubted  of  the  lawfulness  of  their 
proceedings,  yet  St.  James  and  St.  John 
were  so  discreet  as  not  to  think  themselves 
infallible,  therefore  they  asked  their  Lord  : 
so  did  the  persons  of  the  day  ask  the  ques- 
tion too,  but  not  of  Christ,  for  he  was  not 
in  all  their  thoughts ;  but  yet  they  asked  of 
Christ's  delegates,  who,  therefore,  should 
have  given  their  answer  "ex  eodem  tri- 
pode,"  from  the  same  spirit.  They  were 
the  fathers  confessors  who  were  asked.  4. 
The  question  is  of  both  sides  concerning  a 
consumptive  sacrifice,  the  destruction  of  a 
town  there,  of  a  whole  kingdom  here,  but 
differing  in  the  circumstance  of  place  whence 
they  would  fetch  their  fire.  The  apostles 
would  have  had  it  from  heaven,  but  these 
men's  conversation  was  not  there.  Ta  xarco- 
&v,"  things  from  beneath,"  from  an  artificial 
hell,  but  breathed  from  the  natural  and  pro- 
per, were  in  all  their  thoughts.  5.  The  ex- 
ample, which  is  the  last  particular,  I  fear  T 
must  leave  quite  out;  and  when  you  have 
considered  all,  perhaps  you  will  look  for  no 
example. 

First  of  the  persons  ;  they  were  disciples 
of  Christ  and  apostles  ;  "But  when  James 
and  John  saw  this."  When  first  I  consi- 
dered they  were  apostles,  I  wondered  they 
should  be  so  intemperately  angry ;  but 
when  I  perceived  they  were  so  angry,  I 
wondered  not  that  they  sinned.  Not  the 
privilege  of  an  apostolical  spirit,  not  the 
nature  of  angels,  not  the  condition  of  im- 
mortality, can  guard  from  the  danger  of  sin; 
but  if  we  be  overruled  by  passion,  we  al- 
most subject  ourselves  to  its  necessity.  It 
was  not,  therefore,  without  reason  altoge- 
ther, that  the  Stoics  affirmed  wise  men  to  be 
viod  of  passions ;  for  sure  I  am,  the  inordi- 
nation  of  any  passion  is  the  first  step  to 
folly.  And  although  of  them,  as  of  waters 
of  a  muddy  residence,  we  may  make  good 
use,  and  quench  our  thirst,  if  we  do  not 
trouble  them;  yet  upon  any  ungentle  dis- 
turbance we  drink  down  mud  instead  of  a 
clear  stream,  and  the  issues  of  sin  and  sor- 
row, certain  consequents  of  temerarious  or 
inordinate  anger.  And,  therefore,  when  the 
apostle  had  given  us  leave  to  "be  angry," 
as  knowing  the  condition  of  human  nature, 
he  quickly  enters  a  caveat  that  "we  sin 
not;"  he  knew  sin  was  very  likely  to  be 
hand-maid  where  anger  did  domineer,  and 
this  was  the  reason  why  St.  James  and  St. 


i  John  are  the  men  here  pointed  at;  for  the 
Scripture   notes  them  for  "  Boanerges," 
|  "  sons  of  thunder,"  men  of  an  angry  tem- 
'  per,  "  et  quid  mirum  est  filios  tonitru  fulgu- 
rasse  voluisse  ?"  said  St.  Ambrose.  But 
there  "was  more  in  it  than  thus.    Their  spi- 
!  rits,  of  themselves  hot  enough,  yet  met  with 
their  education  under  the  law,  whose  first 
tradition  was  in  fire  and  thunder,  whose 
j  precepts  were  just,  but  not  so  merciful ;  and 
I  this  infiamed  their  distemper  to  the  height 
I  of  a  revenge.    It  is  the  doctrine  of  St.  Je- 
'  rome*  and  Titus  Bostrensis,f — the  law  had 
;  been  their  schoolmaster,  and  taught  them 
the  rules  of  justice,  both  p-unitive  and  vin- 
dictive ;  but  Christ  was  the  first  that  taught 
it  to  be  a  sin  to  retaliate  evil  with  evil ;  it 
was  a  doctrine  they  could  not  read  in  the 
killing  letter  of  the  law.    There  they  might 
j  meet  with  precedents  of  revenge  and  anger 
of  a  high  severity,  "an  eye  for  an  eye," 
and  "  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  and  "  let  him  be 
|  cut  off  from  his  people  :"  but  forgiving  in- 
juries, praying  for  our  persecutors,  loving 
our  enemies,  and  relieving  them,  were  doc- 
trines of  such  high  and  absolute  integrity, 
j  as  were  to  be  reserved  for  the  best  and  most 
'  perfect  lawgiver,  the  bringer  of  the  best  pro- 
I  mises,  to  which  the  most  perfect  actions 
I  have  the  best  proportion,  and  this  was  to  be 
when  Shiloh  came.    Now  then  the  spirit 
I  of  Elias  is  out  of  date, 


Jam  ferrea  primum 


Desinit,  ac  toto  surgit  gens  aurea  mundo. 

And,  therefore,  our  blessed  Master  re- 
proved them  of  ignorance,  not  of  the  law, 
but  of  his  Spirit,  which  had  they  but  known 
or  could  have  but  guessed  at  the  end  of  his 
coming,  they  had  not  been  such  abecedarii 
in  the  school  of  mercy. 

And  now  we  shall  not  need  to  look  far 
for  persons,  disciples  professing  at  least  in 
Christ's  school,  yet  as  great  strangers  to 
the  merciful  spirit  of  our  Saviour,  as  if  they 
had  been  sons  of  the  law,  or  foster-brothers 
to  Romulus,  and  sucked  a  wolf ;  and  they 
are  Romanists  too ;  this  day's  solemnity- 
presents  them  to  US,  rtr;^  aUfxati  avfirts^vp- 
p'tvo$\%  and  yet  were  that  washed  off,  un- 
derneath they  write  Christian  and  Jesuit. 

One  would  have  expected  that  such  men, 
set  forth  to  the  world's  acceptance  with  so 
merciful  a  "  cognomentum,"  should  have 
put  a  hand  to  support  the  ruinous  fabric  of 
the  world's  charity,  and  not  have  pulled  the 


,  *  Epist.  ad  Algas.      t  In  Lucam.      t  Seuton- 


504 


A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY      Serm.  IX. 


frame  of  heaven  and  earth  about  our  ears. 
But  yet, — *f  Ne  credite,  Teucri  \f*  Give  me 
leave  first  to  make  an  inquisition  after  this 
antichristian  pravity,  and  try  who  is  of  our 
side,  and  who  loves  the  king,  by  pointing 
at  those  whose  sermons  do  blast  loyalty, 
breathing  forth  treason,  slaughters,  and 
cruelty,  the  greatest  imaginable  contrariety 
to  the  spirit  and  doctrine  of  our  dear  Mas- 
ter. So  we  shall  quickly  find  out  more 
than  a  pareil  for  St.  James  and  St.  John,  the 
Boanerges  of  my  text. 

"  It  is  an  act  of  faith,  by  faith  to  conquer 
the  enemies  of  God  and  holy  church,"  saith 
Sanders,  our  countryman*  Hitherto  no- 
thing but  well ;  if  James  and  John  had  of- 
fered to  do  no  more  than  what  they  could 
have  done  with  "  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
and  the  shield  of  faith,"  they  might  have 
been  inculpable,  and  so  had  he  if  he  had 
said  no  more;  but  the  blood  boils  higher, 
the  manner  spoils  all.  "  For  it  is  not  well 
done,  unless  a  warlike  captain  be  appointed 
by  Christ's  vicar  to  bear  a  crusade  in  a  field 
of  blood."  And  if  the  other  apostles  did 
not  proceed  such  an  angry  way  as  James 
and  John,  it  was  only  discretion  that  de- 
tained them,  not  religion.  "For  so  they 
might,  and  it  were  no  way  unlawful  for 
them  to  bear  arms  to  propagate  religion, 
had  they  not  wanted  an  opportunity;"  if 
you  believe  the  same  author  :  "  for  fighting 
is  proper  for  St.  Peter  and  his  successors, 
therefore,  because  Christ  gave  him  com- 
mission to  feed  his  lambs. "f  A  strange 
reason ! 

I  had  thought  Christ  would  have  his 
lambs  fed  with  the  sincere  milk  of  his  word, 
not  like  to  cannibals, 

 solitisque  cruentum 

Lac  potare  Getis,  et  pocula  tingere  venis, 

To  mingle  blood  in  their  sacrifices,  (as  He- 
rod to  the  Galileans,)  and  quaff  it  off  for 
an  "  auspicium"  to  the  propagation  to  the 
Christian  faith.  Methinks  here  is  already 
too  much  clashing  of  armour,  and  effusion 
of  blood,  for  a  Christian  cause;  but  this 
were  not  altogether  so  unchristian-like,  if 
the  sheep,  though  with  blood,  yet  were  not 
to  be  fed  with  the  blood  of  their  shepherd 
Cyrus,  I  mean  their  princes.  But  I  find 
many  such  "  nutritii"  in  the  nurseries  of 
Rome,  driving  their  lambs  from  their  folds, 
unless  they  will  be  taught  to  worry  the  lion. 

*  Sanderus  de  Clave  David,  lib.  ii.  c.  15. 
t  Ibid.  c.  14. 


Emanuel  Sa,  in  his  Aphorisms,  affirms 
it  lawful  to  kill  a  king;  indeed  not  every 
king,  but  such  a  one  as  rules  with  tyranny  ; 
and  not  then,  unless  the  pope  hath  sen- 
tenced him  to  death,  but  then  he  may, 
though  he  be  his  lawful  prince.*  Not  the 
necessitude  which  the  law  of  nations  hath 
put  between  prince  and  people,  not  the 
obligation  of  the  oath  of  allegiance,  not  the 
sanctions  of  God  Almighty  himself,  must 
reverse  the  sentence  against  the  king  when 
once  passed ;  but  any  one  of  his  subjects, 
of  his  own  sworn  subjects,  may  kill  him. 

This  perfidious  treasonable  position  of  Sa 
is  not  a  single  testimony.  For  1.  it  slipped 
not  from  his  pen  by  inadvertency ;  it  was 
not  made  public  until  after  forty  years'  de- 
liberation, as  himself  testifies  in  his  pre- 
face.f  2.  After  such  an  avisamente,  it  is 
now  the  ordinary  received  manual  for  the 
fathers  confessors  of  the  Jesuits'  order. 

This  doctrine,  although  —  "Titulo  res 
digna  sepulchri" — yet  is  nothing  if  com- 
pared with  Mariana.^  For  1.  he  affirms 
the  same  doctrine  in  substance.  2.  Then 
he  descends  to  the  very  manner  of  it,  or- 
dering how  it  may  be  done  with  the  best 
convenience:  he  thinks  poison  to  be  the 
best  way,  but  yet  that,  for  the  more  secrecy, 
it  be  cast  upon  the  chairs,  saddles,  and  gar- 
ments of  his  prince.  It  was  the  old  lauda- 
ble custom  of  the  Moors  of  Spain. §  3.  He 
adds  examples  of  the  business,  telling  us 
that  this  was  the  device,  to  wit,  by  poisoned 
boots,  that  old  Henry  of  Castile  was  cured 
of  his  sickness.  4.  Lastly,  this  may  be 
done,  not  only  if  the  pope  judge  the  king  a 
tyrant,  (which  was  the  utmost  Emanuel  Sa 
affirmed,)  but  it  is  sufficient  proof  of  his 
being  a  tyrant  if  learned  men,  though  but 
few,  and  those  seditious  too,  do  but  mur- 
mur it,  or  begin  to  call  him  so.||  I  hope 
this  doctrine  was  long  since  disclaimed  by 
the  whole  society,  and  condemned  "ad  um- 
bras Acherunticas."  Perhaps  so  ;  but  yet 
these  men  who  use  to  object  to  us  an  in- 
finity of  divisions  among  ourselves,  who 

*  Tyrannice  gubernans  juste  acquisitum  domi- 
nium non  potest  snoliari  sine  publico  judicio.  Lata 
vero  sententi^,  quisque  potest  fieri  executor.  Po- 
test autem  a  popuio  ctiam  qui  juravit  ei  obedien- 
tiam,  si  monitus,  non  vult  corrigi. — Verb.  Ty- 
r  annus. 

t  Praesertim  cum  in  hoc  opus  per  annos  fere 
quadriginta  diligentissime  incubuenin. 

X  De  Rege  et  R.  Institut.  lib.  i.  c.  vi. 

$  Qui  est  1' artifice  dont  je  trouve  que  les  rois 
Mores  out  souvcnt  use.  c.  7. 

II  Postquam  a  paucia  seditiosis,  sed  doctis,  coepe- 
rit  tyrannus  appellari. 


Serm. IX. 


OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON. 


505 


boast  so  much  of  their  own  union  and  con-  suits  for  the  same  province,  approved  it  not 
sonancy  in  judgment,  with  whom  nothing! only  from  his  own  judgment,  but  as  being 


is  more  ordinary  than  to  maintain  some 
opinions  quite  throughout  their  order,  (as 
if  they  were  informed  by  some  common 


before  approved  by  grave  and  learned  men 
of  the  Jesuits'  order,*  and  so  with  a  special 
commission  from  Claudius  Aquaviva,  their 


intellectus  agens,")  should  not  be  divided  |  general,  with  these  approbations,  and  other 

solemn  privileges,  it  was  printed  at  Toledof 
and  Mentz  #  and  lastly,  inserted  into  the 
catalogues  of  the  books  of  their  order  by 
Petrus  Ribadineira. 

What  negligence  is  sufficient  that  such  a 
doctrine  as  this  should  pass  so  great  super- 
visors, if  in  their  hearts  they  disavow  it? 
The  children  of  this  world  are  not  such 
fools  in  their  generations.  The  fathers  of 
the  society  cannot  but  know,  how  apt  these 
things  of  themselves  are  to  public  mischief, 
how  invidious  to  the  Christian  world,  how 
scandalous  to  their  order;  and  yet  they 


in  a  matter  of  so  great  moment,  so  much 
concerning  the  monarchy  of  the  see  apos- 
tolic, to  which  they  are  vowed  liegemen. 
But  I  have  greater  reason  to  believe  them 
united  in  this  doctrine,  than  is  the  greatness 
of  this  probability.  For  1.  There  was  an 
apology  printed  in  Italy,  "  permissu  supe- 
riorum,"  in  the  year  1610,  that  says,  "  They 
were  all  enemies  of  that  holy  name  of  Jesus, , 
that  condemned  Mariana  for  any  such  doc- 
trine." I  understand  not  why,  but  sure 
I  am  that  the  Jesuits  do  or  did  think  his 
doctrine  innocent ;  for  in  their  apology  put 
forth  in  the  name  of  the  whole  society !  rather  excuse,  than  condemn,  Mariana : 


against  the  accusations  of  Anticoton,  they 
deny  that  the  assassin  of  Henry  IV.,  I 
mean  Ravaillac,  was  moved  to  kill  the  king 
by  reason  of  Mariana,  and  are  not  ashanied 
to  wish  that  he  had  read  him.*  Perhaps 


speaking  of  him,  at  the  hardest,  but  very 
gently,  as  if  his  only  fault  had  been  his 
speaking  a  truth  "  in  tempore  non  oppor- 
tuno,"  " something  out  of  season;"  or  as  if 
they  were  forced  to  yield  to  the  current  of 


they  mean  it  might  have  wrought  the  same  j  the  times,  and  durst  not  profess  openly  of 


effect  upon  him,  which  the  sight  of  a 
drunkard  did  upon  the  youth  of  Lacedae- 
mon  ;  else  I  am  sure  it  is  not  very  likely  he 
should  have  been  dissuaded  from  his  pur- 
pose by  reading  in  Mariana,  that  it  was  law- 
ful to  do  what  he  intended.  3.  I  add,  they 
not  only  thought  it  innocent,  and  without 
positive  hurt,  but  good  and  commendable ; 
so  that  it  is  apparent  that  it  was  not  the 


what,  in  their  hearts,  they  were  persuaded. 
I  speak  of  some  of  them,  for  others,  you  see, 
are  of  the  same  opinion.  But  I  would  fain 
learn  why  they  are  so  sedulous  and  careful 
to  procure  the  decrees  of  the  rector  and  de- 
puties of  Paris,  rescripts  of  the  bishop,  revo- 
cation of  arrest  of  the  parliament  which  had 
been  against  them,  and  all  to  acquit  the 
fathers  of  the  society  from  these  scandalous 


opinion  of  Mariana  alone,  but  that  the  opinions;  as  if  these  laborious  devices  could 
Moors  of  Spain  had  more  disciples  than  make  what  they  have  said  and  done,  to  be 


Mariana.  1.  He  says  it  himself;  for,  com- 
mending the  young  monk  that  killed  Henry 
III.,  he  says  he  did  it  "  having  been  in- 
formed, by  several  divines,  that  a  tyrant 
might  lawfully  be  killed. "f  2.  The  thing 
itself  speaks  it,  for  his  book  was  highly 
commended  by  Gretsenj:  and  Bonarscius,$ 
both  for  style  and  matter, — higher  yet  by 
Petrus  de  Onna,  provincial  of  Toledo,  who 
was  so  highly  pleased  with  it,  he  was  sorry 
he  wanted  leisure)}  to  read  it  the  second  and 
third  time  over,  and,  with  this  censure  pre- 
fixed, was  licensed  to  the  press.  Further 
yet,  for  Stephen  Hoyeda,  visiter  of  the  Je- 


*  Quodammodo  optandum  esse  ut  ille  Alastor 
Marianam  legisset. 

t  Cum  cognito  a  theologis  quos  erat  sciscitatus, 
tyrannum  jure  interimi  posse.    Cap.  6. 

t  Chauvesaurit  polit. 

§  Amphith.  Honoris,  lib.  i.  c.  12. 

il  Iterum  et  tertio  facturus,  si  per  otium  et  tem- 
pus  licuisset. 

64 


unspoken  and  undone,  or  could  change 
their  opinions  from  what  indeed  they  are; 
whereas  they  never  went  iS  ex  anirno"  to 
refute  these  theorems,  never  spake  against 
them  in  the  real  and  serious  dialect  of  an 
adversary,  never  condemned  them  as  here- 
tical, but  what  they  have  done  they  have 
been  shamed  to,  or  forced  upon,  as  Pere 
Coton  by  the  king  of  France,  and  Servin  to 
a  confutation  of  Mariana  (from  which  he 
desired  to  be  excused,  and  after  the  king's 
death  wrote  his  declaratory  letter  to  no  pur- 
pose ;)  the  apologists  of  Paris,  by  the  out- 
cries of  Christendom  against  them:  and 
when  it  is  done,  done  so  coldly  in  their  re- 
prehensions with  a  greater  readiness  to  ex- 
cuse all,  than  condemn  any.    I  say,  these 


*  Ut  approbatos  prius  a  viris  d  pctis  et  gravibus 
ex  eodem  nostro  ordine. 

t  By  Petrus  Rhodriques,  1599. 
}  By  Balth.  Lippius,  1605. 

2S 


506 


A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY      Serm.  IX. 


things,  to  a  considering  man,  do  increase 
the  suspicion,  if  at  least  that  may  be  called 
suspicion,  for  which  we  have  had  so  plain 
testimonies  of  their  own. 

I  add  this  more,  to  put  the  business  past 
all  question  ;  that  when  some  things  of  this 
nature  were  objected  to  them  by  Arnald,  the 
French  king's  advocate,  they  were  so  far 
from  denying  them,  or  excusing  them,  that 
they  maintained  them  in  spite  of  opposition, 
putting  forth  a  book,  entitled,  "  Veritas  de- 
fensa  contra  actionem  Antonii  Arnaldi." 
What  the  things  were,  for  which  they  stood 
up  patrons,  hear  themselves  speaking,* 
"  Turn  enim  id  non  solum  potest  papa,  sed 
etiam  debet,  se  ostendere  superiorem  illis 
princibus.  Exceptio  hoec  stomachum  tibi 
commovet,  facit  ut  ringaris,  sed  oportet 
haurias,  et  de  csetero  fateario  tibi  nec  ratio- 
nem  esse,  nec  conscientiam."  Hard  words 
these !  The  advocate  is  affirmed  to  be  void 
both  of  reason  and  honesty,  for  denying  the 
pope's  dominion  over  kings.  The  reason 
follows,  M  The  pope  could  not  keep  them  to 
their  duties,  unless  he  kept  them  in  awe 
with  threatening  them  the  loss  of  their  king- 
doms." But  this  is  but  the  least  part  of  it. 
They  add,  "If  the  subjects  had  been  but 
disposed  as  they  should  have  been,  there 
was  no  time  but  it  might  have  been  profita- 
ble to  have  exercised  the  sword  upon  the  per- 
sons of  kings. "f  Let  them  construe  their 
meaning,  those  are  their  words.  But  see 
further. 

The  damned  act  of  Jacques  Clement,  the 
monk,  upon  the  life  of  Henry  III.  of  France, 
of  Jean  Chastel  and  Ravaillac  upon  Henry 
IV.  are  notorious  in  the  Christian  world, 
and  yet  the  first  of  these  was  commended 
by  F.  Guignard,:}:  in  a  discourse  of  purpose, 
and  by  Mariana,  as  I  before  cited  him.  The 
second  had  two  apologies  made  for  him,  the 
one  by  Constantinus  Veruna,§  the  other,|| 
without  a  name  indeed,  but  with  the  mark 
and  cognizance  of  the  Jesuits'  order,  and 
the  last  was  publicly  commended  in  a  ser- 
mon by  a  monk  of  Cologne,  as  it  is  reported 
by  the  excellent  Thuanus. 

Not  much  less  than  this  is  that  of  Baro- 
nius,  just,  I  am  sure,  of  the  same  spirit  with 
James  and  John,  for  he  calls  for  a  ruin  upon 
the  Venetians,  for  opposing  of  his  holiness. 
te  Arise,  Peter,  not  to  feed  these  wandering 
sheep,  but  to  destroy  them;  throw  away 

*  Page  7,  1st.  edit.         t  Page  67,  1st.  edit, 
t  Voyez  le  Procos  du  Parlem.  de  Paris  contre 
le  pere  Guignard  pretre  Jesuite. 
$  Vid.  cap.  3. 

il  Xiigduni,  de  justa  abdicatione  Hen.  III.  1610. 


thy  pastoral  stafT,  and  take  thy  sword."  I 
|  confess  here  is  some  more  ingenuity,  to  op- 
pose murdering  to  feeding,  than  to  make 
them  all  one,  as  Sanders*  doth,  but  yet  the 
same  fiery  spirit  inflames  them  both,  as  if 
I  all  Rome  were  on  fire,  and  put  the  world 
in  a  combustion. 

Further  yet.  Guignard,  a  Jesuit  of  Cle- 
rimont  college  in  Paris,  was  executed  by 
command  of  the  parliament^  for  some  con- 
clusions he  had  written,  which  were  of  a 
high  nature  treasonable  ;  and  yet  as  if  either 
there  were  an  infallibility  in  every  person 
of  the  society,  or  as  if  the  parliament  had 
done  injustice  in  condemning  Guignard,  or 
lastly,  as  if  they  approved  his  doctrine,  he 
was  apologized  for  by  Lewis  Richeome,:}: 
and  Bonarscius.§  I  know  they  will  not  say, 
that  every  Jesuit  is  infallible,  they  are  not 
come  to  that  yet ;  it  is  plain  then,  they  are 
of  the  same  mind  with  Guignard,  or  else 
(which  I  think  they  dare  not  say)  the  par- 
liament was  unjust  in  the  condemnation  of 
him ;  but  if  they  do,  they  thus  proclaim 
their  approbation  of  these  doctrines  he  was 
hanged  for ;  for  that  he  had  such,  was  under 
his  own  hand,  by  his  own  confession,  and 
of  itself  evident,  as  is  to  be  seen  in  the  arrest 
of  the  parliament  against  him. 

Lastly,  more  pertinent  to  the  day  is  the 
fact  of  Garnet, — who,  because  a  Jesuit 
could  have  done  nothing  for  which  he 
should  not  have  found  an  apologist,  for  even' 
for  this  his  last  act  of  high  treason  he  was 
apologized  for,  by  Bellarmine,(|  Gretser,^ 
and  Eudaemon  Johannes.** 

Thus  far  we  have  found  out  persons  fit 
enough  to  match  any  malice ;  Boanerges 
all,  and  more  than  a  pareil  for  James  and 
John  :  but  I  shall  anon  discover 'the  disease 
to  be  more  epidemical,  and  the  pest  of  a 
more  catholic  infection ;  and  yet  if  we 
sum  up  our  accounts,  we  shall  already  find 
the  doctrine  to  be  too  catholic.  For  we 
have  already  met  with  Emanuel  Sa,  a  Por- 
tuguese: Mariana  and  Ribadineira,  Spa- 
niards; Bonarscius,  a  Bas  Almain;  Greiser, 
a  German ;  Eudsemon  Johannes,  a  false 
Greek;  Guignard,  Richeome,  and  the  apolo- 
gists for  Chastel,  Frenchmen;  Bellarmine 
and  Baronius,  Italians ;  Garnet  and  San- 
ders, English. 

The  doctrine,  you  see,  they  would  fain 


*  De  clave  David,  c.  14.    Vid.  page  7. 
t  Arrest,  de  Parliam.  7  de  Tanv.  1595. 
X  Expostul.  Apologet.  pro  Societ.  Jes. 
i  Amphith.  Honor.  lib.  i. 
II  Apol.  adv.  R.  Angliae.    1  Stigm.  Miseric. 
**  Apol.  pro  GarnettQ. 


Serm.IX.      of  the  gunpowder  treason. 


507 


make  catholic ;  now,  if  it  prove  to  be  but 
apostolic  too,  then  we  have  found  out  an 
exact  parallel  for  James  and  John,  great  dis- 
ciples and  apostles  :  and  whether  or  no  the 
see  apostolic  may  not  sometime  be  of  a 
fiery  and  consuming  spirit,  we  have  so 
strange  examples,  even  in  our  own  home, 
that  we  need  seek  no  farther  for  resolution 
of  the  "  Q,uaere."  In  the  bull  of  excommu- 
nication put  forth  by  Pius  Q,uintus  against 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  blessed  memory,  there 
is  more  than  a  naked  encouragement,  as 
much  as  comes  to  a  "  Volumus  et  jubemus 
ut  ad  versus  Elizabethan!,  Angliae  reginam, 
subditi  arma  capessant," — f<  Bone  Jesu !  in 
quae  nos  reservasti  tempora?"  Here  is  a 
command  to  turn  rebels,  a  necessity  of 
being  traitors.  "  Q,uid  eo  infelicius,  cui 
jam  esse  malum  necesse  est." 

The  business  is  put  something  further 
home  by  Catena  and  Gabutius,  who  wrote 
the  life  of  Pius  Q,uintus,  were  resident  at 
Rome,  one  of  them  an  advocate  in  the 
Roman  court ;  their  books  both  printed  at 
Rome,  "  con  licenza,"  and  "  con  privi- 
legio."*  And  now  hear  their  testimonies 
of  the  whole  business  between  the  queen 
and  his  holiness. 

"  Pius  Q,uintus  published  a  bull  against 
Queen  Elizabeth,  declared  her  a  heretic, 
and  deprived  her  of  her  kingdom,  absolved 
her  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance, 
excommunicated  her,  and  gave  power  to 
any  one  to  rebel  against  her,"  &c.t  This 
was  but  the  first  step ;  he  therefore  thus 
proceeds ;  "  He  procures  a  gentleman  of 
Florence  to  move  her  subjects  to  a  rebellion 
against  her  for  her  destruction. "J  Further 
yet;  he  thought  this  would  be  such  a  real 
benefit  to  Christendom  to  have  her  "  de- 
stroyed, that  the  pope  was  ready  to  aid  in 
person,  to  spend  the  whole  revenue  of  the 
see  apostolic,  all  the  chalices  and  crosses  of 
the  church,  and  even  his  very  clothes,  to 
promote  so  pious  a  business  as  was  the  de- 
struction of  Queen  Elizabeth. "§ 

The  witnesses  of  truth  usually  agree  in 
one.  The  same  story  is  told  by  Antonius 
Gabutius, ||  and  some  more  circumstances 


*  1588,  et  1605. 

t  Pio  publico  una  bolla  e  sentezza  contra  Elisa- 
betta,  dichiarandola  heretica,  e  priva  del  regno, . . 
in  tal  forma  concedendo,  che  ciascuno  andar  con- 
tra le  potesse,  &c.    Girolamo  Catena,  p.  114. 

X  II  quale  ....  muovesse  gli  animi  al  solleva- 
mento  per  distruttione  d'Elisabetla,  p.  113. 

§  L'andare  in  persona,  impegna  e  tutte  le  sos- 
tanze  della  sede  apostolica,  e  calici,  ei  proprj  ves- 
timenti,  p.  117. 

II  De  Vita  et  Gestis  Pii  V.  lib.  iii.  c  9. 


added.  First,  he  names  the  end  of  the 
pope's  design,  it  was  "  to  take  her  life  away, 
in  case  she  would  not  turn  Roman  catho- 
lic." "  To  achieve  this,  because  no  legate 
could  come  into  England,  nor  any  public 
messenger  from  the  see  apostolic,  he  em- 
ployed a  Florentine  merchant  to  stir  her 
subjects  to  a  rebellion  for  her  perdition."* 
Nothing  but  "  sollevamento,"  "rebellion," 
perdition  and  destruction  to  the  queen  could 
be  thought  upon  by  his  holiness. 

More  yet;  for  when  the  Duke  of  Alva 
had  seized  upon  the  English  merchants' 
goods  which  were  at  Antwerp,  the  pope 
took  the  occasion,  instigated  the  king  of 
Spain  to  aid  u  the  pious  attempts  of  those 
who  conspired  against  the  queen  :"  they 
are  the  words  of  Cabutius.f    This  rebellion 
was  intended  to  be  under  the  conduct  of  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  "  viro  catholico,"  "  a 
Roman  catholic;"  Gabutius  notes  it,  for 
fear  some  heretic  might  be  suspected  of  the 
design,  and  so  the  catholics  lose  the  glory 
of  the  action.     However  Pius  Q,uintus 
"intended  to  use  the  utmost  and  most  ex- 
treme remedies  to  cure  her  heresy,  and  all 
means  to  increase  and  strengthen  the  rebel- 
lion."   I  durst  not  have  thought  so  much 
of  his  holiness,  if  his  own  had  not  said  it ; 
but  if  this  be  not  worse  than  the  fiery  spirit 
^  which  our  blessed  Saviour  reproved  in 
James  and  John,  I  know  not  what  is. 
j    I  have  nothing  to  do  to  specify  the  spirit 
:  of  Paulus  Q,uintus  in  the  Venetian  cause ; 
J  this  only,  Baroniusf  propounded  the  ex- 
|  ample  of  Gregory  VII.  to  him,  of  which 
j  how  far  short  he  came,  the  world  is  witness. 
Our  own  business  calls  to  mind  the  bulls  of 
|  Pope  Clement  VIII.,  in  which  the  catholics 
in  England  were  commanded  to  see,  that 
however  the  right  of  succession  did  entitle 
I  any  man  to  the  crown  of  England,  yet,  if 
I  he  were  not  a  catholic,  they  should  have 
j  none  of  him,  but  with  all  their  power  they 
'should  hinder  his  coming  in.    This  bull 
Bellarmine§  doth  extremely  magnify;  and, 
indeed,  it  was  for  his  purpose,  for  it  was 
(if  not  author)  yet  the  main  encourager  of 
Catesby  to  the  powder-treason.    For,  when 
Garnet  would  willingly  have  known  the 
pope's  mind  in  the  business,  Catesby  eased 
him  of  the  trouble  of  sending  to  Rome, 
since  the  pope's  mind  was  clear.  "  I  doubt 


*  Qui  incolarum  animos  ad  Elizabeth®  perdi- 
tionem,  rebellione  facta,  commoveret. 

t  Efflagitabat  ab  rege,  ut  Anglorum  in  Eliza- 
bethan! pie  conspirantium  studia  foveret. 

X  Hildebrand.  $  Apol.  adv.  R.  Angl. 


508  A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY         Serm.  IX. 


not"  (said  Catesby)  "  at  all  of  the  pope's 
raind,  but  that  he,  who  commanded  our  en- 
deavours to  hinder  his  coming  in,  is  willing 
enough  we  should  throw  him  out."*  It 
was  but  a  reasonable  collection. 

I  shall  not  need  to  instance  in  the  effects 
which  this  bull  produced;  the  treason  of 
Watson  and  Clearly  two  English  semina- 
ries, is  sufficiently  known;  it  was  as  a 
"  prseludium"  or  warning-piece  to  the  great 
"fougade,"  the  discharge  of  the  powder- 
treason.  Briefly,  the  case  was  so,  that 
after  the  publication  of  the  bull  of  Pius 
Quintus,  these  catholics  in  England  durst 
not  be  good  subjects  till  F.  Parsons  and 
Campian  got  a  dispensation  that  they  might 
for  a  while  do  it;  and  "rebus  sic  stantibus," 
with  a  safe  conscience  profess  a  general 
obedience  in  causes  temporal:  and,  after 
the  bull  of  Clement,  a  great  many  of  them 
wore  not  good  subjects ;  and  if  the  rest  had 
not  taken  to  themselves  the  privilege  which 
the  popef  sometimes  gave  to  the  archbishop 
of  Ravenna,  "  either  to  do  as  the  pope  bid 
them,  or  to  pretend  a  reason  why  they 
would  not:"  we  may  say,  as  Creswell,  in 
defence  of  Cardinal  Allen,  e*  Certainly  we 
might  have  had  more  bloody  tragedies  in 
England,  if  the  moderation  of  some  more 
discreetly  tempered  had  not  been  inter- 
posed."{  However,  it  is  no  thank  to  his 
holiness  ;  his  spirit  blew  high  enough. 

But  I  will  open  this  secret  no  farther,  if 
I  may  have  but  leave  to  instance  once  more. 
If  I  mistake  not,  it  was  Sixtus  Quintus  who 
sometimes  pronounced  a  speech  in  full  con- 
sistory^ in  which  he  compares  the  assas- 
sinat  of  Jacques  Clement  upon  Henry  III. 
to  the  exploits  of  Eleazar  and  Judith ;  where, 
after  having  aggravated  the  faults  of  the 
murdered  king,  concluded  him  to  have  died 
impenitent,  denied  him  the  solemnities  of 
mass,  dirge,  and  requiem  for  his  soul,  at 
last  he  ends  with  a  prayer,  "  that  God 
would  finish  what  in  this  (bloody)  manner 
had  been  begun."  I  will  not  aggravate  the 
foulness  of  the  thing  by  any  circumstances 
(though  I  cannot  but  wonder  that  his  holi- 
ness should  say  a  prayer  of  so  much  abomi- 
nation) ;  it  is  of  itself  too  bad. 

If  his  holiness  be  wronged  in  the  busi- 
ness, I  have  no  hand  in  it ;  the  speech  was 
printed  at  Paris, ||  three  months  after  the 
murder  of  the  king,  and  avouched  for  au- 


*  Proced.  agt.  Traytors. 
t  Innoc.  Decretal,  de  rescript,  cap.  si  quando. 
X  Philop.  p.  212,  n.  306.  $  Sep.  11,  1489. 

II  By  Nicliol.  Nivelle,  and  Rollin  Thierry. 


thentic  by  the  approbation  of  three  doctors, 
Boucher,  Decreil,  and  Ancelein  j  let  them 
answer  it;  I  wash  my  hands  of  the  accusa- 
tion, and  only  consider  the  danger  of  such 
doctrines,  if  set  forth  with  so  great  autho- 
rity, and  practised  by  so  uncontrollable  per- 
sons. 

If  the  disciples  of  Christ,  if  apostles,  if 
the  see  apostolic,  if  the  fathers  confessors, 
prove  "boutefeus"  and  incendiaries,  I'll  no 
more  wonder  if  the  people  call  for  fire  to 
consume  us,  but  rather  wonder  if  they  do 
not.  And  indeed,  although  it  be  no  rare  or 
unusual  thing  for  a  papist  to  be  "  de  facto" 
loyal  and  duteous  to  his  prince,  yet  it  is  a 
wonder  that  he  is  so,  since  such  doctrines 
have  been  taught  by  so  great  masters  ;  and 
at  the  best  he  depends  but  upon  the  pope's 
pleasure  for  his  loyalty,  which  upon  what 
security  it  rests,  you  may  easily  guess  from 
the  antecedents. 

Thus  much  for  consideration  of  the  per- 
sons who  asked  the  question  ;  they  were 
Christ's  disciples,  they  were  James  and 
John. 

But  when  James  and  John  "  saw  this." 
Our  next  inquiry  shall  be  of  the  cause  of 
this  their  angry  question.  This  we  must 
learn  from  the  foregoing  story.  Christ  was 
going  to  the  feast  at  Jerusalem,  and  passing 
through  a  village  of  Samaria,  asked  lodging 
for  a  night  j*  but  they,  perceiving,  that  he 
was  a  Jew,  would  by  no  means  entertain 
him,  as  being  of  a  different  religion.  For 
although  God  appointed  that  all  of  the  seed 
of  Jacob  should  go  up  to  Jerusalem  to  wor- 
ship, avypt^i]  yap  iv  hi  tortc?  tpoaxvvrjcsie,1[  yet 
the  tribes  of  the  separation  first  under  Jero- 
boam, worshipped  in  groves  and  high 
places;  and  after  the  captivity,  being  a 
mixed  people,  half  Jew,  half  gentile,  pro- 
cured a  temple  to  be  built  them  by  San- 
ballat,  their  president,!  near  the  city  Sichem, 
upon  the  mountain  Gerizim,  styling  them- 
selves "  pertinentes  ad  montem  benedic- 
tum,"§  by  allusion  to  the  words  of  God  by 
Moses,  "  they  shall  stand  upon  the  mount 
Gerizim  to  bless  the  people,  and  these  upon 
mount  Ebal  to  curse."  And  in  case  argu- 
ments should  fail  to  make  this  schism  plau- 
sible, they  will  make  it  good  by  turning  their 
adversaries  out  of  doors :  they  shall  not 
come  near  their  blessed  mount  of  Gerizim, 
but  fastening  an  anathema  on  them,  let  them 
go  to  Ebal,  and  curse  there.    And  now  I 

*  Ver.  50.  t  Chrysost.  in  hunc  locum. 

t  Josephi  Antiq.  lib.  xi.  c.  C. 

$  Postellus  do  Linguis.  lib.  xii.  Deut.  27. 


Serm.  IX.      OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON. 


509 


wonder  not  that  these  disciples  were  very  I  From  "primo  of  Elizabeth  to  undecimo," 
angry  at  them,  who  had  lost  their  true  reli- 1  the  papists  made  no  scruple  of  coming  to 
gion,  and  neglected  the  offices  of  humanity  !  our  churches  j  recusancy  was  not  then  so 
to  them  that  kept  it.  They  might  go  near  I  much  as  a  chrisom,  not  an  embryo.  Bui 
now  to  make  it  a  cause  of  religion ;  asfivo- !  when  Pius  Q,uintus  sent  forth  his  briefs  of 
tfpov  bvopa  ttji  fv(5fj3a'aj,  as  Nazianzen*  \  excommunication  and  deposition  of  the 
speaks,  might  seem  to  apologize  for  them  j  i  queen,  then  first  they  forbore  to  pray  with 
and  so  it  might,  if  it  had  not  led  them  to  1  us,  or  to  have  any  religious  communion, 
indiscreet  and  uncharitable  zeal.    But  men  ;  This,  although  every  where  known,  yet 


care  not  how  far  they  go,  if  they  do  but 
once  think  they  can  make  God  a  party  of 
their  quarrel.  For  when  religion,  which 
ought  to  be  the  antidote  of  our  malice, 
proves  its  greatest  incentive,  our  unchari- 
tableness  must  needs  run  faster  to  mischief, 


being  a  matter  of  fact,  and  so  as  likely  to  be 
denied  by  others,  as  affirmed  by  us,  without 
good  evidence,  see  it  therefore  affirmed  ex- 
pressly by  an  act  of  parliament  in  "decimo- 
tertio  of  Elizabeth,"  which  specifies  this 
as  one  inconvenience  and  ill  consequences 


by  how  much  that  which  stopped  its  course  of  the  bull;  "whereby  hath  grown  great 
before,  drives  it  on  with  the  greater  vio- 
lence. And,  therefore,  as  it  is  ordinary  for 
charity  to  be  called  coldness  in  religion,  so  I  divine  service,  now  most  godly  set  forth, 
it  is  as  ordinary  for  a  pretence  of  religion  to  and  used  within  this  realm,  but  also  have 


disobedience  and  boldness  in  many,  not  only 
to  withdraw  and  absent  themselves  from 


make  cold  charity. 

The  present  case  of  the  disciples,  and  the 
same  spirit,  Avhich,  for  the  same  pretended 
cause,  is  taken  up  by  the  persons  of  the 
day,  proves  all  this  true  ;  with  whom  fire 
and  faggot  is  esteemed  the  best  argument  to 
convince  the  understanding,  and  the  inqui- 
sitors of  heretical  pravity,  the  best  doctors 
and  subtlest  disputants,  determining  all  with 
a  "  viris  ignem,  fossam  mulieribus."f  For 


thought  themselves  discharged  of  all  obedi- 
ence," &c.  Not  only  recusancy,  but  like- 
wise disobedience;  therefore  both  recusancy 
and  disobedience. 

Two  years,  therefore,  after  this  bull,  this 
statute  was  made,  if  it  was  possible,  to  nul- 
lify the  effects  of  it,  to  hinder  its  execution, 
and,  if  it  might  be,  by  this  means  to  keep 
them,  as  they  had  been  before,  in  commu- 
nion with  the  church  of  England,  and 


thus  we  had  like  to  have  suffered  ;  it  was  .  obedience  to  her  majesty.  This  was  the 
mistaken  religion  that  moved  these  traitors  first  statute  that  concerned  them  in  special, 
to  so  damnable  a  conspiracy,  not  for  any  but  yet  their  religion  was  not  meddled  with; 
defence  of  their  own  cause,  but  for  ex-  j  for  this  statute  against  execution  of  the 


tirpation  of  ours.  For  else  what  grievances 
did  they  groan  under  ?  iC  In  quos  eorum 
populum  exaestuantem  sollicitavimus?  qui- 
bus  vitae  periculum  attulimus?"  it  was  Na- 


pope's  bulls,  was  no  more  than  what  had 
been  established  by  act  of  parliament  in  the 
sixteenth  year  of  Richard  II.,  by  which  it 
was  made  "  praemunire"  to  purchase  bulls 


zianzen's  question  to  the  apostate.:}:    Give  from  Rome ;  and  the  delinquents  in  this 


me  leave  to  consider  it  as  applicable  to  our 
present  case,  and  try  if  I  can  make  a  just 
discovery  of  the  cause  that  moved  these 
traitors  to  so  accursed  a  conspiracy. 

1.  Then  there  was  no  cause  at  all  given 
them  by  us ;  none  put  to  death  for  being  a 
Roman  catholic,  nor  any  of  them  punished 
for  his  religion. 

This  hath  been  the  constant  attestation  of 
our  princes  and  state,  since  the  first  laws 
made  against  recusants ;  and  the  thing  itself 
will  bear  them  record. § 


*  Orat.  12. 

t  Decret.  Carol.  Quinti,  pro  Flandris. 
X  Orat.  2.  in  Julian. 

%  Vid.  L.  Burleigh's  Book  called  "  Execution 
for  Treason,  not  Religion."  King  James'  Decla- 
ration to  all  Christian  Kings  and  Princes,  and  the  , 

Lord  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  Speech  in  mumon  nor  obedience,  but  for  all  this, 


kind,  with  all  their  abettors,  fautors,  pro- 
curators, and  maintainers,  to  be  referred  to 
the  king's  council  for  further  punishment." 
There  was  indeed  this  severity  expressed  in 
the  act  of  decimo-tertio  of  the  queen,  that 
the  putting  them  in  execution  should  be 
capital;  and  yet  this  severity  was  no  more 
than  what  was  inflicted  upon  the  bishop  of 
Ely,  in  Edward  III.'s  time,  for  publishing 
of  a  bull  against  the  Earl  of  Chester,  with- 
out the  king's  leave;  and  on  the  bishop  of 
Carlisle,  in  the  time  of  Henry  IV.,  for  the 
like  offence.  Thus  far  our  laws  are  inno- 
cent. 

But  when  this  statute  did  not  take  the 
good  effect  for  which  it  was  intended, 
neither  keeping  them  in  their  ancient  com- 


Star-chamber  in  Burton's  case. 


Mayne,  Campian,  and  many  others,  came 
2s2 


510 


A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY      Serm.  IX. 


as  the  pope's  emissaries  for  execution  of  1 
the  bull,  the  state  proceeded  to  a  further 
severity,  making  laws  against  recusancy, 
against  seditious  and  traitorous  books,  and 
against  the  residence  of  Romish  priests  in 
England ;  making  the  first  finable  with  a 
pecuniary  mulct,  the  two  latter  capital,  as 
being  made  of  a  treasonable  nature.  Of  these 
in  order : 

I.  The  mulct  which  was  imposed  for  re- 
cusancy, was  not  soul  money,  or  paid  for 
religion ;  and  that  for  these  reasons:  1. 
Because  it  is  plain,  religion  did  not  make 
them  absent  themselves  from  our  churches, 
unless  they  had  changed  their  religion  since 
the  bull  came  over:  for  if  religion  could 
consist  with  their  communion  with  us  be- 
fore the  bull,  as  it  is  plain  it  did,  then  why 
not  after  the  bull?  unless  it  be  part  of  their 
religion  to  obey  the  pope,  rather  than  to 
obey  God  commanding  us  to  obey  our 
prince.  2.  Their  recusancy  was  an  appa- 
rent mischief  to  our  kingdom,  and  it  was 
the  prevention  or  diversion  of  this  that  was 
the  only  or  special  end  of  these  laws. 

The  mischief  is  apparent  these  two  ways : 
1.  Because  by  their  recusancy  they  gave 
attestation  that  they  held  the  bull  to  be 
valid  ;  for  else  why  should  they,  after  the 
bull,  deny  their  communion,  which,  before, 
they  did  not?  Either  they  must  think  the 
queen,  for  a  just  cause,  and  by  a  just  power, 
excommunicate;  or  why  did  they  separate 
from  her  communion  ?  Now  if  the  queen, 
by  virtue  of  the  bull,  was  excommunicate, 
why  should  they  stop  here  ?  She  was  by 
the  same  deposed,  they  absolved  from  all 
allegiance  to  her,  and  commanded  to  take 
arms  against  her.  I  confess  it  is  no  good 
argument  of  itself  to  say,  the  pope  might 
excommunicate  the  queen,  therefore  depose 
her  from  her  kingdom:  but  this  concludes 
with  them  sufficiently,  with  whom  excom- 
munication not  only  drives  from  spirituals, 
but  deprives  of  temporals,  and  is  not  to 
mend  our  lives,  but  to  take  them  away.  I 
speak  how  it  is  in  the  case  of  princes,  and  I 
shall  anon  prove  it ;  for  they  being  public 
persons,  from  whose  deposition  more  may 
be  gotten,  are  like  to  suffer  more.  "  Ut  ex 
tunc  ipse  (pontifex)  vassallos  ab  ejus  fideli- 
tate  denuntiet  absolutos,  et  terram  exponat 
catholicis  occupandam  ;"  as  they  are  taught 
by  Pope  Innocent  III.,  in  the  eighth  Lateran 
council.  Such  is  their  excommunication 
for  matter  of  heresy,  as  was  this  pretended 
in  the  queen's  case,  so  that  in  respect  of 
them  the  danger  was  apparent. 


2.  It  is  plain  that  recusancy  and  disobe- 
dience came  actually  hand  in  hand :  I  say 
not  that  the  one  was  the  issue  of  the  other, 
but  that  they  were  coetaneous,  for  the  same 
persons  that  moved  them  to  recusancy  by 
virtue  of  the  bull,  moved  them  to  the  exe- 
cution of  it  "  per  omnia."  Now  see  whi- 
ther this  would  tend.  They  by  recusancy 
were  better  able  to  judge  of  their  forces  in 
England,  and  what  parly  they  were  able  to 
make  for  execution  of  the  bull;  whilst  by 
that,  as  by  a  discriminative  cognizance, 
they  were  pointed  at  as  abettors  of  the  ca- 
tholic cause. 

Thus  far  they  suffered  not  for  their  reli- 
gion or  conscience,  unless  it  were  against 
their  conscience  to  be  good  subjects ;  and 
then  it  was  not  religion,  at  least  not  Chris- 
tian, that  was  inconsistent  with  their  loyal- 
ty :  and  so  hitherto,  in  respect  of  us,  their 
machination  was  altogether  causeless. 

2.  For  the  second,  (of  which  sometimes 
they  accuse  our  laws,)— I  mean  the  writing 
and  publishing  of  seditious  and  traitorous 
books ;  I  shall  not  need  to  say  any  thing  in 
defence  of  its  being  made  capital ;  for  they 
were  ever  so,  and  of  a  high  nature  treason- 
I  able,  and  the  publishers  of  them,  by  the  ca- 
'  nons  of  the  church,  were  "  ipso  facto"  ex- 
i  communicate.*    This  I  noted,  because  the 
]  same  censure  involves  more,  by  virtue  of 
the  same  canon  :  I  mean  not  only  the  sedi- 
tious libellers,  but  impugners  of  the  king's 
'regalities;  as  alsc  the  bringers,  publishers, 
'  and  executioners  of  the  bull ;  as  is  to  be  seen 
|  in  the  constitution  of  Archbishop  Stephen, 
i  in  a  council  held  at  Oxford. — But,  secondly, 
J  whether  they  were  or  were  not,  it  matters 
|  nothing:  this  I  suppose  was  no  part  of  then 
|  religion,  therefore  this  might  be  made  trea- 
son, and  yet  their  religion  and  peace  of  con- 
science undisturbed.    3.  But  the  next  is  the 
main  outcry  of  all,  the  very  "  conclamatum 
est"  of  the  catholic  cause,  if  suffered  :  it  was 
made  treason  to  be  a  priest,  or  at  least  if 
any  of  their  priests  should  be  found  in  Eng- 
land, he  should  be  adjudged  a  traitor;  and 
these  laws  were  not  yet  repealed,  but  then 
in  execution. 

When  certain  sycophants  told  Philip  of 
Macedon,  that  some  of  his  discontented  sub- 
jects called  him  tyrant,  his  answer  was, 
"  Rudes  sunt  Macedones,  et  scapham  vo- 

*  Apud  Linwood  de  senten.  excommunicat. 
Item  omnes  illos  excommunicationi9  innodamus 
!  sententia,  qui  pacem  et  tranquillitatem  Domini 
I  Regis  et  Regni,  injuriose  perturbare  praesumunt, 
!  et  qui  jura  Domini  Regis  injuste  detinere  conten- 
!  dunt. 


Serm.IX.       of  the  gunpowder  treason. 


511 


cant  scapham."  I  wish  these  men  who  was  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  the  kingdom, 
object  this,  had  the  same  ingenuity,  and  1  and  entrenched  too  much  upon  the  regalty. 
would  acknowledge  that  the  rudeness  of  a  I  In  particular,  the  case  of  bringing  from  the 
Macedonian  tell-truth  is  no  apparent  ca- '  see  of  Rome,  and  publishing  of  bulls,  was 
lumny:  and  truly,  as  the  case  then  stood,  by  the  lords  of  the  parliament,  in  the  six- 
it  was  no  worse.  For  consider  that  the  sta- '  teenth  year  of  Richard  the  Second,  judged 
tule  against  priests  was  not  made  till  six-  to  be  "  clearly  in  derogation  of  the  king's 
teen  years  after  the  bull  of  Pius  V.,  and  crown  and  of  his  regalty,  as  it  is  well  known, 
after  much  evidence,  both  by  the  confession  and  hath  been  of  a  long  time  known  f  and, 
of  some  priests  themselves,  and  divers  lay  therefore,  they  protested  "together  and  every 
persons,  that  at  least  many  of  them  came '  one  severally  by  himself,  that  they  would 
into  England  with  this  errand,  that  they  :  be  with  the  same  crown  and  regalty,  in  these 
might  instigate  the  queen's  liege  people  to  cases  specially,  and  in  all  other  cases  which 
the  execution  of  it.  This  is  very  plain  in  shall  be  attempted  against  the  same  crown 
the  case  of  Mayne  the  Jesuit,  and  M.  Tre-  and  regalty,  in  all  points,  with  all  their 
gion,  who  were  executed  at  Launceston  for  power."  I  hope  then  if  the  state,  in  the 
the  same  business.*  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  having  far  greater 

The  state  could  not  certainly  know  what  reason  than  ever,  shall  judge  that  these  bulls, 
would  be  the  issue,  but  yet  could  not  but  the  publishing  of  them,  the  preaching  of 
think  it  likely  to  produce  more  and  worse  j  their  validity,  and  reconciling,  by  virtue  of 
consequences  for  the  future.  "  Ideo  leges  !  them,  her  subjects  to  the  see  of  Rome,  be 
in  facta  constitui,  quia  futura  in  incerto  derogatory  to  her  crown  and  regalty, — I  see 
sint."f  The  queen  then  providing  for  her  no  reason  she  should  be  frighted  from  her 
safety,  banished  these  priests  out  of  her  just  defence  with  the  bugbear  of  pretended 
dominions.  This  was  all  ;  and  this  done  religion  ;  for  if  it  was  not  against  religion 
with  so  much  lenity  and  moderation,  as  if  '  then,  why  is  it  now  ?  I  confess  there  is  a 
of  purpose  to  render  good  for  their  evil ;  ■  reason  for  it,  to  wit,  because  now  the  pope's 
such  was  her  innocence  ; — and  yet  to  pro- i  power  is  an  article  of  faith,  as  I  shall  show 
vide  for  her  safety,  such  was  her  prudence. '  anon,  but  then  it  was  not  with  them,  any 
She  gave  them  forty  days'  time  of  prepara-  more  than  now  it  is  with  us :  but  whether 
tion  for  their  journey,  imposed  no  penalty  '  this  will  convince  any  man  of  reason,  I  leave 
for  their  longer  stay,  in  case  that  any  of  it  to  himself  to  consider, 
them  were  less  healthful,  or  that  the  winds  But  one  thing  is  observable  in  that  act  of 
were  cross,  or  that  the  weather  served  not :  parliament  of  Richard  the  Second,  I  mean 
provided  that  during  their  stay,  they  gave  this  clause,  "  As  it  is  well  known,  and  hath 
security  for  their  due  obedience  to  her  laws,  been  of  a  long  time  known."  The  pope's 
and  that  they  should  attempt  nothing  against  encroachments  upon  the  state  of  England 
her  person  or  government,  for  this  was  all  had  been  an  old  sore,  and  by  its  eld  almost 
she  aimed  at :  but  if  they  obeyed  not  the  habituate ;  but  yet  it  grieved  them  neverthe- 
proscription,  having  no  just  cause  to  the  less,  nor  was  the  less  a  fever  for  being  hec- 
contrary,  such  as  were  expressed  in  the  act,  tical :  but  so  it  is,  that  I  am  confident,  upon 
then  it  should  be  adjudged  their  errand  was  very  good  grounds,  it  may  be  made  as  ap- 
not  right,  and,  therefore,  not  their  religion,  parent  as  the  noon  sun,  for  these  six  hun- 
but  their  disobedience,  treasonable.  !  dred  years  and  upwards,  that  the  bishops  of 

This  was  the  highest  axur-  of  the  severity  Rome  have  exercised  so  extreme  and  con- 
of  this  state  against  them.  Now  first  I  shall  tinual  tyranny  and  exactions  in  this  king- 
briefly  show,  that  this  proscription,  which  dom,  that  our  condition  was  under  him 
was  the  highest  penalty,  was  for  just  cause,  worse  than  the  state  of  the  Athenians  under 
as  the  case  then  stood,  and  deserved  on  their  their  thirty  tyrants,  or  than  our  neighbours 
part  2.  It  was  but  reasonable,  in  case  they  are  now  under  their  Belgic  tributes.  So 
obeyed  not  the  proscription,  their  stay  should  many  grievances  of  the  people,  expilations 
be  made  treason.  1.  Because  the  priests  of  the  church,  abuses  to  the  state,  entrench- 
did  generally  preach  the  pope's  power,  either  ments  upon  the  royalties  of  the  crown,  were 
directly  over  temporals,  or  else  in  order  to  continued,  that  it  was  a  great  blessing  of 
spirituals, — of  which  the  pope  being  judge,  Almighty  God,  our  kingdom  was  delivered 
it  would  come  to  the  same  issue,  and  this  from  them  upon  so  easy  terms,  which  Grost- 

 .   head,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  thought  would  never 

*  1577,  t  Tacitus,  lib,  iii,  Annal.     be  done,  but  in  "  Ore  gladii  cruentandi:" 


512 


A  SERMON  ON  TH 


E  ANNIVERSARY      Serm.  IX. 


and  now  to  have  all  these  mischiefs  return 
with  more  strength  upon  us,  by  the  attempts 
of  these  priests,  had  been  the  highest  point 
of  indiscretion  and  sleepiness.  I  said,  with 
more  strength, — because  what  anciently  at 
the  highest  was  thought  but  a  privilege  of 
the  church,  began  now  to  be  an  article  of 
faith;  and,  therefore,  if  admitted,  would 
have  bound  stronger  and  without  all  possi- 
bility of  redress. 

And  now,  if  after  all  this,  any  man  should 
doubt  of  the  justice  of  these  laws  against  the 
priests  obtruding  upon  the  state  of  the  pope's 
power,  I  only  refer  him  to  the  parliament 
of  Paris,  where  let  him  hold  his  plea  against 
those  great  sages  of  the  law,  for  their  just 
censures  upon  Florentinus  Jacobus,  Thomas 
Blanzius,*  and  John  Tanquerell,  who  were 
all  condemned  to  a  solemn  honorary  penance 
and  satisfaction  to  the  state,  and  not  without 
extreme  difficulty  escaped  death,  for  the 
same  cause  :  but  this  is  not  all.    I  add, 

Secondly ;  the  pope  had  his  agent  in  Eng- 
land, to  stir  up  the  subjects  to  rebel  against 
the  queen,  as  I  proved  before  by  the  testi- 
monies of  Catena  and  Gabutius.  It  is  not 
then  imaginable  that  he  should  so  poorly 
intend  his  own  designs,  to  employ  one  on 
purpose,  and  he  but  a  merchant;  and  that 
the  priests,  who  were  the  men,  if  any,  most 
likely  to  do  the  business,  should  be  unem- 
ployed. [  speak  not  of  the  argument  from 
matter  of  fact;  (for  it  is  apparent  that  they 
were  employed,  as  I  showed  but  now ;)  but 
it  is  plain  also  that  they  must  have  been 
employed,  if  we  had  had  no  other  argument 
but  a  presumption  of  the  pope's  ordinary 
discretion.  Things  then  remaining  in  this 
condition,  what  security  could  the  queen  or 
state  have,  without  the  absence  of  those  men 
who  must  be  the  instruments  of  their  mis- 
chief? 

Thirdly,  there  was  great  reason  those  men 
might  be  banished,  who  might  from  their 
own  principles  plead  immunity  from  all 
laws,  and  subordination  to  the  prince.  But 
that  so  these  priests  might,  I  only  bring  two 
witnesses,  leading  men  of  their  own  side. 
Thus  Bellarmine  :f  "  The  pope  hath  ex- 
empted all  clerks  from  subjection  to  princes." 
The  same  is  taught  by  Emanuel  Sa  in  his 
"  Aphorisms,"  verbo  "  clericus."  I  must 
not  dissemble  that  this  aphorism,  however  it 
passed  the  press  at  first,  yet  in  the  edition 
of  Paris  it  was  left  out.  The  cause  is  known 
to  every  man :  for  that  it  was  merely  to  serve 


*  1561.  t  Lib.  i,  c,  28.    De  Clericis. 


their  ends  is  apparent;  for  their  French  free- 
dom was  there  taken  from  them,  they  durst 
not  "  parler  tout"  so  near  the  parliament; 
but  the  aphorism  is  to  this  day  retained  in 
the  editions  of  Antwerp  and  Cologne. 

If  this  be  their  doctrine,  as  it  is  plain  it  is 
taught  by  these  leading  authors,  I  mean  Sa 
and  Bellarmine,  I  know  no  reason  but  it 
may  be  very  just  and  most  convenient  to 
deny  those  men  the  country  from  whose 
laws  they  plead  exemption. 

Secondly  :  It  was  but  reasonable,  in  case 
they  obeyed  not  the  proscription,  their  dis- 
obedience should  be  made  capital.  For  if 
they  did  not  obey,  then  either  they  sinned 
against  their  conscience,  in  disobeying  their 
lawful  prince,  and  so  are  avtoxamdxpLtot,  and 
inexcusable  from  the  law's  penalty,  which 
may  be  extended  at  the  pleasure  of  the  law- 
giver, where  there  is  no  positive  injustice 
in  the  disproportion ;  or  if  they  did  not  sin 
against  their  conscience,  then  of  necessity 
must  they  think  her  to  be  no  lawful  prince, 
or  not  their  lawful  prince,  nor  they  her  sub- 
jects, and  so  "  ipso  facto"  are  guilty  of  high 
treason,  and  their  execution  was  for  e<  trea- 
son, not  religion ;"  and  so  the  principle  is 
evicted  which  I  shall  beg  leave  to  express 
in  St.  Cyprian's  language,  "  Non  erat  ilia 
fidei  corona,  sed  poena  perfidite ;  nec  reli- 
giosae  virtutis  exitus  gloriosus,  sed  despera- 
tionis  interims."* 

For  if  Valentius  banish  Eusebius  from 
Samosata,  and  Eusebius  obey  not  the  edict, 
if  Valentius  puts  him  to  death,  it  is  not  for 
his  being  a  Christian  that  he  suffers  death  ; 
but  for  staying  at  Samosata,  against  the 
command  of  Valentius.f  Such  was  the 
case  of  the  priesis,  whom  for  just  cause,  as 
I  have  proved,  and  too  apparent  proof  of 
seditious  practices,  the  queen  banished. 
Now  if  the  queen  was  their  lawful  sove- 
reign, then  were  they  bound  to  obey  her 
decree  of  exile,  though  it  had  been  unjust, 
as  was  the  case  of  Eusebius ;  or  if  they  did 
not  obey,  not  to  think  the  laws  unjust  for 
punishing  their  disobedience.  I  say  again 
their  disobedience,  not  their  religion;  for 
that  it  was  not  their  religion  that  was  struck 
at  by  the  justice  of  these  laws,  but  the  secu- 
rity of  the  queen  and  state  only  aimed  at, — 
besides  what  I  have  already  said,  is  appa- 
rent to  the  evidence  of  sense.  For  when 
Hart  and  Bosgrave,  Jesuits  both,  came  into 
England  against  the  law,  they  were  appre- 
hended and  imprisoned:  for  the  laws  with- 

*  De  Simplic.  Praelat. 

t  Thcodoret,  lib.  iv.  c.  14. 


Serm.  IX.        OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON. 


513 


out  just  execution  were  of  no  force  for  the 
queen's  safety ;  but  when  these  men  had 
acknowledged  the  queen's  legitimate  power, 
and  put  in  their  security  for  their  due  obe- 
dience, they  obtained  their  pardon  and  their 
liberty.  The  same  proceedings  were  in  the 
case  of  Horton  and  Rishton,  all  which  I 
hope  were  not  apostates  from  their  order  or 
religion  ;  but  so  they  must  have  been,  or  not 
have  escaped  death,  in  case  that  their  reli- 
gion had  been  made  capital.  Lastly,  this 
statute  extended  only  to  such  priests  who 
were  made  priests,  since  "  Primo  of  Eliza- 
beth," and  were  born  in  England.  It  was 
not  treason  for  a  French  priest  to  be  in  Eng- 
land, but  yet  so  it  must  have  been,  if  reli- 
gion had  been  the  thing  they  aimed  at.  But 
it  is  so  foul  a  calumny,  I  am  ashamed  to 
stand  longer  to  refute  it.  The  proceedings 
of  the  church  and  state  of  England  were 
just,  honourable,  and  religious,  full  of 
mercy  and  discretion,  and  unless  it  were 
that  as  C.  Fimbria  complained  of  Q,.  Scae- 
vola,  we  did  not  open  our  breasts  wide 
enough  to  receive  the  danger,  there  is  no 
cause  imaginable,  I  mean  on  our  parts,  to 
move  them  to  so  damned  a  conspiracy,  or 
indeed  to  any  just  complaint. 

Secondly :  If  these  were  not  the  causes, 
(as  they  would  fain  abuse  the  world  into  a 
persuasion  that  they  were,)  what  was  ?  I 
shall  tell  you,  if  you  will  give  me  leave  avoSsv 
trp>  jtriyriv  foopotntiv,  "  to  derive  it  from  its  very 
head,"  and  then  I  will  leave  it  to  you  to 
judge  whether  or  not  my  augury  fails  me. 

First,  I  guess  that  the  traitors  were  en- 
couraged and  primarily  moved  to  this  treason, 
from  the  prevailing  opinion  which  is  most 
generally  received,  on  that  side,  of  the  law- 
fulness of  deposing  princes  that  are  heretical. 
I  say,  generally  received,  and  I  shall  make 
my  words  good,  or  else  the  blame  shall  lay 
on  themselves  for  deceiving  me,  when  they 
declare  their  own  minds.  I  instance,  first, 
in  the  fathers  of  the  society  *  Bellarmine 
teacheth  that  kings  "  have  no  wrong  done 
them,  if  they  be  deprived  of  their  kingdoms, 
when  they  prove  heretics." — Creswell,  in  his 
"  Philopater,"  goes  further,  saying,  "  that 
if  his  heresy  be  manifest,  he  is  deposed 
without  any  explicit  judicial  sentence  of  the 
pope,  the  law  itself  hath  passed  the  sentence 
of  deposition. "f    And  therefore, 

*  Nec  ullaeis  injuria  tiet,  si  dcponantur.  Lib. 
v.  de  Rom.  Pontif.  c.  7. 

t  Ex  ipsa  vi  juris  et  ante  omnem  senten'iam  su- 

Eremi  pastoris  ac  judicis  contra  ipsum  prolatam. 
■ugduni  impres.  1593,  p.  106.  n.  157.  Amphith. 
Honor,  p.  117. 

65 


Bonarscius  is  very  angry*  at  Arnald,  the 
French  king's  advocate,  for  affirming  that 
religion  could  be  no  just  cause  to  depose  a 
lawful  prince  ;  if  he  had  been  brought  up  in 
!  their  schools,  he  might  have  learnt  another 
t  lesson  ;  "  papa  potest  mutare  regna,  et  uni 
(  auferre,  atque  alteri  conferre,  tanquam  sum- 
i  mus  princeps  spiritualis,  si  id  necessarium 
sit  ad  animarum  salutem,"  saith  Bellar- 
\  mine.f    He  gives  his  reason  too,  "  Quia 
alioqui  possent  mali  principes  impune  fo- 
I  vere  haereticos       which  is  a  thing  not  to  be 
I  suffered  by  his  holiness. 

This  doctrine  is  not  the  private  opinion  of 
j  these  doctors,  but  "  est  certa,  definita,  atque 
indubitata  virorum  clarissimorum  sententia," 
|  saith  F.  Creswell, $  I  suppose  he  means  in 
I  his  own  order  j  and  yet  I  must  take  heed 
i  what  I  say,  for  Eudaemon  Johannes||  is  very 
:  angry  with  Sir  Edward  Cooke,  for  saying 
it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Jesuits.  Do  they 
then  deny  it  ?  No,  surely,  but  "  Non  est  Je- 
suitarium  propria,"  it  is  not  theirs  alone, 
"  sed,  ut Garnettus  respondit,  totius  Ecclesiae, 
et  quidem  ab  antiquissimis  temporibus  con- 
sensione  recepla  doctrina  nostra  est ;"  and 
there  he  reckons  up  seven-and-twenty  fa- 
mous authors  of  the  same  opinion.  Cres- 
well, in  his  Philopater,1i  says  as  much  if  not 
more  :  "  Hinc  etiam  infert  universa  theo- 
logorum  et  jurisconsultorum  ecclesiastico- 
rum  schola,  et  est  certum,  et  de  fide,  quem- 
cunque  principem  christianum,  si  a  reli- 
gioue  catholica  manifeste  deflexerit,  et  alios 
avocare  voluerit,  excidere  statim  omni  po- 
testate  ac  dignitate,  ex  ipsa  vi  juris,  turn 
humani,  turn  Divini."  You  see  how  easily 
they  swallow  this  great  camel.  Add  to  this, 
that  Bellarmine**  himself  proves,  that  the 
pope's  temporal  power,  or  of  disposing  of 
princes'  kingdoms,  is  a  catholic  doctrine: 
for  he  reckons  up  of  this  opinion,  one-and- 
twenty  Italians,  fourteen  French,  nine  Ger- 
mans, seven  English  and  Scotch,  nineteen 
Spaniards,  and  these  not  "  e  faece  plebis,'5 
but  "  e  primoribus,"  all  very  famous  and 
very  leading  authors. 

You  see  it  is  good  divinity  amongst  them, 
and  I  have  made  it  good,  that  it  is  a  general 
opinion,  received  by  all  their  side,  if  you  will 
believe  themselves  ;  and  now  let  us  see  if  it 
will  pass  for  good  law, as  well  as  good  divinity. 

*  Sed  heus,  Arnalde.  a  cujus  institutione  hau- 
sisti  nullam  posse  intercidere  causam.  qune  regem 
co<iat  abire  recfno  1    Non  religionis  ? 

t  Bellar.  de'Pont.  It.  lib.  v7  c.  6.      t  Cap.  7. 

$  Ubi  supra,  p.  107.    II  Apol.  pro  Garnet,  c.  3. 

1  Num.  157. 

Contra  Barclaium  in  princip.  fere. 


514 


A  SERMON  ON  T H 


E  ANNIVERSARY     Serm.  IX. 


It  is  not  for  nothing  that  the  church  of 
France  protests  against  some  of  their  re- 
ceived canons ;  if  they  did  not,  I  know  not 
what  would  become  of  their  princes.  Their 
**  lilies"  may  be  to-day,  and  to-morrow  be 
cast  into  the  oven,  if  the  pope  either  call  their 
prince  "  Huguenot,"  as  he  did  Henry  IV. ; 
or  "tyrant,"  as  Henry  HI. ;  or,  "unprofit- 
able for  the  church  or  kingdom,"  as  he  did 
King  Childeric,  whom  Pope  Zachary,  "de 
facto"  did  depose  for  the  same  cause,  aud  in- 
serted his  act  into  the  body  of  the  law  as  a 
precedent  for  the  future,  "Quod  etiam  ex 
auctoritate  frequenti  agit  sancta  ecclesia;" 
it  is  impaled  in  a  parenthesis  in  the  body  of 
the  canon,*  lest  deposition  of  princes  should 
be  taken  for  news.  The  law  is  clear  for  mat- 
ter of  fact ;  the  lawfulness  follows. 

"  Hsereticis  licitum  est  auferri  quae  ha- 
bent;"f  and  this  not  only  from  a  private 
man,  but  even  from  princes,  "Nam  qui  in 
majore  dignitate  est,  plus  punitur ;"  or  take 
it,  if  you  please,  in  more  proper  terms.  "  Do- 
minus  papa  principem  secularem  deponere 
potest  propter  haeresim  ;":{:  and  so  another 
may  be  chosen,  like  the  Palatines  and  Cas- 
tellans in  Poland,  just  as  if  the  king  were 
dead,  "  Nam  per  haeresim.  plusquam  civiliter 
mortuus  censetur,"  saith  Simancha§,  and 
that,  by  virtue  of  a  constitution  of  Gregory 
IX.,  by  which  every  man  is  freed  from  all 
duty,  homage,  allegiance,  or  subordination 
whatsoever  due  to  a  heretic,  whether  due  by  a 
natural,  civil,  or  political  right ; "  Aliquo  pacto 
aut  qu&cunque  firmilate  vallatum. — Et  sic 
nota,"  saith  the  gloss,  "  Quod  papa  potest 
absolvere  laicum  de  juramento  fidelitatis." 

I  end  those  things  with  the  attestation  of 
J3ellarmine,|j  "  Est  res  certa  et  explorata, 
yposse  pontificem  maximum  justis  de  causis 
temporalibus  judicare,  atque  ipsos  tempora- 
les  principes  aliquando  deponere." — And 
again,  that  we  may  be  sure  to  know  of  what 
nature  this  doctrine  is,  he  repeats  it ;  "  Sic 
igitur  de  potestate  in  temporalibus,  quod  ea 
sit  in  papa,  non  opinio,  sed  certitudo  apud 
catholicos  est."  And  now  let  any  man  say, 
if  this  be  not  a  catholic  doctrine,  and  a  likely 
antecedent  to  have  treason  to  be  its  conse- 
quent. 

But  I  fix  not  here,  only  this,  it  is  plain  that 
this  proposition  is.no  friend  to  loyalty;  but 


*  Can..  Alius.  Caus.  15.  q.  6. 
t  CI.  1.  in  Sumnia,  23.  q.  7. 
J  Gl.  cap.  excommunicamus,  tit.  de  haereticis, 
lib.  v. 

$  Cap.  45.  de  Prenit. 

il  Contra  Barclaium,  cap.  3. 


that  which  follows  is  absolutely  inconsistent 
with  it,  in  case  our  prince  be  of  a  different 
persuasion  in  matters  of  religion.  For, 

2.  It  is  not  only  lawful  to  depose  princes 
that  are  heretical,  but  it  is  necessary,  and  the 
catholics  are  bound  to  do  it  "  sub  mortali." 
I  know  not  whether  it  be  so  generally,  I  am 
sure  it  is  as  confidently  taught  as  the  former, 
and  by  as  great  doctors. 

"Ecclesia  nimis  graviter  erraret,  si  ad- 
mitteret  aliquem  regem,  qui  vellet  impune 
foverequamlibetsectam,et  defendere  haereti- 
cos:"  so  Bellarmine.*  And  again,f  "  Non 
licet  Christianis  tolerare  regem  haereticum, 
si  conetur  pertrahere  subditos  ad  suam  hae- 
resim." But  F.  Creswell^  puts  the  business 
home  to  purpose,  "Certe  non  tantum  licet 
sed  summa  etiam  juris  Divini  necessitate  ac 
praecepto,  imo  conscientiae  vinculo  arctis- 
simo,  et  extremo  animarum  suarum  periculo 
ac  discrimine,  Christianis  omnibus  hoc  ip- 
sum  incumbit,  si  praestare  rem  possint." 
Under  peril  of  their  souls  they  must  not  suffer 
an  heretical  prince  to  reign  over  them.  "  Pos- 
sunt,et  debent  eum  arcere  ex  hominumChris- 
tianorum  dominatu,  ne  alios  inficiat,"  &c.§ 

3.  He  that  saith  subjects  "  may,  and  are 
bound  to  depose  their  princes,  and  to  drive 
them  from  all  rule  over  Christians,  if  they  be 
able,"  means  something  more  :  for  what  if 
the  prince  resist?  still  he  is  bound  to  depose 
him  if  he  be  able.  How  if  the  prince  make 
a  war  ?  the  catholic  subject  must  do  his  duty 
nevertheless,  and  war  too,  if  he  be  able.  He 
that  says  he  may  wage  a  war  with  his  prince, 
I  doubt  not  but  thinks  he  may  kill  him  ; 
and  if  the  fortune  of  the  war  lights  so  upon 
him,  the  subject  cannot  be  blamed  for  doing 
of  his  duty. 

It  is  plain  that  killing  a  prince  is  a  certain 
consequent  of  deposing  him,  unless  the 
prince  be  bound  in  conscience  to  think  him- 
self a  heretic,  when  the  pope  declares  him 
so,  and  be  likewise  bound  not  to  resist ;  and 
besides  all  this,  will  perform  these  his  obliga- 
tions, and  as  certainly  think  himself  heretical, 
and  as  really  give  over  his  kingdom  quietly, 
as  he  is  bound.  For  in  case  any  of  these 
should  fail,  there  can  be  but  very  slender  as- 
surance of  his  life.  I  would  be  loath  to  obtrude 
upon  men  the  odious  consequences  of  their 
opinions,  or  to  make  any  thing  worse  which 
is  capable  of  a  fairer  construction  ;  but  I  crave 
pardon  in  this  particular ;  the  life  of  princes 
is  sacred,  and  is  not  to  be  violated  so  much 

*  Lib.  v.  de  Rom.  Pont.  c.  7.  t  Ibid. 

t  Philopat.  p.  110.  n.  162. 
$  Pag.  106.  n.  157. 


Serm.  IX. 


OF  THE  GUNPO 


WDER  TREASON. 


515 


as  in  thought,  or  by  the  most  remote  conse- 1 
quence  of  a  public  doctrine  :  but  here  indeed 
it  is  so  immediate  and  natural  a  consequent 
of  the  former,  that  it  must  not  be  dissembled. 
But  what  shall  we  think,  if  even  this  blas- 
phemy be  taught  "in  terminis?  '  See  this  too. 

In  the  year  1407,  when  the  Duke  of  Or- 
leans had  been  slain  by  John  ol  Burgundy, 
and  the  fact  notorious  beyond  the  possibility 
of  concealment,  he  thought  it  his  best  way  to 
employ  his  chaplain  to  justify  th<?  act,  pre- 
tending that  Orleans  was  a  tyrant.  This 
stood  him  in  small  stead,  for  by  the  procure- 
ment of  Gerson,  it  was  decreed  in  the  council 
of  Constance,  that  tyranny  was  no  sufficient 
cause  for  a  man  to  kill  a  prince.  Butyet,I  find, 
that  even  tbis  decree  will  not  stand  princes 
in  much  stead.  First,  because  the  decree 
runs  "  ut  nemo  privata  autoritate,"  &c. ;  but 
if  the  pope  commands  it,  then  it  is  "judicium 
publicum,"  and  so  they  are  never  the  more 
secure  for  all  this.  Secondly,  because  Ma- 
riana* tells  us,  that  this  decree  is  nothing. 
"  Namque  id  decretum  (Concilii  Constanti- 
ensis)  Romano  Pontifici  Martino  quinto  pro- 
batum  non  invenio,  non  Eugenio  aut  succes- 
soribus,  quorum  consensu  conciliorum  ec- 
clesiasticorum  sanctitas  stat."  Thirdly,  be- 
cause though  the  council  had  forbidden 
killing  of  tyrannical  princes,  even  by  public 
authority,  though  this  decree  had  been  con- 
firmed by  the  pope,  which  yet  it  was  not,  yet 
princes  are  never  the  more  secure,  if  they  be 
convicted  of  heresy  ;  and,  therefore,  let  them 
but  add  heresy  to  their  tyranny,  and  this 
council,  "Non  obstante,"  they  may  be  killed 
by  any  man ;  for  so  it  is  determined!  in  an 
apology  made  for  Chastel,  "  Licitum  esse 
privatis  et  singulis,  reges  et  principes  hsere- 
seos  et  tyrannidis  condemnatos,occidere,non 
obstante  decreto  concilii  Constantiensis ;" — 
and  the  author  of  the  book  "De  justa  Ab- 
dicatione  Henrici  III.,  affirms  it  not  only 
lawful  but  meritorious. 

How  much  less  than  this  is  that  of  Bellar- 
mine  ?^  "  Si  temporalia  obsint  fini  spirituali, 
spiritualis  potestas  potest,  et  debet  coercere 
lemporalem,  omni  ratione  ac  via."  If  "  omni 
ratione,"  then  this  of  killing  him  in  case  of 
necessity,  or  greater  inconvenience,  must  not 
be  excluded.  But  to  confess  the  business 
openly  and  freely,  it  is  known  that  either 
the  consent  of  the  people,  or  the  sentence  of 
the  pope,  or  the  consent  of  learned  men,  is 
with  them  held  to  be  a  "  publicum  judici- 

*  De  Reg.  et  R.  Instit.  lib.  i.  c.  6. 
t  Franc.  Verum.  Const,  p.  2.  c.  2. 
X  De  Pont.  R.  lib.  v.  c.  6. 


um,"  and  sufficient  to  sentence  a  prince,  and 
convict  him  of  heresy  or  tyranny.  That 
opinion  which  makes  the  people  judge,  i3 
very  rare  amongst  them,  but  almost  ge- 
nerally exploded;*  thatopinion  which  makes 
the  learned  to  be  their  judge  is,  I  think,  pro- 
per to  Mariana,  or  to  a  few  more  with  him  ; 
but  that  the  sentence  of  the  pope  is  a  suf- 
ficient conviction  of  him,  and  a  complete 
judicial  act,  is  the  most  catholic  opinion  on 
that  side,  as  I  shall  show  anon.  Now  whether 
the  pope,  or  learned  men,  or  the  people,  be 
to  pass  this  sentence  upon  the  prince,  it  is 
plain  that  it  is  a  universal  doctrine  amongst 
them,  that  after  this  sentence  (whosoever  it 
be)  it  is  then  without  question  lawful  to  kill 
him  ;  and  the  most  that  ever  they  say  is,  that 
it  is  indeed  not  lawful  to  kill  a  king,  not  law- 
ful for  a  private  man,  of  his  own  head,  with- 
out the  public  sentence  of  his  judge;  but 
when  this  judge  (whom  they  affirm  to  be  the 
pope)  hath  passed  his  sentence,  then  they 
doubt  not  of  its  being  lawful.  That  I  say 
true,  I  appeal  to  Gregory  de  Valentia,f 
Tolet4  Bellarmine,§  Suarez,1T  Salmeron,** 
Serarius,tt  Molina,];!  Emanuel  Sa,§§  Azo- 
rius,||||  Martinus  Delrius,1H  Lessius,*** 
Gretser,fft  Becanus,^  Sebastan  Heis- 
sius,§§§  Richeome,||||||  Eudaemon  Johan- 
nes,HT1T  Salianus,****  Filliucius,|ttt  Adam 
Tanner,;^  and  their  great  T.  Aquinas.^^ 
All  these,  and  many  more  that  I  have 
seen,  teach  the  lawfulness  of  killing  kings 
after  public  sentence ;  and  then,  to  beautify 
the  matter,  profess  that  they  deny  the  law- 
fulness of  "  regicidium,"  by  a  private  au- 
thority. For  if  the  pope  sentence  him,  then 
he  is  no  longer  a  king,  and  so  the  killing  of 
him  is  not  "  regicidium ;"  and  if  any  man 
doth  kill  him  after  such  sentence,  then  he 
kills  him  not  "  privata  autoritate,"  or  "  sine 


*  Vide  P.  D.  M.  Image  of  both  Churches. 

t  Tom.  iii.  disp.  5.  q.  8.  punct.  3. 

t  In  Sum.  lib.  v.  c.  6. 

§  Apolog.  ad  R.  Angl.  c.  13. 

IF  Defens.  Fidei.  lib.  vi.  c.  4. 

**  In  13  cap.  ad.  Rom.  disp.  5. 

tt  Quasst.  p.  in  c.  3.  Jud. 

tt  De  Just,  et  Jure,  torn.  iv.  tr.  3.  d.  6. 

Aphoris.  verb.  Tyrannus. 
Illl  Instit.  Moral.  2.  p.  lib.  xi.  c.  5.  q.  10. 
HIT  In  Hercul.  Furent. 
***  De  Instit.  et  Jure,  c.  9.  dub.  4. 
ttt  Chauvesouris  polit. 
ttt  In  Resp.  ad.  Aphoris.  Calvinistarum. 

Contr.  Calvinist.  Aphorism,  c.  3.  ad  Aphor.  1. 
HUH  In  Expostul.ad  Henrici  Reg.  pro  Societate. 
IffllT  In  Apolog.  pro  Henrico  Garnetto. 
****  Ad  annum  mundi,  2669,  n.  7. 
ttttTract.  29.  p.  2.  de  quinto  precepto  Decal.  n.  12 
tttt  Tom.  iii.  disp.  4.  p.  8.  dub.  3.  n.  32. 
W$  Opusc.  20.  et  lib.  i.  de  R»H-  13 -  -  - 


516 


A  SERMON  ON  TH 


E  ANNIVERSARY     Serm.  IX. 


judicio  publico which  is  all  they  affirm 
to  be  unlawful. 

And  thus  they  hope  to  stop  the  clamour 
of  the  world  against  them,  yet  to  have  their 
opinions  stand  entire,  the  way  to  their  own 
ends  fair,  but  the  prince  no  jot  the  more 
secure  of  his  life.  I  do  them  no  wrong,  I 
appeal  to  the  authors  themselves ;  there  I 
will  be  tried.  For  that  either  the  people,  or 
that  a  company  of  learned  men,  or  to  be 
sure  the  pope,  may  license  a  man  to  kill 
the  king,  they  speak  it  with  one  voice  and 
tongue.  And  now  after  all  this  we  may 
better  guess  what  manner  of  counsel  or 
threatening  (for  I  know  not  which  to  call 
it)  that  was  which  Bellarmine*  gave  some- 
times to  King  James  of  blessed  memory. 
"  Si  securus  regnare  velit  rex,  si  vitse  suae 
et  suorum  consulere  cupiat,  sinat  catholicos 
frui  religione  sua!" — If  this  be  good  coun- 
sel, then  in  case  the  catholics  were  hindered 
from  the  free  profession  of  their  religion,  at 
the  best  it  was  full  of  danger,  if  not  certain 
ruin.  But  I  will  no  more  rake  this  Augean 
stable ;  in  my  first  part  I  showed  it  was  too 
catholic  a  doctrine,  and  too  much  practised 
by  the  great  Cisalpine  prelate.  I  add  no 
more,  lest  truth  itself  should  blush,  fearing 
to  become  incredible. 

Now,  if  we  put  all  these  things  together, 
and  then  we  should  prove  to  be  heretics  in 
their  account,  we  are  in  a  fair  case,  both 
prince  and  people ;  if  we  can  but  guess 
rightly  at  this,  we  shall  need,  I  think,  to 
look  no  further  why  fire  was  called  for  to 
consume  both  our  king  and  country,  nor 
why  we  may  fear  it  another  time. 

The  author  of  the  "  Epistle  of  Comfort  to 
the  Catholics  in  Prison,"  printed  by  au- 
thority, in  the  year  of  the  powder  treason, 
is  very  earnest  to  persuade  his  catholics,  not 
to  come  to  our  churches,  or  communicate 
with  us  in  any  part  of  our  divine  service ; 
affrighting  them  with  the  strange  "  terri- 
culamenta"  of  half  Christians,  hypocrites, 
deniers  of  Christ,  in  case  they  joined  with 
us  in  our  Liturgy.  +  Strange  affrightments 
these,  yet  not  much  more  than  what  is  true, 
if  they  esteem  us  heretics.  For  if  they  think 
us  so,  we  are  so  to  them;  and  they  com- 
municating with  us,  do  as  much  sin,  as  if 
we  were  so  indeed. 


*  In  lib.  Eub  nomine  Torti,  edit.  Colon.  Agrip. 
1610,  p.  21. 

+  EtVcs  Ktojptxo?  yj  Aai'jcoj  sidtT^rj  ftj  tr\v  avv- 
oywy^v  lovoauov,  rj  aipztvxuv  ovvsv%ao$ai,  xa- 
$tupti,o9o),  xai,  a^opi^ttftfw.  36  Can.  Apost.  33. 
Laodic.    *Ott,  ov  6tt  cwptT'weoc's  owtvztoGo*. 


But  if  we  be  not  heretics,  what  need  all 
this  stir,  "  permissu  superiorum :"  the  coun- 
sel of  recusancy  was  unreasonable,  danger- 
ous, schismatical,  and,  as  the  case  then 
stood,  very  imprudent.  In  charity  to  their 
discretion,  we  cannot  but  think  them  un- 
charitable in  their  opinion  of  us. 

But  there  is  no  need  we  should  dispute  our- 
selves into  a  conjecture,  themselves  speak 
out  and  plain  enough.  Hear  Bellarmine,* 
under  the  visor  of  Tortus,  affirming  that  the 
king's  edict  commanded  ihe  catholics  to  go 
to  heretics'  churches,  speaking  of  ours. 
But  more  plain  is  that  of  Champ,  the  Sor- 
bonist,  in  his  treatise  of  "  Vocation  of 
Bishops."  "  Therefore,  as  Arianism  is  a 
condemned  heresy,  and  the  professors  there- 
of be  heretics, — so  likewise  is  protestantism 
a  condemned  heresy,  and  those  that  profess 
it  be  also  heretics. "f 

By  this  time  we  see  too  plainly  that  the 
state  of  protestant  princes  is  full  of  danger, 
where  these  men  have  to  do.  They  may  be 
deposed  and  expelled  from  the  government 
of  their  kingdoms,  they  must  be  deposed  by 
the  Catholics,  under  peril  of  their  souls,  it 
may  be  done  any  way  that  is  most  conve- 
nient; they  may  be  rebelled  against,  fought 
with,  slain.  For  all  this,  it  were  some  ease, 
if  here  we  might  fix  a  "non  ultra."  For, 
perhaps,  these  princes  might  put  in  a  plea 
for  themselves,  and  go  near  to  prove  them- 
selves to  be  no  heretics.  All  is  one,  for 
though  they  do,  yet  unless  they  can  per- 
suade his  holiness  not  to  judge  them  so,  or 
declare  them  heretics,  all  is  to  no  purpose, 
for  to  him  they  must  stand  or  fall.  "  Nam 
judicare  an  rex  pertrahat  ad  hasresim  necne, 
pertinet  ad  pontificem."  So ,  Bellarmine. 
They  need  not  stay  till  his  heresy  be  of 
itself  manifest,  he  is  then  to  be  used  like  a 
heretic,  "when  by  the  pope  of  Rome  he 
shall  be  judged  heretical." 

But  what  matter  is  it  if  the  pope  be  judge, 
for  if  they  may  be  deposed,  as  good  he  as 
any  else?  What  grievance  then  can  this 
be  to  the  state  of  princes  more  than  the 
former?  Yes,  very  much.  1.  Because  the 
pope,  by  his  order  to  spirituals,  may  lake 
away  kingdoms  upon  more  pretences  than 
actual  heresy.  It  is  a  large  title,  and  may 
do  any  thing.  Bellarmine:}:  expresses  it 
handsomely,  and  it  is  the  doctrine  of  their 
great  Aquinas.§  "The  pope,"  saith  he, 
by  his  spiritual  power  may  dispose  of  the 

*  Apol.  ad.  It.  Angl. 

t  Cap.  11.  p.  149.  Douay,  1616. 

t  Ubi  supra.  $  De  Regirn.  Princip. 


Serm.  IX. 


OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON. 


517 


temporalities  of  all  the  Christians  in  the 
world,  when  it  is  requisite  to  the  end  of  the 
spiritual  power." — The  words  are  plain 
that  he  may  do  it  for  his  own  ends,  (for  his 
js  the  spiritual  power,)  that  is,  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  see  apostolic;  and  thus 
(to  be  sure)  he  did  actually  with  Frederick 
Barbarossa,  John  of  Navarre,  the  Earl  of 
Thoulouse,  and  our  own  King  John.  2. 
The  pope  pretends  to  a  power,  that  to  avoid 
the  probable  danger  of  the  increase  of  heresy, 
he  may  take  away  a  territory  from  the  right 
owner,  as  is  reported  by  the  Cardinal  D'Os- 
sat;  and  this  is  soon  pretended,  for  who  is 
there  that  cannot  make  probabilities,  espe- 
cially when  a  kingdom  is  at  stake?  3.  We 
find  examples,  that  the  pope  hath  excom- 
municated princes,  and  declared  them  here- 
tics, when  all  the  heresy  hath  been  a  not 
laying  their  crowns  at  the  feet  of  St.  Peter. 
The  case  of  Lewis  IV.  is  every  where 
known,  whom  John  XXIII.  excommuni- 
cated. Platina*  tells  the  reason.  He  called 
himself  emperor  without  the  pope's  leave, 
and  aided  the  Italian  deputies  to  recover 
Milan.  Doubtless  a  most  damnable  and 
fundamental  heresy.  4.  How,  if  it  proves 
in  the  pope's  account  to  be  a  heresy  to  de- 
fend the  immediate  right  of  princes  to  their 
kingdoms,  dependent  only  on  God,  not  on 
the  see  apostolic.  If  this  be  no  heresy,  nor 
like  heresy  to  say  it,  I  would  fain  learn  the 
meaning  of  Baroniust  concerning  the  book 
of  Johannes  de  Roa,  who  sometime  had 
been  a  Jesuit,  but  then  changed  his  order, 
and  became  Augustan,  saying,  "  it  was  sen- 
tenced to  the  fire  before  it  had  escaped  the 
press."  And  good  reason,  "  Nihil  enim 
tale  a  patribus  societatis  didicit."  Good 
men,  they  never  taught  him  any  such  doc- 
trine as  is  contained  in  that  pestilent  book, 
"  de  juribus  principalibus  defendendis  et 
moderandis  juste."  Now,  if  this  be  heresy  , 
or  like  it,  lo  preach  such  a  doctrine,  then 
likely  it  will  be  judged  heresy  in  princes  to 
do  so,  that  is,  to  hold  their  crowns  with- 
out acknowledgment  of  subordination  to  St. 
Peter's  chair.  And  if  it  be  not  heresy  to  do 
so,  it  is  in  their  account  as  bad,  for  so  the 
Jesuits,  in  their  "  Veritas  defensa"  against 
the  action  of  Arnald  the  advocate,  affirm 
"  in  terminis,"  that  the  actions  of  some 
kings  of  France  against  the  pope,  in  defence 
of  their  regalties,  were  but  "  examples  of 
rebellion,  and  spots  to  disgrace  the  purity 


*  In  Clement.  Quinto. 

t  Baron,  torn.  vi.  Ar.nal.  An.  Dom.  447.  n.  8. 


of  the  French  lilies."  5.  But  in  case  the 
pope  should  chance  to  mistake  in  his  sen- 
tence against  a  prince,  for  the  cause  of 
heresy,  yet  for  all  this  mistake,  he  can 
secure  any  man  to  take  away  the  prince's 
life  or  kingdom.  His  lawyers  will  be  his 
security  for  this  point.  For  although,  in 
this  case,  the  deposition  of  the  prince 
should  be,  and  be  acknowledged  to  be, 
against  God's  law,  the  prince  being  neither 
tyrant  nor  heretic,  yet  his  holiness  com- 
manding it,  takes  away  the  unlawfulness 
of  it,  by  his  dispensation.  So  D.  Marta;* 
and  for  this  doctrine  he  quotes  Hostiensis, 
Felinus,  Gratus  the  abbot,  the  archbishop  of 
Florence,  Ancharanus,  Johannes  Andreas, 
Laurentius,  de  Pinu,  and  some  others.  In- 
deed his  divines  deny  this,  "sed  contrarium 
tamen  observatur,"  as  it  is  very  well  ob- 
served by  the  same  doctor  ;|  for  he  brings 
the  practice  and  example  of  Pope  Martin  V., 
Julius  II.,  Celestine  III.,  Alexander  III., 
and  Sixtus  duintus,  all  which  dispensed  in 
cases  acknowledged  to  be  expressly  against 
God's  law.  6.  Lastly,  how  if  the  pope 
should  lay  a  claim  to  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world,  as  belonging  to  St.  Peter's  patri- 
mony, by  right  of  spiritual  pre-eminence? 
I  know  no  great  security  we  have  to  the 
contrary.  For,  first,  it  is  known  he  hath 
claimed  the  kingdom  of  England,  as  feuda- 
tory to  the  see  aposlolic.f  Which  when  I 
considered,  I  wondered  not  at  that  new  and 
insolent  title  which  Mosconius  gives  his 
holiness,^  of  "  Defensor  fidei."  He  might 
have  added  the  title  of  "  Rex  Catholicus," 
and  "  Christianissimus."  For  D.  Marta, 
in  his  treatise  of  "  jurisdiction, "||  which  he 
dedicated  to  Paulus  duintus,  hath  that  for 
an  argument  why  he  dedicated  his  book  to 
him,  because,  forsooth,  the  pope  is  the  only 
monarch  of  the  world.  But  of  greater  au- 
thority is  that  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  1  affirm- 
ing the  pope  to  be  the  vertical  top  of  all 
power,  ecclesiastical  and  civil.  So  that  now 
it  may  be  true  which  the  bishop  of  Patara 
told  the  emperor,  in  behalf  of  Pope  Sylve- 
rius.  " Multos  esse  reges,  sed  nullum  talem. 


*  De  jurisd.  cas.  lxiv.  n.  14.        t  Num.  17. 

t  Rex  Anglorum  estsubditus  Romano  pontifici, 
ratione  directi  dominii,  quod  in  regnum  Angliae 
ei  Hiberniae  Romana  habet  ecclesia.  Bellarm. 
Apol.  adv.  R.  Angl.  c.  3. 

$  De  Majest.  milit.  Eccles.  c.  1.  p.  25. 

II  "  Tibi  a  quo  emanat  omnis  jurisdictio,  unicus 
in  orbe  pontifex,  imperator  et  rex,  omnium  prin- 
cipum  superior,  rerumque  et  personarum  supre- 
mus  et  dominus."    Epist.  Dedicat. 

V  2  Sent.  Dist.  44.  et  lib.  iii.  de  Regim.  Prine. 
2  T 


518 


A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY      Serm.  IX. 


qualis  ille,  qui  est  papa  super  ecclesiam 
mundi  totius."* 

For  these  reasons,  I  think,  it  is  true 
enough,  that  the  constituting  the  pope  the 
judge  of  princes  in  the  matter  of  deposition, 
is  of  more  danger  than  the  thing  itself.  The 
sum  is  this.  However  schism  or  heresy 
may  be  pretended,  yet  it  is  but  during  the 
pope's  pleasure,  that  kings  or  subjects  shall 
remain  firm  in  their  mutual  necessitude. 
For  if  our  prince  be  but  excommunicate  or 
declared  heretic,  then  to  be  a  good  subject 
will  be  accounted  no  better  than  irreligion 
and  anti-cathohcism.  If  the  conclusion  be 
too  hard  and  intolerable,  then  so  are  the 
premises,  and  yet  they  pass  for  good  catholic 
doctrine  among  themselves. 

But  if  truly,  and  "ex  ammo,"  they  are 
otherwise  affected,  they  should  do  well  to 
unsay  what  hath  been  said,  and  declare 
themselves,  by  public  authority,  against  such 
doctrines  :  and  say  whether  or  not  their  de- 
terminations shall  be  te  de  fide?"  If  they 
be,  then  all  those  famous  catholic  doctors, 
Thomas  Aquinas,  Bellarmine,  Creswell, 
Mariana,  Emanuel  Sa,  &c,  are  heretics, 
and  their  canons  teach  heresy,  and  many  of 
their  popes  to  be  condemned  as  heretical,  for 
practising  and  teaching  deposition  of  princes, 
by  an  authority  usurped  against,  and  in 
prejudice  of,  the  Christian  faith.  But  if  their 
answers  be  not  ''de  fide,"  then  they  had  as 
good  say  nothing,  for  the  danger  is  not  at  all 
decreased  ;  because  if  there  be  doctors  on 
both  sides,  by  their  own  assertionf  they  may 
without  sin  follow  either,  but  yet  more  safe- 
ly, if  they  follow  the  most  received  and  the 
most  authorized  ;  and  whether  this  rule  will 
lead  them,  I  will  be  judged  by  any  man  that 
hath  considered  the  premises.  Briefly,  ei- 
ther this  thing  must  remain  in  the  same 
state  it  is,  and  our  princes  still  exposed  to  so 
extreme  hazards,  or  else  let  his  holiness  seat 
himself  in  his  chair,  condemn  these  doc- 
trines, vow  against  their  future  practice, 
limit  his  "ordo  ad  spiritualia,"  contain  him- 
self within  the  limits  of  causes  directly  and 
merely  ecclesiastical,  disclaim  all  power,  so 
much  as  indirect  over  princes'  temporals, 
and  all  this  with  an  intent  to  oblige  all  Chris- 
tendom. Which  when  I  see  done,  I  shall 
be  most  ready  to  believe  that  nothing  in 
popery  doth,  either  directly  or  by  a  necessa- 
ry consequence,  destroy  loyalty  to  our  law- 


•  Lib.  crat.  in  Breviar.  de  Causa  Nestorian. 
c  21. 

t  Charity  maintained  by  Cath.  c.  7. 


ful  prince;  but  not  till  then,  having  so 
much  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

Thus  much  was  occasioned  by  considera- 
tion of  the  cause  of  the  disciples'  query, 
which  was  when  they  saw  this,  that  their 
Lord  and  Master,  for  his  difference  in  reli- 
gion, was  turned  forth  of  doors,  which  when 
they  saw,  "They  said,  Lord  :"  it  was  well 
they  asked  at  all,  and  would  not  too  hastily 
act  what  they  too  suddenly  had  intended  • 
but  it  was  better  that  they  asked  Christ;  it 
had  been  the  best  warrant  they  could  have 
had,  could  they  have  obtained  but  a  "ma- 
gister  dixit."  But  this  was  not  likely,  it 
was  too  strange  a  question  to  ask  of  such  a 
Master,  "  a  Magistro  mansuetudinis  licen- 
tiam  crudelitatis."  Nothing  could  have 
come  more  cross  to  his  disposition.  His 
spirit  never  was  addicted  to  blood,  unless  it 
were  to  shed  his  own.  He  was  a  Prince  of 
peace,  and  set  forth  to  us  by  all  the  symbols 
of  peace  and  gentleness,  as  of  a  sheep,  a 
lamb,  a  hen,  a  gentle  twining  vine,  the 
healing  olive  :  and  is  it  likely,  that  such  a 
one  should  give  his  "  placet"  to  the  utter 
ruin  of  a  company  of  poor  villagers,  for  de- 
nying him  a  night's  lodging,  moved  thereto 
by  the  foregoing  scandal  of  a  schism  ?  he 
knew  better  what  it  cost  to  redeem  a  man, 
and  to  save  his  life  from  destruction,  than 
to  be  so  hasty  for  his  ruin.  And  if  the 
fathers  confessors,  who  were  to  answer  the 
question  of  the  day,  had  but  reflected  upon 
this  gospel,  they  might  have  informed  their 
penitents  better,  than  to  have  engaged  them 
upon  such  antichristian  and  treasonable 
practices,  as  to  destroy  an  assembly  of 
Christians,  as  to  depose  or  kill  a  king. 

It  is  the  proper  cognizance  of,  Mahome- 
tanism,  by  fire  and  sword  to  maintain  their 
cause,  and  to  propagate  their  religion  by 
ruin  of  princes  and  conquering  their  king- 
doms. But  it  is  the  excellency  of  Christi- 
anity, that  by  humility  and  obedience  it 
made  princes  tributary  to  our  dear  Master, 
and  homagers  to  his  kingdom.  When  Va- 
lentinian  sent  Calligonus,  his  chamberlain, 
to  St.  Ambrose,  to  threaten  him  from  his 
faith,  his  answer  was,  "Deus  permittit  tibi 
ut  impleas  quod  minaris.  Ego  patiar,  quod 
est  episcopi ;  tu  facies,  quod  est  spadonis." 
He  did  not  stir  up  the  numerous  people  of 
his  diocess  to  rebel  against  the  emperor,  or 
depose  him,  employed  no  agent  in  his  court 
to  undermine  his  security,  nor  assassin  to 
take  his  life.  He  and  the  rest  of  those  good 
fathers  would  not  have  lost  their  possibility 
of  being  martyrs  for  the  world,  unless  it 


Serm. IX. 


OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON 


519 


were  by  persuading  the  emperors  to  the: 
Christian  faith.  "  We  pray  for  all  our  govern- 
ors, that  they  might  have  long  life,  a  secure 
government,  a  safe  house,  strong  armies, 
good  subjects,  quiet  woild."  So  Tertullian.* 

I  had  thought  that  the  doctrine  and  exam- ; 
pie  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  the  practice, 
apostolical  and   primitive,   had  been  ties  i 
enough  to  keep  us  in  our  obedience  to  God 
and  the  king,  and  in  Christian  charity  to  all; , 
but  I  find  that  all  these  precepts  come  to  j 
nothing;   for  the  apostles  and  primitive 
Christians  did  not  actually  depose  kings,  nor| 
alter  states,  nor  call  for  fire  to  consume  their 
enemies  ;  not  because  it  was  simply  unlaw- 
ful so  to  do,  or  any  way  adverse  to  the  pre- 
cepts of  Christ,  but  because  they  wanted 
power.  So  Bellarmine  :f  "  The  church  gave 
leave  that  the  faithful  should  obey  Julian, 
because  they  wanted  forces."   And  F.  Cres- 
well^  is  very  confident  of  the  business, 
"They  might  without  all  question  have 
appointed  to  themselves  other  kings  and 
princes,  if  the  Christians  had  been  strong 
enough  to  bring  their  intendments  to  pass." 
But  because  they  could  not,  therefore  it  was 
not  lawful  for  them  to  go  about  it,  nor  is  it 
for  us  in  the  same  case,  "  especially  if  the  j 
prince  hath  quiet  possession,  and  a  strong 
guard  about  him,  then  by  no  means  is  it 
lawful  for  a  single  man,  by  his  own  author- 
ity, to  assault  his  prince  that  rules  tyranni- 
cally."   So  Salmeron.§    But  who  sees  not  j 
that  this  way  murder  maybe  lawful?  For 
true   it  is  God  commanded  us,  saying, 
"  Thou  shah  not  kill;"  that  is,  if  thou  art  not 
able  to  lift  up  thy  hand,  or  strike  a  stroke: 
thou  shalt  not  blaspheme,  that  is,  if  thou 
beest  speechless ;  thou  must  be  obedient  to 
thy  prince,  that  is,  if  thou  canst  not  tell  how 
to  help  it.    Good  doctrine  this  ?    And  in- 
deed it  might  possibly  be  something  if  God 
had  commanded  our  subordination  to  princes 
only  "for  wrath,"  for  then  "si  vires  ad-' 
sint,"  if  we  can  defend  ourselves  we  are 
secure,  we  need  not  fear  his  wrath ;  but  j 
when  he  adds,  "  also  for  conscience'  sake," ; 
I  cannot  sufficiently  wonder  that  any  man1 
should  obtrude  so  senseless,  so  illiterate,  and 
so  impious  an  interpretation  upon  the  Chris- 
tian world,  under  the  title  of  catholic  doctrine. 

Christ,  when  he  was  betrayed,  and  seized 
upon  by  his  murderers,  could  have  com- 
manded twelve  legions  of  angels  for  his 
guard,  "Non  defuerunt  vires ;"  and,  in  all 

*  Apologet.       t  De  Pontif.  R.  lib.  v.  c.  7. 
t  Philopater,  p.  107.  n.  158. 
$  Disp.  5.  inc.  13.  ad  Roman. 


human  likelihood,  such  a  "  satellitium,"  as 
that  would  have  moved  them  to  a  belief 
in  him,  or  else,  I  am  sure,  might  have  de- 
stroyed the  unbelievers.  Shall  I  say  more 
against  this  rude  f*  glossema  ?"  Then  thus. 
It  is  false  that  the  primitive  Christians  had 
not  power  to  defend  themselves  against  their 
persecutors.  Hear  St.  Cyprian ;  ff  Nemo 
nostrum,  quando  apprehenditur,  reluctatur, 
nec  se  adversus  injustiliam,  et  violentiam 
vestram,  quamvis  nimius  et  copiosus  noster 
sit  populus,  ulciscitur."  They  could  have 
resisted,  and  that  to  blood,  but  they  had 
not  so  learned  Christ.  Prayers  and  tears 
were  the  arms  of  Christians,  and  then  they 
had  a  defence  beyond  all  this,  when  they 
were  hard  put  to  it,  "Mori  potuerunt:"  a 
submission  of  their  bodies  to  martyrdom 
was  their  last  refuge. 

Thus  St.  Agnes,  Lucia,  Agatha,  Chris- 
tina, Domitilla  saved  both  their  faith  and 
chastity,  "  non  armis,  sed  ignibus  et  carni- 
ficis  manu  ;"  the  tormentor's  last  cruelty  de- 
fended them  from  all  succeeding  danger. 

I  will  not  yet  conclude,  that  that  which 
these  men  obtrude  for  catholic  doctrine  is  flat 
and  direct  heresy  ;  I  will  instance  but  once 
more,  and  then  I  shall.  In  the  fourth  coun- 
cil of  Toledo,  which  was  assembled  when 
the  usurping  and  tyrannizing  Goths  did 
domineer  in  Europe,  the  most  whereof  were 
tyrants,  usurpers,  or  Arians  ;  the  council  de- 
creed that  if  any  man  did  violate  the  life  or 
person  of  his  king,  "aut  potestate  regni 
exuerit,"  kill  him  or  depose  him,  "  Anathe- 
ma sit,"  &c,  he  should  be  accursed  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  his  holy  angels,  and 
together  with  all  the  companions  of  his 
iniquity,  he  should  be  separated  from  the 
catholic  church .  An  d  no  w,  I  hope,  I  may  say 
that  these  men  who  either  practice  or  advise 
such  practices  as  killing  or  deposing  kings, 
are  as  formally  condemned  for  heresy,  and 
anathematized,  as  ever  was  Manichee  or 
Calaphrygian.  I  know  not,  but,  perhaps, 
this  might  be  thought  of  when  the  Jesuits 
were  inscribed  heretics  upon  the  public  pil- 
lar before  the  Louvre,  in  Paris,  upon  their 
banishment:  however,  let  them  answer  it 
as  they  may,  it  concerns  them  as  much  as 
their  being  catholics  comes  to,  "Et  con- 
siderent,  quia  qua?  praedicant  tantopere  ver- 
ba, aut  ipsorum  summorum  pontificum  sunt 
suas  fimbriae  extendentium,  autillorum  qui 
eis  adulantur,"  as  said  iEneas  Sylvius  ;* 
but  at  no  hand  can  it  be  Christian  doctrine. 

*  De  Gestia  Concii.  Basil,  lib.  i. 


520  A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY        Serm.  IX. 


I  instanced  in  these  things  to  show  the 
antithesis  between  the  spirit  of  our  blessed 
Saviour,  who  answered  the  question  ot  the 
text,  and  the  fathers  confessors,  of  whom 
was  asked  the  question  of  the  day. 

But  give  me  leave  to  consider  them  not 
only  as  misinforming  their  penitents,  but  as 
concealing  their  intended  purpose  ;  for  even 
this  way,  the  persons  to  whom  the  question 
was  propounded  made  themselves  guilty  of 
the  intended  machination.*  For  by  all  law, 
ecclesiastical  and  civil,  he  that  conceals  an 
intended  murder  or  treason,  makes  himself 
as  much  a  party  for  concealing,  as  is  the 
principal  for  contriving. 

Ob.  But  these  fathers  confessors  could 
not  be  accused  by  virtue  of  these  general 
laws,  as  being  exempt  by  virtue  of  a  special 
case,  for  they  received  notice  of  these  things 
only  in  confession,  the  seal  of  which  is  so 
sacred  and  inviolable,  that  he  is  sacrilegious 
who  in  any  case  doth  break  it  open,  though 
it  be  to  avoid  the  greatest  evil  that  can  hap- 
pen, so  Bellarmine  ;f  to  save  the  lives  of  all 
the  kings  in  Christendom,  so  Binet  $  though 
to  save  a  whole  commonwealth  from  da- 
mage, temporal  or  spiritual,  of  body  or  soul, 
so  Suarez.|j 

A  considerable  matter!  On  the  one  side 
we  are  threatened  by  sacrilege,  on  the  other 
by  danger  of  princes  and  commonwealths ; 
for  the  case  may  happen,  that  either  the 
prince  and  the  whole  state  may  be  suffered 
to  perish  bodily  and  ghostly,  or  else  the 
priest  must  certainly  damn  himself  by  the 
sacrilegious  breach  of  the  holy  seal  of  con- 
fession. Give  me  leave  briefly  to  consider 
it,  and,  both  for  the  acquittance  of  our  state 
in  its  proceedings  against  these  traitors,  and 
for  the  regulating  of  the  case  itself,  to  say 
these  two  things. 

1.  This  present  treason  was  not  revealed 
to  these  fathers  confessors  in  formal  confes- 
sion. 2.  If  it  had,  it  did  not  bind  to  secrecy 
in  the  present  case.  Of  the  first,  only  a 
word. 

1.  It  was  only  propounded  to  them  in 
way  of  question  or  consultation, "§  (like  this 
in  the  text,)  as  appeared  by  their  own  con- 
fessions, and  the  attestation  of  then  Sir 


*  Cap.  quanta  de  senten.  excom.  &c.  delicto 
ibid,  in  6.  13.  q.  3.  lib.  i.  Occissorum  ad  IT  c.  Syl- 
Ianian  et  lib.  sec.  1.  ad  L.  Cornel,  de  Falsis.  1. 
quisquis  ad  1.  Jul.  Majest. 

t  Apol.  adv.  R  Angl. 

t  Casaub.  ad  Front.  Due.  In  3  part.  D.  Thom. 
dis. 

II  33.  Sect.  i.  n.  2. 

<  Vide  Casaub.  Ep.  ad  Front.  D.  p.  133. 


Henry  Mountague,  recorder  of  London, 
to  Garnet  himself.  It  could  not,  therefore, 
be  a  formal  confession ;  and,  therefore,  not 
bind  to  the  seal.  It  is  the  common  opinion 
of  their  own  doctors  :  "  Non  enim  inducitur 
obligatio  sigilli  in  confessione,  quam  quis 
facit  sine  ullo  animo  accipiendi  absolutio- 
nem,  sed  solum  consilii  petendi  causa."* 

2.  It  was  propounded  to  these  fathers  con- 
fessors as  a  thing  not  subjectable  to  their 
penitential  judicature,  because  it  was  a  fact 
not  repented  of,  but  then  in  agitation,  and 
resolved  upon  for  the  future.  How  then 
could  this  be  a  confession,  whose  institution 
must  certainly  be  in  order  to  absolution,  and 
how  could  this  be  in  any  such  order,  when 
it  was  a  business  of  which  they  could  not 
expect  to  be  absolved,  unless  they  hoped  to 
sin  with  a  pardon  about  their  necks ;  and 
on  condition  God  would  be  merciful  to  them 
in  its  remission,  would  come  and  profess 
that  they  were  resolved  to  anger  him?  In 
reason,  this  could  be  no  act  of  repentance, 
neither  could  it,  by  confession  of  their  own 
side.  It  is  the  doctrine  of  Hostiensis :  and 
Navarre,f  and  Cardinal  Albany  confess  it  to 
be  most  commonly  received. 

4.  It  was  not  only  not  repented  of,  but  by 
them  reputed  to  be  a  good  action,  and  so 
could  not  be  a  matter  of  confession.  I  ap- 
peal to  any  of  their  own  manuals  and  peni- 
tentiary books.  It  is  culpable,  say  they.  I 
am  sure  it  is  ridiculous  in  any  man  to  con- 
fess, and  shrive  himself  of  a  good  action ; 
and  that  this  was  such  in  their  opinion,  it  is 
plain,  by  that  impious  answer  of  Garnet, 
affirming  it  a  business  greatly  meritorious, 
if  any  good  might  thence  accrue  to  the 
catholic  cause. || 

4.  By  this  their  pretended  confession 
they  endeavoured  to  acquire  new  complices, 
as  is  evident  "in  the  proceedings  against 
the  traitors."  They  were  therefore  bound 
to  reveal  it,  for  it  neither  was,  nor  could  be, 
a  proper  and  formal  confession.  That  this 
is  the  common  opinion  of  their  own  schools, 
see  it  affirmed  by  iEgidius  Coninck.§ 

The  first  particular  then  is  plain.  Here 
neither  was  the  form  of  confession,  nor  yet 
could  this  thing  be  a  matter  of  confession ; 


*  De  Soto,  in  lib.  iv.  Sent.  d.  18.  q.  4.  art.  5. 
concl.  5.  Navar.  c.  8.  n.  18.  Suarez.  disp.  33.  sec. 
2.  Coninck.  de  sigil.  conf.  dub.  1.  n.  7. 

"1  Cap.  Sacerdos.  3.  q.  n.  116. 

X  In  Lucubrat.  ad  Bartolum,  in  L.  ut  vim.  ru 
22.  fT.  de  Justitiaet  Jure. 

II  See  Proceedings  against  late  Traitors. 

§  Ub  s  upr&. 


Serm.  IX. 


OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON. 


521 


therefore  supposing  the  seal  of  confession  ]  of  confession,  that  some  sins  revealed  in  it 
to  be  sacredly  inviolable,  in  all  cases,  yet 1  must  be  published,  though  with  peril  to  the 
they  were  highly  blameable  for  their  con-  delinquent's  fame  and  life,  then  it  will  be  a 


cealment  in  the  present. 


far  greater  discouragement  to  the  sin,  when 


2.  But  the  truth  of  the  second  particular  that  it  shall,  by  a  universal  judgment,  be  so 
is  more  to  be  inquired  of.  That  is,  that  |  detested,  that  its  concealment  may  not  be 
though  these  things  had  been  only  re-  permitted,  though  it  be  with  the  hazard  of 
vealed  in  confession,  and  this  confession  j  discouraging  the  holy  duty  of  confession  : 
had  been  formal  and  direct,  yet  they  were  and  when  the  being  guilty  of  such  a  sin, 
bound,  in  the  present  case,  to  reveal  it,  be-  shall  reduce  men  into  such  straits,  that 
cause  the  seal  of  confession  is  not  so  invio-  either  they  shall  want  the  benefit  of  abso- 
lable,  as  that  in  no  case  it  is  to  be  broken  lution,  or  submit  themselves  to  a  public 
up,  and  if  in  any,  especially  it  may  be  j  satisfaction,  and  so,  even  in  this  particular, 

the  benefit  is  far  greater  than  the  imaginary 
inconvenience. 

The  conveniences  of  the  seal  force  no 
more,  than  that  it  is  convenient  to  be  ob- 
served, not  simply  and  absolutely,  in  all 
cases  necessary.    And  perhaps  Saurez,  the 


opened  in  the  case  of  treason. 

I  never  knew  any  thing  cried  up  with  so 
general  a  voice,  upon  so  little  ground,  as  is 
the  over-hallowed  seal  of  confession. 

True  it  is  that  an  ordinary  secret,  com- 
mitted to  a  friend  in  civil  commerce,  is  not 
to  be  revealed  upon  every  cause,  nor  upon  great  patron  of  it,  perceived  it;  however, 


many;  but  upon  some  it  may,  as  they  all 
confess.  If  thus,  then  much  rather  is  this 
to  be  observed  in  the  revelation  of  the  se- 


he  lays  the  burden  fi  super  communi  con- 
sensu ecclesiae,  ej usque  perpetua.  tradi- 
tioue."*    If  then  I  can  show,  that  there  is 


crets  of  our  consciences,  not  only  from  the  no  such  catholic  consent  of  the  present 
ordinary  tie  to  secrecy,  but  likewise,  lest '  church,  nor  any  universal  tradition  of  the 
sins  should  grow  more  frequent,  if  so  great 1  ancient  church,  for  the  inviolable  seal,  but 
a  remedy  of  them  be  made  so  odious,  as  to  plainly  the  contrary,  then  our  church,  in 
expose  us  to  a  public  infamy  or  danger  of  her  permission  of  the  priests  to  reveal  some 
the  law.  The  council,  therefore,  that  first  >  confessions,  is  as  inculpable  as  those  of  the 
introduced  this  obligation,  was  very  prudent  [  present  church,  who  (besides  herself)  teach 
and  reasonable,  pleads  a  thousand  years'  i  and  practise  it,  and  as  the  primitive  church, 
prescription,  and  relies  upon  good  conve-  whose  example  in  this,  as  in  other  things, 
niences.  This  is  all  that  ever  could  be 
proved  of  it,  as  may  appear  anon  j  but  these 
are  too  weak  a  base,  to  build  so  great  a 
structure  on  it,  as  to  make  it  sacrilege,  or 
any  sin  at  all,  to  reveal  confessions,  in  some 
cases. 

1.  For  first,  if  because  it  is  delivered  as  *  us  entire  in  our  obedience  to  the  common 
a  secret,  and  such  a  secret,  it  is  the  more  laws  of  England ;  and  these  command  it.f 
closely  and  religiously  to  be  kept;  it  is  true,  |    That  the  church  of  England  gives  leave, 
— but  concludes  no  more,  but  that  it  must; in  some  cases,  to  reveal  confessions,  is  ar- 
be  a  greater  cause  that  must  authorize  a  Jgument  enough  to  prove,  that  the  seal  is  not 


she  strictly  follows. 

Of  the  first,  the  church  of  England,  which 
observes  the  seal  of  confession,  as  sacredly  as 
reason  or  religion  itself  can  possibly  permit, 
yet  forbids  not  disclosure,  in  case  of  murder 
or  treason,  but,  in  these  particulars,  leaves 


publication  of  this,  than  of  the  secrets  of 
ordinary  commerce  between  friend  and 
friend. 

2.  If  the  licensing  of  publication  of  con- 
fession be  a  way  to  make  confession  odious, 
and  therefore  that  it  may  not  be  published, 
— I  say,  if  this  concludes,  then,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  concludes  far  more  strongly,  that 
tnerefore,  in  some  cases,  it  may  be  pub- 
lished, because  nothing  can  make  a  thing 
more  odious  and  intolerable,  than  if  it  be 
made  a  cover  for  grand  impieties,  so  as  to 
engage  a  true  subject,  quietly  and  know- 
ingly, to  see  his  prince  murdered. 

3.  If  it  be  discouragement  to  the  practice 

66 


founded  upon  the  consent  of  the  present 
catholic  church :  for  it  is  no  more  a  beg- 
ging of  the  question  (nor  apparently  so 
much)  to  say,  the  church  of  England  is  a 
part  of  the  catholic  church,  and  therefore 
her  consent  is  required  to  make  a  thing  uni- 
versal, than  to  say,  the  church  of  Rome  is 
the  whole  catholic  church,  therefore  her 
consent  is  sufficient  to  make  a  thing  ca- 
tholic. But  I  shall  not  need  to  proceed  this 
way.  For, 

1.  It  is  apparent,  that,  of  their  own  side. 


*  In  3  part.  D.  Thorn,  disp.  33.  sec.  1.  n.  2. 
t  Can.  113.  A.  D.  1604. 

2t2 


522 


A  SERMON  ON  TH 


E  ANNIVERSARY 


Serm.  IX. 


Altisidiorensis  largely  and  professedly  proves 
the  lawfulness  of  publication,  in  some  cases, 
as  it  is  to  be  seen,  i  Lib.  4.  Summse  tract.  6. 
cap.  3.  q.  7.  and  Garnet  himself, — the  man 
who,  if  any,  had  most  need  to  stand  in  de- 
fence of  the  seal,  that  the  pretence  of  it 
might  have  defended  him, — yet  confessed 
of  his  own  accord,  i(  Leges  quse  celare  hasc 
prohibent,  apprime  esse  justas  et  saluta- 
res."*  He  adds  his  reason,  and  that  is 
more  than  his  authority ;  for,  saith  he,  it 
is  not  fitting  that  the  life  and  safety  of  a 
prince  should  depend  upon  the  private  nice- 
ties of  any  man's  conscience.  If  two,  nay, 
if  one  dissent,  it  is  enough  to  destroy  a  con- 
sent.   But  see  further. 

There  are  many  cases,  generally  con- 
fessed amongst  themselves,  in  which  the 
seal  of  formal,  and,  as  they  love  to  speak, 
sacramental  confession,  may  be  broken  open. 
I  instance  but  in  two  or  three. 

First,  Confession  may  be  revealed  to  clear 
a  doubtful  case  of  marriage.  It  is  the  opinion 
of  many  great  canonists,!  as  you  may  see 
them  quoted  by  Saurez  de  Paz,  and  Cova- 
ruvias4  and  the  case  of  the  Venetian,  who 
married  a  virgin  that  was  both  his  sister  and 
daughter  j — and  that  at  Rome,  under  Pope 
Paul  III.  almost  to  like  purpose, — were  long 
disputed  on  both  sides,  whether  they  were 
to  be  revealed  or  not ;  go  that  at  most,  it  is 
but  a  doubtful  matter  in  such  cases,  whether 
the  tie  of  secrecy  doth  oblige.  Now,  if  for 
the  proof  of  marriage,  the  seal  may  be  broken 
up,  that  man  and  wife  might  live  content- 
edly, and  as  they  ought,  strange  it  should 
be  unlawful  to  reveal  confessions,  in  case  of 
treason,  for  the  safety  of  a  prince  or  state! 

In  case  of  heresy,  the  seal  binds  not,  by 
their  own  general  confession.  It  is  a  rule 
amongst  them, 

"  Hseresis  est  crimen,  quod  non  confessio 
celat." 

Now  I  would  fain  learn  why  treason  is  not 
as  revealable  as  heresy?  Is  heresy  dan- 
gerous to  souls  ?  Then  surely  so  is  treason, 
unless  it  be  none,  or  a  very  small  crime. 
May  heresy  infect  others'?  So  may  treason, 
as  it  did  in  the  present.  It  may  then  as 
well  be  revealed  as  heresy.  Now  that  it 
may  something  rather,  I  have  these  reasons. 
1.  Because  it  is  not  so  certain,  that  such  an 
opinion  is  heresy,  as  that  such  a  fact  is  trea- 
son. 2.  Because,  although  both  treason  and 


*  Actio  in  prodit.  lat.  p.  99. 

t  Practic.  Crim.  Ecclesiast.  c.  109. 

\  Resol.  de  Matrimon. 


real  heresy  be  damnable  and  dangerous  to 
souls,  yet  heresy  kills  no  kings  as  treason 
doth.  I  confess  that  heresy  may,  and  doth 
teach  it,  but  then  it  degenerates  into  trea- 
son. Now,  if  some  heresy  may  be  treason, 
then  that  treason  is  heresy ;  and  so  a  case 
of  treason  may  occur,  in  which,  from  their 
own  confession,  treason  is  revealable. 

3.  By  the  most  general  voice  of  their  own 
side,  any  man  may  license  his  confessor  to 
reveal  his  confession.  It  is  the  doctrine  of 
Scotus,  Durandus,  Almain,  Navarre,  Me- 
dina, and  generally  of  all  the  Thomists.  I 
infer,  if  a  private  man  may  license  his  con- 
fessor to  reveal  his  confession,  then  the  seal 
of  confession  is  not  founded  upon  any  Di- 
vine commandment ;  for  if  it  were,  the  peni- 
tent could  not  give  the  priest  license  to  break 
it.  But,  if  the  penitent  may  give  his  con- 
fessor leave,  because  the  tie  of  secrecy  is  a 
bond  in  which  the  priest  stands  bound  to 
the  penitent,  and,  he  giving  him  leave,  re- 
mits of  his  own  right,  then  much  rather  may 
a  whole  state  authorize  this  publication  f 
for,  whatever  personal  right  a  private  man 
hath,  that  the  whole  state  hath  much  rather, 
for  he  is  included  in  it  as  a  part  of  the 
whole;  and  in  such  cases  as  concern  the 
whole  commonwealth,  as  this  of  treason 
doth  most  especially,  the  rule  of  the  law 
holds  without  exception,  "  refertur  ad  uni- 
versos,  quod  publice  fit  per  majorem  par- 
tem, "f  the  delinquent  gives  leave  to  the 
publication  of  confession,  therefore,  because 
the  whole  state  doth,  whereof  he  is  one 
member.  I  add,  that  in  the  case  of  treason, 
this  is  much  rather  true,  for  here  the  delin- 
quent loseth  all  his  right  whatsoever,  prae- 
dial,  personal,  and  of  privilege  ;  and,  there- 
fore,^ commonwealth  can  the  better  license 
the  publication,  and  the  breach  of  the  bond 
of  secrecy,  in  which  the  confessor  stood 
tied  to  the  penitent  by  virtue  of  implicit 
stipulation. 

4.  Lastly,  even  in  special,  in  the  very 
case  of  treason  confessed,  many  of  their 
own  do  actually  practise  a  publication,  when 
either  they  are  loyal  of  themselves,  or  dare 
not  be  otherwise. 

I  instance  first  in  the  church  of  France. 
For  this,  see  Bodinus,J  who  reports  of  a 
Norman  gentleman,  whom  his  confessor 
discovered  for  having  confessed  a  treason- 


*  L.  quod  Major,  ff.  ad  Municipalem. 
f  ff.  de  Regal.  Juris,  ad  sec.  refertur.  Lib. 
vii.  sec.  ult.  ff.  de  pact. 
X  De  Republ.  lib.  ii.  c.  5. 


Serm. IX. 


OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  TREASON. 


523 


able  purpose  he  sometimes  had,  of  killing 
Francis  L,  of  which  he  was  penitent,  did 
his  penance,  craved  absolution,  obtained  it, 
but  yet  was  sentenced  to  the  axe  by  ex- 
press commission  from  the  king  to  the  par- 
liament of  Paris.*  The  like  confession  was 
made  by  the  lord  of  Hauterville,  when  he 
was  in  danger  of  death ;  which  when  he 
had  escaped,  he  incurred  it  with  the  disad- 
vantage of  public  infamy  upon  the  scaffold. 
I  instance  not  in  the  case  of  Barriere,  it  is 
every  where  known,  as  it  is  reported  partly 
by  Thuanus,  but  more  fully  by  the  author 
of  "  Histoire  de  la  Paix.'"  Nor  yet  is  France 
singular  in  the  practice  of  publication  of 
confessed  treason.  For  at  Rome  there  have 
been  examples  of  the  like,  I  mean  of  those 
who  confessed  their  purpose  of  killing  the 
pope,  who  were  revealed  by  their  confessors, 
and  accordingly  punished. f 

Thus  then  the  first  pretence  proves  a  nul- 
lity, and  either  our  laws  are  just  in  com- 
manding publication  of  confession  in  case 
of  treason,  or  themselves  very  culpable  in 
teaching  and  practising  it  in  the  same,  and 
in  cases  of  less  moment.  The  second  is 
like  the  first,  for  it  is  extremely  vain  to  pre- 
tend that  the  seal  of  confession  is  founded 
upon  catholic  tradition.  Judge  by  the  sequel. 

The  first  word  I  hear  of  concealing  con- 
fessions, is  in  Sozomen,+  relating  how  the 
Greek  church,  about  the  time  of  Decius 
the  emperor,  set  over  the  penitents  a  public 
penitentiary  priest,  who  was  bound  to  be 
"Vir  bonse  conversations,  servansque  se- 
eretum,"  "  a  good  man,  and  a  keeper  of 
secrets for,  indeed,  he  was  bound  to  con- 
ceal some  crimes,  in  particular,  those  which 
an  adulteress  had  confessed,  I  mean,  con- 
cerning her  adultery,  as  appears  in  the 
canons  of  St.  Basil. §  But  yet  this  priest 
who  was  so  tied  to  a  religious  secresy,  did 
"  publish  many  of  them  in  the  congrega- 
tion before  the  people,"  that  they  might 
leprove  the  delinquent  and  discountenance 
the  sin.  The  same  story  is  reported  by 
Cassiodore  and  Nicephorus  from  the  same 
author. 

The  lawfulness  and  practice  of  publica- 
tion, in  some  cases,  is  as  clear  in  Origen.|| 


*  Histoire  de  Lapaix. 

t  Dominic,  e  Soto  memb.  3.  q.  4.  concl.  2. 
de  rat.  regendi  secret, 
t  Hist.  lib.  vii.  c  16. 

§  Taj  ftot^fv^isas  ytmuxaf  xai  i^ar/opsvaa^ 
Si1  ev&oJSehui  biruosnvfiv  ovx  Exitevsav  ot  HaWpcf 
ruuiv. — Epist.  ad  Amphil. 
"  !!  Hamil.  2.  in  Psal.  xxxvii. 


':  If,'"  (saith  he)  '"'the  physician  of  thy  sou! 
perceives  thy  sins  to  be  such  as  to  need  so 
harsh  a  remedy,  as  to  have  them  published 
before  the  assemblies  of  the  people,  that 
others  may  be  admonished,  and  thou  the 
belter  cured,  he  need  be  very  deliberate,  and 
skilful  in  the  application  of  it."  Hitherto, 
no  such  thing  as  a  universal  tradition  for 
the  pretended  inviolable  sacramental  seal; 
for  Origen  plainly,  and  by  them  confessedly, 
speaks  of  such  sins,  as  first  were  privately 
confessed  to  the  priest ;  how  else  should  he 
deliberate  of  their  publication  ?  but  yet  he 
did  so,  and  for  all  the  seal  of  confession, 
sometimes  opened  many  of  them  to  no 
fewer  witnesses  than  a  whole  assembly. 
Thus  it  was,  in  the  Greek  church,  both  law 
and  custom.  But  now  if  we  look  into  the 
Latin  church,  we  shall  find  that  it  was 
taken  up  from  example  of  the  Greeks  and 
sornewhite  practised,  that  some  particular 
sins  should  be  published  in  the  church 
before  the  congregation,  as  it  is  confessed  in 
the  council  of  Mentz,  and  inserted  by  Bur- 
chard  into  his  decree.* 

But  when  the  lay-piety  began  to  cool,  and 
the  zeal  of  some  clergymen  wax  too  hot, 
they  would  needs  heighten  this  custom  of 
publication  of  some  sins,  to  a  law  of  the 
publishing  of  all  sins.  This  being  judged 
to  be  inconvenient,  expressed  the  first  de- 
cree for  the  seal  of  confession  in  the  Latin 
church.  Now  see  how  it  is  uttered,  and 
it  will  sufficiently  inform  us  both  of  the 
practice  and  the  opinion,  which  antiquity 
had  of  the  obligation  to  the  seal. 

"  Illam  contra  aposlolicam  regulam  pra?- 
sumptionem,"  Sec.  that  is,  "it  was  against 
the  apostolical  ordinance,  that  a  law  should 
enjoin  that  the  priest  should  reveal  all  those 
sins  which  had  been  told  him  in  confes- 
sion, "f  It  might  be  done,  so  it  were  not 
required  and  exacted,  and  yet  might  be  so 
required,  so  it  were  not  a  publication  of  all. 
"  Non  enim  omnium  hujusmodi  sunt  pec- 
cata  f9  saith  St.  Leo  :  "  some  sins  are  in- 
convenient to  be  published  it  is  not  fit 
the  world  should  know  all,  therefore  some 
they  might,  or  else  he  had  said  nothing. 
The  reason  which  he  gives,  make  the  busi- 
ness somewhat  clearer,  for  he  derives  it,  not 
from  any  simple  necessity  of  the  thing,  or  a 
Divine  right,  but  lest  men  out  of  inordinate 
love  to  themselves,  "  should  rather  refuse 
to  be  washed  than  buy  their  purity  with  so 

*  Cap.  10.  et  21.  lib.  xix.  c.  37. 
t  Decret,  S.  Leonis.  P.  M.  Epist.  83.  ad  episc. 
Campan. 


524 


A  SERMON  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY.      Serm.  IX. 


much  shame."    The  whole  epistle  hath  i 
many  things  in  it  excellently  to  the  same 
purpose. 

I  say  no  more ;  the  doctrine  and  practice  i 
of  antiquity  is  sufficiently  evident,  and  that 
there  is  nothing  less  than  a  universal  tradi- 
tion for  the  seal  of  confession  to  be  observed 
in  all  cases,  even  of  sins  of  the  highest  ma- 
lignity. 

Thus  these  fathers  confessors  are  made 
totally  inexcusable  by  concealing  a  treason,  : 
which  was  not  revealed  to  them  in  a  formal  i 
confession,  and  had  been  likewise  culpable  : 
though  it  had,  there  being,  as  I  have  shown,  : 
no  such  sacredness  of  the  seal  as  to  be  in-  . 
violable  in  all  cases  whatsoever. 

I  have  now  done  with  the  several  consi-  i 
derations  of  the  persons  to  whom  the  ques-  i 
tion  was  propounded-  they  were  the  fathers  1 
confessors  in  the  day,  but  it  was  Christ  the  i 
Lord,  in  my  text.  The  question  itself  fol-  : 
lows,  "  Shall  we  command  fire  to  come  from  i 
heaven  and  consume  them?" 

The  question  was  concerning  the  fate  of 
a  whole  town  of  Samaria;  in  our  case  it 
was  more,  of  the  fate  of  a  whole  kingdom. 
It  had  been  well  if  such  a  question  had  been 
silenced  by  a  direct  negative,  or  (as  the  i 
judges  of  the  Areopagus  used  to  do)  put  I 
off  "  ad  diem  longissimum,"   that  they  < 
might  have  expected  the  answer  three  ages  i 
after. 

"  De  morte  hominis  nulla  est  cunctatio  i 
longa ;"  no  demur  had  been  too  long  in  a 
case  of  so  much  and  so  royal  blood,  the 
blood  of  a  king,  of  a  king's  children,  of  a 
king's  kingdom.  npia/*oj  Uputfioco  te  rtatfcs, 
king  and  kingdom  should  have  been  made 
a  solemn  sacrifice  to  appease  their  solemn 
deliberate  malice.  I  said  "  deliberate,"  for 
they  were  loth  to  be  malicious  without  good 
advice,  and  therefore  they  asked  their  ques- 
tion, worthy  of  an  oracle  even  no  less  than 
Delphic,  where  an  evil  spirit  was  the  "  nu- 
men,"  and  a  witch  the  prophet.  For  the 
question  was  such  of  which  a  Christian 
could  not  doubt,  though  he  had  been  fear- 
fully scrupulous  in  his  resolutions.  For 
who  ever  questioned  the  unlawfulness  of 
murder,  of  murdering  innocents,  of  mur- 
dering them  who  were  confessed  righteous? 
For  such  was  their  proposal ;  being  rather 
willing  that  catholics  should  perish  with 
those  whom  they  thought  heretics,  than 
that  there  should  be  no  blood  spilt. 

But  to  the  question.  It  was  fire  they 
called  for,  the  most  merciless  of  all  the  ele- 
ments, no  possibility  of  relenting  when 


once  kindled,  and  had  its  object.  It  was 
the  fittest  instrument  for  merciless  men, 
men  of  no  bowels,  whose  malice,  like  their 
instrument,  did  "agere  ad  extremum  sua- 
rum  virium,"  "  work  to  the  highest  of  its 
possibility."  Secondly;  it  was  fire  indeed 
they  called  for,  but  not  like  that  in  my 
text,  not  fire  from  heaven.  They  might 
have  called  as  long  and  as  loud  as  those 
priests  did  who  contested  with  Elisha ;  no 
fire  would  have  come  from  heaven  to  have 
consumed  what  they  had  intended  for  a 
sacrifice.  God's  anathemas  post  not  so 
fast  as  ours  do :  "  Deus  non  est  sicut 
homo."  Man  curseth  often  when  God 
blesseth ;  men  condemn  whom  God  ac- 
quits, and,  therefore,  they  were  loth  to 
trust  God  with  their  cause,  they  therefore 
take  it  into  their  own  hands.  And  cer- 
tainly, if  to  their  anathemas  they  add  some 
faggots  of  their  own,  and  gunpowder,  it  is 
odds  but  then  we  may  be  consumed  indeed  ; 
and  so  did  they ;  their  fire  was  not  from 
heaven. 

Lastly,  it  was  a  fire  so  strange,  that  it 
had  no  example.  The  apostles,  indeed, 
pleaded  a  mistaken  precedent  for  the  reason- 
ableness of  their  demand,  they  desired  leave 
to  do  but  "  even  as  Elias  did."  The  Greeks 
only  retain  this  clause,  it  is  not  in  the  bibles 
of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  really  these 
"  Romano-barbari"  could  never  pretend  to 
any  precedent  for  an  act  so  barbarous  as 
theirs.  Adramelech,  indeed,  killed  a  king, 
but  he  spared  the  people  ;  Haman  would 
have  killed  the  people,  but  spared  the  king ; 
but  that  both  king  and  people,  princes  and 
judges,  branch,  and  rush,  aBd  root,  should 
die  at  once,  (as  if  Caligulas  were  actuated 
and  all  England  upon  one  head,)  was  never 
known  till  now,  that  all  the  malice  in  the 
world  met  in  this,  as  in  a  centre.  The 
Sicilian  even-song,  the  matins  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, known  for  the  pitiless  and 
damned  massacres,  were  but  xdrtvov  axiaf 
wap,  "the  dream  of  the  shadow  of  smoke," 
if  compared  with  this  great  fire.  "  In  tam 
occupato  sajculo  fabulas  vulgaris  nequitia 
non  invenit."  This  was  a  busy  age; 
Erostratus  must  have  invented  a  more 
sublimed  malice  than  the  burning  of  one 
temple,  or  not  have  been  so  much  as  spoke 
of  since  the  discovery  of  the  powder-trea- 
son. But  I  must  make  more  haste,  I  shall 
not  else  climb  the  sublimity  of  this  impiety. 
Nero  was  sometimes  the  "  populare  odium," 
was  "  popularly  hated ;"  and  deserved  it 
too ;  for  he  slew  his  master,  and  his  wife, 


Serm. X. 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY. 


525 


and  all  his  family,  once  or  twice  over, 
opened  his  mother's  womb,  fired  the  city, 
laughed  at  it,  slandered  the  Christians  for 
it,  but  yet  all  these  were  but  "  principia 
malorum,"  the  very  first  "  rudiments  of 
evil."  Add  then  to  these,  Herod's  master- 
piece at  Ramah,  as  it  was  deciphered  by 
the  tears  and  sad  threnes  of  the  matrons  in 
a  universal  mourning  for  the  loss  of  their 
pretty  infants  ;  yet  this  of  Herod  will  prove 
but  an  infant  wickedness,  and  that  of  Nero, 
the  evil  but  of  one  city.  I  would  willingly 
have  found  out  an  example,  but  I  see  I  can- 
not, should  I  put  into  the  scale  the  extract 
of  all  the  old  tyrants  famous  in  antique 
stories, 

"  Bistonii  stabulum  regis.  Busiridis  aras, 
Antiphata?  mensas,  et  Taurica  regna  Thoantis." 

Should  I  take  for  true  story  the  highest 
cruelty  as  it  was  fancied  by  the  most  hiero- 
glyphical  Egyptian,  this  alone  would  weigh 
them  down,  as  if  the  Alps  were  put  in 
scale  against  the  dust  of  a  balance.  For 
had  this  accursed  treason  prospered,  we 
should  have  had  the  whole  kingdom  mourn 
for  the  inestimable  loss  of  its  chiefest  glory, 
its  life,  its  present  joy,  and  all  its  very  hopes 
for  the  future.  For  such  was  their  destined 
malice,  that  they  would  not  only  have  in- 
flicted so  cruel  a  blow,  but  have  made  it 
incurable,  by  cutting  off  our  supplies  of 
joy,  the  whole  succession  of  the  line  royal. 
Not  only  the  vine  itself,  but  all  the  "  gem- 
niulffi,"  and  the  tender  olive-branches  should 
either  have  been  bent  to  their  intentions, 
and  made  to  grow  crooked,  or  else  been 
broken. 

And  now  after  such  a  sublimity  of  malice, 
I  will  not  instance  in  the  sacrilegious  ruin 
of  the  neighbouring  temples,  which  needs 
must  have  perished  in  the  flame,  nor  in  the 
disturbing  the  ashes  of  our  entombed  kings, 
devouring  their  dead  ruins,  like  sepulchral 
dogs,  these  are  but  minutes,  in  respect  of 
the  ruin  prepared  for  the  living  temples. 

Stragem  sed  istam  non  tulit 
Christus  cadentum  principum 
Impune,  ne  forsan  sui 
Patris  periret  fabrica. 

Ergo  qua?  poterit  lingua  retexere 
Laudes.  Christe,  tuas,  qui  domitum  struis 
Infidum  populum  cum  duce  perfido  ? 

Prudent.  Hymn. 

Let  us  then  return  to  God  the  cup  of  thanks- 
giving, he  having  poured  forth  so  largely  to 
us  of  the  cup  of  salvation.  We  cannot 
want  wherewithal  to  fill  it,  here  is  matter 
enough  for  an  eternal  thankfulness,  for  the 


expression  of  which  a  short  life  is  too  little; 
but  let  us  here  begin  our  hallelujahs,  hoping 
to  finish  them  hereafter,  where  the  many 
choirs  of  angels  will  fill  the  concert. 

Praise  the  Lord,  ye  house  of  Levi ;  ye 
tha't  fear  the  Lord,  praise  the  Lord.  Praise 
the  Lord  out  of  Sion,  which  dwelleth  at 
Jerusalem.* 


SERMON  X. 

THE  WHOLE  DUTY  OF  THE  CLERGY  IX  LIFE, 
BELIEF,  AND  DOCTRINE,  DESCRIBED  AND 
PRESSED  EFFECTUALLY  UPON  THEIR  CON- 
SCIENCES, IN  TWO  SERMONS  ON  TIT.  II.  7, 
8.  PREACHED  IN  SO  MANY  SEVERAL  VISI- 
TATIONS. 

j  In  all  things  showmg  thyself  a  pattern  of  good 
works  :  in  doctrine  showing  uncorruptness, 
gravity,  sincerity, 
Sound  speech,  that  cannot  be  condemned;  that  he 
that  is  of  the  contrary  part,  may  be  ashamed, 
having  no  evil  thing  to  say  to  yon. — Tit.  ii.  7,  8. 

As  God,  in  the  creation  of  the  world,  first 
produced  a  mass  of  matter,  having  nothing 
in  it  but  an  obediential  capacity  and  pas- 
sivity;  which  God  separated  into  classes  of 

\  division,  gave  to  every  part  a  congruity  to 

■  their  respective  forms,  which,  in  their  dis- 
tinct orbs  and  stations,  they  did  receive  in 
order,  and  then  were  made  beauteous  by 
separations  and  a  new  economy;  and  out 
of  these  he  appointed  some  for  servants,  and 
some  for  government;  and  some  to  eat,  and 
some  to  be  eaten;  some  above,  aud  some 
below;  some  to  be  useful  to  all  the  rest,  and 
all  to  minister  to  the  good  of  man,  whom  he 

:  made  the  prince  of  the  creation,  and  a  minis- 
ter of  the  Divine  glory. — So  God  hath  also 

1  done  in  the  new  creation ;  all  the  world  was 
concluded  under  sin  ;  it  was  a  corrupt  mass ; 
all  mankind  "  had  corrupted  themselves  ;" 

,  but  yet  were  capable  of  Divine  influences, 
and  of  a  nobler  form,  producible  in  the  new 
birth:  here  then  God's  Spirit  moves  upon 
the  waters  of  a  Divine  birth,  and  makes  a 
separation  of  part  from  part,  of  corruption 
from  corruption  ;  and  first  chose  some  fami- 
lies to  whom  he  communicated  the  Divine 
influences  and  the  breath  of  a  nobler  life; 
Seth  and  Enoch,  Noah  and  Abraham,  Job 
and  Bildad,  and  these  were  the  special  repo- 
sitories of  the  Divine  grace,  and  prophets 
of  righteousness  to  glorify  God  in  them- 
selves, and  in  their  sermons  unto  others. 

*  Psal.  cxxxv.  20,  21. 


526 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  X. 


But  this  was  like  enclosing  of  the  sun ;  he 
that  shuts  him  in,  shuts  him  out;  and  God, 
who  was  and  is  an  infinite  goodness,  would 
not  be  circumscribed,  and  limited  to  a  nar- 
row circle;  goodness  is  his  nature,  and  infi- 
nite is  his  measure,  and  communication  of 
that  goodness  is  the  motion  of  that  eternal 
being :  God,  therefore,  breaks  forth  as  out 
of  a  cloud,  and  picks  out  a  whole  nation ; 
the  sons  of  Israel  became  his  family,  and 
that  soon  swelled  into  a  nation,  and  that 
nation  multiplied,  till  it  became  too  big  for 
their  country,  and  by  a  necessary  dispersion 
went,  and  did  much  good,  and  gained  some 
servants  to  God  out  of  other  parts  of  man- 
kind. But  God  was  pleased  to  cast  lots 
once  more,  and  was  like  the  sun  already 
risen  upon  the  earth,  who  spreads  his  rays 
to  all  the  corners  of  the  habitable  world, 
that  all  that  will  open  their  eyes  and  draw 
their  curtains,  may  see  and  rejoice  in  his 
light.  Here  God  resolved  to  call  all  the 
world ;  he  sent  into  the  highways  and  hedges, 
to  the  corners  of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  high- 
ways of  the  Jews,  all  might  come  that 
would;  for  "  the  sound  of  the  gospel  went 
out  into  all  lands  :"  and  God  chose  all  that 
came,  but  all  would  not;  and  those  that  did, 
he  gathered  into  a  fold,  marked  them  with 
his  own  mark,  sent  his  Son  to  be  "  the  great 
Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  their  souls ;"  and 
they  became  "  a  peculiar  people  unto  God," 


a  little  flock, 


new  election. 


And  here  is  the  first  separation  and  singu- 
larity of  the  gospel ;  all  that  hear  the  voice 
of  Christ's  first  call,  all  that  profess  them- 
selves his  disciples,  all  that  take  his  signa- 
ture, they  and  their  children  are  the  church, 
an  'Exxiqata,  called  out  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  the  "elect"  and  the  "chosen  of 
God." 

Now  these  being  thus  chosen  out,  culled 
and  picked  from  the  evil  generations  of  the 
world,  he  separates  them  from  others,  to 
gather  them  to  himself ;  he  separates  them 
and  sanctifies  them  to  become  holy  ;  to  come 
out,  not  of  the  companies  so  much,  as  from 
the  evil  manners  of  the  world ;  God  chooses 
them  unto  holiness,  they  are  tstwyfuvot  d$ 
%u>riv  aiwiov,  "  put  in  the  right  order  to  eter- 
nal life." 

All  Christians  are  holy  unto  the  Lord, 
and  therefore  must  not  be  unholy  in  their 
conversation ;  for  nothing  that  is  unholy 
shall  come  near  to  God ;  that  is  the  first 
great  line  of  our  duty ;  but  God  intends  it 
further;  all  Christians  must  not  be  only 
holy,  but  eminently  holy.  For  "  John  indeed 


j baptized  with  water;"  but  that  is  but  a  dull 
I  and  inactive  element,  and  moves  by  no  prin- 
ciple, but  by  being  ponderous  ;  Christ  "  bap- 
tizes with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire," 
and  God  hates  lukewarmness ;  and  when 
he  chooses  to  him  a  peculiar  people,  he 
adds,  they  must  be  "  zealous  of  good  works." 

But  in  this  affair  there  are  many  steps  and 
great  degrees  of  progression.  1.  All  God's 
people  must  be  delivered  from  all  sin ;  for 
as  Christ  came  wholly  "  to  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil,"  so  he  intends  also  "  to 
present  his  church  as  a  pure  virgin  unto 
Christ;"  oujrtfckw,  aftpoaxortov,  f Lluxpivrj,  "  with- 
out scandal,  without  hypocrisy,"  "  without 
spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing  :"  for  to 
be  quit  from  sin,  that  is,  from  all  affection 
to  it,  is  supposed  in  the  Christian's  life ; 
"  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts," 
and  "  being  cleansed  from  all  filthiness  of 
flesh  and  spirit,"  and  "  having  escaped  from 
all  corruption  that  is  in  the  world  through 
lust;"  this  is  not  so  much  commanded  as 
supposed :  without  this,  nothing  can  be 
done,  nothing  can  be  hoped  :  this  is  but  the 
foundation  of  the  Christian,  who  is  intended 
to  be  *?  a  habitation  of  God,"  fi  a  member 
of  Christ,"  "  a  temple  of  the  holy  Spirit  of 
God:"  the  building  follows. 

2.  All  Christians  must  acquire  all  the 
graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God :  St.  Peter 
gives  the  catalogue ;  "  faith,  and  virtue,  and 
knowledge,  and  temperance,  and  patience, 
and  godliness,  and  brotherly  kindness,  and 
charity  :"*  and  that  you  may  see  what  is 
the  spirit  of  a  Christian,  what  an  activity 
and  brisk  principle  is  required  to  the  acqui- 
sition of  these  things ;  the  apostle  gives  this 
precept,  that  for  the  acquiring  these  things, 
"we  should  give"  rtcioav  67tov8rjv,  "all  dili- 
gence ;"  no  lazy  worker  is  a  good  Christian, 
he  must  be  diligent;  and  not  every  dili- 
gence, nor  every  degree  of  good  diligence ; 
but  it  must  be  all,  "  omnem  omnino  diligen- 
tiam,"  "  give  all  diligence." 

3.  There  is  yet  another  degree  to  be  added 
hereto :  it  is  not  enough  for  a  Christian  to 
be  free  from  corruption,  and  to  have  these 
graces ;  and  therefore  to  be  diligent,  very 
diligent  to  obtain  them ;  but  "  they  must  be 
in  us,  and  abound. "f  N.  B.  they  must  be 
in  us;  these  graces  and  this  righteousness 
must  be  inherent ;  it  is  not  enough  for  us 
that  Christ  had  them  for  us ;  for  it  is  true, 
if  he  had  not  had  them,  we  should  never 
have  received  those,  or  any  thing  else  that 


*  2  Pet.  i.  5. 


t  2  Pet.  i.  8. 


Serm.  X. 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


527 


is  good :  but  he  had  them,  that  we  might 
have  them,  and  follow  his  steps  who  knew 
no  sin,  and  fulfilled  all  righteousness.  They 
"must  be  in  us,"  saith  St.  Peter;  and  not 
only  so,  they  must  also  abound  in  us;  that 
is  the  end  of  Christ's  death ;  that  is  the 
fruit  of  his  Spirit :  they  must  be  plentiful, 
like  a  full  vintage,  or  like  Euphrates  in  the 
time  of  ripe  fruits ;  they  must  swell  over 
the  banks  :  for  when  they  are  out  "  in  gradu 
virtutis,"  "  in  the  lowest  step  of  sincerity," 
they  may  fall  from  the  tree  like  unripe  fruit, 
and  be  fit  for  nothing  but  for  prodigals  and 
swine ;  they  must  be  in  their  season  and 
period,  great,  and  excellent,  and  eminent; 
they  must  take  up  all  our  faculties,  fill  up 
all  our  time,  spend  all  our  powers,  satisfy 
the  will,  and  be  adequate  to  all  the  powers 
of  our  choice;  that  is,  as  St.  Peter  adds, 
they  must  be  so,  that  we  "  make  our  calling 
and  election  sure;"  so  as  that  we  shall  never 
any  more  depart  from  God  :  well,  thus  far, 
you  see  how  severe  and  sacred  a  thing  it  is 
to  be  a  Christian. 

4.  But  there  are  yet  three  steps  more  be- 
yond this:  God  requires  of  us  perseverance ; 
a  thrusting  all  this  forward,  even  unto  the 
end  :  "  without  peace  and  holiness  no  man 
shall  see  God,"#  saith  the  author  to  the 
Hebrews  ;  but  that  is  not  all ;  SvJtxste  dprjvipj 
xal  wytaGfxbv,  "follow  after  peace  and  holi- 
ness with  all  men,"  dV«v  ol,  "without 
which ;"  it  is  not  oivsv  vj$  ftp^?,  **  without 
which  peace,"  but  avsv  ov  Suaxew,  "  without 
which  following  of  peace  and  holiness  ;" 
that  is,  unless  we  endure  all  contradiction 
of  sinners  and  objections ;  without  follow- 
ing it  close  and  home  to  the  utmost  issue,  to 
the  end  of  all  righteousness,  tending  even  to 
comprehension,  to  consummation  and  per- 
fection, no  man  shall  see  God ;  Bioixeiv  iv 
ayiafytcp,  is  good  and  great,  "  to  dwell  in 
holiness ;"  but  that  is  not  enough,  it  must 
be  Sutxsip  too,  we  must  still  pursue  it,  and 
that  unto  the  end :  "  for  he  that  endureth 
unto  the  end  shall  be  saved." 

5.  And  what  more?  yes,  there  is  some- 
thing yet :  for  besides  this  extension  of  dura- 
tion, there  must  be  "  intensio  graduum  :" 
for  "nondum  comprehendimus,  nondum 
perfecti  sumus ;"  "  we  have  not  yet  com- 
prehended, we  are  not  yet  made  perfect;" 
but  that  must  be  aimed  at :  "  Be  ye  perfect 
as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect;" — be 
"  ye  meek  as  Christ  is ;" — "  be  ye  holy  as 
God  is  holy  ;" — "  pure  as  your  Father  in 


*  Heb.  xii.  14. 


heaven  is  pure:" — and  who  can  be  so?  no 
man  can  be  so  in  degree,  but  so  in  kind ; 
every  man  must  desire,  and  every  man 
must  contend  to  be,  and  therefore  it  is  pos- 
sible, else  it  had  never  been  required. 

6.  And  now  after  all  this,  one  thing  more 
is  to  be  done  :  you  must  be  so  for  your- 
selves, and  you  must  be  so  for  others:  you 
must  be  so  as  to  please  God,  and  you  must 
be  so  to  edify  your  brethren  :  "  Let  your 
light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may 
glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven:" 
let  it  be  so  eminent  and  conspicuous,  that 
all  that  see  your  conversation,  and  all  that 
come  into  your  congregations,  may  be  con- 
vinced, and  "  falling  down  and  worship- 
ping, may  say,  of  a  truth,  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is  in  you."  And  therefore  our  blessed 
Saviour,  in  his  sermon  upon  the  mounts 
which  is  the  summary  of  a  Christian's  life, 
— at  the  end  of  the  eight  beatitudes,  tells  all 
his  followers  and  disciples  :  "  Ye  are  the 
salt  of  the  world,  ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world  ;"  and  therefore  "the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  or  the  gospel,  is  compared  "  to  a 
woman  that  hid,  in  three  measures  of  meal," 
— the  Jews,  the  Turks,  the  heathen  idola- 
ters,— "  her  leaven,  till  all  was  leavened  :" 
our  light  must  be  so  shining,  our  conversa- 
tion so  exemplar,  as  to  draw  all  the  world 
after  us;  that  they  that  will  not,  may  be 
ashamed,  and  they  that  will,  may  be  allured 
by  the  beauty  of  the  flame.  These  are  the 
proportions  and  measures  of  every  Chris- 
tian ;  for  "  from  the  days  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist, the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffers  violence, 
and  the  violent  take  it  by  force ;"  that 
although  "  John  the  Baptist  was  the  greatest 
that  ever  was  bom  of  woman,"  yet  he  that 
"is  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  the 
meanest  of  the  laity,  may  be  "  greater  than 
he."  This  is  a  great  height:  and  these 
things  I  have  premised,  not  only  to  describe 
the  duty  of  all  that  are  here  present,  even 
of  all  Christians  whatsoever,  that  you  may 
not  depart  without  your  portion  of  a  bless- 
ing ;  but  also  as  a  foundation  of  the  ensuing 
periods,  which  I  shall  address  to  you,  my 
brethren  of  the  clergy,  the  fathers  of  the 
people ;  for  I  speak  in  a  school  of  the  pro- 
phets, prophets  and  prophets'  sons  ;  to  you 
who  are,  or  intend  to  be  so. 

For  God  hath  made  a  separation  of  you 
even  beyond  this  separation  :  he  hath  sepa- 
rated you  yet  again ;  he  hath  put  you  anew 
into  the  crucible ;  he  hath  made  you  to  pass 
through  the  fire  seven  times  more.  For  it  is 
true,  that  the  whole  community  of  the  peo- 


528 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  X. 


pie  is  the  church;  "  Ecclesia  sancta  est j 
communio  sanctorum,"  "  the  holy  catholic 
church  is  the  communion  of  saints  ;"  but  yet, 
by  the  voice  and  consent  of  all  Christendom, 
you  are  the  church,  by  way  of  propriety, 
and  eminency,  and  singularity;  "church- 
men,"— that  is  your  appellative:  all  are 
av8ps$  7ii>sv/j.attxoi,  "spiritual  men;"  all  have 
received  the  Spirit,  and  all  walk  in  the  Spirit, 
and  ye  are  all "  sealed  by  the  Spirit  unto  the 
day  of  redemption  ;"  and  yet  there  is  a  spi- 
rituality peculiar  to  the  clergy  :  "  If  any  man 
be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual, 
restore  such  a  one  in  the  spirit  of  meek- 
ness you  who  are  spiritual  by  office  and 
designation,  of  a  spiritual  calling,  and  spi- 
ritual employment ;  you  who  have  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  minister  the  Spirit  of 
God,  you  are  more  eminently  spiritual;  you 
have  the  Spirit  in  graces  and  in  powers,  in 
sanctiflcation  and  abilities,  in  office  and  in 
person ;  the  unction  from  above  hath  de- 
scended upon  your  heads  and  upon  your 
hearts  :  you  are  xat,  i%o%riv  "  by  way  of  emi- 
nency" and  prelation,  "spiritual  men." 
All s<  the  people  of  God  were  holy  ;"  Koran 
and  his  company  were  in  the  right  so  far ; 
but  yet  Moses  and  Aaron  were  more  holy, 
and  stood  nearer  to  God.  AIL  the  people  are 
prophets  :  it  is  now  more  than  Moses'  wish, 
for  the  Spirit  of  Christ  hath  made  them  so : 
"  If  any  man  prayeth  or  prophesieth  with  his 
head  covered ;"  or  "  if  any  woman  pro- 
phesieth with  her  head  uncovered,"  they 
are  dishonoured :  but  either  man  or  woman 
may  do  that  work  in  time  and  place ;  for  "  in 
the  latter  days  I  will  pour  out  of  my  Spirit, 
and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy ;"  and 
yet,  God  hath  appointed  in  his  church  pro- 
phets above  these,  to  whose  spirit  all  the 
other  prophets  are  subject;  and  as  God  said 
to  Aaron  and  Miriam  concerning  Moses,  "  to 
you  I  am  known  in  a  dream  or  a  vision,  but 
to  Moses  I  speak  face  to  face ;"  so  it  is  in  the 
church ;  God  gives  of  his  Spirit  to  all  men, 
but  you  he  hath  made  the  ministers  of  his 
Spirit :  nay,  the  people  have  their  portion 
of  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  so  said 
St.  Paul ;  "  To  whom  ye  forgive  any  thing, 
to  him  I  forgive  also:"  and  to  the  whole 
church  of  Corinth  he  gave  a  commission, 
"  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  by  his  Spirit 
to  deliver  the  incestuous  person  unto  Satan ;" 
and  when  the  primitive  penitents  stood  in 
their  penitential  stations,  they  did  "  Charis 
Dei  adgeniculari,  et  toti  populo  legationem 


*  Gal.  vi.  1. 


orationis  suse  commendare ;"  and  yet  the 
keys  were  not  only  promised,  but  given  to 
the  apostles,  to  be  used  then,  and  transmitted 
to  all  generations  of  the  church  ;  and  we  are 
"  ministers  of  Christ,  and  stewards  of  the 
manifold  mysteries  of  God;  and  to  us  is 
committed  the  word  of  reconciliation."  And 
thus,  in  the  consecration  of  the  mysterious 
sacrament,  the  people  have  their  portion; 
for  the  bishop  or  the  priest  blesses,  and  the 
people,  by  saying  "  Amen"  to  the  mystic 
prayer  is  partaker  of  the  power,  and  the 
whole  church  hath  a  share  in  the  power  of 
spiritual  sacrifice  ;  "  Ye  are  a  royal  priest- 
hood, kings  and  priests  unto  God ;"  that  is, 
so  ye  are  priests  as  ye  are  kings ;  but  yet 
kings  and  priests  have  a  glory  conveyed  to 
them,  of  which  the  people  partake  but  in 
minority,  and  allegory,  and  improper  com- 
munication :  but  you  are,  and  are  to  be  re- 
spectively, that  considerable  part  of  man- 
kind, by  whom  God  intends  to  plant  holiness 
in  the  world ;  by  you  God  means  to  reign 
in  the  hearts  of  men  ;  and  therefore  you  are 
to  be  the  first  in  this  kind,  and  consequently 
the  measure  of  all  the  rest:  to  you,  therefore, 
I  intend  this,  and  some  following  discourses, 
in  order  to  this  purpose  :  I  shall  but  now  lay 
the  first  stone,  but  it  is  the  corner-stone  in 
this  foundation. 

But  to  you,  I  say,  of  the  clergy,  these  things 
are  spoken  properly ;  to  you  these  powers 
are  conveyed  really;  upon  you  God  hath 
poured  his  spirit  plentifully ;  you  are  the 
choicest  of  his  choice,  the  elect  of  his  elec- 
tion, a  church  picked  out  of  the  church, 
vessels  of  honour  for  your  Master's  use,  ap- 
pointed to  teach  others,  authorized  to  bless  in 
his  name ;  you  are  the  ministers  of  Christ's 
priesthood,  under-labourers  in  the  great  work 
of  mediation  and  intercession,  "  Medii  inter 
Deum  et  populum;"  you  are  for  the  people 
towards  God,  and  convey  answers  and  mes- 
sages from  God  to  the  people :  these  things 
I  speak,  not  only  to  magnify  your  office,  but 
to  enforce  and  heighten  your  duty;  you  are 
holy  by  office  and  designation  ;  for  your  very- 
appointment  is  a  sanctiflcation  and  a  con- 
secration ;  and  therefore  whatever  holiness 
God  requires  of  the  people  who  have  some 
little  portions  in  the  priesthood  evangelical, 
he  expects  it  of  you,  and  much  greater,  to 
whom  he  hath  conveyed  so  great  honours, 
and  admitted  so  near  unto  himself,  and  hath 
made  to  be  the  great  ministers  of  his  king- 
dom and  his  Spirit :  and  now,  as  Moses  said 
to  the  Levilical  schismatics,  Korah  and  his 
company,  so  I  may  say  to  you  ;  "  Seemeth 


Serm.  X. 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


529 


it  bit  a  small  thing  unto  you,  that  the  God 
of  Israel  hath  separated  you  from  the  con- 
gregation of  Israel  to  bring  you  to  himself,  to 
do  the  service  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord, 
and  to  stand  before  the  congregation  to  mi- 
nister to  them  ?  And  he  hath  brought  thee 
near  to  him."*  Certainly,  if  of  every  one  of 
the  Christain  congregation  God  expects  a 
holiness  that  mingles  with  no  unclean  thing  ; 
if  God  will  not  suffer  of  them  a  lukewarm 
and  an  indifferent  service,  but  requires  zeal 
of  his  glory,  and  that  which  St.  Paul  calls 
the  rtovoi  rrj  ayditr^,  "  the  labour  of  love  ;M 
if  he  will  have  them  to  be  "  without  spot  or  J 
wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing  ;"  if  he  will  not 
endure  any  pollution  in  their  flesh  or  spirit ; 
if  he  requires  that  their  bodies,  and  souls,  and  j 
spirits  be  kept  blameless  unto  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  ;  if  he  accepts  of  none  of 
the  people,  unless  they  have  within  them 
the  conjugation  of  all  Christian  graces  ;  if  he 
calls  on  them  to  abound  in  every  grace 
and  that  to  all  the  periods  of  their  progres- 
sion, unto  the  ends  of  their  lives,  and  to  the 
consummation  and  perfection  of  grace ;  if 
he  hath  made  them  lights  in  the  world,  and 
the  salt  of  the  earth,  to  enlighten  others  by 
their  good  example,  and  to  teach  them  and 
invite  them  by  holy  discourses,  and  wise 
counsels,  and  speech  seasoned  with  salt; 
what  is  it,  think  ye,  or  with  what  words  is 
it  possible  to  express  what  God  requires  of 
you  7  They  are  to  be  examples  of  good  life 
te  one  another ;  but  you  are  to  be  examples 
even  of  the  examples  themselves :  that  is  your 
duty,  that  is  the  purpose  of  God,  and  that  is  j 
the  design  of  my  text,  "That  in  all  things  ye  | 
show  yourselves  a  pattern  of  good  works  ;  j 
in  doctrine  showing  uncorruptness,  gravity, 
sincerity,  sound  speech,  that  cannot  be  con- 
demned ;  that  he  that  is  of  the  contrary  part 
may  be  ashamed,  having  no  evil  thing  to 
say  of  you." 

Here  then  is.  i.  Your  duty.  2.  The  de- 
grees and  excellency  of  your  duty. 

The  duty  is  double:  I,  Holiness  of  life. 
2.  Integrity  of  doctrine.  Both  these  have 
their  heightenings,  in  several  degrees. 

1.  For  your  life  and  conversation,  it  ought 
not  only  to  be  good,  not  only  to  be  holy,  but 
to  be  so  up  to  the  degrees  of  an  excellent 
example ;  "  Ye  must  be  a  pattern." 

2.  Ye  must  be  patterns,  not  only  of  know-  ; 
ledge  and  wisdom,  not  of  contemplation  and 
skill  in  mysteries,  not  of  unprofitable  notions, 
and  ineffective  wit  and  eloquence;  but  of! 


something  that  is  more  profitable,  of  some- 
thing that  may  do  good,  something  by  which 
mankind  shall  be  better;  of  something  that 
shall  contribute  to  the  felicity  and  comfort  of 
the  world;  "a  pattern  of  good  words." 

3:  It  must  not  be  a  ivrto$,  "  a  type"  or 
pattern  to  be  hidden  or  laid  in  tabernacles, 
like  those  images  of  Moloch  and  Remphan, 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment calls  rtua  n^D  "Succoth  Benoth,"  little 
repositories  or  booths  to  hide  their  images 
and  patterns  of  their  gods ;  but  rtopf^oufvoj 
tvTtov,  "  you  must  be  exhibited"  and  shown 
forth,  brought  forth  into  action  and  visibility, 
and  notorious  observation. 

4.  There  is  also  another  mystery  and  duty 
in  this  word  ;  for  Moloch  and  Remphan  they 
were  patterns  and  figures  ,  but  they  were  rvrtoi 
ov?  ertotr^arro.  "  patterns  which  the  people 
made;" — but  to  Titus  St.  Paul  commanded 
that  he  himself  should  be  rtapf^oufroj  rvrtov, 
"'  he  should  give  a  pattern"  to  the  people  : 
that  is,  the  ministers  of  Christ  must  not  be 
framed  according  to  the  people's  humour, 
they  must  not  give  him  rules,  nor  describe 
his  measures;  but  he  should  be  a  rule  to 
them;  he  is  neither  to  live  with  them,  so  as 
to  please  their  humours,  or  to  preach  doc- 
trines "  populo  ut  plaeerent,  quas  fecisset 
fabulas  :"*  but  the  people  are  to  require  the 
doctrine  at  his  mouth,  and  he  is  to  become 
exemplar  to  them,  according  to  the  pattern 
seen  in  the  mount,  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  religion  and  the  example  of  Christ. 

5.  It  must  be  h  naaiv ;  he  must  be  a  pat- 
tern "  in  all  things  :"  it  is  not  enough  that 
the  minister  be  a  loving  person,  a  good 
neighbourly  man,  that  he  be  hospitable,  that 
he  be  not  litigious,  that  he  be  harmless,  and 
that  he  be  diligent;  but  in  every  grace  he 
must  "praeferre  facem,"  "hold  a  torch," 
and  show  himself  a  light  in  all  the  com- 
mands of  God.  These  are  the  measures  of 
his  holiness,  the  pattern  in  his  life  and  con- 
versation. 

Secondly;  Integrity  of  doctrine.  The 
matter  of  the  doctrine  you  are  to  preach, 
hath  in  it  four  qualifications. 

1.  It  must  be  a^ia^opo^,  "  incorrupt ;"  that 
is,  it  must  be  xar  draxoyi'ar  it  must 
be  "  according  to  the  analogy  of  faith,"  nj 
heretical  mixtures,  pure  truths  of  God. 

2.  It  must  be  oe/xros,  "grave,"  and  clean, 
and  chaste  ;  that  is,  auv  $?a-apia$,  no  vain 
and  empty  notions,  little  contentions,  and 
pitiful  disputes;  but  becoming  the  wisdom 


*  Numb.  xvi.  9. 
67 


Tereht. 

2U 


530 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY. 


Serm.  X. 


of  the  guides  of  souls,  and  the  ministers  of 
Christ. 

And  3.  It  must  be  vyvqs,  "sound  speech," 
so  we  read  it;  the  word  properly  signifies 
"  salutary"  and  "  wholesome  ;"  that  is,  such 
as  is  apt  for  edification,  d$  oixoBofiriv  rttsrfcoj 
x<m  aycL7irti  ;  "  for  the  building  men  up  in  a 
most  holy  faith,  and  a  more  excellent  cha- 
rity;" not  feeding  the  people  with  husks 
and  draff,  with  colocynths  and  gourds,  with 
gay  tulips  and  useless  daffodils,  but  with  the 
bread  of  life,  and  medicinal  plants,  springing 
from  the  margin  of  the  fountains  of  salva- 
tion. This  is  the  matter  of  their  doctrine : 
and  this  also  hath  some  heightenings,  and 
excellencies,  and  extraordinaries  :  for, 

4.  It  must  be  axo.tdyvouii'tos,  so  evidently 
demonstrated,  that  "  no  man  shall  be  able 
to  reprove  it;"  so  certainly  holy,  that  no 
man  shall  be  willing  to  condemn  it. 

And  5.  It  must  be  a^9apfoj, sincere,"  not 
polluted  with  foul  intentions  and  little  devices 
of  secular  interests,  complying  with  the  lusts 
of  the  potent,  or  the  humours  of  the  time  ; 
not  biassed  by  partiality,  or  bending  of  the 
flexures  of  human  policy  :  it  must  be  so  con- 
ducted that  your  very  enemies,  schismatics 
and  heretics,  and  all  sorts  of  gainsayers,  may 
see  that  you  intend  God's  glory,  and  the 
good  of  souls  ;  and,  therefore,  that  as  they  can 
say  nothing  against  the  doctrine  delivered, 
so  neither  shall  they  find  fault  with  him  that 
delivers  it:  and  he  that  observes  all  this, 
will  indeed  be  a  pattern  both  of  life  and  doc 
trine ;  both  of  good  words  and  good  works. 

But  I  shall  not  be  so  minute  in  my  dis- 
course, as  in  the  division ;  the  duties,  and 
the  manner  or  degrees  of  the  duties,  I  shall 
handle  together,  and  give  you  the  best  mea- 
sures 1  can,  both  for  institution  of  life  and 
excellency  of  doctrine: — it  is  required  of 
every  one  of  you,  that  in  all  things  you 
show  yourselves  a  pattern  of  good  works. 

That  is  the  first  thing  required  in  a  minis- 
ter; and  this  is,  upon  infinite  accounts,  ne- 
cessary: 1.  In  general.  2.  In  particular. 
1.  In  general.  The  very  first  words  of  the 
whole  psalter  are  an  argument  of  this  ne- 
cessity :  "  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh 
not  in  the  counsel  of  the  ungodly,  nor 
standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners,  nor  sitteth 
in  the  chair  of  the  mockers,"  the  seat  of  the 
scornful.  The  doctor's  chair  or  pulpit  must 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  "  irrisores," 
that  mock  God,  and  mock  the  people;  he 
must  neither  walk  with  them,  nor  stand 
with  them,  nor  sit  with  them  ;  that  is,  he 
nmsJ  "  have  no  fellowship  with  the  un- 


fruitful workers  of  darkness,  but  rather  re- 
prove them  ;"  for  they  that  do  preach  one 
thing,  and  do  another,  are  ovs1?,  "  mock- 
ers ;"  they  destroy  the  benefit  of  the  people, 
and  diminish  the  blessings  of  God;  and 
"  binding  burdens  on  the  people's  shoulders 
which  they  will  not  touch  with  the  top  of 
their  finger,"  they  secretly  laugh  and  mock 
at  the  people,  as  at  the  asses  of  Issachar, 
fit  to  be  cozened  into  unnecessary  burdens. 
These  words  are  greatly  to  be  regarded  :  the 
primitive  church  would  admit  no  man  to 
the  superior  orders  of  the  clergy,  unless, 
among  other  prerequired  dispositions,  they 
could  say  all  of  David's  psalter  by  heart : 
and  it  was  very  well,  besides  many  other 
reasons,  that  they  might  in  the  front  read 
their  own  duty,  so  wisely  and  so  mysteri- 
ously, by  the  Spirit  of  God,  made  prelimi- 
nary to  the  whole  office. 

To  the  same  purpose  is  that  observation 
of  St.  Jerome  made  concerning  the  vesting 
of  the  priests  in  the  Levitical  ministrations ; 
the  priest  put  on  the  humeral,  beset  with 
precious  stones,  before  he  took  the  Xoytw, 
or  the  "  rationale"  upon  his  breast,  to  sig- 
nify, that  first  the  priest  must  be  a  shining 
light,  resplendent  with  good  works,  before 
he  fed  them  with  the  yaxa  toyixbv,  "  the  ra- 
tional milk,"  of  the  word  :  concerning  which 
symbolical  precept,  you  may  please  to  read 
many  excellent  things  to  this  purpose,  in 
St.  Jerome's  epistle  to  Fabiola.  It  will  be 
more  useful  for  us  to  consider  those  severe 
words  of  David :  "  But  unto  the  wicked 
God  saith,  What  hast  thou  to  do  to  declare 
my  statutes,  or  that  thou  shouldst  take  my 
covenant  in  thy  mouth  ;  seeing  thou  hatest 
instruction  and  castest  my  words  behind 
thee?"*  The  words  are  a  sad  upbraiding 
to  all  ungodly  ministers,  and  they  need  no 
commentary ;  for  whatever  their  office  and 
employment  be  to  teach  God's  people,  yet, 
unless  they  regard  the  commandments  of 
God  in  their  heart  and  practice  themselves, 
they  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  word  of 
God,— they  sin  in  taking  the  covenant,  a 
testament  of  God,  into  their  mouth.  God 
said  to  the  sinner,  jrsjn  Raschaah,  that  is, 
"to  him  that  had  sinned  and  had  not  re- 
pented of  his  sins ;"  so  the  Chaldee  para- 
phrase reads  it ;  "  Impio  autem,  qui  non  agit 
pcenitentiam  et  orat  in  praevaricatione,  dixit 
Deus."  Indeed,  if  none  could  be  admitted  to 
this  ministry  but  those  who  had  never  sinned, 
the  harvest  might  be  very  great,  but  the 

*  Psal.  1.  16,  17. 


Slrm.  X. 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


531 


labourers  would  be  extremely  few,  or  rather  j 
none  at  all ;  but,  after  repentance,  they  must 
be  admitted,  and  not  before;  "Iniquitas  j 
opilabit  os  eorum,"  "  iniquity  shall  stop  | 
-Jieir  mouths,"  saith  David  ;*  that  ought  to 
silence  them  indeed :  and  this  was  David's 
care,  when  he  had  fallen  into  the  foul  crimes 
of  murder  and  adultery;  he  knew  himself 
unfit  and  unable,  though  he  were  a  prophet, 
to  teach  others  the  laws  of  God ;  but  when 
he  prayed  to  God  to  restore  him  to  a  free 
spirit,  he  adds  ;  "  Then  will  I  teach  trans- 
gressors thy  ways,  and  sinners  shall  be  con- 
verted unto  thee  :"f  till  then  it  was  to  no  pur- 
pose for  him  to  preach.    "  But  thou,  when 
thou  art  converted,"  said  Christ  to  Peter, 
"  strengthen  thy  brethren."    The  primitive 
church  had  a  degree  of  severity  beyond  this  ; 
for  they  would  not  admit  any  man,  who 
had  done  public  penance,  to  receive  holy 
orders  :  to  which  purpose  they  were  excel- 
lent words  which  P.  Hormisda  spake  in  his 
letters  to  the  bishops  of  Spain,  in  which  he 
exhorts  them  to  the  observation  of  the  an- 
cient canons  of  the  church,  telling  them  that 
"  They  who  are  promoted  to  the  clergy, 
ought  to  be  better  than  others ;"  "  nam 
longa  debet  vitam  suam  probatione  mon- 
strare,  cui  gubernacula  committuntur  eccle- 
siae;  non  negamus,"  &c.  we  deny  not  but 
amongst  the  laity  there  are  many  whose 
manners  are  pleasing  to  God,  but  the  faith- 
ful laws  of  God  seek  for  him  soldiers  that 
are  approved ;  and  they  ought  rather  to  af- 
ford to  others,  by  themselves,  an  example 
of  a  religious  life,  than  require  it  from  them ; 
"  ideoque  nullus  ex  pcenitentibus  debet  or- 
dinari ;  quis  enim  quern  paulo  ante  jacen- 
tem  viderat,  veneretur  antistitem?"  "  None 
of  the  public  penitents  must  be  ordained  ; 
for  who  will  esteem  that  priest  venerable, 
wnom  a  little  before  he  saw  dishonoured  by 
scandalous  and  public  crimes?"    But  this 
is  to  be  understood  of  them  only,  as  the 
prophet  Amos  expresses  it,  "  qui  corripi- 
untur  in  porta"  "who  are  rebuked  in  the 
gate,":}:  condemned  by  public  sentence,  and 
are  blotted  with  the  reproaches  of  the  law. 
But  in  all  cases, 

Turpe  est  doctori,  cum  culpa  redarguit  ipsum. 

The  guilt  of  the  sin  which  a  man  reproves, 
quite  spoils  his  sermon  :  "  ipsam  obmu- 
tescere  facundiam,  si  aegra  sit  conscientia," 
said  St.  Ambrose ;  "  a  sick  conscience  spoils 


the  tongue  of  the  eloquent,  and  makes  it 
stammer."  For  how  shall  any  man  preach 
against  sin,  or  affright  his  people  from  their 
dangers,  if  he  denies  God's  justice?  and  if 
he  thinks  God  is  just,  why  is  not  he  con- 
founded, that,  with  his  own  mouth,  pro- 
nounces damnation  against  himself?  No- 
thing confounds  a  man  so  much,  as  to  be 
judged  out  of  his  own  mouth:  "Esse 
munda  studeat  manus,  quae  diluere  sordes 
curat,"  said  St.  Gregory ;  "  the  hand  that 
means  to  make  another  clean,  should  not 
itself  be  dirty.  But  all  this  is  but  in  general; 
there  are  yet  considerations  more  particular 
and  material. 

1.  A  minister  of  an  evil  life  cannot  do  so 
much  good  to  his  charges  ;  he  cannot  profit 
them,  he  is  not  useful  et$  otxoSo^v,  he  pulls 
down  as  fast,  or  faster  than  he  builds  up. 
"Talmud  absque  opere  non  est  magnum 
Talmud,"  said  the  Jews'  proverb  :  "  a  good 
sermon  without  a  good  example  is  no  very 
good  sermon."  For,  besides  that  such  a 
man  is  contemptible  to  his  people,  con- 
temptible, not  only  naturally,  but  by  Divine 
judgment  (according  to  that  of  the  prophet, 
"  Propter  quod  dedi  vos  contemptibiles  omni 
populo,"  "  for  this  very  reason  I  have  made 
you  to  be  scorned  in  the  eyes  of  all  the 
people"*) :  but  besides  this,  it  is  very  con- 
siderable what  St.  Chrysostom  says  :  "  Si 
praedicas  et  non  facis,  opus  proponis  tan- 
quam  impossibile  :"  "  he  that  preaches  mor- 
tification and  lives  voluptuously,  propounds 
the  duty  as  if  it  were  impossible  :"  for  cer- 
tainly if  it  be  good,  and  if  it  be  possible, 
a  man  will  ask,  why  is  it  not  done?  It  is 
easy  for  him  that  is  well  to  give  a  sick  man 
counsel :  "  Verum  tu  si  hie  esses,  certe  ali- 
ter  sentires ;"  when  it  comes  to  be  his  own 
case,  when  the  sickness  pinches,  and  when 
the  belly  calls  for  meat,  where 's  the  fine  ora- 
tion then  ?  "  Omnia  quaa  vindicaris  in  al- 
tero,  tibi  ipsi  vehementer  fugienda  sunt : 
etenim  non  modo  accusator,  sed  ne  objurga- 
tor  ferendus  est,  qui,  quod  in  altero  vitium 
reprehendit,  in  eo  ipse  deprehenditur :" 
"  whatsoever  you  reprove  in  others,  must 
be  infinitely  avoided  by  yourself;  for  no 
man  will  endure  an  accuser,  no  not  so 
much  as  a  man  to  chide,  for  that  fault  in 
which  himself  was  taken. "f  But  if  your 
charges  see  you  bear  your  sickness  pa- 
tiently, and  your  cross  nobly,  and  despise 
money  generously,  and  forgive  your  enemy 


*  Psal.  cvii.  42.    t  Psal.  li.  13.    t  Amos  v.  10. 


Mai.  A 


t  Cic.  Act  5.  in  Verrem. 


532 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  X. 


bravely,  and  relieve  the  poor  charitably, 
then  he  sees  your  doctrine  is  tangible  and 
material ;  it  is  more  than  words,  and  he 
loves  you,  and  considers  what  you  say.  In 
the  East  the  shepherds  used  to  go  before 
their  sheep,  to  which  our  blessed  Saviour 
alludes,  "  My  sheep  hear  my  voice  and  fol- 
low me;"  but  our  shepherds  are  forced  to 
drive  them,  and  affright  them  with  dogs  and 
noises :  it  were  better  if  themselves  did  go 
before.  3.  A  minister  of  an  evil  life  cannot 
preach  with  that  fervour  and  efficacy,  with 
that  life  and  spirit,  as  a  good  man  does ;  for 
besides  that  he  does  not  himself  understand 
the  secrets  of  religion,  and  the  private  induce- 
ments of  the  Spirit,  and  the  sweetness  of 
internal  joy,  and  the  inexpressible  advan- 
tages of  a  holy  peace;  besides  this,  he  can- 
not heartily  speak  all  that  he  knows;  he 
hath  a  clog  at  his  foot,  and  a  gag  in  his 
teeth;  there  is  a  fear,  and  there  is  a  shame, 
and  there  is  a  guilt,  and  a  secret  willingness 
that  the  thing  were  not  true  ;  and  some  lit- 
tle private  arts  to  lessen  his  own  consent, 
and  to  take  off  the  asperities  and  consequent 
troubles  of  a  clear  conviction.  To  which 
if  we  add,  that  there  is  a  secret  envy  in  all 
wicked  men  against  the  prosperities  of  good- 
ness ;  and  if  I  should  say  no  more,  this 
were  enough  to  silence  a  Boanerges,  and  to 
make  his  thunder  still  and  easy  as  an  oaten 
pipe  :  "  Nonne  id  flagitium  est,  te  aliis  con- 
silium dare,  foris  sapere,  tibi  non  posse  aux- 
iliari  V9  "  That  is  a  burning  shame  and  an 
intolerable  wickedness,  that  a  minister  shall 
be  like  Marcotis,  or  the  statue  of  Mercury, 
show  the  way  to  others,  and  himself  stand 
still  like  a  painted  block ;  to  be  wise  abroad, 
and  a  very  fool  in  his  own  concerns,  and 
unable  to  do  himself  good." — "  Dicit  Res- 
lakis,  'orna  teipsum,  postea  ornato  alios  :'  99 
"  first  trim  thyself,  and  then  adorn  thy  bro- 
ther," said  the  rabbins  ;  but  certain  it  is,  he 
that  cannot  love  to  see  others  better  than 
himself,  it  cannot  be  that  he  should  heartily 
endeavour  it. 

Scilicet  exspectas,  ut  tradat  mater  honestos, 
Atque  alios  mores,  quam  quos  habet  ?  utile  porro 
Filiolam  turpi  vetulee  producere  turpem. — Jttven. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  a  diseased 
father  should  beget  wholsesome  children  : 
like  will  come  from  like,  whether  the  prin- 
ciple be  good  or  evil. 

But,  secondly ;  for  this  is  but  the  apxv 
ut&lvuv ;  this  is  but  the  least  evil ;  there  is  yet 
much  worse  behind.  A  wicked  minister 
cannot  with  success  and  benefit  pray  for 
the  people  of  his  charges ;  and  this  is  a 


great  matter ;  for  prayer  is  the  key  of  Da- 
vid, and  God  values  it  at  so  high  a  rate, 
that  Christ  is  made  the  prince  of  all  inter- 
cession, and  God  hath  appointed  angels  to 
convey  to  his  throne  of  grace  the  prayers 
of  the  saints ;  and  he  hath  made  prophets 
and  priests,  even  the  whole  clergy,  the  pe- 
culiar ministers  of  prayer  :  "  Orabit  pro  eo 
sacerdos ;"  "  the  priest  shall  pray  for  him," 
the  priest  shall  make  an  atonement  for  his 
sin,  and  it  shall  be  forgiven  him.*  And 
God's  anger  is  no  where  more  fiercely  de- 
scribed, than  when  things  come  to  that  pass 
that  he  will  not  hear  the  priest  or  prophet 
praying  for  the  people:  "Pray  not  thou 
for  this  people,  neither  lift  up  prayer  nor  cry 
for  them,  neither  make  intercession  to  me  ; 
for  behold  mine  anger  and  my  fury  shall  be 
poured  out  upon  this  place."f  When  the 
prayers  of  the  gracious  and  acceptable  per- 
sons, the  presidents  of  prayer,  are  forbid- 
den, then  things  are  desperate ;  it  is  a 
greater  excommunication ;  the  man  sins  a 
sin  unto  death ;  and  I  say  not  that  thou 
pray  for  him  that  sins  unto  death."  This, 
I  say,  is  the  priest's  office,  and  if  the  people 
lose  the  benefit  of  this,  they  are  undone.  To 
bishop  Timothy,  St.  Paul  gave  it  in  charge, 
"That  supplications,  and  prayers,  and  in- 
tercessions, be  made  for  all  men."  And  St. 
James  advised  "the  sick  to  send  for  the 
elders  of  the  church,"  (the  bishops  and 
priests,)  "  and  let  them  pray  over  them," 
and  then  "their  sins  shall  be  forgiven 
them."  But  how  ?  that  is  supposed,  the 
minister  prays  fervently,  and  be  a  righteous 
j  man ;  for  "  the  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a 
,  righteous  man  availeth  much ;"  it  is  pro- 
mised on  no  other  terms.  "  Q,ualis  vir,  talis 
I  oratio,"  is  an  old  rule  :  "as  is  the  man,  such 
is  his  prayer."  "  The  prayer  of  the  wicked 
is  an  abomination  to  the  Lord,"  said  Solo- 
mon ;  he  cannot  prevail  for  himself,  much 
less  for  others.  I  remember  that  Bias  being 
once  in  a  storm,  and  a  company  of  villains  in 
the  ship,  being  affrighted,  called  upon  their 
gods  for  help  :  "  Cavete,"  said  he,  "  ne  vos 
dii  interesse  sentiant:"  "  take  heed  lest  the 
gods  perceive  you  to  be  here,"  lest  we  all 
perish  for  your  sakes.  And  upon  surer 
grounds  it  was  that  David  said,  "  If  I  re- 
gard iniquity  in  my  heart,  the  Lord  will  not 
hear  my  prayer."  And  what  then  do  you 
think  will  be  the  event  of  those  assemblies, 
where  he  that  presents  the  prayers  of  all 


*  Numb.  xv.  5.  Lev.  iv.  35. 
t  Jer.  vii.  16,  20. 


Serm.  X. 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


533 


the  people,  is  hateful  to  God?  will  God  re- 
ceive the  oblation  that  is  presented  to  him 
by  an  impure  hand  ?  The  Levitical  priests 
were  commanded  to  wash  before  they  sacri- 
ficed :*  and  every  man  is  commanded  to 
repent  before  he  prays ;  "  My  son,  hast 
thou  sinned,  do  so  no  more;"  and  then, 
"  ask  pardon  for  thy  former  fault."f  And 
can  we  hope  that  the  minister,  who,  "  with 
wrath  and  doubting,"  and  covetousness, 
presents  the  people's  prayers,  that  ever 
those  intercessions  shall  pierce  the  clouds, 
and  ascend  to  the  mercy-seat,  and  descend 
.vith  a  blessing?  Believe  it  not:  a  man 
that  is  ungracious  in  his  life,  can  never  be 
gracious  in  his  office,  and  acceptable  to 
God.  We  are  abundantly  taught  this,  by 
those  excellent  words  of  God  by  the  prophet 
Micah  :  "The  heads  of  Sion  judge  for  re- 
ward, and  the  priests  thereof  teach  for  hire, 
and  the  prophets  thereof  divine  for  money  ; 
yet  will  they  lean  upon  the  Lord,  and  say, 
Is  not  the  Lord  among  us  ?"J  As  if  God 
had  said  nothing  is  so  presumptious  and 
unreasouable  as  to  lean  upon  God,  and 
think  he  will  be  among  us,  when  the  priests 
and  the  prophets  are  covetous  and  wicked. 
No,  he  declares  it  expressly,  (ver.  7.) 
"  Then  shall  the  seers  be  ashamed,  and  the 
diviners  confounded,  yea,  they  shall  all 
cover  their  lips :  for  there  is  no  answer  of 
God."  God  will  not  answer;  for  some- 
times the  case  is  so,  that,  "  though  Noah, 
Daniel,  and  Job  were  there,"  God  would 
not  hear ;  that  is,  when  the  people  are  in- 
corrigibly wicked,  and  the  decree  is  irrevo- 
cably gone  out  for  judgment.  But  there 
are  other  times,  in  which  the  prayers  of 
innocent  people,  being  presented  by  an  un- 
gracious minister  and  intercessor,  are  very 
much  hindered  in  prevailing.  In  such 
cases,  God  is  put  to  extraordinaries  ;  and 
Christ  and  Christ's  angels  are  then  the  sup- 
pletories,  and,  at  the  best,  the  people's 
prayers  go  alone,  they  want  the  assistance 
of  the  "  angel  of  the  church,"  and  they  get 
no  help  or  furtherance  from  him,  and  pro- 
bably very  much  hinderance  :  according  to 
that  of  St.  Gregory:  "Cum  is  qui  displicet, 
ad  intercedendum  mittitur,  irati  animus  ad 
deteriora  provocatur."  Alexander  hated  to 
see  Zercon,  and,  therefore,  if  he  had  inter- 
ceded for  Clytus,  it  would  but  have  hastened 
his  death  :  a  man's  suit  thrives  the  worse 
for  having  a  hated  intercessor.  If,  therefore, 


*  Exod.  xxx.  40.  t  Ecclus. 

t  Cap.  iii.  11. 


he  that  robs  a  church  of  a  patin  or  a  cha^ 
lice,  be  a  sacrilegious  person,  what  is  he 
that  steals  from  the  church  of  God  (so  far 
as  lies  in  him)  the  fruit  of  all  their  holy 
prayers ;  that  corrupts  the  sacrifice,  and 
puts  coloquintida  into  the  cups  of  salvation, 
and  mingles  death  in  the  pottage  provided 
for  the  children  and  disciples  of  the  pro- 
phets? I  can  say  no  more,  but  to  expostu- 
late with  them  in  those  upbraiding  words 
of  God,  in  the  prophet :  "  Do  they  provoke 
me  to  anger,  saith  the  Lord  ?  do  they  not 
provoke  themselves  to  the  confusion  of  their 
own  faces?"*  "  Confundentur  divini,  et 
operient  vultus  suos  omnes  :"f  "all  such 
divines  shall  be  confounded,  and  shall  cover 
their  faces  in  the  day  of  sad  accounts." 
"Divini  sunt,  non  theologi:"  "they  are 
diviners,  and  not  divines,"  witches  rather 
than  prophets ;  they  are  the  sons  of  Bosor, 
and  have  no  portion  in  the  economy  of  God. 
In  short,  if  so  much  holiness  as  I  formerly 
described,  be  required  of  him  that  is  ap- 
pointed to  preach  to  others,  to  offer  spiritual 
sacrifices  for  the  people,  to  bless  the  people, 
to  divert  judgments  from  them,  to  depre- 
cate the  wrath  of  God,  to  make  an  atone- 
ment for  them,  and  to  reconcile  them  to  the 
eternal  mercy  ; — certain  it  is,  that  though 
the  sermons  of  a  wicked  minister  may  do 
some  good,  not  so  much  as  they  ought,  but 
some  they  can  ;  yet  the  prayer  of  a  wicked 
minister  does  no  good  at  all ;  it  provokes 
God  to  anger,  it  is  an  abomination  in  his 
righteous  eyes. 

Thirdly  :  The  ecclesiastical  order  is  by 
Christ  appointed  to  minister  his  Holy  Spirit 
to  the  people;  the  priests,  in  baptism,  and 
the  holy  eucharist,  and  prayer,  and  inter- 
cession ;  the  bishops,  in  all  these,  and  in 
ordination  besides,  and  in  confirmation,  and 
in  solemn  blessing :  now  then  consider 
what  will  be  the  event  of  this  without 
effect :  can  he  minister  the  Spirit,  from 
whom  the  Spirit  of  God  is  departed  ?  And, 
therefore,  since  all  wickedness  does  "grieve 
the  Spirit  of  God,"  and  great  wickedness 
defiles  his  temples,  and  destroys  them  unto 
the  ground,  and  extinguishes  the  Spirit  that 
drives  iniquity  away; — these  persons  are 
no  longer  spiritual  men  ;  "  they  are  carnal, 
and  sold  under  sin,"  and  walk  not  in  the 
Spirit ;  they  are  Spiritual  just  as  Simon 
Magus  was  a  Christian,  or  as  Judas  was 
an  apostle;  he  had  the  name  of  it;  but 
what  says  the  Scripture?  "He  fell  from  it 


Jer.  vii.  19. 


2u  2 


t  Mic.  iii.  7. 


534 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  X. 


by  transgression  ;"  only  this,  as  he  that  is 
baptized  has  for  ever  a  title  to  the  promises, 
and  a  possibility  of  repentance,  and  a  right 
to  restitution,  until  he  renounces  all,  and 
never  will  or  can  repent;  so  there  is  in 
all  our  holy  orders  an  indelible  character, 
and  they  can,  by  a  new  life,  be  restored  to 
all  their  powers ;  but  in.  the  mean  time, 
while  they  abide  in  sin  and  carnality,  the 
cloud  is  over  the  face  of  the  sun,  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  appears  not  in  a  fiery  tongue, 
that  is,  not  in  material  and  active  demon- 
strations; and  how  far  he  will  be  ministered 
by  the  offices  of  an  unworthy  man,  we 
know  not ;  only  by  all  that  is  said  in  Scrip- 
ture we  are  made  to  fear,  that  things  will 
not  be  so  well  with  the  people,  till  the  minis- 
ter be  better;  only  this  we  are  sure  of,  that 
though  one  man  may  be  much  the  worse 
for  another  man's  sin,  yet,  without  his  own 
fault,  no  man  shall  perish ;  and  God  will  do 
his  work  alone;  and  the  Spirit  of  God, 
though  he  be  ordinarily  conveyed  by  eccle- 
siastical ministries,  yet  he  also  comes  irregu- 
larly, and  in  ways  of  his  own,  and  prevents 
the  external  rites,  and  prepossesses  the 
hearts  of  his  servants  ;  and  the  people  also 
have  so  much  portion  in  the  evangelical 
ministration,  that  if  they  be  holy,  they  shall 
receive  the  Holy  Ghost  in  their  hearts,  and 
will  express  him  in  their  lives,  and  them- 
selves also  become  kings  and  priests  unto 
God,  while  they  are  zealous  of  good  works. 
And  to  this  purpose  may  the  proverb  of  the 
Rabbins  be  rightly  understood,  "  Major  est 
qui  respondit  'amen,'  quam  qui  benedicit;" 
M  He  that  says  '  amen,'  is  greater  than  he 
that  blesses  or  prays  ;"  meaning,  if  he  heart- 
ily desires  what  the  other  perfunctorily, 
and  with  his  lips  only,  utters,  not  praying 
with  his  heart,  and  with  the  accepta- 
bilities of  a  good  life,  the  "amen"  shall  be 
more  than  all  the  "prayer,"  and  the  people 
shall  prevail  for  themselves,  when  the  priest 
could  not;  according  to  the  saying  of  Mid- 
rasich  Tehillim.  "  Q,uicunque  dicit '  amen,' 
omnibus  viribus  suis,  ei  aperientur  portse 
paradisi,  sicut  dictum  est,  '  et  ingredietur 
gens  justa  :'"  "  He  that  says  'amen,'  with 
his  whole  power,  to  him  the  gates  of  Para- 
dise shall  be  open,  according  to  that  which 
is  said, — and  the  righteous  nation  shall 
enter  in."  And  this  is  excellently  dis- 
coursed of  by  St.  Austin,  "  Sacramentum 
gratiae  dat  etiam  deus  per  malos;  ipsam 
vero  gratiam  non  nisi  per  seipsum,  vel 
per  sanctos  suos ;"  and,  therefore,  he  gives 
remission  of  sins  by  himself,  or  by  the 


members  of  the  Dove ;  so  that  good  men 
shall  be  supplied  by  God.  But  as  this  is 
an  infinite  comfort  to  the  people,  so  it  is  an 
intolerable  shame  to  all  wicked  ministers  ; 
the  benefit  which  God  intended  to  minister 
by  them,  the  people  shall  have  without  their 
help,  and  whether  they  will  or  not;  but  be- 
cause the  people  get  nothing  by  their  minis- 
tration, or  but  very  little,  the  ministers  shall 
never  have  their  portion,  where  the  good 
people  shall  inhabit  to  eternal  ages :  and  I 
beseech  you  to  consider  what  an  infinite 
confusion  that  will  be  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, when  they,  to  whom  you  have 
preached  righteousness,  shall  enter  into 
everlasting  glory,  and  you  who  have 
preached  it  shall  have  the  curse  of  Hana- 
neel,  and  the  reward  of  Balaam,  "  The 
wages  of  unrighteousness."  But  thus  it 
was,  when  the  wise  men  asked  the  doctors 
where  Christ  should  be  born,  they  told  them 
right ;  but  the  wise  men  went  to  Christ,  and 
found  him,  and  the  doctors  sat  still,  and 
went  not. 

Fourthly  ;  Consider,  that  every  sin  which 
is  committed  by  a  minister  of  religion,  is 
more  than  one,  and  it  is  as  soon  espied  too ; 
for  more  men  look  upon  the  sun  in  an 
eclipse,  than  when  he  is  in  his  beauty  :  tut 
every  spot,  I  say,  is  greater,  every  mote  is 
a  beam ;  it  is  not  only  made  so,  but  it  is  so; 
it  hath  not  the  excuses  of  the  people,  is  not 
pitiable  by  the  measures  of  their  infirmity  : 
and,  therefore,  1.  It  is  reckoned  in  the  ac- 
counts of  malice,  never  of  ignorance  :  for 
ignorance  itself,  in  them,  is  always  a 
double  sin;  and,  therefore,  it  is  very  re- 
markable, that  when  God  gave  command 
to  the  Levitical  priests  to  make  atonement 
for  the  sins  of  ignorance  in  the  people, 
there  is  no  mention  made  of  the  priests'  sin 
of  ignorance;  God  supposed  no  such  thing 
in  them,  and  Moses  did  not  mention  it, 
and  there  was  no  provision  made  in  that 
case,  as  you  may  see  at  large  in  Levit.  iv. 
and  Numb,  xv.*  But  2.  Because  every 
priest  is  a  man  also,  observe  how  his  sin  is 
described,  Levit.  iv.  3.  "  If  the  priest  that 
is  anointed  do  sin  according  to  the  sin  of 
the  people ;"  that  is,  if  he  be  so  degenerate, 
and  descend  from  the  glory  where  God 
hath  placed  him,  and  do  sin  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  people,  then  he  is  to  proceed  to 
remedy :  intimating  that  it  is  infinitely  be- 
sides expectation;  it  is  a  strange  thing,  it 
is  like  a  monstrous  production ;  it  is  unna- 

*  Vide  Origen.  Homil.  ii.  in  Levit. 


Sekm.  X. 


IX  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


535 


tural  that  a  priest  should  sin,  according  as  ture  and  the  law  of  the  gospel  have  taken 
the  people  do;  however,  if  he  does,  it  is  care,  that  "  he  that  serves  at  the  altar  should 
not  connived  at  with  a  sentence  gentle,  as  live  of  the  altar;"  and  he  is  no  hireling  for 
that  finds  which  is  a  sin  of  ignorance,  or  all  that;  but  he  is  a  hireling,  that  does  not 
the  sin  of  the  people:  no,  it  is  not;  for  it  is  do  his  duty ;  he  that  "  flies  when  the  wolf 
always  malice,  it  is  always  uncharitable-  comes,"  says  Christ,  he  that  is  not  present 
ness;  for  it  brings  mischief  to  their  congre-  with  them  in  dangers,  that  helps  them  not 
gations,  and  contracts  their  blessings  into  to  resist  the  devil,  to  master  their  tempta- 
little  circuits,  and  turns  their  bread  into  a  :  tions,  to  invite  them  on  to  piety,  to  gain 
stone,  and  their  wine  to  vinegar:  and  then  souls  to  Christ;  to  him  it  may  be  said,  as 
besides  this,  3.  It  is  also  scandalous,  and  the  apostle  did  of  the  Gnostics,  tvaifcuj.  ton* 
then  it  is  infinitely  against  charity ;  such  rtopscpos,  "  Gain  to  them  is  godliness  ;"  and 
ministers  make  the  people  of  God  to  sin,  theology  is  but  "  artiticium  venale,"  a  trade 
and  that  is  against  the  nature  of  their  office,  of  life,  to  fill  the  belly,  and  keep  the  body 
and  design  of  their  persons:  God  sent  warm.    "An  cuiquam  licere  putas,  quod 
them  to  bring  the  people  from  sin,  and  not  cuivis  non  licet?"    "Is  any  thing  lawful 
to  be  like  so  many  Jeroboams,  the  sons  of  ;  for  thee,  that  is  not  lawful  for  every  man  ?" 
Nebat,  to  set  forward  the  devil's  kingdom,  I  and  if  thou  dost  not  mind,  in  thy  own  case, 
to  make  the  people  to  transgress  the  cove-  i  whether  it  be  lawful  or  not,  then  thou  dost 
nant  of  their  God :  for  they  who  live  more  but  sell  sermons,  and  give  counsel  at  a 
by  example  than  by  precept,  will  more  i  price,  and  like  a  fly  in  the  temple,  taste  of 
easily  follow  the  works  of  their  minister  every  sacrifice,  but  do  nothing  but  trouble 
than  the  words  of  God ;  and  few  men  will  J  the  religious  rites:  for  certain  it  is,  no  man 
aspire  to  be  more  righteous  than  their  takes  on  him  this  office,  but  he  "either 
guide ;  they  think  it  well  if  they  be  as  he  I  seeks  those  things  which  are  his  own,  or 
is  :  and  hence  it  is  no  wonder  that  we  see  j  those  things  which  are  Jesus  Christ's;"  and 
iniquity  so  popular.    "'  Oppida  tota  canem  if  he  does  this,  "  he  is  a  minister  of  Jesus 
venerantur,  nemo  Dianam;"*  every  man  j  Christ;"  if  he  does  the  other,  he  is  "the 
runs  after  his  lusts,  and  after  his  money,  be-  j  hireling,"  and  intends  nothing  but  his  belly, 
cause  they  see  too  many  of  the  clergy  little  ;  and  God  shall  destroy  both  it  and  him." 
looking  after  the  ways  of  godliness.   But  j    7.  Lastly ;  These  things  I  have  said  unto 
then  consider,  let  all  such  persons  consider,  j  you,  that  ye  sin  not :  but  this  is  not  the 
5.  That  the  accounts,  which  an  ungodly  great  thing  here  intended ;   you  may  be 
and  an  irreligious  minister  of  religion  shall  j  innocent,   and  yet  not  "  zealous  of  good 
make,  must  needs  be  intolerable;  when,  j  works:"  but  if  you  be  not  this,  you  are  not 
besides  the  damnation  which  shall  certainly  j  good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ :  but,  that 
be  inflicted  upon  them  for  the  sins  of  their  j  this  is  infinitely  your  duty,  and  indispensa- 
own  lives,  they  shall  also  reckon  for  all  the  bly  incumbent  on  you  all,  besides  the  ex- 


dishonours  they  do  to  God,  and  to  religion, 
and  for  all  the  sins  of  the  people,  which 
they  did  not,  in  all  just  ways,  endeavour  to 
hinder,  and  all  the  sins  which  their  flocks 
have  committed  by  their  evil  example  and 
undisciplined  lives. 


press  words  of  my  text,  and  all  the  precepts 
of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  we  have  the  con- 
current sense  of  the  whole  church,  the  laws 
and  expectations  of  all  the  world,  requiring 
of  the  clergy  a  great  and  an  exemplar  sanc- 
tity :  for,  therefore  it  is,  that,  upon  this  ne- 


6.  I  have  but  two  words  more  to  say  in  j  nessity  is  founded  the  doctrine  of  all  divines 
this  affair:  1.  Every  minister  that  lives  an  ■  in  their  discourses  of  the  stales  and  orders 
evil  life,  is  that  person  whom  our  blessed  of  religion ;  of  which  you  may  largely  in- 
Saviour  means  under  the  odious  appellative  '  form  yourselves  in  Gerson's  Treatise  "  De 
of  a  "  hireling :"  for  he  is  not  the  hireling  perfectione  Religionis,"  in  Aquinas,*  and 
that  receives  wages,  or  that  lives  of  the  in  all  his  scholars  upon  that  question;  the 
altar  ;  "  sine  farina  non  est  lex,"  said  the  sum  of  which  is  this,  thai  all  those  institu- 
doctors  of  the  Jews;  "without  bread-corn  tions  of  religions,  which  St.  Anselm  calls 
no  man  can  preach  the  law:"  and  St.  Paul,  "  factitias  religiones,"  that  is,  the  schools 
though  he  spared  the  Corinthians,  yet  he  \  of  discipline  in  which  men,  forsaking  the 
took  wages  of  other  churches,  of  all,  but  in  j  world,  give  themselves  up  wholly  to  a 
.he  regions  of  Achaia ;  and  the  law  of  na-  (  pious  life,  they  are  indeed  very  excellent  if 


t  Juvenal, 


*  2.  2.  q.  1S4. 


536  THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY  Serm.  X. 


rightly  performed;  they  are  "  status  perfec- 
tions acquirendoe,"  they  are  excellent  insti- 
tutions "for the  acquiring  perfection ;"  but 
the  state  of  the  superior  clergy  is  "status 
perfectionis  exercendse,"   they  are  states 
which  suppose  perfection  to  be  already  in 
great  measures  acquired,  and  then  to  be  ex- 
ercised, not  only  in  their  own  lives,  but  in 
the  whole  economy  of  their  office :   and,  | 
therefore,  as  none  are  to  be  chosen  but  those 
who  have  given  themselves  up  to  the  strict- 
ness  of  a  holy  life, — so  far  as  can  be  known ; 
so  none  do  their  duty,  so  much  as  tolerably, 
but  those  who,  by  an  exemplar  sanctity, ' 
become  patterns  to  their  flocks  of  all  good  j 
works.    Herod's  doves  could  never  have  I 
invited  so  many  strangers  to  their  dove- ' 
cotes,  if  they  had  not  been  besmeared  with 
opobals  amum:  hut  tav  fxvpci  x?l^"fli  fo^fispujts- 
po$,  xai  tfcofti/  <i?aav  alossw,  said  Didymus  ;*  1 
"  Make  your  pigeons  smell  sweet,  and  they  ; 
will  allure  whole  flocks;"  and  if  your  life  ! 
be  excellent,  if  your  virtues  be  like  a  pre-  j 
cious  ointment,  you  will  soon  invite  your  j 
charges  to  run  "in  odorem  unguentorum,"  ! 
after  your  precious  odours  :"  but  you  must ! 
be  excellent,  not  "tanquam  unus  de  popu- 
lo,"  "  but  tanquam  homo  Dei ;"  you  must 
be  a  man  of  God,  not  after  the  common 
manner  of  men,  but   "after  God's  own 
heart;"  and  men  will  strive  to  be  like  you, 
if  you  be  like  to  God  :  but  when  you  only 
stand  at  the  door  of  virtue,  for  nothing  but 
to  keep  sin  out,  you  will  draw  into  the  folds 
of  Christ  none  but  such  as  fear  drives  in. 
"  Ad  majorem  Dei  gloriam,"  "  To  do  what 
will  most  glorify  God,"  that  is  the  line  you 
must  walk  by  :  for  to  do  no  more  than  all 
men  needs  must,  is  servility,  not  so  much 
as  the  affection  of  sons  ;  much  less  can  you 
be  fathers  to  the  people,  when  you  go  not 
so  far  as  the  sons  of  God  :  for  a  dark  lan- 
tern, though  there  be  a  weak  brightness  on 
one  side,  will  scarce  enlighten  one,  much 
less  will  it  conduct  a  multitude,  or  allure 
many  followers,  by  the  brightness  of  its 
flame.     And  indeed,  the  duty  appears  in 
this,  that  many  things  are  lawful  for  the 
people,  which  are  scandalous  in  the  clergy; 
you  are  tied  to  more  abstinences,  to  more 
severities,  to  more  renunciations  and  self- 
denials,  you  may  not  with  that  freedom  re- 
ceive secular  contentments  that  others  may ; 
you  must  spend  more  time  in  prayers,  your 
alms  must  be  more  bountiful,  your  hands 
more  open,  your  hearts  enlarged  ;  others 


*  Geoponic.  lib.  14. 


must  relieve  the  poor,  you  must  take  care 
of  them ;  others  must  show  themselves  their 
brethren,  but  you  must  be  their  fathers ; 
they  must  pray  frequently  and  fervently,  but 
you  must  give  "  yourselves  up  wholly  to 
the  word  of  God  and  prayer  ;"  they  must 
"  watch  and  pray,  that  they  fall  not  into 
temptation,"  but  you  must  watch  for  your- 
selves and  others  too ;  the  people  must 
mourn  when  they  sin,  but  you  must  mourn 
for  your  own  infirmities,  and  for  the  sins  of 
others  ;  and  indeed,  if  the  life  of  a  clergy- 
man does  not  exceed  even  the  piety  of  the 
people,  that  life  is,  in  some  measure,  scan- 
dalous :  and  what  shame  was  ever  greater 
than  is  described  in  the  parable  of  the  travel- 
ler going  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  when, 
to  the  eternal  dishonour  of  the  Levite  and 
the  priest,  it  is  told  that  they  went  aside,  and 
saw  him  with  a  wry  neck  and  bended  head, 
but  let  him  alone,  and  left  him  to  be  cured 
by  the  good  Samaritan  ?  The  primitive 
church  in  her  discipline  used  to  thrust  their 
delinquent  clergy  "in  laicam  communio- 
nem,"  even  then  when  their  faults  were  but 
small,  and  of  less  reproach  than  to  deserve 
greater  censures ;  yet  they  lessened  them  by 
thrusting  them  "into  the  lay  communion," 
as  most  fit  for  such  ministers,  who  refused 
to  live  at  the  height  of  sacerdotal  piety. 
Remember  your  dignity,  to  which  Christ 
hath  called  you:  " Shall  such  a  man  as  I 
flee  ?"  said  the  brave  Eleazar,  shall  the  stars 
be  darkness,  shall  the  ambassadors  of  Christ 
neglect  to  do  their  King  honour,  shall  the 
glory  of  Christ  do  dishonourable  and  in- 
glorious actions  ?  "  ye  are  the  glory  of 
Christ,"  saith  St.  Paul;  remember  that, — 
I  can  say  no  greater  thing ;  unless  possibly 
this  may  add  some  moments  for  your  care 
and  caution,  that  "potentes  potenter  cru- 
ciabuntur,"  "  great  men  shall  be  greatly 
tormented,"  if  they  sin ;  and  to  fall  from  a 
great  height  is  an  intolerable  ruin.  Severe 
were  the  words  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  "  Ye 
are  the  salt  of  the  earth  ;  if  the  salt  have  lost 
his  savour,  it  is  henceforth  good  for  nothing, 
neither  for  land,  nor  yet  for  dunghill:"  a 
greater  dishonour  could  not  be  expressed  ; 
he  that  takes  such  a  one  up,  will  shake  his 
fingers.  I  end  with  the  saying  of  St.  Austin, 
"Let  your  religious  prudence  think,  that, 
in  the  world,  especially  at  this  time,  no- 
thing is  more  laborious,  more  difficult,  or 
more  dangerous,  than  the  office  of  a  bishop, 
or  a  priest,  or  a  deacon  :  1  Sed  apud  Deum 
nihil  beatius,  si  eo  modo  militetur  quo  nos- 
ter  imperator  jubel ;'    ' but  nothing  is  more 


Serm.  XI. 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


537 


SERMON  XI. 

The  second  Sermon  on  Titus  ii.  7. 


blessed,  if  we  do  our  duty,  according  to  the  not  in,  and  taken  from,  the  Scriptures,  is 
commandment  of  our  Lord.'  "*  from  a  private  spirit,  and  that  is  against  Scrip- 

I  have  already  discoursed  of  the  integrity  ture  certainly  :  **'  for  no  Scripture  is,"  iSi'os 
of  life,  and  what  great  necessity  there  is,  hUkpotas,  saith  St.  Peter;  it  is  not,  it  can- 
and  how  deep  obligations  lie  upon  you,  not  not  be  "  of  private  interpretation ;"  that  is, 
only  to  be  innocent  and  void  of  offence,  but  unless  it  come  from  the  Spirit  of  God, 
also  to  be  holy  ;  not  only  pure,  but  shining;  which  is  that  Spirit  that  moved  upon  the 
not  only  to  be  blameless,  but  to  be  didactic  in  waters  of  the  new  creation,  as  well  as  of 
your  lives ;  that  as,  by  your  sermons,  you  the  old,  and  was  promised  to  all,  "  to  you, 
preach  in  season,  so,  by  your  lives,  you  '  and  to  your  children,  and  to  as  many  as  the 
may  preach  out  of  season ;  that  is,  at  all  Lord  our  God  shall  call,"  and  is  bestowed 
seasons,  and  to  all  men,  that  they,  "  seeing  on  all,  and  is  the  earnest  of  all  our  inherit- 
your  good  works,  may  glorify  God"  on  ance,  and  is  "  given  to  every  man  to  profit 
your  behalf,  and  on  their  own.  withal;"  it  cannot  prove  God  to  be  the 

author,  nor  be  a  light  to  us  to  walk  by,  or  to 
show  others  the  way  to  heaven. 

This  rule  were  alone  sufficient  to  guide 
us  all  in  the  whole  economy  of  our  calling, 
if  we  were  not  weak  and  wilful,  ignorant 
and  abused :  but  the  Holy  Scripture  hath 
suffered  so  many  interpretations,  and  va- 
rious sounds  and  seemings,  and  we  are  so 
Now  by  the  order  of  the  words,  and  my  1  prepossessed  and  predetermined  to  raiscon- 
own  undertaking,  I  am  to  tell  you  what :  struction  by  false  apostles  without,  and 
are  the  rules  and  measures  of  your  doctrine,  prevailing  passions  within,  that  though  it 
which  you  are  to  teach  the  people.  be  in  itself  sufficient,  yet  it  is  not  so  for  us ; 

I.  Be  sure  that  you  teach  nothing  to  the  and  we  may  say  with  the  eunuch,  ec  How 
people  but  what  is  certainly  to  be  found  in  can  I  understand,  unless  some  man  should 
Scripture:  "  Servemus  eas  mensuras,  quas  j guide  me?"  And  indeed,  in  St.  Paul's 
nobis  per  legislatorem  lex  spirituals  enun-  [  epistles,  '*  there  are  many  things  hard  to 
ciat;"  "The  whole  spiritual  law  given  be  understood ;"  and,  in  many  other  places, 
us  by  our  lawgiver,  that  must  be  our  mea-  we  find  that  the  well  is  deep  ;  and  unless 
sures  :"f  for  though,  by  persuasion  and  by  there  be  some  to  help  us  to  draw  out  the 
faith,  by  mispersuasion  and  by  error,  by; latent  senses  of  it,  our  souls  will  not  be 
false  commentaries  and  mistaken  glosses,  filled  with  the  waters  of  salvation.  There- 
every  man  may  become  a  law  unto  himself,  fore,  that  I  may  do  you  what  assistance  I 
and  unhappily  bind  upon  his  conscience  I  can,  and,  if  I  cannot  in  this  small  portion 
burdens  which  Christ  never  imposed;  yet !  of  time,  instruct  you,  yet  that  I  may  counsel 
vou  must  bind  nothing  upon  your  charges,  you,  and  remind  you  of  the  best  assist- 
but  what  God  hath  bound  upon  you;  you  ances  that  are  to  be  had  ;  if  I  cannot  give 
cannot  become  a  law  unto  them ;  that  is  you  rules  sufficient  to  expound  all  hard 
the  only  privilege  of  the  lawgiver,  who,  |  places,  yet  that  I  may  show  how  you  shall 
because  he  was  an  interpreter  of  the  Divine  ;  sufficiently  teach  your  people,  by  the  rare 
will,  might  become  a  law  unto  us  :  and  be- j rules  and  precepts,  recorded  in  places  that 
cause  he  was  faithful  in  all  the  house,  did  are,  or  may  be  made,  easy,  I  shall  first 
tell  us  all  his  Father's  will ;  and,  therefore,  give  you  some  advices  in  general,  and  then 
nothing  can  be  God's  law  to  us,  but  what 'descend  to  more  particular  rules  and  mea- 
he  hath  taught  us.    But  of  this  I  shall  need  |  sures. 

to  say  no  more  but  the  words  of  Tertullian  ;  1.  Because  it  is  not  to  be  expected,  that 
"  Nobis  nihil  licet  ex  nostro  arbitrio  indul-1  every  minister  of  the  word  of  God  should 
gere,  sed  nec  eligere  aliquid,  quod  de  suo  have  all  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  and  every 
arbitrio  aliquis  induxerit:  apostolos  Domini  j  one  to  abound  in  tongues,  and  in  doctrines, 
habemus,  autores,  qui  nec  ipsi  quicquamjand  in  interpretations ;  you  may,  therefore, 
de  suo  arbitrio  quod  inducerent  elegerunt, 'make  great  use  of  the  labours  of  those 
sed  acceptam  a  Christo  disciplinam  fideliter  worthy  persons,  whom  God  hath  made  to 
nationibus  assignarunt.''^    Whatsoever  is  be  fights  in  the  several  generations  of  the 

 |  world,  that  a  hand  may  help  a  hand,  and  a 

*  Epist.HS.      t  Onsen.      |  Contra  haeres.  |  father  may  teach  a  brother,  and  we  all  be 


538 


THE  M  [ N  1ST 


ER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  XI. 


taught  of  God :  for  there  are  many  who 
have,  by  great  skill,  and  great  experience, 
taught  as  many  good  rules  for  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture  ;  amongst  which  those 
that  I  shall  principally  recommend  to  you, 
are  the  books  of  St.  Austin,  "  De  Utilitate 
Credendi"  and  his  3  lib.  w  De  Doctrina 
Christiana  the  "  Synopsis"  of  Athana- 
sius  ;  the  "  Proems"  of  Isidore ;  the  "  Pro- 
logues" of  St.  Jerome.  I  might  well  add 
the  "Scholia"  of  CEcumenius ;  the  "Ca- 
tenae" of  the  Greek  fathers,  and  of  later 
times,  the  ordinary  and  interlineary  glosses ; 
the  excellent  book  of  Hugo  de  S.  Victore, 
"  De  eruditione  didascalica;"  "  Ars  inter- 
pretandi  Scripturas,"  by  Sixtus  Senensis ; 
Serarius'  "  Prolegomena  ;"  Tena's  "In- 
troduction to  the  Scriptures  ;"  together  with 
Laurentius  e  Villa-Vincentio,  Andreas  Hy- 
perius  "  de  Ratione  studii  Philosophic]'," 
and  the  "  Hypotyposes"  of  Martinus  Can- 
tapratensis  :  Arias  Montanus'  '*  Joseph," 
or  "  de  Arcano  Sermone,"  is  of  another 
nature,  and  more  fit  for  preachers ;  and  so 
is  Sanctes  Paguine's  "Isagoge;"  but  Am- 
brosius  Catharimus'  book  "  Duarum  cla- 
vium  ad  sacram  scripturam,"  is  useful  to 
many  good  purposes:  but  more  particu- 
larly, and  I  think  more  usefully,  are  those 
seven  rules  of  interpreting  Scriptures,  writ- 
ten by  Tichonius,  and  first  made  famous  by 
St.  Austin's  commendation  of  them,  and 
inserted  in  torn.  v.  of  the  Biblioth.  SS.  pp. — 
Sebastian  Perez  wrote  thirty-five  rules  for 
the  interpretation  of  Scripture  :  Franciscus 
Ruiz  drew  from  the  ancient  fathers  two 
hundred  and  thirty-four  rules:  besides  those 
many  learned  persons  who  have  written 
vocabularies,  tropologies,  and  expositions 
of  words  and  phrases ;  such  as  are  Flacius 
Illyricus,  Junius,  Jerome  Lauretus,  and 
many  others,  not  infrequent,  in  all  public 
libraries.  But  I  remember,  that  he  that 
gives  advice  to  a  sick  man  in  Ireland  to 
cure  his  sickness,  must  tell  him  of  medica- 
ments that  are  "facile  parabilia,"  "easy  to 
be  had,"  and  cheap  to  be  bought,  or  else 
his  counsel  will  not  profit  him ;  and  even 
of  these  God  hath  made  good  provision  for 
us  ;  for,  although  many  precious  things  are 
reserved  for  them  that  dig  deep,  and  search 
wisely,  yet  there  are  medicinal  plants,  and 
corn  and  grass,  things  fit  for  food  and 
physic,  to  be  had  in  every  field. 

And  so  it  is  in  the  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  there  are  ways  of  doing  it  well  and 
wisely,  without  the  too  laborious  methods 
of  weary  learning,  that  even  the  meanest 


labourers  in  God's  vineyard  may  have  thai 
which  is  fit  to  minister  to  him  that  needs. 
Therefore, 

2.  In  all  the  interpretations  of  Scripture, 
the  literal  sense  is  to  be  presumed  and 
chosen,  unless  there  be  evident  cause  to  the 
contrary.  The  reasons  are  plain ;  because 
the  literal  sense  is  natural,  and  it  is  first, 
and  it  is  most  agreeable  to  some  things,  in 
their  whole  kind ;  not  indeed  to  prophecies, 
nor  to  the  teachings  of  the  learned,  nor 
those  cryptic  ways  of  institution  by  which 
the  ancients  did  hide  a  light,  and  keep  it  in 
a  dark  lantern  from  the  temeration  of  ruder 
handlings  and  popular  preachers  :  but  the 
literal  sense  is  agreeable  to  laws,  to  the  pub- 
lication of  commands,  to  the  revelation  of 
the  Divine  will,  to  the  concerns  of  the  vul- 
gar, to  the  foundations  of  faith,  and  to  all 
the  notice  of  things,  in  which  the  idiot  is 
as  much  concerned  as  the  greatest  clerks. 
From  which  proposition  these  three  corol- 
laries will  properly  follow;  1.  That  God 
hath  plainly  and  literally  described  all  his 
will,  both  in  belief  and  practice,  in  which 
our  essential  duty,  the  duty  of  all  men  is 
concerned.  2.  That,  in  plain  expressions 
we  are  to  look  for  our  duty,  and  not  in  the 
more  secret  places  and  darker  corners  of 
the  Scripture.  3.  That  you  may  regularly, 
certainly,  and  easily  do  your  duty  to  the 
people,  if  you  read  and  literally  expound 
the  plain  sayings,  and  easily  expressed  com- 
mandments, and  promises,  and  threatenings 
of  the  gospel,  and  the  Psalms,  and  the 
prophets. 

3.  But  then  remember  this  also  j  that  not 
only  the  grammatical  or  prime  signification 
of  the  word  is  the  literal  sense ;  but  whatso- 
ever is  the  prime  intention  of  the  speaker, 
that  is  the  literal  sense;  though  the  word 
be  to  be  taken  metaphorically,  or  by  trans- 
lation signify  more  things  than  one.  "The 
eyes  of  the  Lord  are  over  the  righteous;" 
this  is  literally  true;  and  yet  it  is  as  true, 
that  God  hath  no  eyes  properly ;  but  by 
•4  eyes"  are  meant,  God's  "  providence ;" 
and  though  this  be  not  the  first  literal  sense 
of  the  word  "  eyes,"  it  is  not  that  which 
was  at  first  imposed  and  contingently;  but 
it  is  that  signification,  which  was  seconda- 
rily imposed,  and  by  reason  and  proportion. 
Thus,  when  we  say,  "  God  cares  for  the 
righteous,"  it  will  not  suppose  that  God 
can  have  any  anxiety  or  afflictive  thoughts; 
but  "  he  cares"  does  as  truly  and  properly 
signify  provision,  as  caution;  beneficence, 
1  as  fear  j  and  therefore  the  literal  sense  of  it 


Serm.  XI. 


IN  LIFE  AN 


D  DOCTRINE. 


539 


is,  that  "  God  provides  good  things  for  the 
righteous."  For  in  this  case  the  rule  of 
Abulensis  is  very  true;  "Sensus  literalis 
semper  est  verus,"  "  the  literal  sense  is 
always  true that  is,  all  that  is  true,  which 
the  Spirit  of  God  intended  to  signify  by  the 
words,  whether  he  intended  the  first  or 
second  signification  ;  whether  that  of  volun- 
tary and  contingent,  or  that  of  analogical 
and  rational  institution.  "  Other  sheep  have 
I,"  said  Christ,  "  which  are  not  of  this 
fold :"  that  he  did  not  mean  this  of  the 
"  pecus  lanigerum"  is  notorious;  but  of  the 
Gentiles  to  be  gathered  into  the  privileges 
and  fold  of  Israel :  for  in  many  cases,  the 
first  literal  sense  is  the  hardest,  and  some- 
times impossible,  and  sometimes  inconve- 
nient ;  and  when  it  is  any  of  these,  although 
we  are  not  to  recede  from  the  literal  sense ; 
yet  we  are  to  take  the  second  signification, 
the  tropological  or  figurative.  "  If  thy  right 
eye  offend  thee,  pluck  it  out,"  said  Christ : 
and  yet  no  man  digs  his  eyes  out ;  because 
the  very  letter  or  intention  of  this  command 
bids  us  only  to  throw  away  that,  which  if 
we  keep,  we  cannot  avoid  sin:  for  some- 
times the  letter  tells  the  intention,  and  some- 
times the  intention  declares  the  letter ;  and 
that  is  properly  the  literal  sense,  which  is 
the  first  meaning  of  the  command  in  the 
whole  complexion  :  and  in  this,  common 
sense  and  a  vulgar  reason  will  be  a  suffi- 
cient guide,  because  there  is  always  some 
other  thing  spoken  by  God,  or  some  princi- 
ple naturally  implanted  in  us,  by  which  we 
are  secured,  in  the  understanding  of  the 
Divine  command.  "  He  that  does  not  hate 
father  and  mother  for  my  sake,  is  not  worthy 
of  me:"  the  literal  sense  of  "hating"  used 
in  Scripture  is  not  always  "malice,"  but 
sometimes  a  "  less  loving ;"  and  so  Christ 
also  hath  expounded  it:  "He  that  loves 
father  or  mother  more  than  me,  is  not 
worthy  of  me." — But  I  shall  not  insist 
longer  on  this ;  he  that  understands  nothing 
but  his  grammar,  and  hath  not  conversed 
with  men  and  books,  and  can  see  no  farther 
than  his  fingers'  ends,  and  makes  no  use  of 
his  reason,  but  for  ever  will  be  a  child ;  he 
may  be  deceived  in  the  literal  sense  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  but  then  he  is  not  fit  to  teach  others  : 
but  he  that  knows  words  signify  rhetori- 
cally, as  well  as  grammatically,  and  have 
various  proper  significations,*  and  which  of 
these  is  the  first,  is  not  always  of  itself  easy 


*  Verba  non  sono  sed  sensu  sapiunt. — Hilar. 


to  be  told;  and  remembers  also  that  God 
hath  given  him  reason,  and  observation,  and 
experience,  and  conversation  with  wise  men, 
and  the  proportion  of  things,  and  the  end 
of  the  command,  and  parallel  places  of 
Scripture,  in  other  words  to  the  same  pur- 
pose;— will  conclude,  that,  since  in  plain 
places,  all  the  duty  of  man  is  contained, 
and  that  the  literal  sense  is  always  true,  and, 
unless  men  be  wilful  or  unfortunate,  they 
may,  with  a  small  proportion  of  learning, 
find  out  the  literal  sense  of  an  easy  moral 
proposition  : — will,  I  say,  conclude,  that  if 
we  be  deceived,  the  fault  is  our  own ;  but 
the  fault  is  so  great,  the  man  so  supine,  the 
negligence  so  inexcusable,  that  the  very 
consideration  of  human  infirmity  is  not  suf- 
ficient to  excuse  such  teachers  of  others, 
who  hallucinate  or  prevaricate  in  this.  The 
Anthropomorphites  fell  foully  in  this  matter, 
and  supposed  God  to  have  a  face,  and  arms, 
and  passions,  as  we  have;  but  they  pre- 
vailed not:  and  Origen  was,  in  one  instance, 
greatly  mistaken,  and  thinking  there  was  no 
literal  meaning  but  the  prime  signification 
of  the  word,  understood  the  word  svvovxC£sw, 
"to  make  an  eunuch,"  to  his  own  preju- 
dice; but  that  passed  not  into  a  doctrine: 
but  the  church  of  Rome  hath  erred  greatly 
in  pertinacious  adhering,  not  to  the  letter, 
but  to  the  grammar ;  nor  to  that,  but  in  one 
line  or  signification  of  it :  "  Hoc  est  corpus 
meura"  must  signify  nothing  but  gram- 
matically; and  though  it  be  not,  by  their 
owrn  confessions,  to  be  understood  without 
divers  figures,  in  the  whole  complexion,  yet 
peevishly  and  perversely,  they  will  take  it 
by  the  wrong  handle;  and  this  they  have 
passed  into  a  doctrine,  that  is  against  sense, 
and  reason,  and  experience,  and  Scripture, 
and  tradition,  and  the  common  interpreta- 
tion of  things,  and  public  peace  and  utility, 
and  every  thing  by  which  mankind  ought  to 
be  governed  and  determined. 

4.  I  am  to  add  this  one  thing  more ;  that 
we  admit  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture 
but  one  literal  sense;  I  say,  but  one  prime 
literal  sense;  for  the  simplicity  and  purity 
of  the  Spirit,  and  the  philanthropy  of  God, 
will  not  admit  that  there  should,  in  one  sin- 
gle proposition,  be  many  intricate  meanings, 
or  that  his  sense  should  not  certainly  be  un- 
derstood, or  that  the  people  be  abused  by 
equivocal  and  doubtful  senses  ;  this  was  the 
way  of  Jupiter  in  the  sands,  and  Apollo 
Pythius,  and  the  devil's  oracles :  but  be  it 
far  from  the  wisdom  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 


540 


THE  MINST 


ER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  XI. 


5.  But  then  take  in  this  caution  to  it; 
that  although  there  be  but  one  principal 
literal  sense ;  yet  others  that  are  subordinate 
may  be  intended  subordinately ;  and  others 
that  are  true  by  proportion,  or  that  first  in- 
tention, may  be  true  for  many  reasons,  and 
every  reason  applicable  to  a  special  instance; 
and  all  these  may  be  intended  as  they  signify, 
that  is,  one  only  by  prime  design,  and  the 
other  by  collateral  consequence.  Thus  when 
it  is  said,  £<  Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day  have 
I  begotten  thee ;"  the  Psalmist  means  it  of 
the  eternal  generation  of  Christ :  others  seem 
to  apply  it  to  his  birth  of  the  blessed  virgin 
Mary  ;  and  St.  Paul  expounds  it  of  the  re- 
surrection of  Christ  :*  This  is  all  true  :  and 
yet  but  one  literal  sense  primely  meant;  but 
by  proportion  to  the  first,  the  others  have 
their  place,  and  are  meant  by  way  of  simi- 
litude. Thus  we  are  the  sons  of  God,  by 
adoption,  by  creation,  by  favour,  by  partici- 
pation of  the  Spirit,  by  the  laver  of  regene- 
ration; and  every  man,  for  one  or  other  of 
these  reasons,  can  say,  "  Our  Father  which 
art  in  heaven ;"  and  these  are  all  parts  of 
the  literal  sense,  not  different,  but  subordi- 
nate and  by  participation  :  but  more  than 
one  prime  literal  sense  must  not  be  admitted. 

6.  Lastly ;  sometimes  the  literal  sense  is 
lost  by  a  plain  change  of  the  words  ;  which 
when  it  is  discovered,  it  must  be  corrected 
by  the  fountain  ;  and  till  it  be,  so  long  as  it 
is  pious,  and  commonly  received,  it  may  be 
used  without  scruple.  In  the  41st  Psalm 
the  Hebrews  read,  "My  soul  hath  longed 
after  'the  strong,  the  living  God;'  c  Deum 
fortem,  vivum:'  "  in  the  vulgar  Latin,  it  is 
"  Deum  fontem  vivum,"  "  the  living  foun- 
tain ;"  and  it  was  very  well,  but  not  the 
literal  sense  of  God's  Spirit;  but  when  they 
have  been  so  often  warned  of  it,  that  they 
were  still  in  love  with  their  own  letter,  and 
leave  the  words  of  the  Spirit,  I  think  was 
not  justifiable  at  all :  and  this  was  observed 
at  last  by  Sixtus  and  Clement,  and  corrected 
in  their  editions  of  the  Bible,  and  then  it 
came  right  again.  The  sum  is  this;  he  that 
with  this  moderation  and  these  measures, 
construes  the  plain  meaning  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  expounds  the  articles  of  faith,  and 
the  precepts  of  life,  according  to  the  inten- 
tion of  God,  signified  by  his  own  words,  in 
their  first  or  second  signification,  cannot 
easily  be  cozened  into  any  heretical  doc- 
trine ;  but  his  doctrine  will  be  a&ux$Qopos,  the 
pure  word  and  mind  of  God. 


*  Heb.  i. 


2.  There  is  another  sense  or  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture,  and  that  is  mystical  or 
spiritual;  which  the  Jews  call  c-nD  "mid- 
rash  ;"  which  Elias  the  Levite  calls  "  omne 
commentarium,  quod  non  est  juxta  simpli- 
cem  et  literalem  sensum ;"  "  every  gloss 
that  is  not  according  to  their  mo  (  peschat,' 
to  the  literal  sense;"  and  this  relates  princi- 
pally to  the  Old  Testament:  thus  the  waters 
of  the  deluge  did  signify  the  waters  of  bap- 
tism ;  Sarah  and  Agar,  the  law  and  the  gos- 
pel; the  brazen  serpent,  the  passion  of 
Christ ;  the  conjunction  of  Adam  and  Eve, 
the  communion  of  Christ  and  his  church ; 
and  this  is  called  the  spiritual  sense,  St. 
Paul  being  our  warrant;  "Our  fathers  ate 
of  the  same  spiritual  meat,  and  drank  of  that 
same  spiritual  rock ;"  now  that  rock  was  not 
spiritual,  but  of  solid  stone;  but  it  signified 
spiritually  ;  for  "  that  rock  was  Christ." 

This  sense  the  doctors  divide  into  topo- 
logical, allegorical,  and  anagogical, — for 
method's  sake,  and  either  to  distinguish  the 
things,  or  to  amuse  the  persons;  for  these 
relate  but  to  the  several  spiritual  things 
signified  by  divers  places;  as  matters  of 
faith,  precepts  of  manners,  and  celestial 
joys;  you  may  make  more  if  you  please, 
and  yet  these  are  too  many  to  trouble  men's 
heads,  and  to  make  theology  an  art  and 
craft,  to  no  purpose.  This  spiritual  sense 
is  that  which  the  Greeks  call  vrtovoiav,  or 
"the  sense  that  lies  under  the  cover  of 
words concerning  this  I  shall  give  you 
these  short  rules,  that  your  doctrine  be 
aSidfyOopos,  pure  and  without  heretical  mix- 
tures, and  the  leaven  of  false  doctrines  ;  for, 
above  all  things,  this  is  to  be  taken  care  of. 

1.  Although  every  place  of  Scripture  hath 
a  literal  sense,  either  proper  or  figurative, 
yet  every  one  hath  not  a  spiritual  and  mys- 
tical interpretation;  and,  therefore,  Origen 
was  blamed  by  the  ancients  for  forming  all 
into  spirit  and  mystery ;  one  place  was  re- 
served to  punish  that  folly.  Thus  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  family  of  love,  and  the  quakers, 
expound  all  the  articles  of  our  faith,  all  the 
hopes  of  a  Christian,  all  the  stories  of  Christ, 
into  such  a  clancular  and  retired  sense,  as 
if  they  had  no  meaning  by  the  letter,  but 
were  only  a  hieroglyphic  or  a  Pythagorean 
scheme,  and  not  to  be  opened  but  by  a  pri- 
vate key,  which  every  man  pretends  to  be 
borrowed  from  the  Spirit  of  God,  though 
made  in  the  forges  here  below;  to  which 
purposes  the  epistles  of  St.  Jerome  to  Avi- 
tus,  to  Pammachius  and  Oceanus,  are  worth 
your  reading.    In  this  case  men  do  as  he 


Serm.  XI. 


IN   LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


541 


said  of  Origen,  "  Ingenii  sui  acumina  pu- 
tant  esse  ecclesias  sacramenta :"  "every 
man  believes  God  meant  as  he  intended, 
and  so  he  will  obtrude  his  own  dreams  in- 
stead of  sacraments."  Therefore, 

2.  Whoever  will  draw  spiritual  senses 
from  any  history  of  the  Old  or  New  Testa- 
ment, must  first  allow  the  literal  sense,  or 
else  he  will  soon  deny  an  article  of  neces- 
sary belief.  A  story  is  never  the  less  true, 
because  it  is  intended  to  profit  as  well  as  to 
please ;  and  the  narrative  may  well  establish 
or  insinuate  a  precept,  and  instruct  with 
pleasure  ;  but  if,  because  there  is  a  jewel  in 
the  golden  cabinet,  you  will  throw  away  the 
enclosure,  and  deny  the  story  that  you  may 
look  out  a  mystical  sense,  we  shall  leave  it 
arbitrary  for  any  man  to  believe  or  disbelieve 
what  story  he  please ;  and  Eve  shall  not  be 
made  of  the  rib  of  Adam,  and  the  garden  of 
Eden  shall  be  no  more  than  the  Hesperides, 
and  the  story  of  Jonas  a  well-dressed  fable  ; 
and  I  have  seen  all  the  Revelation  of  St. 
John  turned  into  a  moral  commentary,  in 
which  every  person  can  signify  any  propo- 
sition, or  any  virtue,  according  as  his  fancy 
chimes.  This  is  too  much,  and,  therefore, 
comes  not  from  a  good  principle. 

3.  In  moral  precepts,  in  rules  of  polity 
and  economy,  there  is  no  other  sense  to  be 
inquired  after  but  what  they  bear  upon  the 
face  ;  for  he  that  thinks  it  necessary  to  turn 
them  into  some  further  spiritual  meaning, 
supposes  that  it  is  a  disparagement  to  the 
Spirit  of  God  to  take  care  of  governments, 
or  that  the  duties  of  princes  and  masters  are 
no  great  concerns,  or  not  operative  to  eter- 
nal felicity,  or  that  God  does  not  provide  for 
temporal  advantages  ;  for  if  these  things  be 
worthy  concerns,  and  if  God  hath  taken 
care  of  all  our  good,  and  if  "  godliness  be 
profitable  to  all  things,  and  hath  the  pro- 
mise of  the  life  that  now  is,  and  that  which 
is  to  come,"  there  is  no  necessity  to  pass  on 
to  more  abstruse  senses,  when  the  literal 
and  proper  hath  also  in  it  instrumentality 
enough  towards  very  great  spiritual  pur- 
poses. "  God  takes  care"  for  servants,  yea 
"  for  oxen"  and  all  the  beasts  of  the  field  ; 
and  the  letter  of  the  command  enjoining  us 
to  use  them  with  mercy,  hath  in  it  au  advan- 
tage even  upon  the  spirit  and  whole  frame 
of  a  man's  soul;  and  therefore  let  no  man 
tear  those  Scriptures  to  other  meanings  be- 
yond their  own  intentions  and  provisions. 
In  these  cases  a  spiritual  sense  is  not  to  be 
inquired  after. 

4.  If  the  letter  of  the  story  infers  any  in- 


decency or  contradiction,  then  it  is  neces- 
sary that  a  spiritual  or  mystical  sense  be 
thought  of:  but  never  else  is  it  necessary. 
It  may  in  other  cases  be  useful,  when  it 
does  advantage  to  holiness ;  and  may  be 
safely  used,  if  used  modestly ;  but  because 
this  spiritual  or  mystical  interpretation, 
when  it  is  not  necessary,  cannot  be  certain- 
ly proved,  but  relies  upon  fancy,  or  at  most 
some  light  inducement,  no  such  interpreta- 
tion can  be  used  as  an  argument  to  prove 
an  article  of  faith,  nor  relied  upon  in  mat- 
ters of  necessary  concern.  The  "  three  mea- 
sures of  meal,"  in  the  gospel,  are  but  an  ill 
argument  to  prove  the  blessed  and  eternal 
Trinity:  and  it  may  be,  the  three  angels  that 
came  to  Abraham,  will  signify  no  more  than 
the  two  that  came  to  Lot,  or  the  single  one 
to  Manoah  or  St.  John.  This  divine  mys- 
tery relies  upon  a  more  sure  foundation ; 
and  he  makes  it  unsure,  that  causes  it  to 
lean  upon  an  unexpounded  vision,  that  was 
sent  to  other  purposes.  "  Non  esse  conten- 
siosis  et  infidelibus  sensibus  ingerendum," 
said  St.  Austin  of  the  book  of  Genesis. 
Searching  for  articles  of  faith  in  the  by- 
paths and  corners  of  secret  places,  leads  not 
to  faith  but  to  infidelity,  and  by  making  the 
foundations  unsure,  causes  the  articles  to  be 
questioned. 

I  remember  that  Agricola,  in  his  book 
"  De  Animalibus  Subterraneis,"  tells  of  a 
certain  kind  of  spirits  that  used  to  converse 
in  mines,  and  trouble  the  poor  labourers  : 
they  dig  metals,  they  cleanse,  they  cast, 
they  melt,  they  separate,  they  join  the  ore ; 
but  when  they  are  gone,  the  men  find  just 
nothing  done,  not  one  step  of  their  work  set 
forward.  So  it  is  in  the  books  and  exposi- 
tions of  many  men  :  they  study,  they  argue, 
they  expound,  they  confute,  they  reprove, 
they  open  secrets,  and  make  new  disco- 
veries ;  and  when  you  turn  the  bottom  up- 
wards, up  starts  nothing;  no  man  is  the 
wiser,  no  man  is  instructed,  no  truth  dis- 
covered, no  proposition  cleared,  nothing  is 
altered,  but  that  much  labour  and  much 
time  is  lost:  and  this  is  manifest  in  nothing 
more  than  in  books  of  controversy,  and  in 
mystical  expositions  of  Scripture:  -'Quas- 
runt  quod  nusquam  est,  inveniunt  tamen." 
Like  Isidore,  who,  in  contemplation  of  a 
pen,  observed,  that  the  nib  of  it  was  divided 
into  two,  but  yet  the  whole  body  remained 
one  :  "  Credo  propter  mysterium  :"*  he 
found  a  knack  in  it,  and  thought  it  was  a 

*  Isid.  Orisr-  lib.  vi.  c.  14. 
2  V 


542  THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY  Serm.  XL 


mystery.  Concerning  which  I  shall  need 
to  say  no  more  but  that  they  are  safe  when 
they  are  necessary,  and  they  are  useful 
when  they  teach  better,  and  they  are  good 
when  they  do  good ;  but  this  is  so  seldom, 
and  so  by  chance,  that  oftentimes  if  a  man 
be  taught  truth,  he  is  taught  it  by  a  lying  mas- 
ter; it  is  like  being  cured  by  a  good  witch, 
an  evil  spirit  hath  a  hand  in  it;  and  if  there 
be  not  error  and  illusion  in  such  interpre- 
tations, there  is  very  seldom  any  certainty. 

"  What  shall  I  do  to  my  vineyard  ?w  said 
God:*  "Auferam  sepem  ejus:"  "I  will 
take  away  the  hedge:"  that  is,  "  custodiam 
angelorum,"  saith  the  gloss,  "the  custody 
of  their  angel  guardians."  And  God  says, 
"  Manasseh  humeros  suos  comedit  :"|  "Ma- 
nasseh  hath  devoured  his  own  shoulders ;" 
that  is,  "  gubernatores  dimovit,"  say  the 
doctors,  "  hath  removed  his  governors," 
his  princes,  and  his  priests.  It  is  a  sad  com- 
plaint, 'tis  true,  but  what  it  means  is  the 
question.  But  although  these  senses  are 
pious,  and  may  be  used  for  illustration  and 
the  prettiness  of  discourse,  yet  there  is  no 
further  certainty  in  them  than  what  the  one 
fancies  and  the  other  is  pleased  to  allow. 
But  if  the  spiritual  sense  be  proved  evident 
and  certain,  then  it  is  of  the  same  efficacy 
as  the  literal ;  for  it  is  according  to  that  let- 
ter by  which  God's  Holy  Spirit  was  pleased 
to  signify  his  meaning,  and  it  matters  not 
how  he  is  pleased  to  speak,  so  we  under- 
stand his  meaning.  And  in  this  sense,  that 
is  true  which  is  affirmed  by  St.  Gregory : 
"  Allegoriam  interdum  aedificare  fidem  :" 
"sometimes  our  faith  is  built  up  by  the 
mystical  words  of  the  Spirit  of  God."  But 
because  it  seldom  happens  that  they  can  be 
proved,  therefore  you  are  not  to  feed  your 
flocks  with  such  herbs  whose  virtue  you 
know  not,  of  whose  whdlesomeness  or 
powers  of  nourishing  you  are  wholly,  or  for 
the  most  part,  ignorant.  We  have  seen 
and  felt  the  mischief,  and  sometimes  derided 
the  absurdity.  "  God  created  the  sun  and 
the  moon,"  said  Moses ;  that  is,  said  the 
extravagants  of  Pope  Boniface  VIII. ,  "  the 
pope  and  the  emperor."  And  "  Behold 
here  are  two  swords,"  said  St.  Peter:  "It 
is  enough,"  said  Christ;  enough  for  St. 
Peter ;  and  so  he  got  the  two  swords,  the 
temporal  and  spiritual,  said  the  gloss  upon 
that  text.  Of  these  things  there  is  no  be- 
ginning and  no  end,  no  certain  principles 
and  no  good  conclusions. 


These  are  the  two  ways  of  expounding 
all  Scriptures ;  these  are  as  "  the  two  wit- 
nesses of  God  ;"  by  the  first  of  which  he 
does  most  commonly,  and  by  the  latter  of 
which  he  does  sometimes,  declare  his  mean- 
ing ;  and  in  the  discovery  of  these  meanings, 
the  measures  which  I  have  now  given  you 
are  the  general  landmarks,  and  are  suffi- 
cient to  guide  us  from  destructive  errors.  It 
follows  in  the  next  place,  that  I  give  you 
some  rules  that  are  more  particular,  accord- 
ing to  my  understanding,  that  you  in  your 
duty,  and  your  charges  in  the  provisions  to 
be  made  for  them,  may  be  more  secure. 

1.  Although  you  are  to  teach  your  peo- 
ple nothing  but  what  is  the  word  of  God, 
yet  by  this  word  I  understand  all  that  God 
spake  expressly,  and  all  that  by  certain  con- 
sequence can  be  deduced  from  it.  Thus 
Dionysius  Alexandrinus  argues,  "yvov  oti 
vld$  xai  Xoyoj  ov  £t'vos  av  tlrj  ovatas  tov 
Tta^poj-  "  He  that  in  Scripture  is  called  the 
Son  and  the  Word  of  the  Father,  I  conclude 
he  is  no  stranger  to  the  essence  of  the 
Father."  And  St.  Ambrose  derided  them 
that  called  for  express  Scripture  for  juoovslo?, 
since  the  prophets  and  the  gospels  acknow- 
ledge the  unity  of  substance  in  the  Fatner 
and  the  Son ;  and  we  easily  conclude  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  be  God,  because  we  call 
upon  him ;  and  we  call  upon  him  because 
we  believe  in  him  ;  and  we  believe  in  him 
because  we  are  baptized  into  the  faith  and 
profession  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  way 
of  teaching  our  blessed  Saviour  used,  when 
he  confuted  the  Sadducees,  in  the  question 
of  the  resurrection ;  and  thus  he  confuted 
the  Pharisees,  in  the  question  of  his  being 
the  Son  of  God.*  The  use  I  make  of  it  is 
this,  that  right  reason  is  so  far  from  being 
an  exile  from  the  inquiries  of  religion,  that 
it  is  the  great  insurance  of  many  proposi- 
tions of  faith;  and  we  have  seen  the  faith 
of  men  strangely  alter,  but  the  reason  of 
man  can  never  alter,  every  rational  truth 
supposing  its  principles  being  eternal  and 
unchangeable.  All  that  is  to  be  done  here 
is  to  see  that  you  argue  well,  that  your  de- 
duction be  evident,  that  your  reason  be  right : 
for  Scripture  is  to  our  understandings,  as 
the  grace  of  God  to  our  wills  ;  that  instructs 
our  reason,  and  this  helps  our  wills ;  and 
we  may  as  well  choose  the  things  of  God 
without  our  wills,  and  delight  in  them  with- 
out love,  as  understand  the  Scriptures  or 
make  use  of  them  without  reason. 


*  Isaiah  v. 


t  Isaiah  ix. 


*  John  x.  37 


Serm.  XI 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


543 


Quest.  But  how  shall  our  reason  be  guid- 
ed that  it  may  be  right,  that  it  be  not  a  blind 
guide,  but  direct  us  to  the  place  where  the 
star  appears,  and  point  us  to  the  very  house 
where  the  babe  lieth,  that  we  may  indeed 
do  as  the  wise  men  did?  To  this  I 
answer : 

2.  In  the  making  deductions,  the  first 
great  measure  to  direct  our  reason  and  our 
inquiries  is  the  analogy  of  faith  ;  that  is, 
let  the  fundamentals  of  faith  be  your  cyno- 
sura,  your  great  light  to  walk  by,  and  what- 
ever you  derive  from  thence,  let  it  be  agree- 
able to  the  principles  from  whence  they 
come.  It  is  the  rule  of  St.  Paul,  Jlpotyrjtevuiv 
xat  dvaXoytav  rttWfcoj,  "  Let  him  that  pro- 
phesies, do  it  according  to  the  proportion  of 
faith  that  is,  let  him  teach  nothing  but 
what  is  revealed,  or  agreeable  to  the  avto- 
rciota,  "the  prime  credibilities"  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  that  is,  by  the  plain  words  of  Scrip- 
ture let  him  expound  the  less  plain,  and  the 
superstructure  by  the  measures  of  the  found- 
ation, and  doctrines  be  answerable  to  faith, 
and  speculations  relating  to  practice,  and 
nothing  taught,  as  simply  necessary  to  be 
believed,  but  what  is  evidently  and  plainly 
set  down  in  the  Holy  Scriptures;  for  he 
that  calls  a  proposition  necessary,  which 
the  apostles  did  not  declare  to  be  so,  or 
which  they  did  not  teach  to  all  Christians, 
learned  and  unlearned,  he  is  gone  beyond 
his  proportions;  for  every  thing  is  to  be 
kept  in  that  order  where  God  hath  placed 
it.  There  is  a  "  classis"  of  necessary  arti- 
cles, and  that  is  the  apostles'  creed,  which 
Tertullian  calls  "regulam  fidei,"  "  the  rule 
of  faith ;"  and  according  to  this  we  must 
teach  necessities  :  but  what  comes  after  this 
is  not  so  necessary ;  and  he  that  puts  upon 
his  own  doctrines  a  weight  equal  to  this  of 
the  apostles'  declaration,  either  must  have 
an  apostolical  authority,  and  an  apostolical 
infallibility,  or  else  he  transgresses  the 
proportion  of  faith,  and  becomes  a  false 
apostle. 

3.  To  this  purpose  it  is  necessary  that  you 
be  very  diligent  in  reading,  laborious  and 
assiduous  in  the  studies  of  Scripture;  not 
only  lest  ye  be  blind  seers  and  blind  guides, 
but  because,  without  great  skill  and  learning, 
ye  cannot  do  your  duty.  A  minister  may  as 
well  sin  by  his  ignorance  as  by  his  negli- 
gence; because  when  light  springs  from  so 
many  angles  that  may  enlighten  us,  unless 
we  look  round  about  us  and  be  skilled  in 
all  the  angle  of  reflexion,  we  shall  but  turn 

*  Rom.  xii.  7. 


our  backs  upon  the  sun,  and  see  nothing  but 
our  own  shadows.  "  Search  the  Scriptures," 
said  Christ.  "  Non  dixit  legitc,  sed  scru- 
tamini,"  said  St.  Chrysostom ;  "quia  oportet 
profundius  erTodere,  ut  quae  alte  delitescunt, 
invenire  possimus."  "  Christ  did  not  say 
read,  but  search  the  Scriptures ;"  turn  over 
every  page,  inquire  narrowly,  look  diligently, 
converse  with  them  perpetually,  be  mighty 
in  the  Scriptures;  for  that  which  is  plain 
there,  is  the  best  measure  of  our  faith  and 
of  our  doctrines.  The  Jews  have  a  saying, 
"Q,ui  non  advertit,  quod  supra  et  infra  in 
Scriptoribus  legitur,  is  pervertit  verba  Dei 
viventis."  He  that  will  understand  God's 
meaning,  must  look  above  and  below,  and 
round  about ;  for  the  meaning  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  is  not  like  the  wind  blowing  from  one 
point,  but  like  light  issuing  from  the  body 
of  the  sun,  it  is  light  round  about;  and  in 
every  word  of  God  there  is  a  treasure,  and 
something  will  be  found  somewhere,  to 
answer  every  doubt,  and  to  clear  every  ob- 
scurity, and  to  teach  every  truth  by  which 
God  intends  to  perfect  our  understandings. 
But  then  take  this  rule  with  you :  do  not 
pass  from  plainness  to  obscurity,  nor  from 
simple  principles  draw  crafty  conclusions, 
nor  from  easiness  pass  into  difficulty,  nor 
from  wise  notices  draw  intricate  nothings, 
nor  from  the  wisdom  of  God  lead  your  hear- 
ers into  the  follies  of  men.  Your  principles 
are  easy,  and  your  way  plain,  and  the  words 
of  faith  are  open,  and  what  naturally  flows 
from  thence  will  be  as  open  ;  but  if,  without 
violence  and  distortion,  it  cannot  be  drawn 
forth,  the  proposition  is  not  of  the  family  of 
faith.  "Q,ui  nimis  emungit,  elicit  sangui- 
nem:"  "he  that  rings  too  hard,  draws 
blood;"  and  nothing  is  fit  to  be  offered  to 
your  charges  and  your  flocks  but  what  flows 
naturally,  and  comes  easily,  and  descends 
readily  and  willingly,  from  the  fountains  of 
salvation. 

4.  Next  to  this  analogy  or  proportion  of 
faith  let  the  consent  of  the  catholic  church 
be  your  measure,  so  as  by  no  means  to  pre- 
varicate in  any  doctrine,  in  which  all  Chris- 
tians always  have  consented.  This  will  ap- 
pear to  be  a  necessary  rule  by-and-by;  but 
in  the  mean  time,  I  shall  observe  to  you, 
that  it  will  be  the  safer,  because  it  cannot 
go  far:  it  can  be  instanced  but  in  three  things, 
in  the  creed,  in  ecclesiastical  government, 
and  in  external  forms  of  worship  and  liturgy. 
The  catholic  church  hath  been  too  much 
and  too  soon  divided  :  it  hath  been  used  as 
the  man  upon  a  hill  used  his  heap  of  heads 


544 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  XL 


in  a  basket ;  when  he  threw  them  down  the 
hill,  every  head  ran  his  own  way,  "  quot 
capita  tot  sententiae  j"  and  as  soon  as  the 
spirit  of  truth  was  opposed  by  the  spirit  of 
error,  the  spirit  of  peace  was  disordered  by 
the  spirit  of  division  ;  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
hath  overpowered  us  so  far,  that  we  are 
only  fallen  out  about  that,  of  which  if  we 
had  been  igDorant,  we  had  not  been  much  the 
worse ;  but  in  things  simply  necessary,  God 
hath  preserved  us  still  unbroken  :  all  nations 
and  all  ages  recite  the  creed,  and  all  pray 
the  Lord's  prayer,  and  all  pretend  to  walk 
by  the  rule  of  the  commandments ;  and  all 
churches  have  ever  kept  the  day  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  or  the  Lord's  day,  holy ;  and 
all  churches  have  been  governed  by  bishops, 
and  the  rites  of  Christianity  have  been  for 
ever  administered  by  separate  orders  of  men, 
and  those  men  have  been  always  set  apart 
by  prayer  and  the  imposition  of  the  bishop's 
hands;  and  all  Christians  have  been  bap- 
tized, and  all  baptized  persons  were,  or 
ought  to  be,  and  were  taught  that  they 
should  be,  confirmed  by  the  bishop,  and 
presidents  of  religion;  and  for  ever  there 
were  public  forms  of  prayer,  more  or  less  in 
all  churches;  and  all  Christians  that  were  to 
enter  into  holy  wedlock,  were  ever  joined  or 
blessed  by  the  bishop  or  the  priest :  in  these 
things  all  Christians  ever  have  consented, 
and  he  that  shall  prophesy  or  expound 
Scripture  to  the  prejudice  of  any  of  these 
things,  hath  no  part  in  that  article  of  his 
creed ;  he  does  not  believe  the  holy  catholic 
church,  he  hath  no  fellowship,  no  commu- 
nion with  the  saints  and  servants  of  God. 

It  is  not  here  intended,  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  church  should  be  the  rule  of  faith 
distinctly  from,  much  less  against,  the  Scrip- 
ture ;  for  that  were  a  contradiction  to  sup- 
pose the  church  of  God,  and  yet  speak- 
ing and  acting  against  the  will  of  God  j  but 
it  means,  that  where  the  question  is  con- 
cerning an  obscure  place  of  Scripture,  the 
practice  of  the  catholic  church  is  the  best 
commentary.  "  Intellectus,  qui  cum  praxi 
concurrit,  est  spiritus  vivificans,"  said  Cu- 
sanus.  Then  we  speak  according  to  the 
Spirit  of  God,  when  we  understand  Scrip- 
ture in  that  sense  in  which  the  church  of 
God  hath  always  practised  it.  "  Q,uod  plu- 
ribus,  quod  sapientibus,  quod  omnibus  vi- 
detur,"  that  is  Aristotle's  rule;  and  it  is  a 
rule  of  nature  ;  every  thing  puts  on  a  degree 
of  probability  as  it  is  witnessed  w  by  wise 
men,  by  many  wise  men,  by  all  wise  men  :" 
and    it  is  Vincentius    Lirinensis'  great 


rule  of  truth ;  "  Q,uod  ubique,  quod 
semper,  quod  ab  omnibus  :"  and  he  that  goes 
against  "  what  is  said  always,  and  every 
where,  and  by  all"  Christians,  had  need  have 
a  new  revelation,  or  an  infallible  spirit;  or 
be  hath  an  intolerable  pride  and  foolishness 
of  presumption.  Out  of  the  communion 
of  the  universal  church  no  man  can  be 
[  saved ;  they  are  the  body  of  Christ;  and  the 
whole  church  cannot  perish,  and  Christ 
I  cannot  be  a  head  without  a  body,  and  he 
will  for  ever  be  our  Redeemer,  and  for  ever 
j  intercede  for  his  church,  and  be  glorious  in 
j  his  saints ;  and,  therefore,  he  that  does  not 
sow  in  these  furrows,  but  leaves  the  way  of 
the  whole  church,  hath  no  pretence  for  his 
error,  no  excuse  for  his  pride,  and  will  find 
no  alleviation  of  his  punishment.  These 
are  the  best  measures  which  God  hath  given 
us  to  lead  us  in  the  way  of  truth,  and  to 
preserve  us  from  false  doctrines  ;  and  what- 
soever cannot  be  proved  by  these  measures, 
cannot  be  necessary.  There  are  many  truths 
|  besides  these ;  but  if  your  people  may  be 
safely  ignorant  of  them,  you  may  quietly  let 
them  alone,  and  not  trouble  their  heads  with 
what  they  have  so  little  to  do ;  things  that 
need  not  to  be  known  at  all,  need  not  to  be 
taught :  for  if  they  be  taught,  they  are  not 
certain,  or  are  not  very  useful;  and,  there- 
fore, there  may  be  danger  in  them  besides 
the  trouble ;  and  since  God  hath  not  made 
them  necessary,  they  may  be  let  alone  with- 
out danger;  and  it  will  be  madness  to  tell  sto- 
ries to  your  flocks  of  things  which  may 
hinder  salvation,  but  cannot  do  them  profit. 
And  now  it  is  time  that  I  have  done  with  the 
first  great  remark  of  doctrine  noted  by  the 
apostle  in  my  text ;  all  the  guides  of  souls 
must  take  care  that  the  doctrine  they  teach 
be  a&uxteopos,  "pure  and  incorrupt,"  the 
word  of  God,  the  truth  of  the  Spirit.  That 
which  remains  is  easier. 

2.  In  the  next  place,  it  must  be  atfivos, 
"  grave,"  and  reverend,  no  vain  notions,  no 
j  pitiful  contentions,  and  disputes  about  little 
!  things,  but  becoming  your  great  employment 
j  in  the  ministry  of  souls  :  and  in  this  the  rules 
are  easy  and  ready. 

1.  Do  not  trouble  your  people  with  con- 
troversies :  whatsoever  does  gender  strife, 
the  apostle  commands  us  to  avoid;  and, 
1  therefore,  much  more  the  strife  itself:  a  con- 
troversy is  a  stone  in  the  mouth  of  the  hearer, 
who  should  be  fed  with  bread,  and  it  is  a 
temptation  to  the  preacher,  it  is  a  state  of 
temptation  ;  it  engages  one  side  in  lying, 
and  both  in  uncertainty  and  uncharitable- 


Serm.  XI. 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


545 


ness;  and  after  all,  it  is  not  food  for  souls ;  among  us ;  this  they  call  the  work  of  the 
it  is  the  food  of  contention,  it  is  a  spiritual ,  Lord,  and  this  is  the  great  matter  of  the  de- 
lawsuit,  and  it  can  never  be  ended ;  every  ;  sired  reformation  ;  in  these  things  they  spend 
man  is  right  and  every  man  is  wrong  in  these!  their  long  breath,  and  about  these  things 
things,  and  no  man  can  tell  who  is  right,  j  they  spend  earnest  prayers,  and  by  these 
or  who  is  wrong.    For  as  long  as  a  word,  they  judge  their  brother,  and  for  these  they 
can  be  spoken  against  a  word,  and  a  thing  revile  their  superior,  and  in  this  doughty 
be  opposite  to  a  thing ;  as  long  as  places  are  cause  they  think  it  fit  to  fight  and  die.  If 
hard,  and  men  are  igorant,  or  "  knowing  St.  Paul  or  St.  Anthony,  St.  Basil  or  St. 
but  in  part ; "  as  long  as  there  is  money  and  Ambrose,  if  any  of  the  primitive  confessors, 
pride  in  the  world,  and  for  ever  till  men  or  glorious  martyrs,  should  awake  from 
willinglv  confess  themselves  to  be  fools  and  within  their  curtains  of  darkness,  and  find 
deceived,  so  long  will  the  saw  of  contention  men  thus  striving  against  government,  for 
be  drawn  from  side  to  side.    "  That  w hich  the  interest  of  disobedience,  and  labouring 
is  not,  cannot  be  numbered :"  saith  the  wise  for   nothings,  and  preaching  all  day  for 
man :  no  man  can  reckon  upon  any  truth  shadows  and  moonshine ;  and  that  not  a 
that  is  got  by  contentious  learning;  and  who-'  word  shall  come  from  them,  to  teach  the 
ever  troubles  his  people  with  questions,  and  people  humility,  not  a  word  of  obedience 
teaches  them  to  be  troublesome,  note  that!  or  self-denial;  they  are  never  taught  to  sus- 
man,  he  loves  not  peace,  or  he  would  fain  be  pect  their  own  judgment,  but  always  to 
called  "  Rabbi,  Rabbi."    Christian  religion  prefer  the  private  minister  before  the  public, 
loves  not  tricks  nor  artifices  of  wonder ;  but!  the  presbyter  before  a  bishop,  fancy  before 
like  the  natural  and  amiable  simplicity  of  |  law,  the  subject  before  his  prince,  a  prayer 
Jesus,  by  plain  and  easy  propositions,  leads  in  which  men  consider  not  at  all,  before 
us  in  wise  paths  to  a  place,  where  sin  and  that  which  is  weighed  wisely  and  con- 
strife  shall  never  enter.    What  good  can  sidered  ;  and,  in  short,  a  private  spirit  before 
come  from  that  which  fools  begin,  and  wise  the  public,  and  Mass  John  before  the  patri- 
rnen  can  never  end  but  by  silence  ?  and  that  arch  of  Jerusalem  :  if,  I  say,  St.  Paul  or  St. 
had  been  the  best  way  at  first,  and  would  have  Anthony  should  see  such  a  light,  they  would 
stifled  them  in  the  cradle.  "What  have  your  not  know  the  meaning  of  it,  nor  of  what  re- 
people  to  do  whether  Christ's  body  be  in  the  !  ligion  the  country  were,  nor  from  whence 
sacrament  by  consubstantiation  or  transub-  they  had  derived  their  new  nothing  of  an 
stantiation  ;  whether  purgatory  be  in  the  cen-  institution.   *'f  The  kingdom  of  God  consist? 
tre  of  the  earth,  or  in  the  air,  or  any  where,  in  wisdom  and  righteousness,  in  peace  and 
or   nowhere;   and  who   but   a  madman  holiness,  in  meekness   and  gentleness,  in 
would  trouble  their  heads  with  the  entangled  chastity  and  purity,  in  abstinence  from  evil, 
links  of  the  fanatic  chain  of  predestination  ?  and  doing  good  to  others;"  in  these  things 
Teach  them  to  fear  God  and  honour  the  place  your  labours,  preach  these  things,  and 
king,  to  keep  the  commandments  of  God,  nothing  else  but  such  as  these;  things  which 
and  the  king's  commands,  because  of  the  promote  the  public  peace  and  public  good  : 
oath  of  God  ;  learn  them  to  be  sober  and  things  that  can  give  no  offence  to  the  wise 
temperate,  to  be  just  and  to  pay  their  debts,  and  to  the  virtuous  :  for  these  things  are 
to  speak  well  of  their  neighbours  and  to  profitable  to  men  and  pleasing  to  God. 
think  meanly  of  themselves ;  teach  them     2.  Let  not  your  sermons  and  discourses 
charity,  and  learn  them  to  be  zealous  of  i  to  your  people  be  busy  arguings  about  hard 
gocd  works.  Is  it  not  a  shame,  that  the  peo-  'places  of  Scripture  ;  if  you  strike  a  hard, 
pie  should  be  filled  with  sermons  against !  against  a  hard,  you  may  chance  to  strike 
ceremonies,  and  declamations  against  a  sur-  'fire,  or  break  a  man's  head  ;  but  it  never 
plice,  and  tedious  harangues  against  the  poor  ;  makes  a  good  building  :  "  Philosophiam  ad 
airy  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism  ?    These  syllabas  vocare,"  that  is  to  no  purpose ;  your 
things  teach  them  to  be  ignorant ;  it  fills  them  sermons  must  be  for  edification,  something 
with  wind,  and  they  suck  dry  nurses;  it  to  make  the  people  better  and  wiser,  "wiser 
makes  them  lazy  and  useless,  troublesome  unto  salvation,"  not  wiser  to  discourse  ;  for 
and  good  for  nothing.    Can  the  definition  if  a  hard  thing  get  into  their  heads,  I  know 
of  a  Christian  be,  that  a  Christian  is  a  man  not  what  work  you  will  make  of  it,  but 
that  rails  against  bishops  and  the  com-  they  will  make  nothing  of  it  or  some- 
mon  prayer-book  ?  and  yet  this  is  the  great  thing  that  is  very  strange:  dress  your  people 
labour  of  our  neighbours  that  are  crept  in  unto  the  imagery  of  Christ,  dress  them  for 


546 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY 


Serm.  XI. 


their  funerals,  help  them  to  make  their  ac-  ] 
counts  up  against  the  day  of  judgment.  I  j 
have  known  some  persons  and  some  fami- 
lies that  would  religiously  educate  their 
children,  and  bring  them  up  in  the  Scrip- 
tures from  their  cradle;  and  they  would 
teach  them  to  tell  who  was  the  first  man, 
and  who  was  the  oldest,  and  who  was  the 
wisest,  and  who  was  the  strongest;  but  I 
never  observed  them  to  ask  who  was  the 
best,  and  what  things  were  required  to  make 
a  man  good  :*  the  apostles'  creed  was  not 
the  entertainment  of  their  pretty  talkings, 
nor  the  life  of  Christ ;  the  story  of  his  bitter 
passion,  and  his  incomparable  sermon  on 
the  mount,  went  not  into  their  catechisms. 
What  good  can  your  flocks  receive,,  if  you 
discourse  well  and  wisely,  whether  Jeph- 
thah  sacrificed  his  daughter,  or  put  her  into 
the  retirements  of  a  solitary  life  ;  nor  how 
David's  numbering  the  people  did  differ 
from  Joshua's;  or  whether  God  took  away 
the  life  of  Moses  by  an  apoplexy,  or  by  the 
kisses  of  his  mouth?  If  scholars  be  idly 
busy  in  these  things  in  the  schools,  custom, 
and  some  other  little  accidents  may  help  to 
excuse  them;  but  the  time  that  is  spent  in 
your  churches,  and  conversation  with  your 
people,  must  not  be  so  thrown  away :  koyoj 
ecrtu  cTf^oj,  that  is  your  rule;  "let  your 
speech  be  grave"  and  wise,  and  useful,  and 
holy,  and  intelligible ;  something  to  reform 
their  manners,  to  correct  their  evil  natures, 
to  amend  their  foolish  customs ;  "  to  build 
them  up  in  a  most  holy  faith."  That  is  the 
second  rale  and  measure  of  your  preachings 
that  the  apostle  gives  you  in  my  text. 

3.  Your  speech  must  be  vytrtf,  "  salutary" 
and  wholesome :  and,  indeed,  this  is  of 
greatest  concern,  next  to  the  first,  next  to 
the  truth  and  purity  of  that  doctrine;  for 
unless  the  doctrine  be  made  fit  for  the 
necessities  of  your  people,  and  not  only  be 
good  in  itself  but  good  for  them,  you  lose 
the  end  of  your  labours,  and  they  the  end 
of  your  preachings  :  "  Your  preaching  is 
vain,  and  their  faith  is  also  vain."  The 
particulars  of  this  are  not  many,  but  very 
useful. 

1.  It  is  never  out  of  season  to  preach 
good  works ;  but  when  you  do,  be  careful 
that  you  never  indirectly  disgrace  them  by 
telling  how  your  adversaries  spoil  them.  I 
do  not  speak  this  in  vain ;  for  too  many  of 
us  account  good  works  to  be  popery,  and  so 


not  only  dishonour  our  religion,  and  open 
wide  the  mouths  of  adversaries,  but  dis- 
parage Christianity  itself,  while  we  hear  it 
preached  in  every  pulpit,  that  they  who 
preach  good  works  think  they  merit  heaven 
by  it;  and  so  for  fear  of  merit,  men  let  the 
work  alone  ;  to  secure  a  true  opinion  they 
neglect  a  good  practice,  and  out  of  hatred 
of  popery  we  lay  aside  Christianity  itself. 
Teach  them  how  to  do  good  works,  and  yet 
to  walk  humbly  with  God;  for  better  is  it  to 
dwell  even  upon  a  weak  account,  than  to  do 
nothing  upon  the  stock  of  a  better  proposi- 
tion :  and  let  it  never  be  used  any  more  as  a 
word  of  reproach  unto  us  all,  that  the  faith 
of  a  protestant,  and  the  works  of  a  papi<^ . 
and  the  words  of  a  fanatic,  make  up  a  good 
Christian.  Believe  well,  and  speak  well, 
and  do  well ;  but  in  doing  good  works  a 
man  cannot  deceive  any  one  but  himself, 
by  the  appendage  of  a  foolish  opinion ;  but 
in  our  believing  only,  and  in  talking,  a  man 
may  deceive  himself,  and  all  the  world;  and 
God  only  can  be  safe  from  the  cozenage. 
Like  to  this  is  the  case  of  external  forms  of 
worship,  which  too  many  refuse,  because 
they  pretend  that  many  who  use  them  rest 
in  them,  and  pass  no  further  :  for  besides 
that  no  sect  of  men  teaches  their  people  so 
to  do,  you  cannot  without  uncharitableness 
suppose  it  true  of  very  many.  But  if  others 
do  ill,  do  not  you  do  so  too ;  and  leave  not 
out  the  external  forms  of  fear  of  formality, 
but  join  the  inward  power  of  godliness; 
and  then  they  are  reproved  best,  and  in- 
structed wisely,  and  you  are  secured.  But 
remember,  that  profaneness  is  commonly 
something  that  is  external;  and  he  is  a 
profane  person  who  neglects  the  exte- 
rior part  of  religion  :  and  this  is  so  vile  a 
crime,  that  hypocrisy,  while  it  is  undisco- 
vered, is  not  so  much  mischievous  as  open 
profaneness,  or  a  neglect  and  contempt  of 
external  religion.  Do  not  despise  external 
religion,  because  it  may  be  sincere,  and  do 
not  rely  upon  it  wholly,  because  it  may  be 
counterfeit;  but  do  you  preach  both,  and 
practise  both ;  both  what  may  glorify  God  in 
public,  and  what  may  please  him  in  pri- 
vate. 

2.  In  deciding  the  questions  and  cases  of 
conscience  of  your  flocks,  never  strive  to 
speak  what  is  pleasing  but  what  is  profit- 
able, ov  koyouf,  aXXa  Ttpay/Aar'wv  fyOeyytoOat, 
ovoias,  as  was  said  of  Isidore,  the  philoso- 
pher;  "You  must  not  give  your  people 
words,  but  things  and  substantial  food." 


Stout.  XI. 


IN  LIFE  AND  DOCTRINE. 


547 


Let  not  the  people  be  prejudiced  in  the 
matter  of  their  souls,  upon  any  terms  "what- 
soever, and  be  not  ashamed  to  speak  boldly 
in  the  cause  of  God  ;  for  he  that  is  angry 
when  he  is  reproved,  is  not  to  be  consi- 
dered, excepting  only  to  be  reproved  again  ; 
if  he  will  never  mend,  not  you  but  he  will 
have  the  worst  of  it  j  but  if  he  ever  mends, 
he  will  thank  you  for  your  love,  and  for 
your  wisdom,  and  for  your  care :  and  no 
man  is  finally  disgraced  for  speaking  of  a 
truth  :  only  here,  pray  for  the  grace  of  pru- 
dence, that  you  may  speak  opportunely  and 
wisely,  lest  you  profit  not,  but  destroy  an 
incapable  subject. 

Lastly  :  The  apostle  requires  of  every 
minister  of  the  gospel  that  his  speech 
and  doctrine  should  be  dx<vrayvu?ro$,  "un- 
reprovable  :"  not  such  against  which  no 
man  can  cavil:  for  the  Pharisees  found 
fault  with  the  wise  discourses  of  the  eternal 
Son  of  God  :  and  heretics  and  schismatics 
prated  against  the  holy  apostles  and  their 
excellent  sermons ;  but  dxarayvoiros  is 
if  such  as  deserves  no  blame,"  and  needs 
no  pardon,  and  flatters  not  for  praise,  and 
begs  no  excuses,  and  makes  no  apologies ; 
a  discourse  that  will  be  justified  by  all  the 
sons  of  wisdom  :  now  that  yours  may  be 
so,  the  preceding  rules  are  the  best  means 
that  are  imaginable.  For,  so  long  as  you 
speak  the  pure  truths  of  God,  the  plain 
meaning  of  the  Spirit,  the  necessary  things 
of  faith,  the  useful  things  of  charity,  and 
the  excellencies  of  holiness,  who  can  re- 
prove your  doctrine  ?  But  there  is  some- 
thing more  in  this  word  which  the  apostle 
means,  else  it  had  been  a  useless  repetition : 
and  a  man  may  speak  the  truths  of  God,  and 
yet  may  be  blameworthy  by  an  importune, 
unseasonable,  and  imprudent  way  of  deli- 
vering them,  or  for  want  of  such  conduct, 
which  will  place  him  and  his  doctrine  in 
reputation  and  advantages.  To  this  pur- 
pose these  advices  may  be  usefu.. 

1.  Be  more  careful  to  establish  a  truth 
than  to  reprove  an  error.  For  besides  that 
a  tTuth  will,  when  it  is  established,  of  itself 
reprove  the  error  sufficiently  ;  men  will  be 
less  apt  to  reprove  your  truth,  when  they 
are  not  engaged  to  defend  their  own  propo- 
sitions against  you.  Men  stand  upon  their 
guard  when  you  proclaim  war  against  their 
doctrine.  Teach  your  doctrine  purely  and 
wisely,  and  without  any  angry  reflections  ; 
for  you  shall  very  hardly  persuade  him 
whom  you  go  about  publicly  to  confute. 

2.  If  any  man  have  a  revelation  or  disco- 


very, of  which  thou  knowest  nothing  but 
by  his  preaching,  be  not  too  quick  to  con- 
demn it :  not  only  lest  thou  discourage  his 
labour  and  stricter  inquiries  in  the  search  of 
truth,  but  lest  thou  also  i)e  a  fool  upon  re- 
cord ;  for  so  is  every  man  that  hastily 
judges  what  he  slowly  understands.  Is  it 
not  a  monument  of  a  lasting  reproach,  that 
one  of  the  popes  of  Rome  condemned  the 
bishop  of  Sulzbach,  for  saying  that  there 
were  antipodes  ?  And  is  not  Pope  Nicholas 
deserted  by  his  own  party,  for  correcting 
the  sermons  of  Berengarius,  and  making 
him  recaot  into  a  worse  error  ?  and  pos- 
terity will  certainly  make  themselves  very 
merry  with  the  wise  sentences  made  lately 
at  Rome,  against  Galileo  and  the  Jansenists. 
To  condemn  one  truth  is  more  shameful 
than  to  broach  two  errors  :  for  he  that,  in 
an  honest  and  diligent  inquiry,  misses 
something  of  the  mark,  will  have  the 
apologies  of  human  infirmity,  and  the 
praise  of  doing  his  best;  but  he  that  con- 
demns a  truth,  when  it  is  told  him,  is  an 
envious  fool,  and  is  a  murderer  of  his  bro- 
ther's fame  and  his  brother's  reason. 

3.  Let  no  man,  upon  his  own  head,  re- 
prove the  religion  that  is  established  by 
law,  and  a  just  supreme  authority  ;  for  no 
reproofs  are  so  severe  as  the  reproofs  of 
law ;  and  a  man  will  very  hardly  defend 
his  opinion,  that  is  already  condemned  by 
the  wisdom  of  all  his  judges.  A  man's  doc- 
trine possibly  may  be  true  though  against 
law ;  but  it  cannot  be  axardyiastos,  "  unre- 
provable :"  and  a  schismatic  can,  in  no 
case,  observe  this  rule  of  the  apostle.  If 
something  may  be  amiss  when  it  is  de- 
clared by  laws,  much  easier  may  he  be  in 
an  error,  who  goes  upon  his  own  account, 
and  declares  alone:  and,  therefore,  it  is 
:  better  to  let  things  alone,  than  to  be  trou- 
blesome to  our  superiors  by  an  impertinent 
I  wrangling  for  reformation.  We  find  that 
!  some  kings  of  Judah  were  greatly  praised, 
and  yet  they  did  not  destroy  ail  the  temples 
of  the  false  gods  which  Solomon  had  built: 
and  if  such  public  persons  might  let  some 
|  things  alone  that  were  amiss,  and  yet  be 
innocent,  trouble  not  yourself  that  all  the 
world  is  not  amended  according  to  your 
pattern  j  see  that  you  be  perfect  at  home, 
that  all  be  rightly  reformed  there ;  as  for 
!  reformation  of  the  church,  God  will  never 
call  you  to  an  account.  Some  things  can- 
not be  reformed,  and  very  many  need  not, 
for  all  thy  peevish  dreams  ;  and  after  all,  it 
is  twentv  to  one  but  thou  art  mistaken,  and 


548 


THE  MINISTER'S  DUTY. 


Serm.  XI. 


thy  superior  is  in  the  right;  and  if  thou  vvert 
not  proud  thou  wouldst  think  so  too.  Cer- 
tain it  is,  he  that  sows  in  the  furrows  of 
authority,  his  doctrine  cannot  so  easily  be 
reproved  as  he  thakploughs  and  sows  alone. 
When  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Egyptian  monks, 
who  were  ignorant  and  confident,  they 
handled  him  with  great  rudeness,  because 
he  had  spoken  of  the  immateriality  of  the 
Divine  nature ;  the  good  man,  to  escape 
their  fury,  was  forced  to  give  them  crafty 
and  soft  words,  saying  "Vidi  faciem  ves- 
tram  ut  faciem  Dei :"  which  because  they 
understood  in  the  sense  of  the  anthropo- 
morphites  and  thought  he  did  so  too,  they 
let  him  depart  in  peace.  When  private 
persons  are  rude  against  the  doctrines  of 
authority,  they  are  seldom  in  the  right;  but, 
therefore,  are  the  more  fierce,  as  wanting 
the  natural  supports  of  truth,  which  are 
reason  and  authority,  gentleness  and  plain 
conviction  ;  and,  therefore,  they  fall  to  de- 
clamation and  railing,  zeal  and  cruelty,  tri- 
fling and  arrogant  confidences.  They  sel- 
dom go  asunder :  it  is  the  same  word  in 
Greek  that  signifies,  i(  disobedience,"  and 
"cruelty:"  drt^j  is  both;  "He  that  will 
endure  no  bridle,"  "  that  man  hath  no 
mercy."  AvQdhtux,  art'/psta  6/xi%la^  h  koyot^. 
Confidence  is  that  which  will  endure  no 
bridle,  no  curb,  no  superior.  It  is  worse 
in  the  Hebrew ;  "  The  sons  of  Belial," 
signify  "people  that  will  endure  no  yoke, 
no  government,  no  imposition ;"  and  we 
have  found  them  so,  they  are  the  sons  of 
Belial  indeed.  This  is  that  avdddiun,  that 
kind  of  boldness  and  refractory  confidence, 
that  St.  Paul  forbids  to  be  in  a  minister  of 
religion  j*  fxrj  av9d8t],  "  not  confident ;"  that 
is,  let  him  be  humble  and  modest,  distrust- 
ing his  own  judgment,  believing  wiser  men 
than  himself;  never  bold  against  authority, 
never  relying  on  his  own  wit.  AvOdbv^  fativ 
anrtodBvii,  said  Aristotle ;  "  that  man  is  bold 
and  presumptuous,  who  pleases  himself," 
and  sings  his  own  songs,  all  voluntary,  no- 
thing by  his  book. 

Ov5'  aotov  rjvts7,  oat  is  avQdSys  yjywj, 

Eurip. 

said  the  tragedy.  Every  confident  man  is 
ignorant,  and  by  his  ignorance,  trouble- 
some to  his  country,  but  will  never  do  it 
honour. 

4.  Whatever  scriptures  you  pretend  for 
*  Tit.  i.  7. 


your  doctrine,  take  heed  that  it  be  not 
chargeable  with  foul  consequences ;  that  it 
lay  no  burden  upon  God,  that  it  do  not 
tempt  to  vanity,  that  it  be  not  manifestly 
serving  a  temporal  end,  and  nothing  else ; 
that  it  be  not  vehemently  to  be  suspected  to 
be  a  design  of  state,  like  the  sermon  at  Paul's 
Cross,  by  Dr.  Shaw,  in  Richard  the  Third's 
time ;  that  it  do  not  give  countenance  and 
confidence  to  a  wicked  life;  for  then  your 
doctrine  is  reprovable  for  the  appendage, 
and  the  intrinsic  truth  or  falsehood  will  not 
so  much  be  inquired  after,  as  the  visible 
and  external  objection  :  if  men  can  reprove 
it  in  the  outside,  they  will  inquire  no  fur- 
ther. But,  above  all  things,  nothing  so 
much  will  reproach  your  doctrine,  as  if  you 
preach  it  in  a  railing  dialect ;  we  have  had 
too  much  of  that  within  these  last  thirty 
years.  Optatus  observes  it  was  the  trick  of 
the  Donatists,  "Nullus  vestrum  est,  qui  non 
convitia  nostra  suis  tractatibus  misceat:" 
"  There  is  none  of  you  but  with  his  own 
writings  mingles  our  reproaches  ;"*  you 
begin  to  read  chapters,  and  you  expound 
them  to  our  injuries ;  you  comment  upon 
the  gospel,  and  revile  your  brethren  that  are 
absent ;  you  imprint  hatred  and  enmity  in 
your  people's  hearts,  and  you  teach  them 
war  when  you  pretend  to  make  them  saints. 
They  that  do  so,  their  doctrine  is  not  axa-td- 
yvoatos;  that  is  the  least  which  can  be  said. 
If  you  will  not  have  your  doctrine  repre- 
hensible, do  nothing  with  offence;  and  above 
all  offences  avoid  the  doing  or  saying  those 
things,  that  give  offence  to  the  king  and  to 
the  laws,  to  the  voice  of  Christendom  and 
the  public  customs  of  the  church  of  God. 
Frame  your  life  and  preachings  to  the 
canons  of  the  church,  to  the  doctrines  of 
antiquity,  to  the  sense  of  the  ancient  and 
holy  fathers.  For  it  is  otherwise  in 
theology  than  it  is  in  other  learnings. 
The  experiments  of  philosophy  are  rude  at 
first,  and  the  observations  weak,  and  the 
principles  unproved;  and  he  that  made 
the  first  lock,  was  not  so  good  a  workman 
as  we  have  now-a-days :  but  in  Christian 
religion,  they  that  were  first  were  best,  be- 
cause God,  and  not  man,  was  the  teacher  ; 
and  ever  since  that,  we  have  been  unlearn- 
ing the  wise  notices  of  pure  religion,  and 
mingling  them  with  human  notices  and 
human  interest.  "  Q,uod  primum,  hoc  ve- 
rum:"and  although  concerning  antiquity, 
I  may  say  as  he  in  the  tragedy  ;f 

*  Lib.  iv.  adv.  Parmen.  t  Euripides. 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


549 


2t><Ttf«4>po)'£tY  sot  3ovXo/*',  d?.?t'  ov  Gvwoff«i>, 

I  would  have  you  be  wise  with  them,  and  j 
under  them,  and  follow  their  faith,  but  not 
their  errors;  yet  this  can  never  be  of  use  to 
us,  till  antiquity  be  convicted  of  an  error,  by 
an  authority  great  as  her  own,  or  a  reason 
greater,  and  declared  by  an  authorized  mas- 
ter of  sentences.    But,  however,  be  very 
tender  in  reproving  a  doctrine  for  which 
good  men  and  holy  have  suffered  martyr- 
dom, and  of  which  they  have  made  public  1 
confession  ;  for  nothing  reproves  a  doctrine  ! 
so  much  as  to  venture  it  abroad  with  so 
much  scandal  and  objection  :  and  what  rea- 
son can  any  schismatic  have  against  the 
common  prayer-book,  able  to  weigh  against 
that  argument  of  blood,  which  for  the  testi-  I 
mony  of  it  was  shed  by  the  Queen  Mary ! 
martyrs?    I  instance  the  advice  in  this  par- 
ticular, but  it  is  true  in  all  things  else  of  ! 
the  like  nature.    It  was  no  ill  advice,  who-  ! 
ever  gave  it,  to  the  favourite  of  a  prince  ; ; 
"Never  make  yourself  a  professed  enemy! 
to  the  church:  for  their  interest  is  so  com-  j 
plicated  with  the  public,  and  their  calling  ' 
is  so  dear  to  God,  that  one  way  or  other, 
one  time  or  other.  God  and  man  will  be  their 
defender." — The  same  I  say  concerning  au-  1 
thority  and  antiquity  :  never  do  any  thing, 
Beyer  say  or  profess  any  thing  against  it : 
for  besides  that  if  you  follow  their  measures,  I 
you  will  be  secured  in  your  faith,  and  in  1 
your  main  duty ;  even  in  smaller  things  j 
they  will  be  sure  to  carry  the  cause  against 
you,  and  no  man  is  able  to  bear  the  reproach 
of  singularity.    It  was  in  honour  spoken  of 
St.  Malachias,  my  predecessor  in  the  see  of 
Down,  in  his  life  written  by  St.  Bernard; 
"  Apostolicas  sanctiones  et  decreta  Ss.  pp. 
in  cunctis  ecclesiis  statuebat."    I  hope  to 
do  something  of  this  for  your  help  and 
service,  if  God  gives  me  life,  and  health, 
and  opportunity ;  but  for  the  present,  I  have 
done.    These  rules  if  you  observe,  your 
doctrine  will  be  dxardyuostfos,  "  it  will  need 
no  pardon  ;"  and  dwyx^roj,  "  never  to  be 
reproved  in  judgment."    I  conclude  all 
with  the  wise  saying  of  Bensirach :  "  Ex- 
tol not  thyself  in  the  counsel  of  thine  own 
heart,  that  thy  soul  be  not  torn  in  pieces  as 
a  bull  straying  alone."* 

*  Ecclus.  vi.  2. 


SERMON  XII. 

PREACHED  AT  THE  FUNERAL  OF  SIR  GEORGE 
DALSTON,  OF  DALSTON  IN  CUMBERLAND. 

September  28,  1657. 

If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are 
of  all  men  most  miserable. — 1  Cor.  xv.  19. 

When  God,  in  his  infinite  and  eternal 
wisdom,  had  decreed  to  give  to  man  a  life 
of  labour,  and  a  body  of  mortality;  a  state 
of  contingency,  and  a  composition  of  fight- 
ing elements;  and  having  designed  to  be 
glorified  by  a  free  obedience,  would  also 
permit  sin  in  the  world,  and  suffer  evil  men 
to  go  on  in  their  wickedness,  to  prevail  in 
their  impious  machinations,  to  vex  the  souls 
and  grieve  the  bodies  of  the  righteous,  he 
knew  that  this  would  not  only  be  very  hard 
to  be  suffered  by  his  servants,  but  also  be 
very  difficult  to  be  understood  by  them  who 
know  God  to  be  a  "  Lawgiver"  as  well  as  a 
"  Lord  ;"  a  "  Judge"  as  well  as  a  "  King ;" 
a  " Father"  as  well  as  a  "Ruler;"  and 
that,  in  order  to  his  own  glory,  and  for  the 
manifestation  of  his  goodness,  he  had  pro- 
mised to  reward  his  servants,  to  give  good 
to  them  that  did  good :  therefore,  to  take  off 
all  prejudices,  and  evil  resentments,  and 
temptations,  which  might  trouble  those 
good  men  who  suffered  evil  things,  —  he 
wTas  pleased  to  do  two  great  things  which 
might  confirm  the  faith,  and  endear  the  ser- 
vices, and  entertain  the  hopes  of  them  who 
are  indeed  his  servants,  but  yet  were  very 
ill  used  in  the  accidents  of  this  world. 

1.  The  one  was,  that  he  sent  his  Son  into 
the  world  to  take  upon  him  our  nature; 
and  him,  being  the  "Captain  of  our  sal- 
vation, he  would  perfect  through  suffer- 
ings ;"  that  no  man  might  think  it  much 
to  suffer,  wThen  God  spared  not  his  own 
Son;  and  every  man  might  submit  to 
the  necessity,  when  the  Christ  of  God  was 
not  exempt ;  and  yet  that  man  should  fear 
the  event  which  was  to  follow  such  sad  be- 
ginnings, when  "it  behooved  even  Christ 
to  suffer,  and  so  to  enter  into  glory." 

2.  The  other  great  thing  wTas,  that  God 
did  not  only  by  revelation,  and  the  sermons 
of  the  prophets  to  his  church,  but  even  to 
all  mankind  competently  teach,  and  effec- 
tively persuade,  that  the  soul  of  man  does 
not  die ;  but  that  although  things  were  ill 
here,  yet  they  should  be  well  hereafter ; 
that  the  evils  of  this  life  were  short  and 
tolerable,  and  that  to  the  good,  who  usually 
feel  most  of  them,  they  should  end  in 


550 


A   FUNERAL  SERMON. 


Serm.  XII. 


honour  and  advantages.  And,  therefore, 
Cicero  had  reason  on  his  side  to  conclude, 
that  there  is  to  he  a  time  and  place  after  this 
life,  wherein  the  wicked  shall  be  punished, 
and  the  virtuous  well  rewarded,  when  he 
considered  that  Orpheus  and  Socrates,  Pala- 
medes  and  Thraseas,  Lucretia  andPapinian, 
were  either  slain  or  oppressed  to  death  by 
evil  men.  But  to  us  Christians,  si  fo?  srtaz- 
di$  ttrtw  slrislv,  rcdvv  txavwj,  drtoSiSft^^cw,  as 
Plato's*  expression  is  ;  we  have  a  necessity 
to  declare,  and  a  demonstration  to  prove  it, 
when  we  read  that  Abel  died  by  the  hands 
of  Cain,  who  was  so  ignorant,  that  though 
he  had  malice  and  strength,  yet  he  had 
scarce  art  enough  to  kill  him  :  when  we 
read  that  John  the  Baptist,  Christ  himself, 
and  his  apostles,  and  his  whole  army  of 
martyrs,  died  under  the  violence  of  evil 
men;  when  virtue  made  good  men  poor, 
and  free  speaking  of  brave  truths  made  the 
wise  to  lose  their  liberty;  when  an  excellent 
life  hastened  an  opprobrious  death,  and  the 
obeying  God  destroyed  ourselves ;  it  was 
but  time  to  look  about  for  another  state  of 
things,  where  justice  should  rule,  and  virtue 
find  her  own  portion  :  where  the  men  that 
were  like  to  God  in  mercy  and  justice, 
should  also  partake  of  his  felicity ;  and, 
therefore,  men  cast  out  every  line,  and 
turned  every  stone,  and  tried  every  argu- 
ment, and  sometimes  proved  it  well ;  and 
when  they  did  not,  yet  they  believed  strongly; 
and  they  were  sure  of  the  thing,  even  when 
they  were  not  sure  of  the  argument. 

Thus,  therefore,  would  the  old  priests  of 
the  capitol,  and  the  ministers  of  Apollo,  and 
the  mystic  persons  at  their  oracles  believe, 
when  they  made  apotheoses  of  virtuous  and 
braver  persons,  ascribing  every  braver  man 
into  the  number  of  their  gods;  Hercules  and 
Romulus,  Castor  and  PolluXj  Liber  Pater,f 
him  that  taught  the  use  of  vines,  and  her 
that  :aught  them  the  use  of  corn.  For  they 
knew  that  it  must  needs  be,  that  they  who 
like  to  God  do  excellent  things,  must  like  to 
God  have  an  excellent  portion. 

This  learning  they  also  had  from  Phere- 
cydes  the  Syrian,  from  Pythagoras  of  Samos, 
and  from  Zamolxis  the  Gete,  from  the  neigh- 
bours of  Euphrates,  and  the  inhabitants 
by  Ister,  who  were  called  d$avortl£ovts$, 
"  Immortalists ;"  because,  in  the  midst  of 
all  their  dark  notices  of  things,  they  saw 
this  clearly,  ott  dyaBa  rtotoivr'f  j  ovx  arto^avovv- 
«f<u,  aKkd  rj%ovai  i$  x^Pov  tovfov,  'iva  t^wcrt  ta 


Phaed.  c.  37. 


t  Horace. 


Ttdvta  dya£d ;  (<  that  virtuous  and  good  men 
do  not  die,  but  their  souls  do  go  into  blessed 
regions,  where  they  shall  enjoy  all  good 
things ;"  and  it  was  never  known  that  ever 
any  good  man  was  of  another  opinion.  Her- 
cules and  Themistocles,  Epaminondas  and 
Cicero,  Socrates  and  Cimon,  Ennius  and 
Phidias,  all  the  flower  of  mankind  have 
preached  this  truth.    Kvplotspa  nd  ttov  ^a'wv 
dvdpwj/  fiavtsvfMta,  rj  id  tZ>v  fivj'  oi  hi  STtiSLxsa- 
Tfatoi  Ttdvta  rtoiovGw,  ortw?  av  i $  fbv  trtsita  xpovov 
sv  dxovoaiv.  "  The  discoursings  and  prophe 
syings  of  divine  men  are  much  more  proper 
and  excellent  than  of  others,  because  they 
do  equal  and  good  things,  until  the  time 
comes  that  they  shall  hear  well  for  them:" 
tsx/jLripiov  6e  rioiovfjuxi,  6tt  iatl  ti$  ala^rjGii  ts9- 
vewG  twv  sv$d8s '  at  8  s  fie'k'tKftai  tyv%al  fiavtsvovtai 
-tavta  ovVcoj  %%tvp  at  8h  (xoxOrjpotatai,  ov  tyaalv. 
"  And  this  is  the  sign,  that  when  we  die  we 
have  life  and  discerning;  because  though 
the  wicked  care  not  for  believing  it,  yet  all 
the  prophets  and  the  poets,  the  wise  and  the 
brave  heroes  say  so ;"  they  are  the  words  of 
Plato.     For  though  that  which  is  com- 
pounded of  elements,  returns  to  its  material 
and  corruptible  principles,  yet  the  soul, 
which  is  a  particle  of  the  Divine  breath,  re- 
turns to  its  own  Divine  original,  where  there 
is  no  death  or  dissolution ;  and  because  the 
understanding  is  neither  hot  nor  cold,  it  hath 
no  moisture  in  it,  and  no  dryness,  it  follows 
that  it  hath  nothing  of  those  substances, 
concerning  which  alone  we  know  that  they 
are  corruptible.    There  is  nothing  corrupti- 
ble that  we  know  of,  but  the  four  elements, 
and  their  sons  and  daughters  ;  nothing  dies 
that  can  discourse,  that  can  reflect  in  perfect 
circles  upon  their  own  imperfect  actions  ; 
nothing  can  die  that  can  see  God,  and  con- 
verse with  spirits,  that  can  govern  by  laws 
and  wise  propositions.    For  fire  and  water 
can  be  tyrannical,  but  not  govern  ;  they  can 
bear  every  thing  down  that  stands  before 
them,  and  rush  like  the  people ;  but  not  rule 
like  judges,  and  therefore  they  perish  as 
tumults  are  dissolved.    Asirtstai  8s  tov  vow 
(xovov  Ovpo&sv  STtsiaisvai,  xai  $siov  slvai  ftovov' 
ov8h   ydp  avtov  -ty  tvspysld  xotvoiveo  (ju/xattxri 

ivepyna-  says  Aristotle  :*  "  But  the  soul 
only  comes  from  abroad,  from  a  Divine 
principle  ;  (for  so  saith  the  scripture, — '  God 
breathed  into  Adam  the  spirit  of  life ;')  and 
that  which  in  operation  does  not  communi- 
cate with  the  body,"  shall  have  no  part  in 
its  corruption. 

*  De  gen.  an.  lib. 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


551 


Thus  far  they  were  right ;  but  when  they 
descended  to  particulars,  they  fell  into  error. 
That  the  rewards  of  virtue  were  to  be  here- 
after, that  they  were  sure  of ;  that  the  soul 
was  to  survive  the  calamities  of  this  world, 
and  the  death  of  the  body,  that  they  were 
sure  of;  and  upon  this  account  they  did 
bravely  and  virtuously  :  and  yet  they  that 
thought  best  amongst  them,  believed  that 
the  souls  departed  should  be  reinvested  with 
other  bodies,  according  to  the  dispositions 
and  capacities  of  this  life. 

Thus  Orpheus,  who  sang  well,  should 
transmigrate  into  a  swan ;  and  the  soul  of 
Thamyris,  who  had  as  good  a  voice  as  he, 
should  wander  till  it  were  confined  to  the, 
body  of  a  nightingale  ;  Ajax  to  a  lion,  Aga- 1 
memnon  to  an  eagle,  tyrant  princes  into 
wolves  and  hawks,  the  lascivious  into  asses 
and  goats,  the  drunkards  into  swine,  the 
crafty  statesmen  into  bees  and  pismires,  and 
Thersites  to  an  ape.  This  fancy  of  theirs 
prevailed  much  amongst  the  common  peo- 
ple, and  the  uninstructed  amongst  the  Jews : 
for  when  Christ  appeared  so  glorious  in 
miracle,  Herod  presently  fancied  him  to  be 
the  soul  of  John  the  Baptist  in  another 
body;  and  the  common  people  said  he  was 
Elias,  or  Jeremias,  or  one  of  the  old  pro- 
phets. And  true  it  is,  that  although  God 
was  pleased,  in  all  times,  to  communicate  to 
mankind  notices  of  the  other  world,  suffi- 
cient to  encourage  virtues,  and  to  contest 
against  the  rencounters  of  the  world, — yet 
he  was  ever  sparing  in  telling  the  secrets 
of  it;  and  when  St.  Paul  had  his  rapture 
into  heaven,  he  saw  fine  things,  and  heard 
strange  words,  but  they  were  apfata  pr^a, 
"words  that  he  could  not  speak,"  and  se- 
crets that  he  could  not  understand,  and 
secrets  that  he  could  not  communicate.  For 
as  a  man  staring  upon  the  broad  eye  of  the 
sun  at  his  noon  of  solstice,  feels  his  heat, 
and  dwells  in  light,  and  loses  the  sight  of 
his  eyes,  and  perceives  nothing  distinctly ; 
but  the  organ  is  confounded,  and  the  faculty 
amazed  with  too  big  a  beauty :  so  was  St. 
Paul  in  his  ecstasy ;  he  saw  that  he  could 
see  nothing  to  be  told  below,  and  he  per- 
ceived the  glories  were  too  big  for  flesh  and 
blood,  and  that  the  beauties  of  separate  souls 
were  not  to  be  understood  by  the  soul  in 
conjunction  ;  and,  therefore,  after  all  the  fine 
things  that  he  saw,  we  only  know  what  we ; 
knew  before,  viz.  that  the  soul  can  live  when  \ 
the  body  is  dead  ;  that  it  can  subsist  without . 
the  body ;  that  there  are  very  great  glories 
reserved  for  them  that  serve  God ;  that  they  | 


who  die  in  Christ,  shall  live  with  him  ;  that 
the  body  is  a  prison,  and  the  soul  is  in  fet- 
ters, while  we  are  alive;  and  that  when  the 
body  dies,  the  soul  springs  and  leaps  from 
her  prison,  and  enters  into  the  first  liberty 
of  the  sons  of  God.  Now  much  of  this  did 
rely  upon  the  same  argument,  upon  which 
the  wise  gentiles  of  old  concluded  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul ;  even  because  we  are 
here  very  miserable  and  very  poor:  we  are 
sick,  and  we  are  afflicted ;  we  do  well,  and 
we  are  disgraced;  we  speak  well,  and  we 
are  derided  ;  we  tell  truths,  and  few  believe 
us ;  but  the  proud  are  exalted,  and  the 
wicked  are  delivered,  and  evil  men  reign 
over  us,  and  the  covetous  snatch  our  little 
bundles  of  money  from  us,  and  the  "  fiscus" 
gathers  our  rents;  and  every  where  the 
wisest  and  the  best  men  are  oppressed ;  but, 
therefore,  because  it  is  thus,  and  thus  it  is 
not  well,  we  hope  for  some  great  good  thing 
hereafter.  "  For  if,  in  this  life  only,  we  had 
hope," — then  we  Christians,  all  we  to  whom 
persecution  is  allotted  for  our  portion,  we 
who  must  be  patient  under  the  cross,  and 
receive  injuries,  and  say  nothing  but  prayers, 
— "we  certainly  were  of  all  men  the  most 
miserable." 

Well  then  :  in  this  life  we  see  plainly  that 
our  portion  is  not ;  here  we  have  hopes ;  but 
not  here  only,  we  shall  go  into  another  place, 
where  we  shall  have  more  hopes  :  our  faith 
shall  have  more  evidence,  it  shall  be  of 
things  seen  afar  off;  and  our  hopes  shall  be 
of  more  certainty  and  perspicuity,  and  next 
to  possession ;  we  shall  have  very  much 
good,  and  be  very  sure  of  much  more. 
Here  then  are  three  propositions  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

1.  The  servants  of  God  in  this  world  are 
very  miserable,  were  it  not  for  their  hopes 
of  what  is  to  come  hereafter. 

2.  Though  this  be  a  place  of  hopes,  yet 
we  have  not  our  hopes  only  here.  "  If  in 
this  life  only  we  had  hopes,"  saith  the  apos- 
tle ;  meaning,  that  in  another  life  also  we 
have  hopes ;  not  only  metonymically,  taking 
hopes  for  the  thing  we  hope  for;  but  pro- 
perly, and  for  the  acts,  objects,  and  causes 
of  hope.  In  this  state  of  separation  the 
godly  shall  have  the  vast  joys  of  a  certain 
intuitive  hope,  according  to  their  several 
proportions  and  capacities. 

3.  The  consummation  and  perfection  of 
their  felicity,  when  all  their  miseries  shall  be 
changed  into  glories,  is  in  the  world  to  come, 
after  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ;  which  is 
the  main  thing  which  St.  Paul  here  intends. 


552 


A  FUNERA 


L  SERMON. 


Serm.  XII. 


L  The  servants  of  God  m  this  life  are 
calamitous  and  afflicted ;  they  must  live 
under  the  cross.  "  He  that  will  be  my  dis- 
ciple, let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his 
cross,  and  follow  me,"  said  our  glorious 
Lord  and  Master.  And  we  see  this  pro- 
phetic precept,  (for  it  is  both  a  prophecy 
and  a  commandment,  and,  therefore,  shall 
be  obeyed  whether  we  will  or  not,)  but  I  say, 
we  see  it  verified  by  the  experience  of  every 
day.  For  here  the  violent  oppress  the  meek ; 
and  they  that  are  charitable,  shall  receive 
injuries.  The  apostles  who  preached  Christ 
crucified  were  themselves  persecuted,  and 
put  to  violent  deaths  ;  and  Christianity  itself 
for  three  hundred  years  was  the  public 
hatred  ;  and  yet  then  it  was  that  men  loved 
God  best,  and  suffered  more  for  him ;  then 
they  did  most  good,  and  least  of  evil.  In 
this  world,  men  thrive  by  villany  ;  and  lying 
and  deceiving  is  accounted  just ;  and  to  be 
rich  is  to  be  wise;  and  tyranny  is  honoura- 
ble ;  and  though  little  thefts,  and  petty  mis- 
chiefs, are  interrupted  by  the  laws ;  yet  if  a 
mischief  become  public  and  great,  acted  by 
princes,  and  effected  by  armies,  and  robbe- 
ries be  done  by  whole  fleets,  it  is  virtue,  and 
it  is  glory  :  it  fills  the  mouths  of  fools  that 
wonder,  and  employs  the  pens  of  witty  men 
that  eat  the  bread  of  flattery.  How  many 
thousand  bottles  of  tears,  and  how  many 
millions  of  sighs  does  God  every  day  record, 
while  the  oppressed  and  the  poor  pray  unto 
him,  worship  him,  speak  great  things  of  his 
holy  name,  study  to  please  him,  beg  for 
helps  that  they  may  become  gracious  in  his 
eyes,  and  are  so,  and  yet  never  sing  in  all 
their  life,  but  when  they  sing  God's  praises 
out  of  duty,  with  a  sad  heart  and  hopeful 
spirit,  living  only  upon  the  future,  weary  of 
to-day,  and  sustained  only  by  the  hope  of 
to-morrow's  event!  and  after  all,  their  eyes 
are  dim  with  weeping  and  looking  upon 
distances,  as  knowing  they  shall  never  be 
happy  till  the  "  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth"  appear. 

But  I  need  not  instance  in  the  "  misera- 
bili,"  in  them  that  dwell  in  dungeons,  and 
lay  their  head  in  places  of  trouble  and  dis- 
ease :  take  those  servants  of  God  who  have 
greatest  plenty,  who  are  encircled  with 
blessings,  whom  this  world  calls  prosperous, 
and  see  if  they  have  not  fightings  within, 
and  crosses  without,  contradiction  of  acci- 
dents, and  perpetuity  of  temptations,  the 
devil  assaulting  them,  and  their  own  weak- 
ness betraying  them ;  fears  encompassing 
them  round  about,  lest  they  lose  the  favour 


of  God,  and  shame  sitting  heavily  upon 
them,  when  they  remember  how  often  they 
talk  foolishly,  and  lose  their  duty,  and  dis- 
honour their  greatest  relations,  and  walk 
unworthy  of  those  glories  which  they  would 
fain  obtain ;  and  all  this  is  besides  the  un- 
avoidable accidents  of  mortality,  sickly  bo- 
dies, troublesome  times,  changes  of  govern- 
ment, loss  of  interests,  unquiet  and  peevish 
accidents  round  about  them  :  so  that  when 
they  consider  to  what  they  are  primarily 
obliged ;  that  they  must  in  some  instances 
deny  their  appetite,  in  others  they  must  quit 
their  relations,  in  all  they  must  deny  them- 
selves, when  their  natural  or  secular  danger 
tempts  to  sin  and  danger ;  and  that  for  the 
support  of  their  wills,  and  the  strengthening 
their  resolutions,  against  the  arguments  and 
solicitation  of  passions,  they  have  nothing 
but  the  promises  of  another  world ;  they 
will  easily  see  that  all  the  splendour  of  their 
condition,  which  fools  admire,  and  wise 
men  use  temperately,  and  handle  with  cau- 
tion, as  they  try  the  edge  of  a  razor,  is  so 
far  from  making  them  recompense  for  the 
sufferings  of  this  world,  that  the  reserves 
and  expectations  of  the  next  is,  that  conju- 
gation of  aids,  by  which  only  they  can  well 
and  wisely  bear  the  calamities  of  their  pre- 
sent plenty. 

But  if  we  look  round  about  us,  and  see 
how  many  righteous  causes  are  oppressed, 
how  many  good  men  are  reproached,  how 
religion  is  persecuted,  upon  what  strange 
principles  the  greatest  princes  of  the  world 
transact  their  greatest  affairs,  how  easily 
they  make  wars,  and  how  suddenly  they 
break  leagues ;  and  at  what  expense,  and 
vast  pensions,  they  corrupt  each  other's 
officers  ;  and  how  the  greatest  part  of  man- 
kind watches  to  devour  one  another:  and 
they  that  are  devoured  are  commonly  the 
best,  the  poor  and  the  harmless,  the  gentle 
and  uncrafty,  the  simple  and  religious;  and 
then  how  many  ways  all  good  men  are  ex- 
posed to  danger;  and  that  our  scene  of  duty- 
lies  as  much  in  passive  graces  as  in  active; 
it  must  be  confessed  that  this  is  a  place  of 
wasps  and  insects,  of  vipers  and  dragons, 
of  tigers  and  bears ;  but  the  sheep  are  eaten 
by  men,  or  devoured  by  wolves  and  foxes, 
or  die  of  the  rot;  and  when  they  do  not,  yet 
every  year  they  redeem  their  lives  by  giving 
their  fleece  and  their  milk,  and  must  die, 
when  their  death  will  pay  the  charges  of 
the  knife. 

Now,  from  this,  I  say,  it  was  that  the 
very  heathen,  Plutarch  and  Cicero,  Pytha- 


Serm.XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


553 


goras  and  Hierocles,  Plato,  and  many  others,  j  of  blessings,  which  is  consigned  by  that 
did  argue  and  conclude,  that  there  must  be 1  glorious  appellative ;  he  was  an  exile  from 
a  day  of  recompenses  to  come  hereafter,  j  his  country ;  he  stood  far  off  from  the  pos- 
which  would  set  all  right  again  :  and  from  1  session  of  his  hopes;  he  lived  in  ambulatory 
hence  also  our  blessed  Saviour  himself  did; life;  he  spent  most  of  his  days  without  an 
convince  the  Sadducees  in  their  fond  and 'heir;  he  had  a  constant  piety;  and  at  the 
pertinacious  denying  of  the  resurrection  :  j  latter  end  of  his  life,  one  great  blessing  was 
for  that  is  the  meaning  of  that  argument,  given  him;  and  because  that  was  allayed 
which  our  blessed  Lord  did  choose  as  being  j  by  the  anger  of  his  wife,  and  the  expulsion 
clearly  and  infallibly  the  aptest  of  any  in  of  his  handmaid,  and  the  ejection  of  Ish- 

mael,  and  the  danger  of  the  lad ;  and  his 
great  calamity  about  the  matter  of  Isaac's 
first  so  plain  and  evident,  yet  upon  nearer  I  sacrifice ;  and  all  his  faith,  and  patience, 
intuition,  the  interpretation  is  easy,  and  the  |  and  piety,  was  rewarded  with  nothing  but 


the  Old  Testament,  to  prove  the  resurrec- 
tion :  and  though  the  deduction  is  not  at 


argument  excellent  and  proper. 

For  it  is  observed  by  the  learned  among 
the  Jews,  that  when  God  is  by  way  of  par- 
ticular relation,  and  especial  benediction, 
appropriated  to  any  one,  it  is  intended  that 
God  is  to  him  "  a  rewarder  and  benefactor," 
©to?  cfepyefffs,  0f6j  /xis^arco86tr;i ;  for  that  is 
the  first  thing  and  the  last,  that  every  man 
believes  and  feels  of  God ;  and,  therefore, 
St.  Paul  sums  up  the  gentiles'  creed  in  this 
compendium :  "  He  that  cometh  to  God, 
must  believe  that  God  is;  and  that  he  is  a 
rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him."* 
And  as  it  is  in  the  indefinite  expression,  so 
it  is  in  the  limited ;  as  it  is  in  the  absolute, 
so  also  in  the  relative.  God  is  the  rewarder; 
and  to  be  their  God,  is  to  be  their  rewarder, 
to  be  their  benefactor,  and  their  gracious 
Lord.  "  Ego  ero  Deus  vester," — "  I  will  be 
your  God  ;"  that  is,  "  I  will  do  good,"  says 
A  ben  Esra :  and  Philo ;  to  8k  0e6j  cwwvwj 
loov  titi  fw,  6  ^apt^OjUfvoj,  ov  tots  /xsv,  riots  8  s 
ov,  dft  8s,  xaL  stwEguf.  "The  everlasting 
God,  that  is,  as  if  he  had  said,  one  that  will 
do  you  good ;  not  sometimes  some,  and 
sometimes  none  at  all,  but  frequently,  and  |  the  most  miserable ;"  because  this  cannot 
for  ever :"  and  this  we  find  also  observed  by  jbe,  that  God  who  is  just  and  good,  should 
St.  Paul:  "'Wherefore  God  is  not  ashamed  | suffer  them  that  heartily  serve  him,  to  be 


promises  of  things  a  great  way  off;  and 
before  the  possession  of  them,  he  went  out 
of  this  world  :  it  is  undeniably  certain  that 
God,  who,  after  the  departure  of  the  patri- 
archs, did  still  love  to  be  called  "their  God," 
did  intend  to  signify  that  they  should  be  re- 
stored to  a  state  of  life,  and  a  capacity  of 
those  greatest  blessings,  which  were  the 
foundation  of  that  title  and  that  relation. 
"  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of 
the  living ;"  but  God  is  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, and  the  other  patriarchs;  therefore 
they  are  not  dead ;  dead  to  this  world,  but 
alive  to  God;  that  is,  though  this  life  be 
lost,  yet  they  shall  have  another  and  a 
better;  a  life  in  which  God  shall  manifest 
himself  to  be  their  God,  to  all  the  purposes 
of  benefit  and  eternal  blessings. 

This  argument  was  summed  up  by  St. 
Peter,  and  the  sense  of  it  is  thus  rendered  by 
St.  Clement,  the  bishop  of  Rome,  as  him- 
self testifies:  "  Si  Deus  est  justus,  animus 
est  immortalis ;"  which  is  perfectly  rendered 
by  the  words  of  my  text,  "  If  in  this  life 
only  we  have  hope,  then  are  we  of  all  men 


to  be  called  their  God  ;"f  and  that  by  which 
the  relative  appellative  is  verified,  is  the  con- 
sequent benefit ;  He  is  "  called  their  God  ; 
for  he  hath  provided  for  them  a  city." 

Upon  this  account,  the  argument  of  our 
blessed  Saviour  is  this :  "  God  is  the  God 
of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob;"  that  is,  the 
gracious  God,  the  benefactor,  the  rewarder ; 
and,  therefore,  Abraham  is  not  dead,  but  is 
fallen  asleep,  and  he  shall  be  restored  in  the 
resurrection  to  receive  those  blessings  and 
rewards,  by  the  title  of  which,  God  was 

called  the  "God  of  Abraham."  For  in  i  in  the  night,"  said  Elihu  ;*  that  is,  God,  as  a 
this  world  Abraham  had  not"  that  harvest  reward,  giveth  a  cheerful  spirit,  and  makes 


really  and  finally  miserable  :  and  yet  in  this 
world  they  are  so,  very  frequently ;  there- 
fore, in  another  world,  they  shall  live  to 
receive  a  full  recompense  of  reward. 

Neither  is  this  so  to  be  understood,  as  if 
the  servants  of  God  were  so  wholly  for- 
saken of  him  in  this  world,  and  so  per- 
mitted to  the  malice  of  evil  men,  or  the 
asperities  of  fortune,  that  they  have  not 
many  refreshments,  and  great  comforts,  and 
the  perpetual  festivities  of  a  holy  conscience; 
for  "  God  my  maker  is  he  that  giveth  songs 


Heb.  ii.  6. 


t  Heb.  xi.  16. 


70 


*  Job  xxxv.  10. 

2  W 


554 


A  FUNERA 


L  SERMON. 


Serm.  XII. 


a  man  to  sing  with  joy,  when  other  men 
are  sad  with  the  solemn  darkness,  and  with 
the  affrights  of  conscience,  and  with  the 
illusions  of  the  night.  But  God,  who  in- 
tends vast  portions  of  felicity  to  his  children, 
does  not  reckon  these  little  joys  into  the  ac- 
count of  the  portion  of  his  elect.  The  good 
things  which  they  have  in  this  world,  are 
not  little,  if  we  account  the  joys  of  religion, 
and  the  peace  of  conscience,  amongst  things 
valuable ;  yet  whatsoever  it  is,  all  of  it,  all 
the  blessings  of  themselves,  and  of  their  pos- 
terity, and  of  their  relatives,  for  their  sakes, 
are  cast  in  for  intermedial  entertainments ; 
but  "  their  good"  and  their  prepared  portion 
shall  be  hereafter.  But  for  the  evil  itself, 
which  they  must  suffer  and  overcome,  it  is 
such  a  portion  of  this  life,  as  our  blessed 
Saviour  had  ;  injuries  and  temptations,  care 
and  persecutions,  poverty  and  labour,  hu- 
mility and  patience :  it  is  well ;  it  is  very 
well ;  and  who  can  long  for  or  expect  better 
here,  when  his  Lord  and  Saviour  had  a 
state  of  things,  so  very  much  worse  than 
the  worst  of  our  calamities  ?  but  bad  as  it  is, 
it  is  to  be  chosen  rather  than  a  better ;  be- 
cause it  is  the  high  way  of  the  cross ;  it  is 
Jacob's  ladder,  upon  which  the  saints  and 
the  King  of  saints  did  descend,  and  at  last 
ascend  to  heaven  itself ;  and  bad  as  it  is,  it 
is  the  method  and  inlet  to  the  best ;  it  is  a 
sharp,  but  it  is  a  short  step  to  bliss ;  for  it 
is  remarkable,  in  the  parable  of  Dives  and 
Lazarus,  that  the  poor  man,  the  afflicted 
saint,  died  first,  Dives  being  permitted  to  his 
purple  and  fine  linen,  to  his  delicious  fare, 
and  (which  he  most  of  all  needed)  to  a 
space  of  repentance  :  but,  in  the  mean  time, 
the  poor  man  was  rescued  from  his  sad  por- 
tion of  this  life,  and  carried  into  Abraham's 
bosom ;  where  he  who  was  denied  in  this 
world  to  be  feasted  even  with  the  portion  of 
dogs,  was  placed  in  the  bosom  of  the  patri- 
arch, that  is,  in  the  highest  room;  for  so  it 
was  in  their  "  discubitus,"  or  lying  down 
to  meat,  the  chief  guest,  the  most  beloved 
person,  did  lean  upon  the  bosom  of  the  mas- 
ter of  the  feast ;  so  St.  John  did  lean  upon 
the  breast  of  Jesus,  and  so  did  Lazurus 
upon  the  breast  of  Abraham ;  or  else  xoXrtos 
'A|3paoyt,  "sinus  Abrahami,"  may  be  ren- 
dered "  the  bay  of  Abraham,"  alluding  to 
the  place  of  rest,  where  ships  put  in  after  a 
tempestuous  and  dangerous  navigation  j  the 
storm  was  quickly  over  with  the  poor  man, 
and  the  angel  of  God  brought  the  good  man's 
soul  to  a  safe  port,  where  he  should  be  dis- 
turbed no  more:  and  so  saith  the  Spirit ; 


"Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the 
Lord ;  for  they  rest  from  their  labours." 

But  thw  brings  me  to  the  second  great  in- 
quiry ;  if  here  we  live  upon  hopes,  and  that 
this  is  a  place  of  hopes,  but  not  this  only  ; 
what  other  place  is  there,  where  we  shall 
be  blessed  in  our  hope,  where  we  shall  rest 
from  our  labour  and  our  fear,  and  have  our 
hopes  in  perfection ;  that  is  all  the  pleasures 
which  can  come  from  the  greatest  and  most 
excellent  hope? 

ft  Not  in  this  life  only :" — So  my  text. 
Therefore  hereafter ;  as  soon  as  we  die ;  as 
soon  as  ever  the  soul  goes  from  the  body  it 
is  blessed.  Blessed,  I  say,  but  noi  perfect : 
it  rejoices  in  peace  and  a  holy  hope :  here 
we  have  hopes  mingled  with  fear,  there 
our  hope  is  heightened  with  joy  and  confi- 
dence; it  is  all  the  comfort  that  can  be,  in 
the  expectation  of  unmeasurable  joys  :  it  is 
only,  not  fruition,  not  the  joys  of  a  perfect 
possession;  but  less  than  that,  it  is,  every 
good  thing  else. 

But  that  I  may  make  my  way  plain  :  I 
must  first  remove  an  objection,  which  seems 
to  overthrow  this  whole  affair.  St.  Paul  in- 
tends these  words  of  my  text,  as  an  argu- 
ment to  prove  the  resurrection;  we  shall 
rise  again  with  our  bodies ;  for  "  if  in  this 
life  only  Ave  had  hope,  then  we  were  of  all 
men  most  miserable ;"  meaning,  that  unless 
there  be  a  resurrection,  there  is  no  good  for 
us  any  where  else ;  but  if  £<  thev  who  die 
in  the  Lord,"  were  happy  before  the  resur- 
rection, then  we  were  not  of  all  men  most 
miserable,  though  there  were  to  be  no  resur- 
rection; for  the  godly  are  presently  happy. 
So  that  one  must  fail;  either  the  resurrec- 
tion, or  the  intermedial  happiness;  the  proof 
of  one  relies  upon  the  destruction  of  the 
other ;  and  because  we  can  no  other  ways 
be  happy,  therefore  there  shall  be  a  resur- 
rection. 

To  this  I  answer,  that  if  the  godly,  in- 
stantly upon  their  dissolution,  had  the  vision 
beatifical,  it  is  very  true,  that  they  were  not 
most  miserable,  though  there  be  no  resur- 
rection of  the  dead,  though  the  body  were 
turned  into  its  original  nothing  :  for  the  joys 
of  the  sight  of  God  would,  in  the  soul  alone, 
make  them  infinite  recompense  for  all  the 
sufferings  of  this  world.  But  that  which 
the  saints  have  after  their  dissolution,  being 
only  the  comforts  of  a  holy  hope,  the  argu- 
ment remains  good :  for  these  intermedial 
hopes  being  nothing  at  all,  but  in  relation  to 
the  resurrection,  these  hopes  do  not  destroy, 
but  confirm  it  rather ;  and  if  the  resurrec- 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


555 


tion  were  not  to  be,  we  should  neither  have  j 
any  hopes  here,  nor  hopes  hereafter,  and, 
therefore  the  apostle's  word  is,  "If  here 
only  we  had  hopes;"  that  is,  if  our  hopes 
only  related  to  this  life;  but  because  our 
hopes  only  relate  to  the  life  to  come,  and: 
even  after  this  life  we  are  still  but  in  the 
regions  of  an  enlarged  hope,  this  life  and 
that  interval  are  both  but  the  same  argu- 
ment to  infer  a  resurrection :  for  they  are 
the  hopes  of  that  state,  and  the  joys  of  those 
hopes,  and  it  is  the  comfort  of  that  joy, 
which  makes  them  blessed  who  die  in  the 
love  of  God,  and  the  faith  and  obedience 
of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

And  now  to  the  proposition  itself. 

In  the  state  of  separation,  the  souls  de- 
parted perceive  the  blessing  and  comfort  of 
their  labours;  they  are  alive  after  death; 
and  after  death,  immediately  they  find  great 
refreshments.  "  Justorum  animse  in  manu 
Dei  sunt,  et  non  tanget  illos  tormentum 
mortis  :"  "  The  torments  of  death  shall  not 
touch  the  souls  of  the  righteous,  because 
they  are  in  the  hands  of  God."*  And  fif- 
teen hundred  years  after  the  death  of  Moses, 
we  find  him  talking  with  our  blessed  Saviour 
in  his  transfiguration  upon  mount  Tabor : 
and  as  Moses  was  then,  so  are  all  the  saints 
immediately  after  death,  "  prassentes  apud 
Dominum,"  "they  are  present  with  the 
Lord  ;"  and  to  be  so,  is  not  a  state  of  death  : 
and  yet  of  this  it  is,  that  St.  Paul  affirms  it 
to  be  much  better  than  to  be  alive. 

And  this  was  the  undoubted  sentence  of 
the  Jews  before  Christ,  and  since ;  and 
therefore  our  blessed  Saviour  told  the  con- 
verted thief,  that  he  should  "  that  day 
be  with  him  in  paradise."  Now  without 
peradventure,  he  spake  so  as  he  was  to 
be  understood :  meaning  by  F«  paradise," 
that  which  the  schools  and  the  pulpits 
of  the  Rabbins  did  usually  speak  of  it. 
By  paradise,  till  the  time  of  Esdras,  it  is 
certain,  the  Jews  only  meant  the  blessed 
garden,  in  which  God  only  placed  Adam 
and  Eve  :  but  in  the  time  of  Esdras,  and  so 
downward,  when  they  spake  distinctly  of 
things  to  happen  after  this  life,  and  began 
to  signify  their  new  discoveries,  and  modern 
philosophy  by  names,  they  called  the  state 
of  souls,  expecting  the  resurrection  of  their 
bodies,  by  the  name  of  pp  p,  "  the  garden 
of  Eden."  Hence  came  that  form  of  com- 
precation  and  blessing  to  the  soul  of  an 
Israelite,  "  Sit  anima  ejus  in  horto  Eden," 

*  Wisd.  iii.  1. 


"  Let  his  soul  be  in  the  garden  of  Eden ;" 
and  in  their  solemn  prayers  at  the  time  of 
their  death,  they  were  wont  to  say,  "  Let 
his  soul  rest;  and  let  his  sleep  be  in  peace, 
until  the  Comforter  shall  come,  and  open 
the  gates  of  paradise  unto  him  :"  expressly 
distinguishing  paradise  from  the  state  of 
the  resurrection  :  and  so  it  is  evident,  in  the 
intercourse  on  the  cross,  between  Christ  and 
the  converted  thief.  "  That  day  both  were 
to  be  in  paradise  ;'*  but  Christ  himself  was 
not  then  ascended  into  heaven,  and  there- 
fore paradise  was  no  part  of  that  region, 
where  Christ  now,  and  hereafter  the  saints, 
shall  reign  in  glory.  For  rtapa5£«jo$  did,  by 
use  and  custom,  signify  "  any  place  of 
beauty  and  pleasure."  So  the  LXX  read 
Eccles.  ii.  5.  se  I  made  me  gardens  and 
orchards,"  "  I  made  me  a  paradise,"  so  it 
is  in  the  Greek  ;■  and  Cicero*  having  found 
this  strange  word  in  Xenophon,  renders  it 
by  F<  conseptum  agrum  ac  diligenter  consi- 
tum:"  "a  field  well  hedged  and  set  with 
flowers  and  fruit." — "  Vivarium,"  Gellius 
renders  it,  "  a  place  to  keep  birds  and  beasts 
alive  for  pleasure. "  Pollux  says  this  word 
was  Persian  by  its  original ;  yet  because  by 
traduction  it  became  a  Hebrew,  we  may 
best  learn  the  meaning  of  it  from  the  Jews, 
who  used  it  most  often,  and  whose  sense 
we  better  understand.  Their  meaning,  there- 
fore, was  this;  that  as  paradise,  or  the  gar- 
den of  Eden,  was  a  place  of  great  beauty, 
pleasure,  and  tranquillity ;  so  the  state  of 
separate  souls  was  a  state  of  peace  and  ex- 
cellent delights.  So  Philo  allegorically  does 
expound  paradise.  Aiyouui  yap  h  tTp  rtapa- 
&hgg>  tyvta  slvcu  /xrj8sv  ioixoia  toi$  rtap'  r^uv 
aMcd  £Wj,  a#avatftaj,  si8rtas^.  "For  the  trees 
that  grow  in  paradise  are  not  like  ours,  but 
they  bring  forth  knowledge,  and  life,  and 
immortality."  It  is,  therefore,  more  than 
probable,  that  when  the  converted  thief 
heard  our  blessed  Saviour  speak  of  "para- 
dise," or  "  Gan  Eden,"  he  who  was  a  Jew, 
and  heard  that  on  that  day  he  should  be 
there,  understood  the  meaning  to  be,  that 
he  should  be  there  where  all  the  good  Jews 
did  believe  the  souls  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob  to  be  placed.  As  if  Christ  had 
said :  Though  you  only  ask  to  be  remem- 
bered when  I  come  into  my  kingdom,  not 
only  that  shall  be  performed  in  time,  but 
even  to-day  thou  shalt  have  great  refresh- 
ment; and  this  the  Hellenish  Jews  called 
a,M7tavaiv  tov  riapufitioov,  "  the  rest  of  para- 

*  De  Sen.  xvii. 


556 

dise :"  and  rta^x'Kriaw ,  "  the  comfort"  of 
paradise ;  the  word  being  also  warranted 
from  that  concerning  Lazarus  ;  rtapcweatoi^cu., 
"  he  is  comforted." 

But  this  we  learn  more  perfectly  from  the 
raptures  of  St.  Paul:  "He  knew  a  man" 
(meaning  himself,)  "  rapt  up  into  the  third 
heaven :  and  I  knew  such  a  man  how  that 
he  was  caught  up  into  paradise."*  The 
raptures  and  visions  were  distinct ;  for  St. 
Paul  being  a  Jew,  and  speaking  after  the 
manner  of  his  nation,  makes  "  paradise"  a 
distinct  thing  from  "the  third  heaven." 
For  the  Jews  deny  any  "  orbes"  to  be  in 
heaven ;  but  they  make  three  regions  only, 
the  one  of  clouds,  the  second  of  stars,  and 
the  third  of  angels.  To  this  third  or  supreme 
heaven  was  St.  Paul  rapt;  but  he  was  also 
borne  to  paradise,  to  another  place  distinct 
and  separate  by  time  and  station ;  for  by 
paradise  his  countrymen  never  understood 
the  third  heaven.  But  there  also  it  was  that 
he  heard  tfd  ajifafa  p-^ar'a,  "  unspeakable 
words,"  great  glorifications  of  God,  huge 
excellencies,  such  which  he  might  not  or 
could  not  utter  below.  The  effect  of  these 
considerations  is  this;  that  although  the 
saints  are  not  yet  admitted  to  the  blessings 
consequent  to  a  happy  resurrection,  yet  they 
have  the  intermedial  entertainments  of  a 
present  and  a  great  joy. 

To  this  purpose  are  those  words  to  be 
understood  :  "  To  him  that  overcomes,  will 
I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,  which  is  in 
the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  God."f  That 
is,  if  I  may  have  leave  to  expound  these 
words,  to  mean  what  the  Jews  did  about 
that  time  understand  by  such  words :  fcVSpoj/ 
trjs  £q?7s,  "  the  tree  of  life,"  does  signify  the 
principle  of  peace  and  holiness,  of  wisdom 
and  comforts  for  ever.  Philo,  expounding 
it,  calls  it  t^v  fizyLGtqv  tuv  apetuv  Ssoaefizlav , 
St'  %  djdavatl&tcu  37  ^v%r[ :  "  The  worship  of 
God,  the  greatest  of  all  virtues,  by  which 
the  soul  is  made  to  live  for  ever:"  as  if  by 
eating  of  this  tree  of  life  in  the  paradise  of 
God,  they  did  mean,  that  they  who  die  well, 
shall  immediately  be  feasted  with  the  deli- 
ciousness  of  a  holy  conscience,  which  the 
Spirit  of  God  expresses  by  saying,  ct  They 
shall  walk  up  and  down  in  white  garments, 
and  their  works  shall  follow  them ;"  their 
tree  of  life  shall  germinate;  they  shall  then 
feel  the  comforts  of  having  done  good  works ; 
a  sweet  remembrance  and  a  holy  peace  shall 
caress  and  feast  them,  and  there  they  shall 


Serm.  XII. 

"  walk  up  and  down  in  white  ;"*  that  is, 
as  candidates  of  the  resurrection  to  immor- 
tality. 

And  this  allegory  of  the  garden  of  Eden 
and  paradise  was  so  heartily  pursued  by 
the  Jews,  to  represent  the  state  of  separa- 
tion, that  the  Essenes  describe  that  state  by 
the  circumstances  and  ornaments  of  a  bless- 
ed garden :  Xwpov  oi>ts  cytj3poij,  ovts  vupstcis, 
ov-ts  xvpaat,  f5apw6[A.svov :  "  a  region  that  is 
not  troubled  with  clouds  or  showers,  or 
Storms  or  blasts  :"  aM,'  6v  1%  utxsavov  rtpdvs  ati 
^f^vpoj  t7tMvuuv  av&\v%£i, ;  "  but  a  place 
which  is  perpetually  refreshed  with  deli- 
cious breaths."  This  was  it  which  the  hea- 
thens did  dream  concerning  the  Elysian 
fields  ;  for  all  the  notices  7tspo  aSou,  concern- 
ing the  regions  of  separate  souls,  came  into 
Greece  from  the  barbarians,  says  Diodorus 
Siculus  ;  and  Tertullian  observes,  although 
we  call  that  paradise,  which  is  a  place  ap- 
pointed to  receive  the  souls  of  the  saints, 
and  that  this  is  separated  from  the  notices 
of  the  world  by  a  wall  of  fire,  a  portion  of 
the  torrid  zone  (which  he  supposes  to  be 
meant  by  the  flaming  sword  of  the  angel 
placed  at  the  gates  of  paradise;)  yet,  says 
he,  the  Elysian  fields  have  already  possess- 
ed the  faith  and  opinions  of  men.  Ail  comes 
from  the  same  fountain,  the  doctrine  of  the 
old  synagogue,  confirmed  by  the  words  of 
Christ  and  the  commentaries  of  the  apostles; 
viz.  that  after  death,  before  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, there  is  a  paradise  for  God's  servants, 
a  region  of  rest,  of  comfort,  and  holy  expec- 
tations. And,  therefore,  it  is  remarkable 
that  these  words  of  the  psalmist,  "  Ne  rapias 
me  in  medio  dierum  meorum  ;"f  "  snatch 
me  not  away  in  the  midst  of  my  days :"  in 
the  Hebrew  it  is,  "  Ne  facias  me  ascen- 
dere;"  "make  me  not  to  ascend,"  or  to  go 
upwards ;  meaning,  to  the  supernatural  re- 
gions of  separate  souls,  who,  after  death, 
are  in  their  beginnings  of  exultation.  For 
to  them  that  die  in  the  Lord,  death  is  a  pre- 
ferment, it  is  a  part  of  their  great  good  for- 
tune ;  for  death  hath  not  only  lost  the  sting, 
but  it  brings  a  coronet  in  his  hand,  which 
will  invest  and  adorn  the  heads  of  saints, 
till  that  day  come  in  which  the  crown  of 
righteousness  shall  be  brought  forth,  to  give 
them  the  investiture  of  au  everlasting  king- 
dom. 

But  that  I  may  take  up  this  proposition 
useful  and  clear,  I  am  to  add  some  things 
by  way  of  supplement. 


A  FUNERaL  SERMON. 


*  2  Cor.  ii.  3. 


t  Rev.  ii.  7. 


*  Rev.  iii.  4,  5.  andxiv.  13.    t  Psal.  cii.  25. 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


557 


1.  This  place  of  separation  was  called 
''paradise"  by  the  Jews,  and  by  Christ, 
and  after  Christ's  ascension,  by  St.  John, 
because  it  signifies  a  place  of  pleasure  and 
rest:  and,  therefore,  by  the  same  analogy, 
the  word  may  be  still  used  in  all  the  periods 
of  the  world,  though  the  circumstances,  or 
though  the  state  of  things,  be  changed.  It 
is  generally  supposed  that  this  had  a  proper 
name,  and  in  the  Old  Testament  was  called 
"Abraham's  bosom;"  that  is,  the  region 
where  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  did  dwell, 
till  the  coming  of  Christ.  But  I  suppose 
myself  to  have  great  reason  to  dissent  from 
this  common  opinion;  for  this  word  of 
"  Abraham's  bosom,"  being  but  once  used 
in  both  the  Testaments,  and  then  particular- 
ly applied  to  the  person  of  Lazarus,  must 
needs  signify  the  eminence  and  privilege  of 
joy  that  Lazarus  had ;  for  all  that  were  in 
the  blessed  state  of  separation,  were  not  in 
"  Abraham's  bosom,"  but  only  the  best  and 
most  excellent  persons ;  but  they  were  ixsta 
ro£'  AjSpaafi,  "  with  Abraham ;"  and  the  ana- 
logy of  the  phrase  to  the  manner  of  the 
Jewish  feasting,  where  the  best  guest  did  lie 
in  the  bosom  of  the  master,  that  is,  had  the 
best  place,  makes  it  most  reasonable  to  be- 
lieve that  "  Abraham's  bosom"  does  not 
signify  the  general  state  of  separation,  even 
of  the  blessed,  but  the  choicest  place  in  that 
state,  a  greater  degree  of  blessedness.  But 
because  he  is  the  father  of  the  faithful, 
therefore,  to  be  with  Abraham,  or  to  sit 
down  with  Abraham,  in  the  time  of  the  Old 
Testament,  did  signify  the  same  thing  as  to  j 
,be  in  paradise;  but  to  be  in  "  Abraham's 
bosom"  signifies  a  great  eminence  of  place 
and  comfort,  which  is  indulged  to  the  most 
excellent  and  the  most  afflicted. 

2.  Although  the  state  of  separation  may 
now  also,  and  is  by  St.  John  called  paradise, 
because  the  allegory  still  holds  perfectly,  as 
signifying  comfort  and  holy  pleasures;  yet 
the  spirits  of  good  men  are  not  to  be  said 
"to  be  with  Abraham,"  but  "to  be  with! 
Christ;"  and  as  being  with  Abraham  was 
the  specification  of  the  more  general  word 
of  paradise  in  the  Old  Testament,  so  "  being 
with  Christ"  is  the  specification  of  it  in  the 
New.  So  St.  Stephen  prayed,  "  Lord  Jesus, 
receive  my  spirit;"  and  St.  Paul  said,  "I 
desire  to  be  dissolved,  and  to  be  with  Christ ;" 
which  expression  St.  Polycarp  also  used  in 
his  epistle  to  the  Philippians,  6Vt  «$  toy 
dtysCko/xsvov  avtotg  tortov,  2p  rtapa  Kvpio  j 
M  they  are  in  the  place  that  is  due  to  them, 
they  are  with  the  Lord  ;"  that  is,  in  the 


hands,  in  the  custody  of  the  Lord  Jesus ;  as 
appears  in  the  words  of  St.  Stephen  and  St. 
Paul.  So  St.  Jerome ;  "  Scimus  Nepotianum 
nostrum  esse  cum  Christo,  et  sanctorum 
mixtum  choris :"  "  We  know  that  our  Ne- 
pbtian  is  with  Christ,  mingled  in  the  choirs 
of  saints."  Upon  this  account  (and  it  is  not 
at  all  unreasonable,)  the  church  hath  con- 
jectured, that  the  state  of  separate  souls, 
since  the  glorification  of  our  Lord,  is  much 
bettered  and  advanced,  and  their  comforts 
greater;  because,  as  before  Christ's  coming, 
the  expectation  of  the  saints  that  slept  was 
fixed  upon  the  revelation  of  the  Messias  in 
his  first  coming,  so  now  it  is  upon  the  second 
coming  unto  judgment,  and  in  his  glory. 
This  improvement  of  their  condition  is  well 
intimated  by  their  being  said  to  be  under 
the  altar ;  that  is,  under  the  protection  of 
Christ,  under  the  powers  and  benefits  of  his 
priesthood,  by  which  he  makes  continual 
intercession  both  for  them  and  us.  This 
place  some  of  the  old  doctors  understood  too 
literally,  and  from  hence  they  believed  that 
the  souls  of  departed  saints  were  under  their 
material  altars  ;  which  fancy  produced  that 
fond  decree  of  the  council  of  Eliberis,*  that 
wax  lights  should  not  by  day  be  burnt  in 
cemeteries,  "  inquietandi  enim  spiritus  sanc- 
torum non  sunt :"  "  lest  the  spirits  of  saints 
should,  by  the  light  of  the  diurnal  tapers, 
be  disquieted."  This  reason,  though  it  be 
trifling  and  impertinent,  yet  it  declares  their 
opinion,  that  they  supposed  their  souls  to  be 
near  their  relics,  which  were  placed  under 
the  altars.  But  better  than  this  their  state 
is  described  by  St.  John,  in  these  words  : 
"  Therefore  they  are  before  the  throne  of 
God,  and  serve  him  night  and  day  in  his 
temple,  and  he  that  sits  upon  the  throne 
shall  dwell  among  them."  With  which 
general  words,  as  being  modest  bounds  to 
our  inquiries,  enough  to  tell  us  it  is  rarely 
well,  but  enough  also  to  chastise  all  curious 
questions,  let  us  remain  content;  and  labour 
with  faith  and  patience,  with  hope  and  cha- 
rity, to  be  made  worthy  to  partake  of  those 
comforts,  after  which  when  we  have  long 
inquired,  when  at  last  we  come  to  try  what 
they  are,  we  shall  find  them  much  better, 
and  much  otherwise  than  we  imagine. 

3.  I  am  to  admonish  this  also,  that  al- 
though our  blessed  Saviour  is,  in  the  creed, 
said  to  descend  si$  a&ov,  "  into  hell"  (so  we 
render  it ;)  yet  this  does  not  at  all  prejudice 
his  other  words,  "  This  day  thou  shalt  be 

*  Can.  iii.  4. 
2  w  2 


558 


A  FUNERA 


L  SERMON. 


Serm.  XII. 


with  me  in  paradise for  the  word  els  aSov 
signifies  indefinitely  the  state  of  separation, 
whether  blessed  or  accursed ;  it  means  only 
f*  the  invisible  place,"  or  the  region  of  dark- 
ness, whither  whoso  descends  shall  be  no 
more  seen.  For  as  among  the  heathens  the 
"  Elysian  fields,"  and  "  Tartara,"  are  both 
iv  aSov ;  so  amongst  the  Jews  and  Christians, 
"  paradisus"  and  "  gehenna"  are  the  dis- 
tinct states  of  hades.  Of  the  first  we  have 
a  plain  testimony  in  Diphilus: 

Kot  yap  xad'  ao^v  8vo  tplfiovs  vo/xl^OfisVy 
Mtav  SoxalcoVf  xarfipav  dcffjSwv  686v. 

"  In  hades  there  are  two  ways,  one  for  just 
men,  and  another  for  the  impious."  Of  the 
second  we  have  the  testimony  of  Josephus, 
who  speaking  of  the  Sadducees,  says  tas 
xaO  a8ov  tfCjitcopuxj  xai  Tftfxa$  avaipovtic,  "  they 
take  away  or  deny  the  rewards  and  punish- 
ments respectively  which  are  in  hades,"  or 
in  the  state  of  separation  ;  so  that  if  Christ's 
soul  was  in  paradise,  he  was  in  hades.  In 
vain,  therefore,  does  St.  Austin  torment 
himself  to  tell  how  Christ  could  be  in  both 
places  at  once,  when  it  is  no  harder  than  to 
ten  how  a  man  may  be  in  England  and 
London  at  the  same  time. 

4.  It  is  observable,  that  in  the  mentions 
of  paradise  by  St.  John,  he  twice  speaks  of 
"  the  tree  of  life  "  but  never  of  "the  tree 
of  knowledge  o  good  and  evil;"  because 
this  was  tne  symbol  of  secular  knowledge, 
of  prudence  and  skill  of  doing  things  of  this 
world,  which  we  can  naturally  use ;  we 
may  smell  and  taste  them,  but  not  feed  upon 
them ;  that  is,  these  are  no  part  of  our  en- 
joyment ;  and  if  we  be  given  up  to  the  study 
of  such  notices,  and  be  emerged  in  the 
things  of  this  world,  we  cannot  attend  to  the 
studies  of  religion  and  of  the  Divine  service. 
But  these  cares  and  secular  divertisements 
shall  cease,  when  our  souls  are  placed  in 
paradise;  there  shall  be  no  care  taken  for 
raising  portions  for  our  children,  nor  to  pro- 
vide bread  for  our  tables ;  no  cunning  con- 
trivances to  be  safe  from  the  crafty  snare  of 
an  enemy  ;  no  amazement  at  losses,  no  fear 
of  slanderings  or  of  the  gripes  of  publicans  ; 
but  we  shall  feed  on  the  tree  of  life,  love  of 
God,  and  longings  for  the  coming  of  Christ : 
we  are  then  all  spirit,  and  our  employment 
shall  be  symbolical,  that  is,  spiritual,  holy, 
and  pleasant. 

I  have  now  made  it  as  evident  as  ques- 
tions of  this  nature  will  bear,  that  in  the 
state  of  separation,  the  spirits  of  good  men 
shall  be  blessed  and  happy  souls, — they  have 


an  antepast  or  taste  of  their  reward;  but 
their  great  reward  itself,  their  crown  of 
righteousness,  shall  not  be  yet;  that  shall  not 
be  until  the  day  of  judgment;  and  this  was 
the  third  proposition  I  undertook  to  prove ; 
the  consummation  and  perfection  of  the 
saints'  felicity  shall  be  at  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead. 

'Ev  rtapovala  avtov,  "  at  his  coming ;"  so 
St.  John  expresses  the  time,  "  that  we  may 
not  then  be  ashamed :  for  now  we  are  the 
sons  of  God,  but  it  does  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be;  but  we  know  that  when  he 
shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  unto  him,  and 
see  him  as  he  is."*  At  his  glorious  appear- 
ing, we  shall  also  appear  glorious ;  we  shall 
see  him  as  he  is ;  but  till  then,  this  beatific 
vision  shall  not  be  at  all;  but  for  the  inter- 
val, the  case  is  otherwise.  Tertullian  affirms, 
ff  Puniri  et  foveri  animam  interim  in  inferis, 
sub  exspectatione  utriusque  judicii,  in  qua- 
dam  usurpatione  et  Candida  ejus:"  "the 
souls  are  punished  or  refreshed  in  their  re- 
gions, expecting  the  day  of  their  judgment 
and  several  sentences. "f  "  Habitacula  ilia, 
animarum  promptuaria,  nominavit  Scrip- 
tura,"  saitli  St.  Ambrose:  "the  Scripture 
calls  these  habitations,  the  promptuaries  or 
repositories  of  souls. "J  There  is  comfort, 
but  not  the  full  reward;  a  certain  expecta- 
tion, supported  with  excellent  intervals  of 
joy :  "  refrigerium,"  so  the  Latins  call  it, 
"  a  refreshment."  ?'  Donee  consummatio 
rerum  resurrectionem  omnium  plenitudine 
mercedis  expungat,  tunc  apparitura  coelesti 
promissione,"  saith  Tertullian  :  "  until  the 
consummation  of  all  things  points  out  the 
resurrection,  by  the  fulness  of  reward,  and 
the  appearing  of  the  heavenly  promise." 
So  the  author  of  the  questions  "  ad  ortho- 
doxos:"§  "Immediately  after  death,  pre- 
sently there  is  a  separation  of  the  just  from 
the  unjust;  for  they  are  borne  by  angels 
f tj  a|i/'ov$  av-rw  tfdrtors,  "  into  the  places  they 
have  deserved ;"  and  they  are  in  those  places 
(pv'M'tofXivai  i'a>j  tfijlj  J^uipaj  t^j  dj/aoi'atffwj  xai 
(WartoSousas,  "  kept  unto  the  day  of  resur- 
rection and  retribution."  But  what  do  they 
in  the  mean  time?  how  is  it  with  them? 
®av(iaavav  T'tVa  7j8ovrjv  rjSstai,,  xai  ayaM.JT'at, 
says  Nazianzen:||  "they  rejoice  and  are 
delighted  in  a  wonderful  joy."  "  They  see 
angels  and  archangels,  they  converse  with 
them,  and  see  our  blessed  Saviour  Jesus  in 


*  1  John  ii.  28.  iii.  4. 

t  Lib.  de  Anima.  et.  lib.  adv.  Marcion. 

X  De  Bono  Mortis,  cap.  10.      $  Quest.  75. 

M  Orat.  Funebr.  Caesar  Fratris. 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


559 


his  glorified  humanity  :"  so  Justin  Martyr.*  I  be  alive  at  that  day,  and  therefore  cannot, 
But  in  these  great  joys  they  look  for  greater,  before  that  day,  receive  the  crown  of  righte- 
They  are  now  "in  paradiso,"  but  they  long'  ousness  :  and  then  also,  and  not  till  then, 
that  the  body  and  soul  may  be  in  heaven '  shall  be  his  appearing;  but  till  then,  it  is  a 
together  ;  but  this  is  the  glory  of  the  day  of  j  "  depositum."  The  sum  is  this :  in  the 
judgment,  the  fruit  of  the  resurrection,  world,  we  walk  and  live  by  faith ;  in  the 
And  this  whole  affair  is  agreeable  to  reason  I  state  of  separation,  we  live  by  hope ;  and  in 
and  the  analogy  of  the  whole  dispensation, '  the  resurrection,  we  shall  live  by  an  eternal 
as  it  is  generally  and  particularly  described  ;  charity.  Here  we  see  God  as  "  in  a  glass, 
in  Scripture.  [darkly  :"  in  the  separation  we  shall  behold 

For  when  the  greatest  effect  of  the  Divine  j  him,  but  it  is  afar  off;  and  after  the  resur- 
power,  the  mightiest  promise,  that  hardest 1  rection  we  shall  see  him  l*  face  to  face,"  in 
thing  to  Christian  faith,  that  impossible  thing  !  the  everlasting  comprehensions  of  an  intui- 
to  gentile  philosophy,  the  expectation  of  the  tive  beatitude.  In  this  life  we  are  warriors; 
whole  world,  the  new  creation,  when  that  in  the  separation  we  are  conquerors;  but  we 
shall  come  to  pass,  viz.  that  the  souls  shall  shall  not  triumph  till  after  the  resurrection, 
be  reinvested  with  their  bodies,  when  the  \  And  in  proportion  to  this  is  also  the  state 
ashes  of  dissolved  bones  shall  stand  up  a  of  devils  and  damned  spirits.  "  Art  thou 
new  and  living  frame,  to  suppose  that  then  come  to  torment  us  before  the  time,"  said 
there  shall  be  nothing  done  in  order  to  eter-  '  the  devils  to  our  blessed  Saviour.  There  is 
nity,  but  to  publish  the  salvation  of  saints,  j  for  them  also  an  appointed  time,  and  when 
of  which  they  were  possessed  before,  is  to  i  that  is  we  learn  from  St.  Jude  :*  "  They  are 
make  a  great  solemnity  for  nothing,  to  do  j  reserved  in  chains  under  darkness,  unto  the 
great  things  for  no  great  end,  and  therefore, 1  judgment  of  the  great  day."  Well,  there- 
it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  it.  fore,  did  St.  James  affirm,  "that  the  devils 

For  if  it  were  a  good  argument  of  the  .  believe  and  tremble ;"  and  so  do  the  damned 
apostle,  that  the  patriarchs  and  saints  of  the  souls,  wTith  an  insupportable  amazement, 
Old  Testament  received  not  the  promises  fearing  the  revelation  of  that  day.  They 
signified  by  Canaan  and  the  land  of  promise, ;  know  that  day  will  come,  and  they  know 
because  "God  hath  provided  some  better,  they  shall  find  an  intolerable  sentence  on 
thing  for  us,  that  without  us  they  should  j  that  day ;  and  they  fear  infinitely,  and  are 
not  be  made  perfect,"  it  must  also  conclude  in  amazement  and  confusion,  feeling  the 
of  all  alike  ;  that  they  who  died  since  Christ, ,  worm  of  conscience,  and  are  in  the  state  of 
must  stay  till  the  last  day,  that  they  and  we  |  devils,  who  fear  God  and  hate  him ;  they 
and  all  may  be  made  perfect  together.  And  j  tremble,  but  they  love  him  not ;  and  yet  they 
this  very  thing  was  told  to  the  spirits  of  the  :  die  because  they  would  not  love  him,  be- 
martyrs,  who  under  the  altar  cried,  "How  cause  they  would  not  with  their  powers  and 
long,  O  Lord,"f  &c,  that  they  should  "  rest :  strengths  keep  his  commandments, 
yet  for  a  little  season,"  until  their  fellow-  j  This  doctrine,  though  of  late  it  hath  been 
servants  also  shall  be  fulfilled.  j  laid  aside,  upon  the  interest  of  the  church 

Upon  this  account  it  is,  that  the  day  of  ■  of  Rome,  and  for  compliance  writh  some 
judgment  is  a  day  of  recompense.  So  said  ;  other  schools,  yet  it  was  universally  the 
our  blessed  Lord  himself :  M  Thou  shalt  be  ,  doctrine  of  the  primitive  church ;  as  appears 
recompensed  at  the  resurrection  of  the  j  out  of  Justin  Martyr,  who,  in  his  dialogues 
just."$  And  this  is  the  day  in  which  all  j  with  Tryphon,  reckons  this  amongst  the 
things  shall  be  restored;  for  "the  heavens  srspoSotwu,  "errors"  of  some  men,  who  say 
must  receive  Jesus  till  the  time  of  restitution  ,  there  shall  be  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ; 
of  all  things  :"$  and  till  then,  the  reward  (but  that,  as  soon  as  good  men  are  dead,  ra$ 
"is  said  to  be  laid  up."    So  St.  Paul :  ,  ^v^a*  avrwv  wOaftfianofru       tbv  ovpcuw, 

Henceforth  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  !  "  their  souls  are  taken  up  immediately  into 
righteousness,  which  the  righteous  Judge  heaven."  And  the  writer  of  the  questions 
shall  give  me  in  that  day."  And  that  you  i  "ad  orthodoxos,"  asks,f  whether, before  the 
may  know  he  means  the  resurrection  and  resurrection,  there  shall  be  a  reward  of 
the  day  of  judgment,  he  adds  ;  "and  not  works?  because  to  the  thief  paradise  was 
to  me  only,  but  to  all  them  that  love  his  promised  that  day.  He  answers:  "  It  was 
coming  ;"J  of  whom  it  is  certain  many  shall  fit  the  thief  shouid  go  to  paradise,  and  there 

*Ubi  supra.   tRev.vi.10.    t  Luke  xiv.  14.    |  Perceive  what  things  should  be  given  to  the 

$  Acts  iii.  7.  II  2  Tim.  iv.  8.    |    *  Cap.  vi.  t  Qu.  76.  Q.  60.  Q.  75. 


560 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


Serm.  XII. 


works  of  faith;  but  there  he  is  kept,  eco?  tr^ 
f^uipaj  trjs  ava^tdssici  xai  avtartoboat coj,  "  until 
the  day  of  resurrection  and  reward."  But  in 
paradise  the  soul  hath  an  intellectual  per- 
ception, both  of  herself,  and  of  those  things 
which  are  under  her. 

Concerning  which  I  shall  not  need  to  heap 
up  testimonies.  This  only :  it  is  the  doc- 
trine^of  the  Greek  church  unto  this  day; 
and  was  the  opinion  of  the  greatest  part  of 
the  ancient  church,  both  Latin  and  Greek ; 
and  by  degrees  was,  in  the  west,  eaten  out 
by  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  and  invocation 
of  saints ;  and  rejected  a  little  above  two 
hundred  years  ago,  in  the  council  of  Flo- 
rence; and  since  that  time  it  hath  been  more 
generally  taught,  that  the  souls  of  good  men 
enjoy  the  beatific  vision  before  the  resurrec- 
tion, even  presently  upon  the  dissolution. 
According  to  which  new  opinion,  it  will  be 
impossible  to  understand  the  meaningof  my 
text,  and  of  divers  other  places  of  Scripture, 
which  I  have  now  alleged  and  explicated ; 
or  at  all  to  perceive  the  economy  and  dis- 
pensation of  the  day  of  judgment;  or  how 
it  can  be  a  day  of  discerning;  or  how  the  J 
reapers  (the  angels)  shall  bind  up  the  wicked 
into  bundles,  and  throw  them  into  the  un- 
quenchable fire  ;  or  yet  how  it  can  be  use- 
ful, or  necessary,  or  prudent  lor  Christ  to 
give  a  solemn  sentence  upon  all  the  world ; 
and  how  it  can  be,  that  that  day  should  be 
so  formidable  and  full  of  terrors,  when 
nothing  can  affright  those  that  have  long 
enjoyed  the  beatific  presence  of  God  ;  and 
no  thunders  or  earthquakes  can  affright 
them,  who  have  upon  them  the  biggest  evil 
in  the  world,  I  mean  the  damned,  who,  ac- 
cording to  this  opinion,  have  been  in  hell 
for  many  ages  :  and  it  can  mean  nothing  but 
to  them  that  are  alive ;  and  then  it  is  but  a 
particular,  not  a  universal  judgment ;  and 
after  all  it  can  pretend  to  no  piety,  to  no 
Scripture,  to  no  reason,  and  only  can  serve 
the  ends  of  the  church  of  Rome,  who  can 
no  way  better  be  confuted  in  their  invoca- 
tions of  saints  than  by  this  truth,  that  the 
saints  do  not  yet  enjoy  the  beatific  vision  ;: 
and  though  they  are  in  a  state  of  ease  and 
comfort,  yet  are  not  in  a  state  of  power  and 
glory  and  kingdom,  till  the  day  of  judg- 
ment. 

This  also  perfectly  does  overthrow  the 
doctrine  of  purgatory.  For  as  the  saints 
departed  are  not  perfect,  and  therefore  cer- 
tainly not  to  be  invocated,  not  to  be  made 
our  patrons  and  advocates;  so  neither  are 


they  in  such  a  condition  as  to  be  in  torment; 
and  it  is  impossible  that  any  wise  man 
should  believe,  that  the  souls  of  good  men 
after  death  should  endure  the  sharp  pains 
of  hell,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  believe 
those  words  of  Scripture,  "  Blessed  are  the 
dead  that  die  in  the  Lord,  from  henceforth ; 
yea,saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from 
their  labours,  and  their  works  do  follow 
them."*  If  they  can  rest  in  beds  of  fire, 
and  sing  hymns  of  glory  in  the  torments  of 
the  damned,  if  their  labours  are  done  when 
their  pains  are  almost  infinite,  then  these 
words  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that  doc- 
trine of  purgatory,  can  be  reconciled ;  else 
never  to  eternal  ages.  But  it  is  certain  they 
are  words  that  cannot  deceive  us  :  "  Non 
tanget  eos  tormentum  mortis :"  <c  torment 
in  death  shall  never  touch  them." 

But  having  established  the  proposition, 
and  the  intended  sense  of  the  text,  let  us 
awhile  consider, 

1.  That  God  is  our  God  when  we  die,  if 
we  be  his  servants  while  we  live :  and  to 
be  our  God  signifies  very  much  good  to  us. 
He  will  rescue  us  from  the  powers  of  hell : 
the  devil  shall  have  no  part  or  portion  in 
us;  we  shall  be  kept  in  safe  custody,  we 
shall  be  in  the  hands  of  Christ,  out  of  which 
all  the  powers  of  hell  shall  never  snatch 
us  ;  and  therefore  we  may  die  with  con- 
fidence, if  we  die  with  a  good  conscience  : 
we  have  no  cause  of  fear,  if  we  have  just 
grounds  to  hope  for  pardon.  The  Turks 
have  a  saying  that  the  Christians  do  not  be- 
lieve themselves  when  they  talk  such  glo- 
rious things  of  heaven  and  the  state  of  se- 
paration ;  for  if  they  did,  they  would  not  be 
so  afraid  to  die :  but  they  do  not  so  well 
consider  that  Christians  believe  all  this  well 
enough,  but  they  believe  better  than  they 
live ;  and  therefore  they  believe  and  trem- 
ble, because  they  do  not  live  after  the  rate 
of  going  to  heaven;  they  know  that  for 
good  men  glorious  things  are  prepared;  but 
"  Tophet  is  prepared  for  evil  kings"  and 
unjust  rulers,  for  vicious  men  and  degene- 
rate Christians ;  there  is  a  hell  for  accursed 
souls,  and  men  live  without  fear  of  it  so 
long,  till  their  fear  as  soon  as  it  begins  in  an 
instant  passes  into  despair,  and  the  fearful 
groans  of  the  damned.  It  is  no  wonder  to 
see  men  so  unwilling  to  die,  to  be  impatient 
of  the  thought  of  death,  to  be  afraid  to  make 
their  will,  to  converse  with  the  solemn  scare- 
crow. He  that  is  fit  to  die,  must  have  long 
rRev.  xx.  6. 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


561 


dwelt  with  it,  must  handle  it  on  all  sides,  must 
feel  whether  the  sting  be  taken  out ;  he  must 
examine  l(  whether  he  be  in  Christ that 
is,  whether  "  he  be  a  new  creature."  And 
indeed  I  do  not  so  much  wonder  that  any 
man  fears  to  die,  as  when  I  see  a  careless 
and  a  wicked  person  descend  to  his  grave 
with  as  much  indifference  as  he  goes  to 
sleep ;  that  is,  with  no  other  trouble  than 
that  he  leaves  the  world,  but  he  does  not 
fear  to  die ;  and  yet,  upon  the  instant  of  his 
dissolution,  he  goes  into  the  common  recep- 
tacle of  souls,  where  nothing  can  be  ad- 
dressed to  him  but  the  consequence  of  what 
he  brings  along  with  him,  and  he  shall 
presently  know  whether  he  shall  be  saved 
or  damned. 

We  have  read  of  some  men,  who  by  read- 
ing or  hearing  strange  opinions  have  enter- 
ed into  desperate  melancholy,  and  divers 
who  have  perfectly  despaired  of  the  Divine 
mercy  5  who  feeling  such  horrid  convulsions 
in  their  souls,  such  fearful  expectations  of 
an  eternal  curse,  that  not  finding  themselves 
able  to  bear  so  intolerable  a  fear,  have  hang- 
ed or  drowned  themselves  ;  and  yet  they  only 
thought  so,  or  feared  it;  and  might  have 
altered  it  if  they  would  have  hoped  and 
prayed  :  but  then  let  it  be  considered,  when 
the  soul  is  stripped  of  the  cloud,  her  body, — 
when  she  is  entered  into  strange  regions, 
and  converses  only  with  spirits,  and  sees 
plainly  all  that  is  within  her, — when  all  her 
sins  appear  in  their  own  natural  ugliness, 
and  set  out  by  their  aggravating  circum- 
stances ;  then  she  remembers  her  filthy 
pleasures,  and  hates  them  infinitely,  as 
being  such  things  to  which  she  can  have  no 
appetite  :  then  she  perceives  she  shall  perish 
for  that  which  is  not,  for  that  whose  remem- 
brance is  intolerable;  when  she  sees  many 
new  secrets  which  she  understood  not  be- 
fore, and  hath  stranger  apprehensions  of 
the  wrath  of  God,  than  ever  could  be  repre- 
sented in  this  life  :  when  she  hath  the  notices 
of  a  spirit,  and  an  understanding  pure 
enough  to  see  essences,  and  rightly  to  weigh 
all  the  degrees  of  things ;  when,  possibly, 
she  is  often  affrighted  with  the  alarms  and 
conjectures  of  the  day  of  judgment ;  or  if 
she  be  not,  yet  certainly  knows  not  only  by 
faith  and  fear,  but  by  a  clear  light  and  proper 
knowledge,  that  it  shall  certainly  come,  and 
its  effects  shall  remain  for  ever,  then  she  hath 
time  enough  to  bewail  her  own  folly  and 
remediless  infelicity ;  if  we  could  not  think 
seriously  that  things  must  come  to  that  pass, 
and  place  ourselves,  by  holy  meditation,  in 


the  circumstances  of  that  condition,  and  con- 
sider what  we  should  then  think, — how 
miserably  deplore  our  folly,  how  comfortless 
remember  our  ill-gotten  wealth;  with  how 
much  asperity  and  deep  sighing  we  should 
call  to  mind  our  foolish  pride,  our  trifling, 
swearing,  our  beastly  drinkings,  our  un- 
reasonable and  brutish  lusts ;  it  could  not  be 
but  we  must  grow  wiser  on  a  sudden,  des- 
pise the  world,  betake  ourselves  to  a  strict 
religion,  reject  all  vanities  of  spirit,  and  be 
sober  and  watch  unto  prayer.  If  any  of  us 
had  but  a  strange  dream,  and  should,  in  the 
fears  of  the  night,  but  suppose  ourselves  in 
hell,  and  be  affrighted  with  those  circum- 
stances of  damnation  which  we  can  tell  of, 
and  use  in  our  imperfect  notices  of  things, 
it  would  effect  strange  changes  upon  a  duc- 
tile and  malleable  spirit.  A  frequent,  severe 
meditation  can  do  more  than  a  seldom  and 
a  fantastic  dream;  but  an  active  faith  can  do 
more  than  all  the  arts  and  contingencies  of 
fancy  or  discourse. 

Now  it  is  well  with  us,  and  we  may  yet 
secure  it  shall  be  well  with  us  for  ever;  but 
within  an  hour  it  may  be  otherwise  with 
any  of  us  all,  who  do  not  instantly  take 
courses  of  security.  But  he  that  does  not, 
would,  in  such  a  change,  soon  come  to 
wish  that  he  might  exchange  his  state  with 
the  meanest,  with  the  miserablestof  all  man- 
kind ;  with  galley-slaves  and  miners,  with 
men  condemned  to  tortures  for  a  good  con- 
science. 

Sed  cum  pulcra  minax  succidet  membra  securis. 
Quam  velles  spinas  tunc  habuisse  meas. 

Avien. 

In  the  day  of  filing  timber,  the  shrub 
and  the  bramble  arc  better  than  the  tallest 
fir,  or  the  goodliest  cedar ;  and  a  poor  saint, 
whose  soul  is  in  the  hand  of  Jesus,  placed 
under  the  altar,  over  which  our  High  Priest, 
like  the  cherubim  over  the  propitiatory,  in- 
tercedes perpetually  for  the  hastening  of  his 
glory,  is  better  than  the  greatest  tyrant,  who 
if  he  dies,  is  undone  for  ever.  For,  in  the 
interval,  there  shall  be  rest  and  comfort  to 
the  one  ;  and  torment,  and  amazement,  and 
hellish  confusion  to  the  other  ;  and  the  day 
of  judgment  will  come,  and  it  shall  appear 
to  all  the  world,  that  they  whose  joys  were 
not  in  this  world,  were  not,  "  of  all  men, 
most  miserable,"  because  their  joys  and 
their  life  were  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  and  at 
the  resurrection  of  the  just,  shall  be  brought 
forth,  and  be  illustrious,  beyond  all  the 
beauties  of  the  world. 

I  have  now  done  with  my  text,  and  been 


562 


A  FUNERA 


L  SERMON. 


Serm.  XII. 


the  expounder  of  this  part  of  the  divine 
oracle ;  but  here  is  another  text,  and  another 
sermon  yet.  Ye  have  heard  Moses  and  the 
prophets;  now  hear  one  from  the  dead, 
whose  life  and  death  would  each  of  them 
make  an  excellent  sermon,  if  this  dead  man 
had  a  good  interpreter :  for  he  being  dead, 
yet  speaketh,  and  calleth  upon  us  to  live 
well,  and  to  live  quickly,  to  watch  perpetu- 
ally, and  to  work  assidously ;  for  we  shall 
descend  into  the  same  shadows  of  death. 

Linquenda  tellus,  et  domus,  et  placens 
Uxor;  neque  harum,  quas  colis,  arborum 
Te,  praeter  invisas  cupressos, 
Ulla  brevem  dominum  sequetur.  Hor. 

"Thou  must  leave  thy  rich  land,  and 
thy  well  built  house,  and  thy  pleasing  wife; 
and  of  all  the  trees  of  thy  orchard  or  thy 
wood,  nothing  shall  attend  thee  to  the  grave, 
but  oak  for  thy  coffin,  and  cypress  for  thy 
funeral."  It  shall  not  then  be  inquired  how 
long  thou  hast  lived,  but  how  well.  None 
below  will  be  concerned,  whether  thou  wert 
rich  or  poor,  but  all  the  spirits  of  light  and 
darkness  shall  be  busy  in  the  scrutiny  of  thy 
life ;  for  the  good  angels  would  fain  carry 
thy  soul  to  Christ;  and  if  they  do,  the 
devils  will  follow,  and  accuse  thee  there ; 
and  when  thou  appearest  before  the  righteous 
Judge,  what  will  become  of  thee,  unless 
Christ  be  thy  advocate,  and  God  be  merci- 
ful and  appeased,  and  the  angels  be  thy 
guards,  and  a  holy  conscience  be  thy  com- 
fort. There  will  to  every  one  of  us  come  a 
time,  when  we  shall  with  great  passion,  and 
great  interest,  inquire,  how  have  I  spent  my 
days,  how  have  I  laid  out  my  money,  how 
have  I  employed  my  time,  how  have  I  served 
God,  and  how  repented  me  of  m\  sins  ?  and 
upon  our  answer  to  these  quest-  ns  depends 
a  happy  or  unhappy  eternitv  :  and  blessed 
is  he,  who  concerning  these  things,  takes 
care  in  time ;  and  of  this  care  I  may  with 
much  confidence  and  comfort  propound  to 
you  the  example  of  this  good  man,  whose 
relics  lay  before  you :  Sir  George  Dalston, 
of  Dalston  in  Cumberland,  a  worthy  man, 
beloved  of  his  country,  useful  to  his  friends, 
friendly  to  all  men,  careful  of  his  religion, 
and  a  true  servant  of  God. 

He  was  descended  of  an  ancient  and 
worthy  house  in  Cumberland :  and  he 
adorned  his  family  and  extraction  with  a 
more  worthy  comportment :  for  to  be  of  a 
worthy  family,  and  to  bring  to  it  no  stock  of 
our  proper  virtue,  is  to  be  upbraided  by  our 
family;  and  a  worthy  father  can  be  no 
honour  to  his  son,  when  it  shall  be  said, 


"  behold  the  difference,  this  crab  descended 
from  a  goodly  apple-tree;"  but  he  who 
beautifies  the  escutcheon  of  his  ancestors  by 
worthy  achievments,  by  learning,  or  by  wis- 
dom, by  valour  and  by  great  employments, 
by  a  holy  life  and  a  useful  conversation,  that 
man  is  the  parent  of  his  own  fame,  and  a 
new  beginner  of  an  ancient  family ;  for  as 
conversion  is  a  perpetual  creation,  so  is  the 
progression  of  a  family  in  a  line  of  worthy 
descendants,  a  daily  beginning  of  its  honour, 
and  a  new  stabiliment. 

He  was  bred  in  learning,  in  which  Cam- 
bridge was  his  tiring  room,  and  the  court  of 
Q,ueen  Elizabeth  was  his  stage,  in  which  he 
first  represented  the  part  of  a  hopeful  young 
man ;  but  there  he  stayed  not ;  his  friends 
not  being  desirous,  that  the  levities  of  youth 
should  be  fermented  by  the  liberties  of  a  rich 
and  splendid  court,  caused  him  to  lie  in  the 
restraints  and  to  grow  ripe  in  the  sobrieties 
of  a  country  life  and  a  married  state;  in 
which,  as  I  am  informed,  he  behaved  him- 
self with  so  great  worthiness,  and  gave 
such  probation  of  his  love  of  justice,  popu- 
lar regards  of  his  country's  good,  and  abili- 
ties to  serve  them,  that,  for  almost  forty 
years  together,  his  country  chose  him  for 
their  knight,  to  serve  in  all  the  intervening 
parliaments.  "  Magistratus,  indicatorium;" 
S(  employment  shows  the  man  ;"  he  was  a 
leading  man  in  parliaments,  prevailing  there 
by  the  great  reputation  of  his  justice  and  in- 
tegrity ;  and  yet  he  was  not  unpleasant  and 
hated  at  court :  for  he  had  well  understood, 
that  the  true  interests  of  courts  and  parlia- 
ments were  one,  and  that  they  are  like  the 
humours  of  the  body,  if  you  increase  one 
beyond  its  limits,  that  destroys  all  the  rest, 
and  itself  at  last ;  and  when  they  look  upon 
themselves  as  enemies,  and  that  hot  and  cold 
must  fight,  the  prevailing  part  is  abated  in 
the  conflict,  and  the  vanquished  part  is  des- 
troyed :  but  when  they  look  upon  themselves 
as  varieties  serving  the  differing  aspects  and 
necessities  of  the  same  body,  they  are  for 
the  allay  of  each  other's  exorbitances  and 
excesses,  and,  by  keeping  their  own  mea- 
sures, they  preserve  the  man  :  this  the  good 
man  well  understood  ;  for  so  he  comported 
himself,  that  he  was  loud  in  parliaments 
and  valued  at  court;  he  was  respected  in 
very  many  parliaments,  and  was  worthily  re- 
garded by  the  worthy  kings ;  which,  without 
an  orator,  commends  a  man  :  <f  Gravissimi 
principis  judicium  in  minoribus  etiam  rebus 
consequi  pulcrum  est,"  said  Pliny  ;  "  To  be 
approved,  though  but  in  lesser  terms,  by  the 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON 


563 


judgment  of  a  wise  prince,  is  a  great  orna- 
ment to  a  man." — For  as  King  Theodoric, 
in  Cassiodore,  said,  "  Neque  dignus  est  a 
quopiam  redargui,  qui  nostro  judicio  mere- 
tur  absolvi :"  "  No  man  to  reprove  him, 
whom  the  king  aught  commends." 

But  I  need  no  artifices  to  represent  him 
worthy,  his  arguments  of  probation  were 
within,  in  the  magazines  of  a  good  heart, 
and  represented  themselves  by  worthy  ac-  j 
tions.  For  God  was  pleased  to  invest  him ! 
with  a  marvellous  sweet  nature,  which  is  ( 
certainly  to  be  reckoned  as  one  half  of  the 
grace  of  God  :  because  a  good  nature,  being 
the  relics  and  remains  of  that  shipwreck 
which  Adam  made,  is  the  proper  and  im- 
mediate disposition  to  holiness,  as  the  cor- 
ruption of  Adam  was  to  disobedience  and 
peevish  counsels.  A  good  nature  will  not 
upbraid  the  more  imperfect  persons,  will  not 
deride  the  ignorant,  will  not  reproach  the 
erring  man,  will  not  smite  sinners  on  the 
face,  will  not  despise  the  penitent.  A  good 
nature  is  apt  to  forgive  injuries,  to  pity  the 
miserable,  to  rescue  the  oppressed,  to  make 
every  one's  condition  as  tolerable  as  he  can ; 
and  so  would  he.  For,  as  when  good  nature 
is  heightened  by  the  grace  of  God,  that 
which  was  natural  becomes  now  spiritual ; 
so  these  actions  which  proceeded  from  an  ex- 
cellent nature,  and  were  pleasing  and  useful 
to  men, — when  they  derive  from  a  new 
principle  of  grace,  they  become  pleasant  in 
the  eyes  of  God  :  then  obedience  to  laws  is 
duty  to  God  ;  justice  is  righteousness,  bounty 
becomes  graciousness,  and  alms  is  charity. 

And,  indeed,  this  is  a  grace  in  which  this 
good  man  was  very  remarkable,  being  very 
frequent  and  much  in  alms,  tender-hearted 
to  the  poor,  open-handed  to  relieve  their 
needs ;  the  bellies  of  the  poor  did  bless  him, 
he  filled  them  with  food  and  gladness  :  and 
I  have  heard  that  he  was  so  regular,  so  con- 
stant, so  free  in  this  duty,  that  in  these  late 
unhappy  wars,  being  in  a  garrison,  and 
near  the  suffering  some  rude  accidents,  the 
beggars  made  themselves  guard,  and  rescued 
him  from  that  trouble,  who  had  so  often 
rescued  them  from  hunger. 

He  was  of  a  meek  and  gentle  spirit,  but 
not  too  soft;  he  knew  how  to  do  good,  and 
now  to  put  by  an  injury  ;  but  I  have  heard 
it  told  by  them  that  knew  his  life,  that  being, 
by  the  unavoidable  trouble  of  a  great  estate, 
engaged  in  great  suits  at  law,  he  was  never 
plaintiff,  but  always  upon  the  defensive 
part;  and  that  he  had  reason  on  his  side, 
and  justice  for  him,  I  need  allege  no  other 


testimony,  but  that  the  sentence  of  his 
judges  so  declared  it. 

But  that  in  which  I  propound  this  good 
man  most  imitable,  was  in  his  religion ;  for 
he  was  a  great  lover  of  the  church ;  a  con- 
stant attender  to  the  sermons  of  the  church ;  a 
diligent  hearer  of  the  prayers  of  the  church, 
and  an  obedient  son  to  perform  the  com- 
mands of  the  church.  He  was  diligent  in 
his  times  and  circumstances  of  devotion; 
he  would  often  be  at  church  so  early,  that 
he  was  seen  to  walk  long  in  the  church- 
yard before  prayers,  being  as  ready  to  con- 
fess his  sins  at  the  beginning,  as  to  receive 
the  blessing  at  the  end  of  prayers.  Indeed 
he  was  so  great  a  lover  of  sermons,  that 
though  he  knew  how  to  value  that  which 
was  the  best,  yet  he  was  patient  of  that 
which  was  not  so ;  and  if  he  could  not  learn 
any  thing  to  improve  his  faith,  yet  he  would 
find  something  to  exercise  his  patience,  and 
something  for  charity  ;  yet  this  his  great 
love  of  sermons  could  not  tempt  him  to  a 
willingness  of  neglecting  the  prayers  of  the 
church,  of  which  he  was  a  great  lover  to  his 
dying  day.  "Oves  meae  exaudiunt  vocem 
meam,"  says  Christ;  "my  sheep  hear  my 
voice ;"  and  so  the  church  says,  "my  sheep 
hear  my  voice,  they  love  my  words,  they 
pray  in  my  forms,  they  observe  my  orders, 
they  delight  in  my  offices,  they  revere  my 
ministers,  and  obey  my  constitutions  :"  and 
so  did  he;  loving  to  have  his  soul  recom- 
mended to  God,  and  his  needs  represented, 
and  his  sins  confessed,  and  his  pardon  im- 
plored, in  the  words  of  his  mother,  in  the 
voice  and  accent  of  her  that  nursed  him 
up  to  a  spiritual  life,  to  be  a  man  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

He  was  indeed  a  great  lover,  and  had  a 
great  regard  for  God's  ministers,  ever  remem- 
bering the  words  of  God,  "  keep  my  rest,  and 
reverence  my  priests ;"  he  honoured  the  call- 
ing in  all,  but  he  loved  and  revered  the  per- 
sons of  such  who  were  conscientious  keep- 
ers of  their  "  depositum,"  "that  trust," 
which  was  committed  to  them  :  such  which 
did  not  for  interest  quit  their  conscience,  and 
did  not,  to  preserve  some  parts  of  their  re- 
venue, quit  some  portions  of  their  religion. 
He  knew  that  what  was  true  in  1639,  was 
also  true  in  1644,  and  so  to  57,  and  shall 
continue  true  to  eternal  ages ;  and  they  that 
change  their  persuasions  by  force  or  interest, 
did  neither  believe  well  nor  ill,  upon  compe- 
jtent  and  just  grounds;  they  are  not  just, 
though  they  happen  on  the  right  side. 
,  Hope  of  gain  did  by  chance  teach  them 


564 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON 


Serm.  XII. 


well,  and  fear  of  loss  abuses  them  directly,  j 
He  pitied  the  persecuted,  and  never  would  I 
take  part  with  persecutors :  he  prayed  for 
his  prince,  and  served  him  in  what  he  could : 
he  loved  God,  and  loved  the  church;  he 
was  a  lover  of  his  country's  liberties,  and 
yet  an  observer  of  the  laws  of  his  king. 

Thus  he  behaved  himself  to  all  his  supe- 
rior relatives;  to  his  equals  and  dependants 
he  was  also  just,  and  kind,  and  loving.  He 
was  an  excellent  friend,  laying  out  his  own 
interests  to  serve  theirs ;  sparing  not  him- 
self, that  he  might  serve  them :  as  knowing 
society  to  be  the  advantage  of  man's  nature ; 
and  friendship  the  ornament  of  society,  and 
usefulness  the  ornament  of  friendship,  and 
in  this  he  was  well  known  to  be  very  worthy. 
He  was  tender  and  careful  of  his  children, 
and  so  provident  and  so  wise,  so  loving  and 
obliging  to  his  whole  family,  that  he  justly 
had  that  love  and  regard,  that  duty  and  ob- 
servance from  them,  which  his  kindness 
and  his  care  had  merited.  He  was  a  provi- 
dent and  careful  conductor  of  his  estate; 
but  far  from  covetousness,  as  appeared  to- 
ward the  evening  of  his  life,  in  which  that 
vice  does  usually  prevail  amongst  old  men, 
who  are  more  greedy,  when  they  have  least 
need,  and  load  their  sumpters  so  much  the 
more,  by  how  much  nearer  they  are  to 
their  journey's  end  ;  but  he  made  a  demon- 
stration of  the  contrary  ;  for  he  washed  his 
hands  and  heart  of  the  world,  and  gave  up 
his  estate  long  before  his  death  or  sickness, 
to  be  managed  by  his  only  son,  whom  he 
left  since,  but  then  first  made  and  saw  him 
his  heir;  he  emptied  his  hands  of  secular 
employment;  meddled  not  with  money,  but 
for  the  uses  of  the  poor,  for  piety,  justice, 
and  religion. 

And  now  having  divested  himself  of  all 
objections  and  his  conversation  with  the 
world,  quitting  his  affections  to  it,  he  wholly 
gave  himself  to  religion  and  devotion;  he 
awakened  early,  and  would  presently  be 
entertained  with  reading;  when  he  rose, 
still  he  would  be  read  to,  and  hear  some  of 
the  Psalms  of  David :  and  excepting  only 
what  time  he  took  for  the  necessities  of  his 
life  and  health,  all  the  rest  he  gave  to  prayer, 
reading,  and  meditation,  save  only  that  he 
'lid  not  neglect,  nor  rudely  entertain  the 
visits  and  offices  of  his  neighbours. 

But  in  this  great  vacation  from  the  world 
he  espied  his  advantage,  he  knew  well, 
according  to  that  saying  of  the  emperor 
Charles  V.,  "  Oportet  inter  vita?  negotia  et 
diem  mortis  spatium  aliquod  intercedere  ;" 


there  ought  to  be  a  valley  between  two  such 
mountains,  the  business  of  our  life,  and  the 
troubles  of  our  death ;  and  he  stayed  not  till 
the  noise  of  the  Bridegroom's  coming  did 
awaken  and  affright  him;  but  by  daily 
prayers  twice  a  day,  constantly  with  his 
family,  besides  the  piety  and  devotion  of  his 
own  retirements,  by  a  monthly  communion, 
by  weekly  sermons,  and  by  the  religion  of 
every  day,  he  stood  in  procincts,  ready  with 
oil  in  his  lamp,  watching  till  his  Lord 
should  call. 

And,  indeed,  when  he  was  hearing  what 
God  did  speak  to  him  of  duty,  he  also  re- 
ceived his  summons  to  give  his  account. 
For  he  was  so  pertinacious  and  attendant 
to  God's  holy  word,  and  the  services  of 
the  church,  that  though  he  found  himself 
sick,  he  would  not  off,  but  stay  till  the 
solemnity  was  done ;  but  it  pleased  God  at 
church  to  give  him  his  first  arrest;  and 
since  that  time  I  have  often  visited  him, 
and  found  him  always  doing  his  work, 
with  the  greatest  evenness  and  indifferency 
of  spirit,  as  to  the  event  of  life  and  death, 
that  I  have  observed  in  any.  He  was  not 
unwilling  to  live ;  but  if  he  should,  he 
resolved  to  spend  his  life  wholly  in  the 
service  of  God  :  but  yet  neither  was  he 
unwilling  to  die,  because  he  then  knew  he 
should  weep  no  more,  and  he  should  sin 
no  more.  He  was  very  confident,  but  yet 
with  great  humility  and  great  modesty,  of 
the  pardon  of  his  sins  ;  he  had  indeed  lived 
without  scandal,  but  he  knew  he  had  not 
lived  without  error;  but  as  God  had  assisted 
him  to  avoid  the  reproach  of  great  crimes, 
so  he  doubted  not  but  he  should  find  pardon 
for  the  less;  and,  indeed,  I  could  not  but 
observe,  that  he  had,  in  all  the  time  of  his 
sickness,  a  very  quiet  conscience  ;  which  is 
to  me  an  excellent  demonstration  of  the 
state  of  his  life,  and  the  state  of  his  grace 
and  pardon.  For  though  he  seemed  to  have 
a  conscience  tender  and  nice,  if  any  evil 
thing  had  touched  it ;  yet  I  could  not  but 
apprehend  that  his  peace  was  a  just  peace, 
the  mercy  of  God,  and  the  price  and  effect 
of  the  blood  of  Jesus. 

He  was  so  joyful,  so  thankful,  so  pleased 
in  the  ministries  of  the  church,  that  it  gave 
in  evidence  where  his  soul  was  most  de- 
lighted, what  it  did  apprehend  the  quickest, 
where  it  did  use  to  dwell;  and  what  it  did 
most  passionately  love.  He  discoursed 
much  of  the  mercies  of  God  to  him,  re- 
peated the  blessings  of  his  life,  the  acci- 
dents and  instruments  of  his  trouble ;  he 


Serm.  XII. 


A  FUNERAL  SERMON. 


565 


loved  the  cause  of  his  trouble,  and  pardoned  ' 
them  that  neither  loved  it  nor  him. 

When  he  had  spent  great  portions  of  his 
time  of  sickness  in  the  service  of  God,  and 
in  expectation  of  the  sentence  of  his  life  or 
death,  at  last  he  understood  the  still  voice  ' 
of  God,  and  that  he  was  to  go  where  his  ' 
soul  loved  to  be;  he  still  increased  his  devo-  | 
tion,  and  being  admonished,  as  his  strength 
failed  him,  to  supply  his  usual  forms,  and  , 
his  want  of  strength  and  words,  by  short 
exercise  of  virtue,  of  faith  and  patience,  and 
the  love  of  God;  he  did  it  so  willingly,  so 
well,  soreadily,  making  his  eyes,  his  hands, 
and  his  tongue,  as  long  as  he  could,  the  inter- 
prefers  of  his  mind,  that  as  long  as  he  was 
alive,  he  would  see  what  his  soul  was  doing. 
He  doubted  not  of  the  truth  of  the  promises,  ' 
nor  of  the  goodness  of  God,  nor  the  satis-  | 
faction  of  Christ,  and  the  merits  of  his  \ 
death,  nor  the  fruit  of  his  resurrection,  nor  ! 
the  prevalency  of  his  intercession,  nor  yet 
doubted  of  his  own  part  in  them;  but  ex-  ! 
pected  his  portions  in  the  regions  of  blessed-  I 
ness,  with  those  who  loved  God,  and  served  j 
him  heartily  and  faithfully  in  their  genera- 
lions. 

He  had  so  great  a  patience  in  his  sick- 
ness, and  was  so  afraid  lest  he  should  sin 
at  last ;  that  his  piety  outdid  his  nature,  and 
though  the  body  cannot  feel  but  by  the  soul, 
yet  his  soul  seemed  so  little  concerned  in 
the  passions  of  the  body,  that  I  neither  ob- 
served, nor  heard  of  him,  that  he  in  all  his 
sickness,  so  much  as  complained  with  any 
semblance  of  impatience. 

He  so  continued  to  pray,  so  delighted  in 
hearing  psalms  sung,  which  I  wish  were 
made  as  fit  to  sing  by  their  numbers  as  they 
are  by  their  weight,  that  so  very  much  of 
his  time  was  spent  in  them,  that  it  was  very 
likely  when  his  Lord  came  he  would  find 
him  so  doing;  and  he  did  so  :  for  in  the  midst 
of  prayers  he  went  away,  and  got  to  heaven 
as  soon  as  they ;  and  saw  them  (as  we  hope) 
presented  to  the  throne  of  grace ;  he  went 
along  with  them  himself,  and  was  his  own 
messenger  to  heaven;  where  although  he 
possibly  might  prevent  his  last  prayers,  yet 
he  would  not  prevent  God's  early  mercy, 
which,  as  we  humbly  hope,  gave  him  pardon 
for  his  sins,  ease  of  his  pain,  joy  after  his 


sorrow,  certainty  for  his  fears,  heaven  for 
earth,  innocence  and  impeccability  instead 
of  his  infirmity. 

Ergo  Quinctilium  perpetuus  sopor 
Urguet !  cui  Pudor,  et  Justitiae  soror 
Incorrupta  Fides,  nudaque  Veritas 
Quando  ullum  inveniet  parem  ? 

Faith  and  justice,  modesty  and  pure 
righteousness,  made  him  equal  to  the 
worthiest  examples  ;  he  was  %pt]6tb$  dnjp, 
"  a  good  man,"  loving  and  humble,  meek 
and  patient,  he  would  be  sure  to  be  the  last 
in  contention,  and  the  first  at  a  peace ;  he 
would  injure  no  man,  but  yet  if  any  man 
was  displeased  with  him,  he  would  speak 
first,  and  offer  words  of  kindness ;  if  any 
did  dispute  concerning  priority,  he  knew 
how  to  get  it,  even  by  yielding  and  com- 
pliance ;  walking  profitably  with  his  neigh- 
bours, and  humbly  with  his  God ;  and 
having  lived  a  fife  of  piety,  he  died  in  a 
full  age,  an  honourable  old  age,  in  the 
midst  of  his  friends,  and  in  the  midst  of 
prayer:  and  although  the  events  of  the 
other  world  are  hidden  to  us  below,  that 
we  might  live  in  faith,  and  walk  in  hope, 
and  die  in  charity,  yet  we  have  great  rea- 
son to  bless  God  for  his  mercies  to  this  our 
brother,  and  endeavour  to  comport  ourselves 
with  a  strict  religion,  and  a  severe  repent- 
ance ;  with  an  exemplar  patience,  and  an 
exemplar  piety ;  with  the  structures  of  a 
holy  life,  and  the  solemnities  of  a  religious 
death,  that  we  also  may,  as  our  confident 
and  humble  hope  is,  this  our  brother  doth, 
by  the  conduct  of  angels,  pass  into  the 
hands  and  bosom  of  Jesus,  there  to  expect 
the  most  merciful  sentence  of  the  right 
hand,  "  Come  ye  blessed  children  of  my 
Father,  receive  the  kingdom  prepared  for 
you  from  the  beginning  of  the  world." 
Amen,  Lord  Jesus,  Amen. 

Grant  this,  eternal  God,  for  Jesus  Christ's 
sake ;  to  whom  with  thee,  O  Father,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  be  all  glory  and  honour, 
service  and  dominion,  love  and  obedience 
be  confessed  due,  and  ever  paid  by  all 
angels,  and  all  men,  and  all  the  crea- 
tures, this  day,  henceforth  and  for  ever- 
more. Amen. 


THE  END. 


♦ 


I 


